Post-1-The early stages of preparations
My name is Jeremiah Watt and the full time KEEPER of this blog, age 57 at the time of this writing. I am a saddle maker and silversmith when I am not pedaling my bike. Let me take a moment to introduce my son Pine,age 21, a 4th year student at San Jose State University here in California.
The aim of the ride, to circumnavigate the world in the safest manner possible by pedal power.
We ride Surly Long Haul Truckers- LHT’s as they will be called in other places on this blog. we will camp more often than stay in Hotels, I affectionately call this a “Hairy Legged Man Tour”- Townies need not apply. I have estimated 10 months to complete the trip. More to come about all the gear and what not that we used on this adventure- for another day as they say.
Pine will be traveling with me for those first 90 plus days of the cycling trip, as we circumnavigate God’s Creation. The intention is to start in Qingdao China, as coastal resort community and begin heading west from that point till we arrive in Lisbon Portugal. And from Lisbon we fly to USA and cross the USA in winter, so it shall be along the southern route that we ride.
This is not meant to be a true equatorial mileage ride, but rather a ride planned to keep us in a reasonably safe area of the hectic world we find ourselves living in, and still travel around the world. The route takes us north thru China, then into Mongolia mostly north by west to Russia. We will ride threw the barren rough Altai Krai region and on into the Ukraine. It is roughly planned that Pine will then pack his gear and fly from Kiev home so he can conclude his 4th year of study at San Jose State where he is a majoring in International Business.
This post simply introduces the idea and plans that have been made so far. We are busy getting used to our bikes and all the gear such as panniers that attach to them. It’s all pretty new to us, we are both pretty fit…………..I think? Ready for this new adventure to start. I began over 2 years ago getting serious about lifting weights every day in prep for the amount of upper body mass that is lost on a extended tour such as this. I will be leaving with a little extra “CYCLING PUDGE” as a cushion to start, I currently tip the scale at 215 pounds.
I am an amateur photographer at best, but will do my best to post images that give you the reader/follower a sense of what it was like to be in our sweaty shoes or nearly frozen sleeping bags. I am a terrible writer as my grade 12 English teacher told me, but I do promise to write something about each day. If it happens that there is the chance smelling mistake, maybe bad punturation or grammer………….get used to it- after all it my blog.
You know when I first conceived this ride I thought about doing something along with it to fix the world we are told is falling apart. After a little research I realized that everyone doing anything like this or milder is out to gather money and save the world. It’s so bad out there now that we have to invent problems to solve in order to seem remotely viable as a charity blog. I have come to the conclusion that anytime you strike on a blog pertaining too ADVENTURE……………….it follows by a tug on yer purse strings. NOT MINE . Its not because I don’t care about this planet nor the people/flora/fauna ( did I miss anyone/anything in my disclaimer, if I did then mentally add them in would’ya) that tread upon it. Because I do, but I think society is hit on every front with a plea for MONEY to change things that can only truly change with the condition of the heart and not the pocket book. So this is just a bout a father and son, pedaling bikes around the world, enjoying that which God created, meeting the people of different regions and cultures to share in theirs and to in turn share ours with them should they want to know. Nothing more, nothing less.