Tired, Retired, but not Expired

Retired  ✅

        

Let the retirement begin!  Today marked my final day of work.  All day I've felt like an expectant father awaiting his first child ... happy, proud, excited, and considerably nervous not completely knowing what's ahead.

So what is ahead?  Thanks for asking.  Here's whats on tap for the remainder of 2019 ...

Mid-Summer:  Two weeks in the Sierra Cascades.  This trek involves nomad-like car camping starting in the southern Sierra Cascades, road and mountain biking my way north.  Yup, I'll bring both bikes and seek both scenic road routes and established off-road trails.  The plan calls for two to four days in each location before breaking camp and moving farther north to the next location.  The idea is to ride as many MTB trails and the most feature-rich road along the mountain range, bypassing the less featured connector sections by driving.

Late-Summer:  A month in Europe - Janice and I have planned a trip to Croatia (her family origin) for quite some time, and its now close to fruition.  While that trip generally falls outside of this blog's "bike adventures" theme, the trip will include bicycles.  Our last full week has us on a boat/bike adventure, island-hopping and biking through the south Dalmatian islands.  A ship with full accommodations will do the hopping, while we do the biking on each island before finding our way back to the boat.  Biking allows us, more than any other tour option, to fully experience the rich scenery, culture and history of these islands.  Seven days, seven islands, seven bike rides, seven nights on a yacht.  Shouldn't suck.

Fall:  While no particular plan has taken shape and dates have not yet been set, a group of friends intend to descend upon St George for a hike/bike/explore marathon.  Each person in the group has their own personal passion.  One prefers mountain biking, another hiking, another road riding, etc.  Individually, each person inspires the others by sharing their passion ... we feed off each other. Activity filled days, fun evenings around the BBQ and wonderful friends.  Cannot wait.

One friend has talked about extending the trip to Sedona, AZ.  I'm going! ... wait ... Am I invited?

Winter:  TBD, but be assured, something will be determined.

The Countdown Ensues

In just 24 days my identity will abruptly flip from working stiff to retiree.  Albeit exciting, the uncertainty of a whole new routine demands some caution.  It seems many retirees aren't prepared for the new-found problem of too much time.  They not only have time to do what they want, but also enough time to tell you about it ... all about it ... in excruciating detail.  Never ask a retiree how they are doing.  They will tell you! ... for two hours, including every pain, doctor's appointment, and medication.  I'd like to avoid doing that, for the sake of those I care about.  Somehow, I will need to consume my time.  All of it.

Even after the travel and activities my wife and I plan as a couple, I'll still have too much time on my hands.  Riding my bike, as I do now, will help ... but its not enough.  I need new ventures.

Sooooo, I took up mountain biking to eat some of that impending endowment of time.  While not a typical new hobby for a sexagenarian, its been fun, challenging and time consuming ... perfect.  Besides, its humbling to get smoked by some little eight year old shredder.  Humility is good.  Right?

Some of that time will include planning and riding multi-day tours by bicycle.  With a three-week, a two-week and several weekend self-sustained tours under my proverbial belt, I now have time for something bigger.  I'd like to ride a multi-month and several multi-week tours per year.  Top multi-month route candidates for next year include:

1.  The North Sea - Not in the sea, but around it.  Eurovelo's "12" route  starts at the tippy top of the Shetland Islands, sweeps down along the UK's eastern coastline, across the English Channel, along sea-bordering parts of France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, ending in Bergen Norway.  Over 4,000 miles and three months.

2.  Eastern Canada - There's no established route for this one and I've only loosely looked at possibilities, but Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the St Lawrence Seaway would be involved.  Two months and  2,500 to 3,000 miles estimated.

3.  South Korea - It turns out South Korea has committed to building a vast bicycle infrastructure throughout much of the country, with many miles of pathway in place.  One could see much of the country with over half the riding along safe bike-ways.  Considering how unseasoned I am with the Korean culture and customs, the idea of traffic-free riding appeals to me.  Two months, including some off-bike exploration and 1,600 to 2,000 miles.

Door Closes, Door Opens

Riding home from work recently my daily rider, an orange Soma Wolverine (v1.0) started making clicking sounds, seemingly coming from the bottom bracket area.  I'd been riding, commuting, and touring on this bike for four years and 17,000 miles.  Time for a new bottom bracket ... or so I thought.  Those "clicks", it turns out, were my frame breaking!  Five clicks, five distinct breaks, in less than two minutes.  All the breaks occurred on the drive side rear dropout area.  Apparently once the frame broke once, it put additional stress on another area causing a subsequent fracture, quickly leading to a third, fourth and fifth.  Both the seat and chain stays were completely severed from the dropout, leaving the hub only connected to the non-drive side of the frame. Yikes!  I'm glad gravity didn't get involved, or I'd be nursing some bruises.

The Soma Wolverine door closes.

After a few tears, a few beers and sympathy-inducing texts to some friends, it was time to seek a new frame.  I had coveted Tout Terrain bikes for some time and they make Rohloff /Gates Belt friendly frames.  I'm an IGH/belt freak, so deciding on the German brand came as easy as those tears and beers.  But which model?  Well, it turns out I'm set to retire.  With no more commutes in the forecast and a lot more time to tour, the touring-specific Tanami called my name.  The olive colored one please ... wait, that color costs $100 extra!  The no-upcharge blue one, please.

The Tout Terrain Tanami door opens.

Until this year I had many more tour ideas swirling in my head than I had time.  That changes in June 2019 when I retire and turn those ideas into real tour plans.

New frame, new chapter in my life, new touring plans  ... new blog to document it all.