Carolyn and I did a second tour in England and France in August 1991. Oddly enough, even though this was not as long ago as our first tour, our memory of this one is fuzzier – after our first tour we made a photo album with captions that refreshed those memories. On the second tour, we did not and those memories faded with time. That’s one of the reasons I’m so enthusiastic about blogging on our ‘57 ride – it will keep the memories fresh.

For our second tour we planned to do the southern coast of England – we heard it was a popular vacation area and thought that it would be fun to take a ferry over to France and try touring in a non-English speaking country without actually committing the whole tour to it.

The only specific stop we had planned was to visit Arundel castle because a friend had said it was nice. We had no plans beyond that at all!

We left home on Saturday night and landed Sunday morning at Gatwick airport. We decided on Gatwick to avoid the problem we had the previous tour with the tube to London – Gatwick is both an airport and a train station. After reassembling the bicycles, we took a train to Chichester – it seemed like a reasonable place on the coast, and only ten miles from Arundel. We were not planning a big day because we knew to expect jet-lag from the flight.

We thought we had the train all figured out this time, but got on a car where bikes weren’t allowed and had to change cars at the next stop. The stop was so short we almost missed getting back on. Sigh.

When we arrived in Chichester we realized that had no idea what we wanted to do next. It was still early in the morning but we were tired and cranky and everything was a bit of an argument. We decided to Chichester cathedral but we couldn’t get in. We just walked around the area, relaxed and played with a friendly calico cat.

We called ahead to Arundel and made a reservation for the evening. With the jet lag, just riding the ten miles there wiped us out pretty thoroughly. We visited Arundel castle (which had a nice display of arms and armor), checked into the B&B, showered, and walked into town to find a restaurant. Because it was Sunday night there was only one restaurant open, but it turned out to be quite good.

On Monday we woke up late and almost missed breakfast. We went to the Wildfowl trust and saw lots of birds (Carolyn loves birds!). We rode south to Little Hampton, through East Brighton and Hone which were cities with lots of traffic. Brighton looked like a more civilized Coney Island. We stopped for chips and soda then were back on the road.

We found a nice bike path along the water, we got off in Peacehaven and continued on through Newhaven into Seaford – pretty town, big enough to find a place to eat a good meal, but we felt like we hadn’t gone far enough for the day and decided to continue on. We saw a sign for a zoo about four miles off route (Carolyn loves zoos!) so we decided to go there and then go back to Seaford for the evening. The road to the zoo was seriously hilly and we ended up giving up and heading back to town without ever actually getting there (I think it was at Drusilla’s Park).

When we got back to Seaford we could not find a B&B – we ended up at the tourist office and they found us a place – that was a hint of things to come. We showered and walked to town where we looked for a topographical map so we could avoid the hill problem. We couldn’t find one in the local bookstores and gave up. We stopped in a pub for a drink then had dinner at a nice Indian restaurant.

Tuesday we rode to Canterbury, a really scenic and historic area. Again we had a hard time finding a place to stay, so once we found a hotel, we decided to stay in Canterbury for a few days, doing daytrips to tour the area. The hotel was just down the street from Canterbury Cathedral which is a beautiful building.

On Wednesday we rode out to Woodchurch to see a Falconry display (did I say that Carolyn likes birds?).

On Thursday, we decided to check out the English shore, so we checked out of the hotel and headed to Margate. Along the way we found and took a picture of the classic “Ham Sandwich” street signs (this one is not our photo, I can’t find that one).

As it turns out Margate and the surrounding areas are where Londoners go to vacation at the beach. At the time, it was just a bit on the tacky side, a little run down at the edges. We were tired so we decided to look for a hotel. Unfortunately, the first hotel we found that had room was not clean. We asked to see the room before checking in and found someone else’s underwear hanging in the bathroom – so even though we were tired we decided not to stay there.

We continued on and ended up at Broadstairs, a really nice town with a lot of history associated with Charles Dickens (the Dickens House Museum is there). We were wiped out and walked to a park to relax – turns out they were having an American square dancing festival and we got to enjoy watching everyone giving it a try. It was a very nice ending to a not-so-nice day.

