So, everybody, I'm fine. I'd write personally to you guys about it, but I can't access my e-mail account on this library's computer. Okay, point of order, I'm covering the events of the past three days out of order. Today, we must have been chased by dogs for a total of, mmmm, about 3000 miles. Seriously, Louisiana, I love you guys, but build a fence or something. Jeeze. All in all, our tactics for dealing with this frightening annoyance have been early detection and avoidance.
I think my smell is affecting the 10 year old on the next compuer's attention. I smell like bleach, but I'm really dirty, how odd.
Anyway, back to brass tacks. We've made three repairs since leaving new rhodes, two of which were somewhat suprising, although not unanticipated, and one of which neither, but did turn out to be a pain in the ass. If I didn't like fixing bikes, this trip would be miserable.
Repair A: lost bolt on front rack
We pulled off the road to discuss a missed turn(not an important one) and ended up stuck in a ditch waiting for a thunderstorm to pass. These circumstances, though I'd like to never find myself in them again, however unlikely that is, would in some ways fortunate. Mainly because it was after I'd turned my bike over to get the bags on it into the shelter of an oak tree/crazy thick brush that I noticed my front rack was loose. At the time, I was pissed. A little bit later, riding to our campsite in Semmesport, I realized that if we hadn't been held up, the rack could have fallen off mid-ride and brought with it a MAJOR bummer, such as injury, to myself or the bike. Thanks rain.
Repair b: flat tire
nothing out of the ordinary here. just a flat.
Repair c: Broken spoke
Not mine. It was julia's. Here'a nothing moment of good fortune. had the mechanic we went to see with uncle marty not been so unscrupulous as to sell me the "incorrect" freewheel tool, I wouldn't have been able to fix this spoke. Also, if Uncle Marty hadn't pointed out how stubborn I was being about using a piece of bike chain to hold the freewheel in place to remove the locknut on my old wheel and brought me to his mechanic friend who used a strap wrench to serve that purpose, Julia and I might not have fgured out that we could use one of my luggage straps as a strap-wrench. Thanks bike guy, thanks uncle marty.
That's it for now. Thanks for tuning in.
Next week: Dome Sweet Dome, a post about our new home life, in a tent.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
NOLA
I'm never leaving. Not really. Not in the long run, not in a year or two when I'm here again, maybe for a longer time and maybe for a shorter. Asheville has a vortex, it actively prevents you from leaving. Pursues you, arrests you, sedates you into staying longer than you ever thought you would. Asheville is the town that I've always just left, thinking I'll never come back. New Orleans and I part on good terms, like accomplices in a robbery, or international penpals who only see each other once a decade.
We've staying at my friend Ariel's house. It's an apartment in a house her dad built when he was a young man. Her dad is a genius, and the apartment is incredible. It's like living inside of an armoire. She has a big back yard and a garden and banana trees growing along the property line. And every inch of space outside and in is used wisely and makes me feels as if some great healing force is lifting me up from the soles of my feet. That said, Julia and I are really grateful for Ariel and Simon's hospitality the past few days. They get the awesome postcards, I'll tell you that much.
The first thing we did was go to the Tree, which is this massive, seven-hundred or so year old live oak that grows in Audubon park by the zoo. I walked up one of the branches and made an offering to the Tree in the bowl that props out of the trunk at its top. Usually, you can find remains of sage and glitter and tiny pieces of mirror around this bowl, but this time, it was totally clean, except for a few leaves. While the recent thunderstorm could explain this absense, some other phenomena, most notably a large spiked wire that hung from the top of the tree across one of the places one has to climb through to get from the outer branches to the inner, made me think that maybe someone is trying to discourage people from climbing up it. Better luck next time, spikey wire thingy.
The next day we did the all the good tourist stuff, and a little extra. Notably, I stopped in to Esoterika, and gawked and the variety and quality of books they had that I wanted. Oh well, whenever I finally build my library... We probably could use another week or two here to do the city any justice, but getting on with the tour right now seems like the best thing to do.
I guess in the end, I won't say goodbye to New Orleans, because I don't want to REALLY mean it, so much as I want to say Hello to it forever. Oh well, until that time...
We've staying at my friend Ariel's house. It's an apartment in a house her dad built when he was a young man. Her dad is a genius, and the apartment is incredible. It's like living inside of an armoire. She has a big back yard and a garden and banana trees growing along the property line. And every inch of space outside and in is used wisely and makes me feels as if some great healing force is lifting me up from the soles of my feet. That said, Julia and I are really grateful for Ariel and Simon's hospitality the past few days. They get the awesome postcards, I'll tell you that much.
The first thing we did was go to the Tree, which is this massive, seven-hundred or so year old live oak that grows in Audubon park by the zoo. I walked up one of the branches and made an offering to the Tree in the bowl that props out of the trunk at its top. Usually, you can find remains of sage and glitter and tiny pieces of mirror around this bowl, but this time, it was totally clean, except for a few leaves. While the recent thunderstorm could explain this absense, some other phenomena, most notably a large spiked wire that hung from the top of the tree across one of the places one has to climb through to get from the outer branches to the inner, made me think that maybe someone is trying to discourage people from climbing up it. Better luck next time, spikey wire thingy.
