Doug On Wheels Tour 2009

Ok. Since I have become obsessed with researching touring equipment and routes to take for this summer's Doug On Wheels Tour 2009 (still working on cool name for that) I thought I'd waste some more time providing another blog update with my thoughts.

When I first retired from corporate life I had a desire to do some bicycle touring. I didn't give it much thought; it was just an itch. After a couple of months those thoughts followed in my footsteps and retired themselves. However, unlike me, they are unretiring.

A couple of weeks ago I started giving consideration to what I wanted to do after I finished my prereqs before med school began in July. It wasn't long until I decided to push the start of med school to November. That gives me a full summer in paradise without any regret and a couple of months to fill with something. What would be that something?

Two days ago, and I don't fully understand what happened, I latched onto the idea of bike touring. My dedication to this idea is so great that for the first time in my life I am planning the next several months of my life, replete with milestones and stuff. I'm not quite done planning yet but here is a list of cities I would like to see along the tour:

Madison, Wisconsin
Davenport, Iowa
Chicago, Illinois
Lake Pleasant, Indiana
Toledo, Ohio
Eastlake, Ohio
Dayton, Indiana

With the exception of the bookends, all those cities are pretty much linear. I haven't analyzed how long hitting all those cities will take yet. I just learned today I should plan to spend an average of $30/day to bike tour so fiscal reasons may be the barrier to a successful and complete tour. Timing will play a factor too. The two Indiana cities are attractive only if the calendar is right. (Not if and only if. Just only if. Aw, great, now the word "only" isn't looking like a normal word to me. I'm sober, I swear.)

I think part of the obsession can be explained by redirecting my resentment for the worst teacher and teaching style I have ever had in any subject EVER into something healthy. Most of the people reading this know my academic chops: GATE, Honors, AP through high school. Top 15% of my class at the Air Force Academy. 3.9 in a Top 10 engineering graduate program. Authored a Sudoku solver for fun. GRE scores high enough to qualify for MENSA. Acing a class whose prerequisite is this class. But yet I'm struggling with a high C/low B? I am reminded of a tee shirt I saw the other day, "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!"

Before too much bad boils I comfort myself with a quote from the best movie about a convict-hijacked convict-airplane, Con Air: "means to an end, my brother. Means to an end."