On Friday, we rode to Dover and discovered the white cliffs. Neither of us had really thought about that phrase “white cliffs” – in hindsight, it was obvious that it was a long way downhill to the shore. This was driven home when we (ok, when “I”) took a wrong turn and ended up going way, way downhill into St. Margaret’s Bay. St. Margaret’s Bay is in its own little pocket of the shore – the only way to Dover was back up the really steep hill and both Carolyn and I ended up walking our bikes up the $#&#! hill. From Dover we took the hovercraft to Calais which was quite fun. We rode up the coast to Dunkerque where after a lot of searching we found a hotel for the night. Again we decided that since it was hard to find a place, we’d stay for a couple of nights.

On Saturday, we were a bit tired and decided to be unambitious so we rode to Belgium and back just because it seemed like fun to visit yet another country. I really don’t remember how far along the coast we went, but I do remember Carolyn having Moule-frites (mussels) for lunch at a very nice place on the shore that would take whatever kind of currency we had (this was before the EU and the Euro).

Sunday was this tour’s day from hell. We did not count on all the stores and restaurants being closed. It was hot and we ran out of water. We discovered there is a mini mountain range separating Dunkerque and our destination, Boulogne-Sur-Mer. I don’t remember the route very well, but I do have some vivid memories: getting lost, riding a road that just faded out from under us, joking about buying some concrete lawn art, deciding we were going the right way because we were riding up a mountain into the wind, getting to the top of the mountain and having the clouds break open and the sun shine over the countryside, riding down a mountain with the wind so strong that I was in my lowest gear and Carolyn was drafting behind me (she never does that!), watching birds flying backwards. We finally found a convenience store where we had liverwurst on crackers and thought it was the best thing we’d ever eaten.

When we finally got to Boulogne-Sur-Mer we starting looking for a place to spend the night. We stopped in every hotel and B&B we saw and they were all booked full. We continued downhill through town finding nowhere to stay (this side of the channel is also something of a cliff). The tourist office was on the shore, at the bottom of the hill, and they found us a place – fifteen miles back up that $*#% hill.

We moped around a bit trying to figure out what we were going to do. We decided that if we were going to sleep on the beach, we’d take the ferry back to England so that when the cops roust us they would speak English. We took the ferry to Folkestone, and wonder of wonders there was a nice, somewhat fancy hotel with an available room. They weren’t going to let us take our bikes up the elevator to the room, but relented when they realized there was no good place to lock them up for the night.

Monday we decided was going to be a no biking rest day. We left the bikes in the hotel room and took the ferry back to Boulogne-Sur-Mer and wandered around eating pastries, drinking wine and beer and just having a wonderful time not riding our bikes. At the end of the day, we took the ferry back to Folkestone. We were both thrilled to be off the bikes after the previous day’s adventures.

Oddly enough, neither Carolyn nor I remember what happened after that. I seems that we did get home eventually. I do remember one incident where we were going down into a valley and right at the bottom was a small car that was upside down (no one was hurt). We stopped and helped flip the car back upright. I was struggling up the other side and it took forever to realize that I was still in my big chain ring. Occasionally Carolyn will still tease me about that (“are you sure you’re in the right gear?”).

This one is for the gear geeks. I’ve been asked several times what we’re bringing on tour and it seems that this is an obligatory post in every bike touring blog. So here we go.

As I think I’ve mentioned before, we are planning this as a lightweight tour. We are not camping on tour – we will be checking into some sort of hotels/motels/B&B’s each afternoon, so right off we eliminate a lot of gear other bike tourists carry (tent, sleeping bag, cooking stuff, etc.). I’m hoping to keep my load at about 20 pounds (Carolyn’s load will be a bit less because I’m carrying the electronics).

So what does that 20 pounds include?

Clothing, which Carolyn already talked about in the What to Bring post.

Each day we’ll check into the hotel in the afternoon, shower and change into our “walking around” clothes. We’ll reuse the shirt, socks and underwear on the ride the next day. From time to time, we’ll wash out the biking clothes in the hotel bathroom or stop at a Laundromat. One nice thing about bike touring is that you really enjoy going to the Laundromat, because the entire time you are doing laundry you are not sitting on the bike seat.