The next day we did the all the good tourist stuff, and a little extra. Notably, I stopped in to Esoterika, and gawked and the variety and quality of books they had that I wanted. Oh well, whenever I finally build my library... We probably could use another week or two here to do the city any justice, but getting on with the tour right now seems like the best thing to do.
I guess in the end, I won't say goodbye to New Orleans, because I don't want to REALLY mean it, so much as I want to say Hello to it forever. Oh well, until that time...
New Orleans
As we were leaving the hostel in Asheville, I found this beautiful flower that I'd totally missed all the other times we'd walked up the driveway. Thanks Asheville! Two days later, while staying at Dave's friend Ariel's house in New Orleans, I was flipping through a plant book she has and found out that it's called Passion Vine.
We're still in New Orleans, at Ariel's house. This will be our last night, though. Tomorrow Dave's Mom will drive us up to Baton Rouge, and a few days later we'll start biking. New Orleans has been fun. We went to the Tree, walked downtown, got overpriced beer on Bourbon Street, got coffee au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde, rode a streetcar, and ate boiled crawfish. You know, the essentials.
I'm getting anxious to get on the road, though. We've been talking about it and getting ready for so long. The longer I wait to get going, the less real it feels. Also, New Orleans is ridiculously hot and makes my stomach hurt. But I'm still glad we got to come here.
Monday, August 11, 2008
pre-trip: Stasheville and the drawbacks of KY
So we'd been in Kentucky for about two days, and I'd put the finishing touches on my home-made(ish) pannier bags(pics to come) when I broke my F***ing bike.
It all started a few weeks ago. I told Julia, "I have this new chain, but my old one is working so well that I kind of don't want to switch them out, you know, don't mess with a good thing" I guess I should have followed my intuition there, because, on the first twenty foot ride con los nuevo chain, it slipped off the flywheel, running into and slicing through the outside spokes and getting wedged in the rear hub. It's not completely catastrophic. Given the right time and tools, I can fix it in an hour or two for under twenty dollars. but I'll probably let the LBS here in Asheville deal with it, that's if they think they can get it done in a single day. if they can't, I'm walking from the hostel down to the recyclery to do it myself.
Anyways, things are good. I'm catching up with some people here in Asheville and hopefully getting some of my stuff back from my old landlord who, and this is not to say anything against him, because he's a great guy, hasn't returned my call.
We'll be leaving for LA early tomorrow morning and probably arriving in Baton Rouge late in the evening tommorrow or the afternoon of the next day, depending on whether we need to stop and camp on the way down.
We started an audiobook by Amy Tan called saving fish from drowning. it's really good and should get us through alot of the driving.
Well I'm starting to ramble, but to all of my Asheville people, it's been great to see you guys again. It's also been too short a visit and it didn't come soon enough after the last one.
Adios.
It all started a few weeks ago. I told Julia, "I have this new chain, but my old one is working so well that I kind of don't want to switch them out, you know, don't mess with a good thing" I guess I should have followed my intuition there, because, on the first twenty foot ride con los nuevo chain, it slipped off the flywheel, running into and slicing through the outside spokes and getting wedged in the rear hub. It's not completely catastrophic. Given the right time and tools, I can fix it in an hour or two for under twenty dollars. but I'll probably let the LBS here in Asheville deal with it, that's if they think they can get it done in a single day. if they can't, I'm walking from the hostel down to the recyclery to do it myself.
Anyways, things are good. I'm catching up with some people here in Asheville and hopefully getting some of my stuff back from my old landlord who, and this is not to say anything against him, because he's a great guy, hasn't returned my call.
We'll be leaving for LA early tomorrow morning and probably arriving in Baton Rouge late in the evening tommorrow or the afternoon of the next day, depending on whether we need to stop and camp on the way down.
We started an audiobook by Amy Tan called saving fish from drowning. it's really good and should get us through alot of the driving.
Well I'm starting to ramble, but to all of my Asheville people, it's been great to see you guys again. It's also been too short a visit and it didn't come soon enough after the last one.
Adios.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Countdown to the bike trip: 17 days
It's getting close now. David and I will be leaving Rochester on August 6th. We'll drive down to Baton Rouge with stops in Kentucky, Asheville, and New Orleans along the way.I only have one more day off before the 6th, so I'm frantically trying to tie up all the odds and ends. First on the agenda, preparing our food boxes. My mom has agreed to ship us boxes of food and supplies along the way. Each box has 30 days worth of dehydrated meals, 56 Clif bars, coffee, teas, toilet paper, and other random goodies.
We bought our dehydrated food over the internet. We got about 16 different kinds of vegetables, 6 different beans, and 5 kinds of tvp pseudo-meats. They came in big gallon-size jars. It took us 6 hours to divide it all up into meals.
Next task, putting together the first aid kit.
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