It’s hard to believe some days how excited I can be about something that is so far away. We have 11 months until we leave yet as I type this I’m so excited for what the future holds. Each day I’m inspired by so many other cyclists doing what we will do.
We all have habits and daily routines that keep us going. One of my recent routines that I’ve adopted since relaxing around Christmas is to read cycling forums. I’ve joined a few groups on Facebook and I read the posts every day.
- Warmshowers.org
- Cycling South the Americas
- Bicycle Touring
- Long distance cyclists
There are such great questions and information that get the wheels turning and inevitably start some dialogue with Andrew and I. We talk about choices we will have to make. For example one of the posts recently was by a Canadian Karen Stefanyk who was talking about the reciprocity fee that Canadians must pay to Argentina. I was unaware of it and then Andrew informed me that is pretty typical in most countries. Again we ended up looking at the map on our wall and talking more about our upcoming journey. I love it!
I’m so inspired by all the blogs and websites that I read. It seems every day I come across another site of someone riding long distances and exploring the world. A few that I’ve come across recently that I’m really enjoying are http://jackonabike.ca/, www.onemanonebikeoneworld.com, www.davestravelpages.com, www.andrewcharnley.com, www.tomsbiketrip.com, www.ingeandandrewscyclingadventures.wordpress.com. There are so many that are so informative it is terrific.
Each day usually ends with us both in bed with our iPads sharing websites on the Reading List function. It’s so cool. I can be on a website, add it to the reading list and say to Andrew; check out the reading list. He just selects the reading list on his iPad and there it is. Super easy.
I’m also thrilled about our ever expanding reach that we seem to be accomplishing. With our efforts of spending more time planning and sharing information and being active online we are seeing some results. Our viewership on our website is increasing, our activity on our Facebook and Twitter is growing and I’m really enjoying participating in the cycling community more. We hope to have dinner with our friend Cheryl in the near future who is an expert in social media and marketing. With her help we hope to gain an understanding of how we can be more involved in the social media age and learn how we can reach a larger audience to share our journey. That’s why I want to do this.
A man in the Vancouver area contacted Andrew recently after he found him on www.warmshowers.org. He is planning a trip across Canada starting in the Spring. He doesn’t have a lot of touring experience and was looking for some tips and feedback on equipment. We invited him over for dinner and chatted with him and shared some information and journals. I loved it! It was wonderful to share past journeys, future adventures and hear about his plans. His name is Jun and he is from Korea. He has been in Canada for 10 months and his English is wonderful! It felt so good to share some of our experience and tips for a cost effective trip.
Jun showing Amanda all the places he’d like to visit.
I hope he found it as fulfilling as we did. It became apparent to me how important local knowledge can be when he was asking simple questions that Andrew and I take for granted. For instance, he plans to leave in April of 2014. We educated him that he will likely encounter snow in the mountains and the campgrounds will be closed until the May long weekend but you can still use them for free. We talked about going to a library for free Wi-Fi without having to buy a coffee and going to a local community center and paying the drop-in fee for swimming and use the showers. Most people in our current circles wouldn’t really think about this. It really got me to thinking how valuable local knowledge will be when we travel. Must learn Spanish now!
I want to share our journey with our friends and family and anyone who is interested. Someone recently asked me; what are you looking for? To put it in context I had just disclosed to them my intent to retire in November and they were asking me why. Why are you doing this and what are you looking for? I couldn’t answer it and as I think about it more I think I can’t answer it because I’m not looking for anything. I just want to do this. We’ve been told by some it’s important to have a purpose to keep you motivated and while I can’t put my finger on one now, I feel like I’m getting closer. For now, it just feels right. This is what I’m meant to do.