I leave for my bike tour in five days. The trip is starting to feel truly real. Butterflies have migrated to my stomach.
I just bought trip insurance through World Nomads. It was recommended through a bike touring Facebook group. Considering that cycling isn’t the safest of activities anywhere, I figured it was a good idea.
But thinking about it also made the trip very real. Buying that insurance forced me to think about being seriously injured or killed on the trip. Then I sent the insurance documents to my mom, so I had to think about how things might affect her.
I don’t want to be morbid as I prepare for this trip, but I do want to be realistic. Things happen everywhere. A friend was recently assaulted and mugged while riding on the Pinellas Trail in St. Pete. A man I met in Wageningen in the Netherlands was hit by a car while riding. The Netherlands are one of the safest places to ride!
Better safe than sorry. Better to have it and not need it than vice versa.
Aside from insurance, I’m doing other grown-uppy things in preparation for the trip: Cleaning my apartment, ordering the last few things I forgot to get, making a list and checking twice, getting the bike 100% before I tear it apart and put it in the bike box, (procrastinating).
Less than a week. I’m excited and nervous.