Bike gear:

• Bikes – duh! (but not included in the 20 pound estimate)
• Panniers – the paired saddlebags where we’ll keep most of our stuff
• Front pack – I’ll have an extra pack on the handlebars to hold the electronics
• Tire pump with pressure gauge – we have to pump the tires every day
• Spare tubes and tire – we’ll each carry a spare tube and I’ll carry a spare tire
• ACA Maps – the paper versions of the Adventure Cycling Association route maps
• “Head” lights – hopefully we won’t need these, but just in case we get caught out at dusk
• Tail lights – a blinking light to make us more visible to cars, these will be on in daylight too
• Bike Lock – unfortunately quite heavy, but not really an option
• Mirror – makes it easier to see each other and cars coming up from behind us

We bought our bikes back in the early 90’s they are aluminum/carbon fiber hybrid frames. I realized the other day that the only thing original on my bike is the frame – every other part has been replaced or upgraded in the 24 years I’ve owned it. A lot was replaced recently in anticipation of this ride. Because part of the ride will be quite hilly (Connecticut I’m looking at you), and we’ll be carrying a fair bit of extra weight, we upgraded both bikes with new Shimano 105 10-speed triple “gruppos” (front/rear derailleurs, front/rear brakes, brake lever/shifters, crank set, chain rings, and rear cluster) to give us some lower low gears. (As an old timer, it sounds weird to say 10-speed when referring to 10 gears in the rear cluster!)

Bike tools:

• Patch kits and tire levers to fix flats
• Bike multi-tool
• Spoke wrench
• Cone wrenches
• Oil – for the chains if we get caught in the rain

This is all stuff I normally keep in my seat pack anyway. I’m not planning to do any serious repairs – we’re riding close enough to civilization that we should be able to find a bike shop for anything big. However, there are a lot of basic repairs and adjustments that we’re likely to need and that I feel comfortable doing on the road.

Electronics:

• Phones – we both have the Motorola RAZR HD Maxx phones which have terrific batteries – we got them in anticipation of the ride to ensure that we’d be able to run the GPS for most of the day without worrying about the battery.
• Helmet intercom – I bought a pair of Cardo BK-1 bike intercoms – these let us chat comfortably while riding single file, eliminating the temptation to ride double. They also function as Bluetooth headsets for our phones. This lets me listen to the turn-by-turn from the Cuesheet navigation app, listen to music, and even take a call while riding.
• Tablet with Bluetooth keyboard – this weighs less than a laptop (unless you want to spend a lot of money on the laptop!). I bought a Nexus 7 without LTE – I can use my phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot if we want to use it somewhere without Wi-Fi. The Bluetooth keyboard is a luxury and will help us (mostly Carolyn) writing posts for this blog.
• Battery – a 13,000mAh battery to charge the phones on the ride, it can recharge one phone three or four times. It also serves as a flashlight.
• Camera – I don’t like the picture quality on the phones, so I bought a very small point and shoot camera. It has a Wi-Fi interface that lets us download the pictures to the tablet to post in the blog.
• Charger & Cables – I got an Anker 5 port charger with a 5 foot AC cord. That’ll help deal with badly positioned outlets in the hotel rooms. We need the ports for the tablet, 2 phones, and the intercoms. We actually need more occasionally for the camera, keyboard, and the battery, but the intercoms charge pretty fast and we can switch what’s plugged in before going to sleep.

For apps on the phones/tablet, we’re using Cuesheet for turn by turn navigation (and probably Google maps on occasion). I used MapMyRide to convert the ACA maps into an electronic route (see The Route Details). I’ll use Runkeeper to track the ride, and sync the data with Strava when training – I don’t think I’ll worry about Strava on the ride. I expect we’ll be using Google a lot to find hotels/restaurants/etc. as we go. I also got OSM (open street maps) and downloaded maps for all the states on our route so we will have maps even if we don’t have network access (unless we get really lost).

Toiletries:

• Toothbrush and toothpaste
• Hair Brush
• Small scissors
• Handkerchief
• Reading Glasses
• Beard trimmer

Bringing my beard trimmer was a harder choice than it should have been. It is pretty heavy, but I hate it when my beard grows out – I need to trim it once a week or I get itchy. The trimmer is cordless and the batter should last two months so I won’t bring the charger. It’s messy, but should be OK in a zip lock bag. Oh yeah, we’re carrying a lot of zip lock bags! All the electronics will be in bags, and we’re going to use larger bags inside the panniers to hold the clothes – the transparent bags make it easy to find stuff and are waterproof in case we get caught out in the rain – a virtual certainty in a ride this long.

