Today I rode my motorcycle to Midway, Utah, paid $3.00 for parking, and then walked to Midway’s Main Street just in time to witness the Swiss Days Parade. I took photos during the parade and afterward walked around the area where hundreds of booths had been set up and people were selling all different kinds of arts and crafts. While there were plenty of Swiss flags hanging throughout the grounds of the Swiss Days festivities, I was unable to find even a single person who spoke German. What I did find, however, were thousands and thousands of Mormons. The booths that seemed to be doing the most business were the ones selling Mormon paintings and plaques. In addition to the art and craft booths there was also live music and lots of food – none of which seemed to be particularly Austrian, German or Swiss. The event as a whole was fun, but after having lived and traveled through German speaking Europe, I was hoping for a more authentic Swiss experience.

Exclusive Excursions is a local tour company located in my hometown of Park City, Utah. Yesterday I had the great pleasure of joining the tour leader, Jeff Manwaring, and five of his customers on a short 15-mile bike trip from downtown Park City to the town of Wanship in the north. The entire tour took place on the historic Union Pacific Rail Trail and lasted just a few hours. While the cyclists in the group rode their bikes, I followed along and took photos. These photos will be used in the full-blown review of the trip that I am writing for my website at www.bicycletouringpro.com. You can view my photos from the Exclusive Excursions Rail Trail Bike Tour over on my Flickr account.

This winter I am planning to leave my home in Park City, Utah and travel to South America. But in order for me to do that, I need to rent out my condo.

My beautiful 1-bedroom, 1-bath condo is located in the picturesque ski town of Park City, Utah. Park City is where the 2002 Olympics were held, where the Sundance Film Festival takes place each January, and is the home to three of America’s best ski resorts. The city also has more than 300 miles of hiking and biking trails, is the host to more than 300 annual concerts, and is a great place to live, work and play.

As much as I love Park City, I want to spend this coming winter in South America. But before I go, I need to find someone to rent my apartment.

The apartment is perfect for 1-2 people, is super inexpensive, and it has everything in it you will need for your stay.

If you or someone you know might be interested in renting my condo for 6-12 months starting on or around November 1st, 2010, please get in touch with me. I am flexible on the dates, so just let me know what would work best for you. For more information and additional photos of my Park City condo, please see this page.

Today  I finished a short, two-day hike that took me approximately 30 miles across the mountainous ridge-line of Park City, Utah. Starting on the north side of Park City in a community called “Pinebrook” I began my 3,000 foot climb to the south. Eventually reaching the top of The Canyons ski resort, I hiked for two days along the top of the mountain range – with Park City on my left and Salt Lake City on my right. I spent the night camped out at an elevation of 10,000 feet in an area somewhere between The Canyons and Park City Mountain Resort. Then today, I hiked a bit further along the ridge-line (toward Deer Valley) before walking down and exciting in downtown Park City. Photos from the hike can be seen by visiting my Flickr account.

I’ve just returned from an 11-day trip to the state of Missouri. I stayed with my friend Josh Miller and together we planned to cycle across the state on the famous Katy Trail. Unfortunately, it rained almost every day I was in the state and we only completed about half of the trail. Not cycling the entire length of the trail, however, meant that we had more time to do other things such as: playing disc golf, visiting numerous state parks, exploring nearby cities, working on our web businesses, and a whole lot more.

To see some pictures from the trip, check out my Katy Trail photo set on Flickr.com.

It’s official. I’ve completed my 9th and longest bicycle tour to date.

On December 30th, 2008 I flew into Zurich, Switzerland and began what I can only describe as one of the most life-altering events of my entire life. For the next 254 days I traveled about Europe with my bicycle in tow and passed through 16 different countries. I met people along the way, took in the sights, learned a few languages (the basics at least) and had an absolute blast.

I documented much of the trip at BicycleTouringPro.com and uploaded photos from the entire journey to Flickr.com.

Now that the trip is over and I am back home in the United States I am only more confident that there will indeed be a 10th long distance bike tour in my future.

If you’ve been following along as I slowly made my way through Switzerland, Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, I thank you.

Thank you for being a part of my adventure and supporting me along the way!

Every month Bike Friday sends out an email to their customer list profiling one of the people riding their bicycles. The August 2009 issue of Bike Friday’s “Travel Story Of The Month” featured me, Darren Alff, and my little red folding bike on our 9-month trip through central and eastern Europe.

The piece consists of a long testimonial I wrote for the company about how my Bike Friday New World Tourist has saved me time and time again when traveling on boats and trains in Europe. Additionally, I talk about how the little red folding bike has been able to handle some incredibly rough/diverse terrain and how, while I had never planned on taking the bike on such an extended trip, it has performed far better than I ever expected it to.

To read my feature Bike Friday article, just click here.

While cycling through Montenegro, I was interviewed by Rick Owens, the director of a web based TV show about bicycling called “CycleNow“. Rick and I connected via Skype and sat down for a few minutes to talk about my  adventures in Europe and beyond.

During the interview Rick asked me:

• How did you first get started with bicycle touring?
• What made you want to come to Europe for such an extended period of time?
• How do you finance your travels?
• Do you worry about your safety when traveling in remote places such as Albania and Kosovo?
• Plus… a whole lot more!

Both parts of the CycleNow interview have been published and are now available for online viewing. To watch, head on over to http://www.cyclenow.us/?p=78

This month I flew to Las Vegas, Nevada for the 2008 Interbike Expo - the largest bicycle related trade show in the Western Hemisphere.

Working with CycleAware Inc, I did my best to share my knowledge of mirrors and bicycle safety with hundreds of industry professionals. In addition, I covered the Urban Legend Fashion Show and videotaped Lance Armstrong participating in a surprise cyclo-cross race.

This summer I spent 1.5 months cycling around Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. During the middle of my tour, I stopped to stay with a German family living about an hour away from the city of Hannover in Northern Germany. The area newspaper came to interview me about my experiences in Europe and to ask about my impressions of Germany.

Click here to view the full article (it is in German)