We’ve been on the road for 156 days now. Wow! Thirty-nine states and 6700 miles covered during that time. I thought I would share with you some other things I’ve learned along the way.

1. There’s a lot of trash on the sides of America’s highways. Sad, but true.
2. People are friendly everywhere. Often, they are friendly when you least expect it. As you’ve noticed in my previous entries, I’ve encountered a number of extremely friendly people in the most unexpected places.
3. Every small town has a personality. We’ve passed through a lot of small towns across the country. And we’ve been able to experience a bit of about 115 or so of these towns by staying overnight. Each one has a unique feel to it.
4. Having something break is always more inconvenient than the maintenance that would have prevented it. Therefore, be proactive about maintenance. For example, don’t wait for the chain to start squeaking before throwing some lube on it. Don’t wait for the bottom bracket to start creaking before overhauling it. Replace the tires before you have a blow-out. Replace the insulin pump batteries before they’re completely drained.
5. It’s really easy to overpack. I packed enough socks for a week of cycling plus a few extra pairs for wearing around town. Well, as it turns out, we’re doing laundry at least every rest day (every fourth day usually), so I don’t really need any more than about 4 pairs of cycling socks. The three pairs of socks for wearing around town are really unnecessary too because I can wear the cycling socks around town just as easily.
6. Use a pedal/cleat system that you can actually do a little walking in. The Shimano SPD system comes to mind here, but there are others. I’m using the Look pedal system which is a great pedal system, but it’s nearly impossible to walk around in them for more than a few feet. As an example, I remember many hiking trails along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Some were just a few hundred feet to a spectacular vista (or so I’m told). I had to pass them up because I didn’t have anything to put on my feet that would allow walking.
7. If the pedal/cleat system you’ve selected for the tour is a new one for you, then, before the tour starts, allow enough time to get yourself fit and adjusted to them. The penalty for not doing so is almost always a painful one. Before this tour, I didn’t allow enough time to get fit and adjusted to the SPD shoes and pedals that I had bought, so I had to revert to my Look pedals and cleats.
8. If you’re staying at hotels/motels during your bicycle tour, seriously thing about NOT making reservations. Why?
   
   1. It gives you flexibility. If you feel like riding further, you can. If you need to stop early, you can. Of course, the trade-off is that you have to find a place to stay when you finish riding, but the flexibility it offers might be worth it.
   2. Generally, we’ve found that not having a reservation means you can check-in earlier. When we’ve made a reservation and then shown up at noon, for example, we’ve had to wait around until 2 PM (or whenever the posted check-in time is) in order to get a room. Without the reservation, if you show up and ask for a room, they’ll give you one on the spot because they know that if they tell you that you can’t check in until 2 PM, you’ll just go down the street and check-in somewhere else.

   There are exceptions to this rule though.

   1. If you won’t be checking in earlier than the posted check-in time, you might as well make a reservation so that you don’t have to worry about searching around town for an available room.
   2. If you’re headed for a major tourist destination, you better make a reservation.
9. It’s almost always downhill into town.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 19th, 2006 at 8:09 am and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.