It has been a sweltering couple of days in old PDX and Bruce has been feeling slightly under the weather.  Despite the adversity we joined a couple thousand of our closest friends on the World Naked Bike Ride pdxwnbr.org last night!  Great, creative and fun loving people as always...Thanks for keeping it weird Portland!

Naked people as far as the eye can see...

Today was time to get serious...

kinda. 

 We were able to pull together long enough to get out for a little training ride.  We are easing into long days in the saddle again by pedaling our little 2-wheeled iron horses to a local Lavender Festival.

The happy couple and their trusty steeds.

Feeling confident that our small folding wonders will be ready for anything that the remotest parts of Asia can throw at us











A few more 100 degree long mileage days and SE Asia may start feeling more like home than Oregon does right now?!

Current Plan for Japan

Man.  Stan.  Ban...  Ok, enough boring wordplay.  This is what our plan is so far for Japan.  I am poo-my-pants excited about going to Japan, it has always been at the very top of the -places I want to go- list.  Admittedly, my initial intent was to drop as much money as I could possilbt afford on amazing fashion and fancy gadgets, it is probably better I am on a bike as it will certainly help save some serious coin. Actually, on everything in Japan.  We were initially going to try to wedge 2 week of Japan travel in when we weren't bringing bike, now due to the relatively cheap travel of cycling we are planning a month and a half.  GO BICYCLES!

For Everything-Tern, Tern, Tern

Bruce and I modeling our new rides, Tern S27h folding touring bikes.  We've been getting some longer rides in on these little beasts.  Fortunately, as we are going to be spending a lot of time on them for the next year!

This is where it will all begin...Seoul, S.Korea on July 8

We are flying into South Korea on July 8th, and after a few day in Seoul we will be riding from Seoul to Busan.  I found this handy- dandy map of *all the amazing bike specific trails* through the country.  It looks like we are not going to have to barely touch a road with traffic.  Nice work Korea!   We look forward to your amazing paths!

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?gotoPage=1&cid=1898746&out_service=#01

Nothing So Familiar

Phew…first great struggle of our year surmounted.  You would be surprised how much energy can be expelled on something as seemingly simple and benign as a name.

Nothing So Familiar…more than just a name chosen at random. Chiara and I actually toiled extensively trying to come up with the perfect moniker
that would exemplify exactly what we are getting ourselves into on July 8th, 2015 in Seoul, South Korea.  "Derailing our Lives”? Too quippy she says.  “Riding East”? Too obvious he says.  Then comes the always poignant and perfectly metered words of Bill Bryson, a writer we both enjoy and respect, “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost NOTHING is SO FAMILIAR it is taken for granted”.   After allowing these words time to breath and expound their wisdom in our heads we knew our handle had presented itself.  What is so great and meaningful about these simple words you may be asking…well allow us to explain.  Your’s truly Chiara and Bruce (your guides on this upcoming adventure through whatever may come) have traveled a fair amount both on and off bicycles during our days spent circling the sun.  We are equally as comfortable in our back garden, on our bikes or flying to a foreign land.  To us, there is nothing so familiar as the one world we inhabit and the enjoyment that we seek through exploring.  However, on the flip side of this neither Chiara or myself have ever stepped foot on Asian soil.  We will be finding ourselves in wonderful lands of exotic foods, languages, and people that we know of only through reading and limited interactions in our professional and daily lives in Portland, OR.  To that end, nothing will feel so familiar to us as on a daily basis we will come face to face with words, foods and customs that are foreign to everything we know.
Now to the more nuanced explanation…Chiara and I work  as a teacher and RN respectively. We have both been working for many years to build our careers and stable, happy lives in our wonderful city.  Deciding to take a full year of our lives and live off bikes will be very unfamiliar but came easier than you might think.  Further, unlike previous cycle tours we have done this time we will be strangers on strange gear.  See, we have been graciously bestowed upon with new gear that we have never used, due to the generosity of great companies such as Tern folding bicycles, Big Sky International tents, Steripen, Klymit, and Hyperlite Mountain Gear.  All this gear is unfamiliar to Chiara and I but we are extremely excited to use it on our adventure!
So we invite you to start this adventure of unknowns with us.  We promise nothing except that we will be leaving behind the familiar…

Meet Your Host- Bruce

Bruce here...
I just wanted to spend a moment describing what has brought me to this place, that being on the brink of a year cycling with my partner through the Far East.  Well I was born a poor black child...wait that was Steve Martin in The Jerk.  I am originally from NY where my family still resides.   

I have also lived in RI, CO, AZ, NC and now OR.  I have spent a good part of my adult life moving around this country either via my truck, feet or bicycle.  

My life now is less nomadic since I bought a house in Portland where I wile away days working as little as possible as an Emergency Dept RN (Before you say anything, the answer is "No, it is not exciting", after 7 years it is a career like any other, just one with more blood and occasionally "Your life does depend on it".) and tending to my yard, chickens and home brewing. 




I have spent short stints out of the country including trekking in Peru, studying Espanol in Guatemala and eurotrashing with my mate Leigh, but nothing to the breath of our upcoming adventure.



Two years ago I crossed the US on the Northern Tier cycling route.  64 days, 3940 miles, 4 tires, 3 long e-books (I recommend the Count of Montecristo, quite the yarn), countless exceptionally gracious Warm Showers hosts and one pair of riding shorts (yes, really!) I finished the journey.

Cut to today...I live with my wonderful partner, Chiara Maltese (aka The Italian Bull in the China Shop) and her two cats...I am a dog guy.  About one year ago we decided that we wanted to take some time away from PDX to clear our collective heads and get some perspective on our lives.  Day to day we are quite content and always tell each other how lucky and happy we are (100% the truth), but it is amazing how things can be taken for granted.  We knew it was time to get lost in foreign lands but not until we took a hard look at options were we sure that cycling in Asia was going to be our charge.  Through living and working in the NW we have met people from all over the Asian continent and the depth and breath of the cultures seems boundless. 

Well that catches you up to where we find ourselves...a few weeks out from an amazing journey with too much to do and a single minded focus to make this dream a reality!