T-minus 16 hours...

The trip is only hours away now, and I think I have things just about prepared for my departure.  It seems to take more doing each trip, which I would imagine would have something to do with having a few more responsibilities each time I go.   Aside from that drudgery, there are the more fun preparations of prepping the bike, deciding what gear to take, and dialing in my various electronic devices.

Fortunately, I also have some wonderful friends to help me with the trip, and some have volunteered to look after my house while I am away.

The box in question together with sister
backpack.  Certainly seems like enough crap
for 7 weeks!

The flight there and the flight back is out of Lisbon, Portugal, a decision largely made on behalf of a box.  Granted, it is a very nice bike box that I stumbled on when making the decision to do this trip, and I bought it at the consignment shop out of equal parts thriftiness and bowing to fate.   Though it offers an excellent opportunity to pack my bike and  all of my touring gear in a durable and easy-to-deal-with package there and back, as well as a portable storage locker once there, there does remain the unanswered question of w
hat the heck to do with it when I get there for 7 weeks.  The answer, I trust, will reveal itself at the hostel I am staying at upon arrival.

The box does offer another option as well- I (and my rear end) have some reservations about bike touring for the entire 7 weeks, particularly in Morocco.  With accommodation being pricey in Europe but affordable in Morocco, a viable plan would seem to do, say, 3 weeks of bike-camping in Portugal and Spain in a loop, then the remainder of the time backpacking across Morocco.  Bike and bike gear safely stowed in a box in Lisbon, I can traipse about North Africa with only what I require for that period.  But as experience has shown, these sorts of plans tend to get modified quickly and often, so it doesn't bear much thinking about until I get to the decision points.

In the near future, I have a few days in Lisbon to sightsee and get my act together.  My phone tells me the weather will be sunny and warm, which will be nice to recuperate in after a day and a night in a plane and various airports.

So not the most gripping post, I realize, but of course the adventure has not yet begun.  I could not be much more excited, and I will talk to you all again on the other side of the ocean!

Genesis of the trip.

Hello All-

So this is the first entry of my bike tour blog.  The planning of this trip is all going much more quickly than the ambition of the trip would seem to demand.  For one thing, I didn't even know I was going to travel until about a week ago when my current job ended more abruptly than I had anticipated, and I got a new job even faster.  That is all a long story of its own, but simultaneously not all that interesting to someone who doesn't know me well and also not particularly relevant to the subject of this blog.  Suffice it to say here that the new job doesn't start until early January, and my commitments stateside end at the end of October.  So two months of travel time!

Why Portugal and Morocco?  Well, to be honest, I don't have great reasons, but one that explains the others is that I can be easy convinced to go just about anywhere that I haven't been.  Let me deduce.   I haven't been to either Continental Europe or Africa, so that limited continents. North Africa seems incredible, so that narrows to a region.  As of this writing in late 2013, there are precious few countries in the sad aftermath of the "Arab Spring" that are particularly wise for an American to travel- though by all accounts Morocco seems fine.  So now I have a country.   (Also there are of course incredible things to see there- a quick internet search of "things to see in Africa" will demonstrate that about 1/4 of them are in Morocco.)  Portugal was a little bit of an afterthought, except for the Continental Europe thing, and also a desire to road-test the bike-tour rig in more forgiving surroundings than a developing world country where I speak not a whit of the two national languages.  Also Portugal seems great.

So: why bike touring?  Well, I have done enough of it to really like it, obviously.  The pace is great, you really see the countryside, interact with the people, and generally experience more than the inside of busses and trains.   One tends to avoid main roads whenever possible, and this tends to lead to seeing some really great out-of-the-way places.  Also it's a very inexpensive way to go, with transportation taken care of, camping cheaper than hotels, and an option to eat groceries instead of every meal in a restaurant.  In addition to being temporarily without an income, I am also kinda cheap.  Eating out every meal and staying in hotels/ hostels every night was all well and good in the developing world where everything was laughably cheap, but this is Europe, where things if anything are more expensive than the states.    

So there we have it.  Now to prepare.