Starting Soon

I start cycling soon after I post this. The beginning of a bike tour gives me an excitement that nothing else in life comes close to. A lot always happens on a long ride.

I’m starting my trip by cycling solo and north to Itaska State Park, the headwaters of the Mississippi River. While cycling north to Itaska, I’ll take an alternate route of the MRT. It’s a big loop to the east, as shown in the map. When I cycle south, I’ll use the route shown in a blog post from a few days ago.

On the way, I’ll see family and friends from towns I grew up in and near. When I grew up in those towns, I dreamed of long bike rides but never went on many since there wasn’t enough for me to see, at least in the distance I could cycle back then. It’ll be fulfilling to cycle through the same towns on a bike that can go 1,000s of miles and as a man who can pedal it.

I also feel like I’ll be saying good-bye to those towns since I very much want to move to the Rockies when I finish this ride. That’ll likely involve sending out 100s of job applications. Since I’ve already sent out that many, I know it’s as fun as doing your taxes every day for months, but this trip will remind me of how much I love seeing new places which will motivate me to send out those job applications when I get back.

Upcoming blog posts will show you what happens, so instead of forecasting future fun, I’ll share something from Mark Twain.

“It liberates the vandal to travel — you never saw a bigoted, opinionated, stubborn, narrow-minded, self-conceited, almighty mean man in your life but he had stuck in one place since he was born and thought God made the world and dyspepsia and bile for his especial comfort and satisfaction.”

I’m pretty sure I’m not a vandal, and when I do come across the “mean man” (or others) Twain mentioned, maybe I can bring some travels to them, by sharing some kind words and little stories from what I’ve seen.

I better stop writing and finish getting ready for some cycling.

6 thoughts on “Starting Soon

    • Good hearing from you Fran! I’ve always tried including some pictures, but lately, I feel like adding even more.

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