Consumables:

• Water bottles and camelback
• Powdered Gatorade/lemonade
• Food
• Ibuprofen – I’m afraid we’ll go through a lot of it
• Small pack of baby wipes
• Small first aid kit (band-aids, disinfectant, etc.)
• Bug spray
• Sunblock

We’ll be riding in hot weather and bringing enough water is really important to stay healthy. We’ve each got two water bottles we’ll be carrying on the bikes and we bought camelbacks which we’ll use as it gets warmer or when we’re in more rural areas (a camelback is a big water bag that you wear as a backpack with a drinking hose that clips to the helmet straps). The water is heavy, and is not included in our 20 pound budget. The powdered Gatorade/lemonade is to flavor the water (the water in parts of the southeast can have an unpleasant sulfurous flavor). We’ll only use Gatorade or lemonade in the water bottles – it is a pain to clean out the camelback and if you don’t get it really clean it can grow mildew.

As to food, we’ve learned our lesson in previous tours – always bring something to eat. The most consistent factor in a “day from hell” on tour is a lack of food – bringing along enough snack-y foods will hopefully avoid that cause of very bad days. We’ll probably carry snack bars as they keep well, unfortunately we can’t carry chocolate bars because they melt. I’ll try to buy some fruit from time to time when we hit a grocery store.

I suppose we’re a bit crazy, but we’ve even discussed what we’ll bring in our wallets (or if we’re bringing wallets). I’m bringing by driver’s license, credit card, bank card, and health insurance card. We’ll be paying with most everything with the credit cards, but I will carry some cash for times when we can’t use the cards. I’m still not sure if I need a wallet to hold it all.

People keep asking me how I’m able to find time for a 2 month long bike ride and still keep my job. The short answer: I’m still figuring it out.

I get four weeks of vacation time a year, but it’s unusual for anyone to take more than two weeks off at a time. I told my boss that I want to take all 4 weeks, and he was OK with that. On top of that, I have asked for a month’s leave of absence. I wasn’t sure how OK my boss would feel about that, but frankly, I wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer. We’re in a good position financially, pretty close to being ready to retire, and if I have to resign my job, so be it. The good news is that I’ve been very upfront with my management about this – we’ve been planning it for several years after all – and they are being supportive.

I manage a very senior team of software developers and I am writing up detailed plans for what they will need to do while I’m gone. For the most part, I expect they will do well without me – and with the cell phone and tablet, I expect to stay in touch with them day to day via email and Skype. I know you’re not supposed to do that sort of thing on a bicycle tour, but I think that’s what I’m going to have to do. We expect to ride 4 or 5 hours every day, which will leave plenty of free time. I will simply choose to spend some of my free time “at” work.

Carolyn is not thrilled with this plan. She believes that if you are on vacation, and not getting paid, then you should not be at work. We have agreed that she will keep track of my email and Skype time, and I will get it back somehow. But I’m not that worried about it, because I have always been fortunate to have a job that provides me with the flexibility to fit biking and other personal activities into my work schedule. So now I will repay some of that flexibility.

The folks at my office are very aware of my love for biking. Last summer I tried to ride every day. Some days I commuted by bike to and from work – it’s about 15 miles each way with a couple of tough hills. There is a decent locker room at the office where I could shower, and I kept a few days’ clean clothes in the office. The nice thing about bike commuting is that it saves driving time, so I got two hours of riding for the cost of only one extra hour out of my day. It also saves gas and makes me feel very green.

The biggest downside with bike commuting is that if the weather goes bad during the day, I’m stuck riding home in it. Carolyn will come and rescue me if it gets really bad, but I hate asking her to pick me up. I have to watch the weather forecast closely and pass on any day that might turn bad. Also, bike commuting splits my exercise into two sessions, which makes it harder to enjoy for some reason. Then there’s the time pressure of getting to work on time, so I always take the same route, which is both hilly and boring – a bad combination. Lately I’ve been working with folks in Europe and India and I need to be at work quite early, so I’m not sure that commuting will work for me this spring.

Another option is to leave work a bit early and ride in a loop from home. I generally like the ride options from home better – at least I have options!

This spring, I’ve added a third option – I can drive my bike to work on Monday, then go for a ride in the afternoon when I can find a gap in my meeting schedule. So far, that’s been more the late afternoon, which has worked out so far – it’s been the warmest part of the day. Here’s a picture of my bike in my office. I think it fits into the office decor quite nicely.

So in general, I’ve been able to get out riding without cutting into my work schedule. Obviously, that’s not so true for this ride to Florida, which is why I will be flexible about checking into work every day. But if I don’t get the time back somehow, I think Carolyn is going to kill me.