Warming up...

No, I'm not talking about the weather. That has already warmed up! I hope it's finished warming up, actually. My pale, German body type can't take much more heat unless the humidity drops about 30 percent!

I was thinking about the Hilly Hundred on my ride in this morning. Not really the riding part so much as the rest stops. Last year I basically rode the whole thing on my own, only really riding with people when our paces synced up for 300 feet or so, then one of us would drop off or pass, and go our own ways. While you're never really "alone" out there with 5000 cyclists on the route, you don't always connect with every one. A passing hello, or in my case, a "Do you have a chain tool I can use?" becomes the conversation you have with people.

I did get to ride with and chat with an author/middle school teacher from California, who has ridden and written all over the world. His name was John Boettner, author of Hey Mom, Can I Ride My By Across America? We chatted for maybe a mile, about his travels, getting kids on bikes at a young age, and the fenders on my Surly Long Haul Trucker. He was quite fond of them, and expressed his frustrations with the skinny tired "racing" bike he'd been given to ride for the weekend.

I didn't really connect with anyone else on the ride, though, even though I knew a few people there. The place is just so big, and unless you camp near someone, you may go the entire weekend and not see them. Luckily, I was able to find a few friends and have dinner and hang out after the riding was over.

This year, though, I want to make the most of it. I want to make sure I find my friends and ride some miles with them. I want to spend more time at the rest areas. I think last year, being my first year, I was just worried about finishing the miles - which meant I kept my head down and passed a lot. It also meant I didn't really rest at the rest stops, which ultimately cost me all of the interactions that should happen on a bike tour. While there are advantages to being in the front pack - mainly that there will be food left at the rest areas toward the end of the day, there are certainly things that you miss out. This year I want to find that happy mix of going fast, and still slowing down enough to meet people and talk to friends. That's what it should be all about anyway!

So if you're going to the Hilly this year, I'll see you there (and I mean it!).

A good little French secret...

Image from the Opinel website (Opinel.com)
I'm going to let you in on a little secret I just discovered. Some of you may already know about this, but if not, it's a good one.

If you are interested in cheap, but excellent quality knives, you should certainly check out Opinel. They have been making knives since 1817, and the knives they sell today are pretty much of the same design and craftsmanship that they started with.

I stumbled across them in Maine, while wandering aimlessly around a sporting goods store on a rainy day. It was $16 (cheapest in the case), had a wooden handled, and said "Opinel France" on the blade. I peered at it through the glass for a while, waiting to see if I could snag someone to open the case for me to have a look, but no one came. So, I decided it wasn't meant to be and left.

When I got back to the Maine house that night, I got online to see what this "Opinel" company was all about. How could those knives be so cheap? Surely, I thought, they must be junk.

Lo and behold if they didn't receive amazing reviews for their durability, elegant design, usefulness, and most of all their value. I found a US retailer - www.bensbackwoods.com, who stocks several of the sizes. I ordered a couple of stainless No. 8 "spear" shaped knives from him. I wanted one for myself, to toss in my bike bag, and one for my dad for father's day. I figured anyone can always use another knife, especially a stainless one that won't break the bank if you lose it. They arrived a few days later, and are everything I expected them to be, and more.

They have a unique locking blade, in which you twist the barrel next to the blade. It is hard to describe, but it is very simple and effective. No springs! It locks both open and closed. They are light, but very balanced. The handle is wood, so if you search enough online you will find scores of "modified" handles that people have decorated or changed the shape to make even more useful. It is pretty good right out of the box, though, I think.

Check out these knives! Here are some links:

Opinel Official Site: http://www.opinel.com/www-accueil-83-UK.html

Ben's Backwoods (an excellent site for gear, and a great guy to work with): http://www.bensbackwoods.com/servlet/Categories?category=Knives:Opinel

...and while at Ben's, go ahead and order yourself a Frosts Mora knife, too. Another unbeatable value in a fixed blade, do anything you ask it to knife: http://www.bensbackwoods.com/servlet/Categories?category=Knives:MORA+of+SWEDEN

Frosts website: http://www.frosts.se/index_2_uk.html

Reflecting on Vacation

Well, here I sit. Back in my very drab cubical after 10 days of travel, eating lunch and thinking about the trip. Why is it always harder to get your head back into work after a vacation? Aren't we supposed to sort of enjoy what we do? Shouldn't we want to come back at some point?

It's not even that my job isn't challenging, or even sometimes bordering on fun. I think it's probably 85% simply the fact that I cannot stand to be in my little cubical - away from all signs of life, color, and creativity. Its florescent lights, gray fabric, gray desktop, gray computer, and gray shelves are just depressing on even the most upbeat days. Add in a long night or some very manual boring tasks, and you might as well just hang me. Is it wrong of me to long for a job that has the benefits my family needs to survive (pay and health benefits), but gives me the kind of stimulation I need (like fresh air and physical activity).

Decisions I made many years ago have now come to roost, bringing with them the good and the bad. At this point, in this economy, I am happy to be where I am...trust me. But in a few years if the economy is back on its feet...by gawd they'll need some pretty stout chains to keep me anchored. We are tackling our finances to get a little more "free" of debt, and simplifying everything we can. Things will change. They have to.

