So you want to go on a bike tour?  Make it a reality and you will have the most fun you have ever had in your life…guaranteed!  Don’t know what a bike tour is?  It’s a two-wheeled, man-powered road trip that involves riding, camping, and slowly following whatever path you decide to lay out before you.  Put simply, it’s a long-distance ride that lasts a while, usually a few weeks to couple of months.  There are literally hundreds of reasons that you should load up your bike, grab a map, and head down the open road.  Here are the 5 best, potentially life-altering reasons:

1.It will restore your faith in humanity

So this sounds a little funny, but you will meet so many amazing people and be blown away by their kindness.  You will inevitably find yourself in some sort of pickle and need help.  Then, out of now where, all sorts of wonderful people will come to your rescue.  You will be invited into homes for dinner, have meals paid for at diners, and have people stop on the side of the road just to talk with you a bit.

2. Touring is for EVERYONE!

If Kathleen can do it, you can do it!  That’s right, my wife is a wuss when it comes to riding on anything besides a flat paved sidewalk.  Somehow, some way she was able to climb up and over Hoosier Pass at 11,542ft!  We rode through the entire Rocky Mountain Range for over a month!  The point of this is that bike touring is for everyone.  Young and old, cyclists and newbies.  Everyone can take a bike trip and do it successfully.  We met a woman on the TransAmerica Trail last summer that was going to finish her 4,300-mile trip on her 70th birthday!  It will be one of the most rewarding experiences that you ever have.

3.Bike touring forces you to travel slowly…. really slowly

This is a good thing.  Often in today’s rush rush zing zing lifestyle we don’t take the time to explore everything around us.  Maybe we would whiz by a small town that has so much to offer, maybe there is a sweet farmers market that you just passed by.  Bike touring connects you with regions, towns, and people that simply isn’t possible through other forms of travel.  Traveling on a bike immerses you in everything.  You can’t just speed away and in an hour be in a different city or town.  Slow travel will creep into all aspects of your life and you’ll learn to play in creeks again…. and sit by a morning campfire until well past noon!

4.You get to play on a bike….. everyday!

Some people in various parts of the world (Kentucky) will be amazed that an adult is riding a bike and shout strange things as you pass by.  You might even hear…”that’s a grown ass man on a bike!”  Like, we aren’t allowed to ride bikes after 12 years old?  Riding a bike is awesome, no two ways about it.  It is an absolutely amazing to barrel down a mountain pass and hit 40mph.  Jump in the saddle and get back to that blissful riding that you have missed for so long!

5. Ride, eat, camp, repeat.

Sounds pretty simple right?  You only have to worry about where you will be cruising off to tomorrow.  It is quite liberating not worrying about much else besides riding and having fun.  You only have to focus on the present and having fun in the moment.  All the other mundane, trivial things in life seem to fade away when your whole existence is built around riding a bike and finding a place to camp.  When you get to camp you can relax with the stars over head, often times in the middle of the mountains, and realize how amazing life really can be.

Bike touring can be something that truly reshapes your outlook on the world at large.  It will help you to slow down, get in touch with yourself and your surroundings, and have amazing adventures that other people can only dream about.  If you want to take an epic trip that you will always look back on and smile, dust off that old bike in your garage and slap some panniers on it and hit the road!