Feels like we’ve crested the hill

January, here’s your hat. What’s your hurry?

For the second year in a row January involved recuperation. This year it was from four bouts of head colds. (I’m almost completely recovered. Knock wood.) And I took a week off life to travel to London to watch my daughter get her diploma from the graduate school at King’s College. And see sights and walk over 40 miles and eat foods. Sadly, the shitty air circulation and leg room on the British Airways flights has made me dread getting on a plane again in this lifetime.

I did do some riding, but it was my lowest mileage month since December 2017. I finished the month with 381 miles. 241 of that was on my Cross Check outdoors. The rest was on Big Nellie in the basement.

Now that the polar vortex has had its way with us, I look forward to getting some serious miles in during February. And to turning my attention to getting my bikes fixed up.

Being sick for over three weeks has made it hard to care about warm weather bike touring. (No, Jessica, you will not see me roll up to your apartment in Buenos Aires next month. But keep bugging me. You never know. Nothing stops an old gringo on a bicycle.)

Today, Cyclosource, the catalogue from Adventure Cycling, came in the mail. It contains the complete Adventure Cycling U.S. route network. And once again the little squeaky planning wheels in my brain are turning.