Chat Zone for The Big Big Trip Journal!

[HobbesOnTour]

Excellent, following you now
Do keep the updates coming, really enjoying reading of your adventure.

Thank you. The encouragement is appreciated and I'm sure will be needed in the future.

I try to take several "road shots" every day which will go on Strava. I'm limited to 10 pics per post in the normal thread.

Just FYI, I'm in rural South Carolina now, heading for the mountains. I'll be needing wifi to post more updates. So please, be patient! 😀

 

[tom73]

Guinness is an acquired taste - Root beer is just vile!

Good job your travel pal is not snoopy then

 

[IaninSheffield]

Really enjoyed that. Great write up.
I found a pee bottle makes cold (or wet) weather camping much easier. Mine's a repurposed juice bottle. No need to leave the tent.

Thanks.
I have considered that, but the thought of an 'accident' in a tent with a bathtub floor, and in the proximity of a down sleeping bag, is too much stress to bear I fear.

Went back to finish the packing a little later than planned and got a bit of a shock when I opened it up. There was a bit of a wet patch on the floor! My pee bottle hadn't been fastened properly after my 4am pee! Not quite disaster, but certainly not helpful.

I must refer my right honourable friend back to the suggestion he gave me recently

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I must refer my right honourable friend back to the suggestion he gave me recently

In fairness, the issue was due to poor execution, rather than a bad idea - I didn't fasten the top properly!

Now where's the cat lover??

 

[CharlesF]

A couple of testing days, hopefully the time inside allowed you to recoup and dry out. This remains the best read on CC, even better than the retirees!

 

[HobbesOnTour]

A couple of testing days, hopefully the time inside allowed you to recoup and dry out. This remains the best read on CC, even better than the retirees!

Thanks Charles! 😊
The 3 miler was certainly testing!
A night of pampering myself was just the ticket! Had a fantastic day today! It would have been miserable (and dangerous) in the weather.

 

[cosmicbike]

Just had a catch up, though I am following you more closely on Strava. Looking like quite the adventure now with the weather starting to get 'interesting'..

 

[HobbesOnTour]

The weather is certainly a bit more challenging. I knew to expect cold, wet and windy in these parts, just not the intensity nor the speed of change.
But the country??? This is beyond description!

 

[HobbesOnTour]

In one of my posts I mentioned an earworm - "Didn't we Almost have it all". Apparently, that's a Whitney Houston song.
The correct one is

View: https://youtu.be/Ru2tsT32pHA


It's pretty effective at keeping the bears away! 😀

 

[cosmicbike]

I note you've discovered 'Naked & Afraid', they show it on one of the dross channels here in the UK. The scenery for your latest update looks simply fantastic, though they don't show how cold it is..

 

[CharlesF]

Wonderful pictures, remind me of seeing the Fall in Toronto, the colours look unreal but are even more vibrant in real life.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I note you've discovered 'Naked & Afraid', they show it on one of the dross channels here in the UK. The scenery for your latest update looks simply fantastic, though they don't show how cold it is..

That's the show!

The scenery is out of this world, coupled with the fact that I have little traffic to contend with. If there was constant traffic I'd be seeing far less, such is the attention required.

 

[CharlesF]

These dogs are ruining my story, let alone your ride. Seeing you are in farming country, maybe a cattle prod or riding crop would give you close quarters defence. In fairness, I expect any traffic not in a vehicle is a strange and exciting sight for a bored dog. It sounds as if they are kept purely as guard dogs and that means the owners have no desire to call them off.

Riding up all those hills impresses me! And then you nonchalantly talk about traversing two mountain ranges!!

The pictures are brilliant, especially the rolling roads and farmsteads hidden in the trees.

Keep on peddling Hobbs, and may the dogs all be handbag varieties from now on.

*Edited, to make it clear the prod or crop suggestion is mainly tongue-in-cheek.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

These dogs are ruining my story, let alone your ride. Seeing you are in farming country, maybe a cattle prod or riding crop would give you close quarters defence. In fairness, I expect any traffic not in a vehicle is a strange and exciting sight for a bored dog. It sounds as if they are kept purely as guard dogs and that means the owners have no desire to call them off.

Riding up all those hills impresses me! And then you nonchalantly talk about traversing two mountain ranges!!

The pictures are brilliant, especially the rolling roads and farmsteads hidden in the trees.

Keep on peddling Hobbs, and may the dogs all be handbag varieties from now on.

*Edited, to make it clear the prod or crop suggestion is mainly tongue-in-cheek.

Well, in a sign of progress there were no dog incidents worth talking about today! 😀

Joking aside, a weapon of any kind would be pretty impractical to use, unless stopped. I'll stop when I have to, but prefer to keep moving.

The frustrating thing is I like dogs! And they usually like me. But they are having an effect mentally. For pretty much any other negative experience I can pull in, relax and "get my head together", but for some reason it's not working with the dogs.

Hopefully a few dog free days will restore the equilibrium.

Thanks for the comments

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

Cycle.travel had plotted a long route with lots of rural roads. Komoot suggested a more direct route, at least the first half, was shorter and not so much climbing. I tried to alter the cycle.travel route but it's not the easiest task on a phone, so I loaded the Komoot route and followed that. (Sorry, Richard)

I'll let you off!

(Still working on the app which will make it easier to create and edit routes on a phone. And OSM needs some shoulder tagging on the main road which would help reassure c.t it's an ok road to take...)

Really enjoying reading the journal.