I have traveled 700 kilometers so far, some of it was meandering and exploring and getting bits off track, but mostly going between places. I am a week in. I spent what felt like quite a long time planning and thinking and preparing and waiting and whatever about this trip, but it still takes some adjusting to.  I’m getting used to it, it is not so dramatic in practice, just one day at a time. This is my life for now.

It is impossible to blend in on a loaded touring bike. People see this and they know I am up to something, they may not care, and it may not matter, but I am noticed more. 

This is my bike on the first day, note how conspicuous

I need to work on my story. I should have versions on hand which are consise and which can pass border crossing scrutiny. They do not need to be complete, just an answer to the question. When the question is Where are you going? I always stumble, because I have so many places I want to go.  

Maybe I should also work on having a better defined goal. It is partly useful for the story-just having an answer to the question, no matter how complete, but also really helpful for me in decision making, I find guidelines helpful in making good choices in moments. 

Weather: it was still a little early in the year to start. I knew that it would be, and it hasn’t been too bad really. Some wind and rain and snow, mixed in with the nice days. 

I am not excellent about taking pictures, but here are a few. 

This is a field.

Coming into Meadville there is this long mural/sculpture of old road signs. This isn’t a great picture, and is of only a small section of it, but it may give you an idea, if you’ve never been there

I passed many a grape field between Erie and Dunkirk

 A good spot to stop always turns up, I’m trying to be more patient. After making lunch in this lot next to a building here, which wasn’t a bad spot, really, I came not more than a block down the road, upon a little pier/park by the lake. Look at this lovely replica boat I was there able to read about.  

Someone I met asked me if I would miss things, and I told him that of course I would. Then, perhaps unsatisfied, he specified, that he wanted to know if I would have the feeling of missing things/people left behind, but no matter how it is meant, the answer is the same. I left a lot that I care about and will of course miss. Things will happen, in Pittsburgh that I won’t be there for, things will happen elsewhere that I won’t be around for. I will pass things closely or at a distance and may not notice them. I cannot go (or be) everywhere and do everything and be with everyone, choosing anything excludes other things. this is a fact of life. 

Ok. I go out now. I’m in Toronto another day, plannng to move on tomorrow.