The Wobbling Sprocket

There have been a few tours where I felt like we were dancing rather than biking across the country (Laos especially).

Our tours have plenty of challenging biking, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t do other things.  Actually, it’s the other things that are the whole point of doing a bike tour  in another country! 

Sikkim (India) is on deck in October and it’s time to start getting into the swing of some of those other things.  You don’t actually have to be going to Sikkim to appreciate this. Here’s how:

1.  Go pour yourself a glass of wine (or something stronger)

2)  Relax

3) Turn up your speakers

4) and get IN THE MOOD.

5) If this doesn’t make you smile, there is always Backroads (yea Fede!), Trek Travel and Butterfield and Robinson.

Thanks Keith N for sending this!

Ronni has the final spot for Sikkim.  She’s been to Corsica and Slovenia previously.  She’s another strong rider.    She’s moved to Colorado since then.  There should be plenty of training opportunities there.  Perhaps she can hook up with the pro’s who train out there as part of her prep.

Ronni - Corsica

You can’t see Ronni well in this, but I always liked this photo from Porto:

Ronni on Beach Porto, Corsica - 2004

Here are a couple from Slovenia.  We made a foray into Italy that year:

Ronni at Italian Border - Outside Kranjska Gora, Slovenia

And one more:

Ronni in Slovenia - 2008 - Hey, gotta like the Far and Away hat. Hang on to that! There are no more of them.

This will be a first.

It’s not the first time Sue has been on a tour.  She came to in 2006. However, it is the first time we’ve had a sister team.  Sue and Gwyn are sisters (although my brother Phil did come and drive a van in Spain).

Sue is a great kayaker.   Her skills were on display in Laos outside Vangvieng.  There is plenty of fast running water in Sikkim, but I don’t recall seeing many kayakers.  Of course, we didn’t see many bikers there either last time.   When we go, I’ll check to see if there are some kayaking options available.  Maybe, the tour can morph into biking, hiking, kayaking.   Why not?

Sikkim will be a series of reunions.  I just noticed that no less than 4 people from Laos in 2006 are now coming to Sikkim in 2010.  That’s in addition to the 5 people who were just in Laos in Nov, 2009 that are coming to Sikkim.  And there are 3 of us that were on all 3 of those tours.   In fact, this is the first time that everyone is an alumni.  It’s also the earliest a tour has filled.

Anyway, here is Sue with some jungle adventure headgear when in Laos:

Sue in floppy hat. This was 2006. I think on river outside infamous Vangvieng

This is from the dinner party in Ban Faen on the night of our homestay:

The local just to the right of Sue looks like he just won the lottery (maybe it's the Beerlao in his hands). Howard S is on the far right. Howard and his Rotary Club subsequently raised $10,000 and used it to build a school in Vangtang on the tour route.