Being part of the world... yet apart from it.

What day is it? Is today Saturday? While I was touring, the Republicans and the Democrats both held their conventions and the Olympic Games for 2008 started and ended. These are pretty big events, and I was only vaguely aware of them at the time. While it is tempting to believe that one can completely escape civilization, that isn't really true with bicycle touring. To me, this is a big difference between backpacking and bicycle touring. The backpacker can, to a much larger extent, retreat from civilization. The bicycle tourist on a road bike is still connected to the grid; not the power grid, but the network of roads, and trails that humans have laid upon this world. Sure, there are off-road bike tours but I'm talking about the mainstream of bike touring.

As I said in "Slower Traffic Keep Right" bicycle tourists are traveling in a time layer that is quite different from the majority of the world. But that's really just one example of the on-again, off-again connection between the bicycle tourist and the rest of the world. That has to do with the passage of time, but I'm also talking about the significance of time. Knowing the date, or the day of the week, or accurately knowing the time of day is much less important to me when I touring on my bike compared with when I'm living the rest of my life. That doesn't mean I am able to ignore it completely. Recognizing the difference between weekday and weekend, or rush hour versus non-rush hour, can be very helpful. But who gets picked as a presidential running mate seems to pale in importance to how much longer it might continue to rain. "When am I going to eat next?" is a much more prominent question in my mind than "How many gold medals?"

But as the asphalt passes under my feet, and the cars whizz past, it is impossible to ignore the gravitational pull of civilization. My next water fillup might come from a convenience store and dinner might come from a grocery store in the next town. All these things are a constant reminder that I'm still a part of civilization, but in so many ways, I'm apart from it. What most matters to me while I'm touring on my bicycle becomes very basic. I need to protect myself from the elements; I need to maintain my health and nutrition, and I want to get to my destination. Any issue or concern that doesn't fall under one of those categories seems superfluous.