In the Beginning

New Blog Site. New Blog. “Pilgrim Farmer John Along the Southern Tier.” On two wheels, self powered, hiking poles not needed. 4000 miles, give or take detours and an occasional “lost” episode. There’s the inevitable “But, WHY?” I have two answers: Because I want to. Because I can. And since the “Because I can” response has a clock running, the time is now. D-Day (back wheel wet, Atlantic Ocean) is set for 1/30/17, place, St. Augustine, FL. With several scheduled visits with friends and family between here and there, our “we’re outta here” date is 10 Jan, 2017.  Mission accomplished date (front wheel wet, Pacific Ocean); to be determined. Goal, early April, 2017.

Ops O (Operations Officer) for the exercise is my Dearest Cathy. Once the bike ride begins, she’ll be at the wheel of STella, (ST: Southern Tier, cute, huh) the mini motor home, our “home away from home” for the next three months. Pix of STella to follow in later blogs after we ascertain that we actually know HOW to use this blog site.

Speaking of this blog site, Word Press, we have selected it for its ease of replying by the tens of readers that we hope are paying attention to our newest adventure. I follow numerous blogs that make use of this site and find it very user friendly and reliable. It doesn’t have the data limitations of the site I used for the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, and since I’ll (hopefully) have more time to compose the blogs, I won’t feel as restricted in what I can post.

And, the first photo of the first post will reveal the obvious reason for the blog name. This ride has been very well researched and professionally mapped by the good folks at Adventure Cycling. They also provided the maps for our “Duo of Discovery” bike tour that Cathy and I enjoyed in 2006, following the Lewis and Clark trail from Washington State to Iowa and the Mississippi River.