“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist. That is all.”

Daydreams. We all have them, especially when you are bored or stressed after a long week at the office, and all you can think about is a day of fresh powder or a plane ticket to a far off land. Us cyclists daydream too, and though they may seem a little mundane to most, for us, they are equally important.

-A kitchen. A kitchen with pots and pans. A kitchen with a stove (that is not a petrol powered backpacking stove) and an oven! Just think of all the cakes, brownies, and meals (which aren’t soggy noddles) that could be prepared with a real, working, kitchen! Seriously, it is something all of us cyclists daydream about constantly, even those of us who don’t necessarily enjoy cooking.

-Pesto. Chocolate. Cheese cake. Salmon. Cheese. Though the items change for everyone, all of us cyclists miss our favorite foods from back home. I can’t tell you how many times we have sat around discussing just how much we would enjoy having one of these special foods magically appear in front of us.

(For Christmas my Swiss cyclists friends had their Swiss family visit and bring real cheese and chocolate, and I swear us cyclists were on the verge of tears (of happiness) eating these delicacies.)

-A dewless world. Seriously, there is nothing more frustrating than having to pack up a wet tent every single morning because, like always, the dew got the better of you during the night. Is a dewless world really too much to ask for?!

-Clean clothes! No matter how often your wash the clothes you cycle in, they are permanently stained with dirt and sweat. Pretty quickly you just give up even pretending to keep them clean, but boy would it be nice to have a properly cleaned shirt every once and a while.

-A world without visas. Don’t even get me started on this one. The pain, the paperwork, the money, the frustration, the bribes, and the absolute mess of it all. I think if us world tourers could hold an election, it would be a unanimous vote for the abolishment of visas.