Might check and see when Chacos repair van is on tour. They post up in different cities for a week and do repairs for free.  I think you can request longer straps. I got mine restrapped for free a couple years back.

that tracks with my amtrak experiences

Here’s how I would explain it:  We get most of our energy from carbohydrates, so we need a lot of those.   Carbs can have several components: glucose (ie sugar), fiber, and starch We can split carbs up into two types, simple and complex.   Complex carbohydrates have glucose plus one or both of fiber and starch. It takes the body longer to break down these complex carbs and get the sugar out of them. This keeps us full longer and is better for blood sugar levels and continuous energy throughout the day. Vegetables, fruits, and legumes (mostly glucose and fiber) are complex carbs, as well as any whole grains (glucose, fiber and starch), or stuff like potatoes (glucose, starch, some fiber). 

^We also get necessary vitamins and minerals from fruits and veg, plus a lot of flours these days are fortified with vitamins and minerals. This is why most people don’t have nutrient defiencies like pellagra and stuff these days. And also why most multivitamins are useless if you’re already eating a pretty varied diet. 

Simple carbs have mostly glucose with little fiber or starch. Our bodies can get the sugar from these really quickly, which means we don’t stay full from them, we don’t get continuous energy, and over time consumption of these can lead to problems with blood sugar levels.  Simple carbs are stuff like white bread and crackers, desserts, white rice (these are made with flour that has been processed in a way that removes fiber), candy, soda, sports drinks. They’re ok in moderation, and in particular if you’re doing long duration manual work or exercise where you need to replenish energy quickly.  

Fats- the body needs fats, they’re important for like organ function and stuff + longer term energy storage- I have completely forgotten the specifics atm. But you can get healthy fats from a variety of sources- nuts and seeds or various nut/seed/vegetable oils, dairy, some plant sources (ex avocado), and meat.  Generally the only thing to keep to moderation with is super-processed stuff- deep-fried stuff and preserved meats. These have a different kind of fat that does a lot of the carcinogenic and heart disease stuff.

  Proteins- important for the body to able to maintain muscles and bones. You can get your protein in a lot of different ways, whether you eat meat or not.  Proteins are composed of amino acids. In order for our bodies to be able to get usable protein, we have to consume foods with the right amino acids for that.  Meats, dairy, and soybeans are foods that have all the amino acids we need, are are called “complete proteins”. There are tons of plants sources that are “incomplete proteins” - they have most of the amino acids we need, and can be combined in different combos to make up complete proteins. People used to say you have to eat both things in one meal for that to work, but now the general thought is if you get it in the day you’re good. Classic pairings are rice and beans, whole wheat bread and peanut butter, hummus and pitta bread. There are tons of options out there.  

Tldr eat a lot of complex carbs (fruits, veggies, whole grains), try to have simple carbs as a small treat, don’t worry too much about fats, make sure you get your protein and there are tons of cools ways to do that. 

Reference I would reccomend is harvard universitys nutrition source. They go into better sciency detail than I did here but also give a lot of good pratical examples for nutrition. Link here: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/

Cumbia and cumbia rebajada especially! Latin house as well. It’s not a secret but I understand it’s an acquired taste lol.

yay bikepacking!

“🤷‍♀️ it works”

Yeah I feel like that would’ve been a much more fun way to do it- similar to Herstory of the World in all stars 2

I would also recommend wwoof as a site to check out to find opportunities like this. I used that and workaway to find several farmstays to do in Ireland this year. It’s been a great experience!

The fun fact that made me start wearing a helmet- cyclists have the same rate of TBI’s as snowboarders and skiers. I had always thought of snowboarding/skiing as far more dangerous sports!

My limit is about 25 mph sustained, as long as the gusts are not too bad. If the wind is strong enough to push the bike around, that is usually where I call it quits!

Yep. Have an older trek 520 with only 1 hole, not threaded, on the fork. used the universal mounts for top and bottom holes on the mount and it has held up fine so far.

it’s true, no one has better rbf than the eastern european girlies on 90 day fiance

The city has free fix-it clinics! If you can’t make it to one, there is also a way to drop off stuff in advance and the volunteers will try to fix it. I haven’t been to one myself, but I have a friend who runs her own upholstery business and has volunteered before with them.  It looks like the next clinic is Mar, 23rd, so it is a ways off still.  Link to the program is here: https://www.austintexas.gov/event/fix-it-clinic-11

If you’re on facebook, I would also recommend looking up the buy nothing group for your neighborhood and asking if there’s is anyone with sewing expertise there who might be able to help you out. I’ve occasionally seen stuff like this get worked out in buy nothing groups.

Sleep position is actually super important! Sleep paralysis can be triggered by sleeping on your back- realized this after some research because I noticed the main time it will happen to me is when I am camping and sleeping on my back vs. side like usual. Went through lots of fun sleep paralysis dreams about someone trying to get into my tent before I made the connection lol

25F, I’ll be touring throughout Europe this summer. Nothing set in stone yet, so I’ll try to remember to check back in with you in a few months. Would be interested in planning something together for August probably.

I did an overnight trip with two more experienced friends back home in Texas.  Next trip was a solo one month trip in France.  This coming summer I’m hoping to do several months around UK and Europe.

It would be really really nice to be able to buy pants or shorts with reinforced fabric and flat seams in the crotch area (without being like full-on chamois bike shorts- stuff I could still wear around town). This would be nice for touring, but for all the riding I do around town as well. I usually bike an hour or so commuting every day, and I wear through pants so quick! The fabric in the seat area gets worn really thin and then the seams start to come apart. Having flat seams helps this some (good for preventing chafing as well), but the fabric will still wear thin and develop holes :(

Even if you don’t have the space/resources to host folks inside the motor home, you could offer camping space if you want. I stayed with a couple warmshowers hosts like this on my tour and it was fine. I don’t think bike tourists are generally picky lol.

haha i had the same experience walking by the code of hammurabi. big double take and i couldn’t believe there weren’t a ton of people around it

Atomic Dog- George Clinton

I’ve done this, it’s good and you can add on to it cuz there’s more gravel roads they use around there for races.

Nah, I ended up downloading the gpx files from the eurovelo website and then uploading them to my garmin. It was pretty easy to do.

I feel like it just depends a bit on the weather in a given year- everyone was telling me I’d get rained on every day going in October, but the first 10 days of the trip were all sunny with a high over 80. After that it did cool off and get rainy, but the temp during the day stayed around 55-60, so being wet/cold wasn’t a serious safety concern as long as I could dry everything off at night.

It was pretty flat all the way through. There were a couple days on the coast that were little hills up and down, but for the most part everything was flat. Most of the route was also pretty well-protected from wind.

Haha I didn’t have any real panic moments except for the first night in France before I set out on the trip. Once I got going I was able to relax and put my attention towards planning each day’s ride. I’m a pretty quiet person by nature, so I didn’t feel too lonely. I also knew ahead of time that doing the trip this late in the year would mean I would I would run in to fewer other bike tourists. Things I wish I had done different- I wish I had spent the money to schedule some guided tours or activities in the big cities I went through. Those were the only places I went through that were overwhelming to be in alone. I also wish I had taken my French practice before the trip a little more seriously - there were times when older locals who didn’t speak much English wanted to chat and I felt pretty bad about my limited French.