Surly was at a reunion for his wife's family on Saturday, when the guy in the photo stopped and asked if he could fill up his water bottles. The nice people that they are not only filled up the water bottles but fed him and let him camp there for the night. The cyclist is doing a 20,000 mile ride, planning on ending up at the tip of Argentina. Surly had quite a bit in common with the guy so they chatted quite a bit. The guy was riding a Surly brand of bike, by the way. Fully loaded it weighs about 90 pounds.
I would have liked to have talked to the guy myself. I've done several long distance rides - nothing like what he's doing - but rather than carrying everything on the bike, I pulled a trailer for the majority of my gear along with panniers on the front wheel and a saddle bag. My gear weighed a lot less than 90 pounds but I wasn't planning on living with what I was carrying for months at a time. My trip from Portland, Oregon to Missoula, Montana took us about three weeks total but that included some sight-seeing on the front end and we didn't have to worry about finding a spot to resupply along the way. My days of long distance cycling are probably over. I would like to take a trip on the Himalayan, however. I've never really done any motorcycle touring or camping other than a couple of overnight trips years ago. The Missus would be quite pleased if I no longer rode at all, so probably won't be one of those in my future, either.
The cyclist above has a Facebook page where you can follow along on his Pan-America Trip.
After hearing what that guy's doing, I felt like a piker yesterday when I rode only 10 miles. The mileage is adding up, though. I also made it to the gym twice last week. Starting to feel a bit stronger and my weight is down to the point I'm a light-heavy again - and that's using the new weight break of 176. It wouldn't hurt to drop another six. Do-able as long as I quit eating junk in the evenings.
It's hard to see in the photo, this one's from the Thanksgiving run in 2011. This has become a big event, so I normally do another smaller event, either on Thanksgiving or the Saturday after. The last couple of years it was hard to find any competitive runs. There were several "virtual" runs, but I didn't need to pay for an event where I was the only competitor, and I didn't need another tee shirt.
Did some work on the three-point hitch on the tractor. I need to remove the grader blade and hook up the skid with the welder on it. Hopefully the three-point will lift it high enough to get it in the back of the truck without too much trouble. I also got a small piece made for the jitney. Definitely need to stay on that job.
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