A rest day on the bike tour offers a chance for the legs to recover, but also allows the mind to get something off its chest, so to speak. I’ll start with an insipid observation: The Albuquerque Journal does a supremely awful job of covering K-12 education in New Mexico. If Pulitzer had a Razzie,… Read More The Albuquerque Journal’s Intentional Failure to Cover K-12 Education

After five weeks here in Europe, the thought first crossed my mind last night: This tour will eventually end. Coincidentally, this thought was followed by a night of “teacher dreams” involving the usual scenarios K-12 school teachers endlessly go through in this conscious and especially unconscious minds during and especially just prior to a school… Read More Tour, Days 22-24: A Velo Ramble Through and Around the Morvan Forest

In evolving what goes for a “plan” with this cycling tour, the biggest consideration was that my wife could join me in France for around ten days. The first of those ten days is about two hours away as I write, and I made it to our meeting spot, Nevers, with about five hours to… Read More Tour Days 19-21: Get Me to Nevers on Time

The heat of Portugal has been replaced with a definite rainy chill the last few days not only here in southwestern France, but back in Portugal, too. Places I rode in 95 degree conditions back in mid-June, such as Braga, are now in the low 60s. I’ll always wonder what Braga is like when it’s… Read More Tour, Days 16-18: Blazing (Sorta) Across a Chilly France

Drenched and flustered I arrived, dry and serene I left the Château de Crécy in remote Romagne. The importance of the Rest Day in bicycle touring cannot be overemphasized. They don’t have them at the Tour de France for nothing, and even us lowly tourers averaging only 10 mph need a chance to rest the… Read More Tour Rest Day in Romagne

I write, comfy and dry, this morning from the rustic Château de Crécy in the heart of Bordeaux wine country. Birds chirp in the cool stillness of the morn. It’s so relaxing one finds themselves irrationally trying to uncover things worth worrying about. Yesterday there was no need to try. Plenty of bike touring worries were… Read More Tour, Days 13-15: Flooded in Bordeaux