Getting out of here for 10 days to Maine was awesome, though. The weather up there was fantastic, even if it did rain for more than half the time we were there. The first 2 days were absolutely fantastic sunny days, and the last 2 days were basically the same. The days in the middle - well, we just made the most of it. I spent a lot of time just working around the house. I stacked a big pile of wood, cleaned out a kayak, blew the cobwebs off an old bike, explored the new trails across the road, and sat on the dock with the girls while they practiced fishing and looked for jelly fish.

I saw mosquitoes as big as humming birds. I got up early and got the fire and coffee going in the house to warm things up. I sat and breathed in the salty pine-scented air. I tried not to "want" anything. I read a little book about ghosts on the Maine coast. I wondered what it must have been like to be a sea captain in the days when that profession was the quickest way to get rich, if you survived long enough.

Then I packed up my bags, and we all came home again. Back to Indiana. Humid, flat, gray Indiana. I'm trying to get back into it...but I tell you, it's hard.

Route Planning - 2010 Bike Tour

In the last couple of weeks, it has started to become appearent to me that I am just not going to be able to take as long of a trip as I had thought I would next year.  I just don't think it will be a good idea to use all of my PTO time from work on this trip, and not be able to take a sick day, or even help out if the girls both get sick and Lauren needs a break or something.  So, I have decided to trim down my tour to a week and a half - which will probably only take about 5 days, but I want to have some time to spend in Friendship, Maine, with everyone up there.

So, in looking at the Northern Tier, I think I will tackle section 11, from Ticonderoga, NY, to Bar Harbor, ME (406 mi.).  From Bar Harbor, I will pedal back into Friendship, adding another 100 or so miles.  I can always cut the trip short and go straight to Friendship on the way to Bar Harbor if I need to.

I think it will still be a great tour, and will be a good solid week on the bike.  Not bad for a first time solo tour.  I will just have to plan now how to get my bike to New York, and then how to get it home from Maine.  If anyone has any ideas or experience with this, please feel free to send me some ideas!

The new old bikes

I think I mentioned it a while ago, but Jason, my buddy, gave me his old, trusty Giant mountain bike this winter.  I wanted to get it ready, so it could become my commuter bike once the weather broke.  All it needed were some transplanted fenders, a good washing and wipe down, lubing, and new cranks and chain.  I also transplanted the rack, which I am not really using this year because I have switched back to using a messenger-style bag to haul my stuff.  The panniers are great for camping and touring, but not for going to work when I need to lock up and run in for a shower before running upstairs to start work.  It just takes too long to take the panniers on and off, and then I have to distrubute stuff between two of them, making leaving one with what I need in the locker room a bigger problem.  Last year I learned a lot!

So, here are some photos of the Giant that I commute on, and the new old Schwinn World Sport that I found yesterday.  I spent some time this morning and this afternoon while everyone was sleeping taking some components off and cleaning it a little.  In this photo, it is a poor boy's single speed, using a borrowed wheel I had in the basement because the rear freewheel that came on it was locked tight from rust.

A good day cycling.....

...always ends with a new bike!

So today I went out for my first ride on the Surly Long Haul Trucker - my long distance/touring bike.  At about 11 miles, I was riding along thinking about getting home and relaxing in the back yard for a while, when out of the corner of my eye I saw a big trash can with a bike sitting behind it.  It was kind of leaning agaist a fence, and you could only see the back wheel behind the trashcan.  After a quick look back and to check for traffic, I swung back over to have a closer look.

What I found behind the trashcan was a black Schwinn World Sport - lugged steel frame 12 speed.  It was rusty, but only the gears and chain and spokes.  The frame was not rusty, and the cranks are nice aluminum Sugino 3 peice cranks.  It has pretty nice Suntour and Shimano components, too.

So, after a quick inspection, I contemplated how I could haul it home with the 'Trucker.  Not wanting to scratch the Surly, I decided to get home double quick, hijack Lauren's van, and go back to see if I was lucky enough for it to still be there.

And that is what I did.  I rode the last 5 miles home, quickly hang the Trucker on its hooks, jumped in the van, and took off.  Lo and behold, when I got back, it was still there.  I think the fact that it is was hidden from car traffic which would be moveing to fast to make it out, really saved it for me.  I think it was probably there since trash day, which would have probably been Thursday or Friday.

So, the plan is to strip off the derailers and throw away the old chain.  It has a nice aluminum front rim, but the back is steel and rusty, but I have an aluminum rear rim set up for a fixed gear that I am going to put on it.  So, it will be fixed.  I am going to upgrade the components on my Batavus with these, since they are so much nicer than the borrowed Schwinn components it is currently sporting.

Pictures will come of the build as I go through it.  Certainly an "as found" photo will be posted as soon as I have a chance to go take one.

That is what I call a good ride!

Wanderlust

It happens every year. Each year worse than the previous, brought on by too many hours spent in a gray cubical, staring at a computer screen.

Wanderlust - a strong desire for or impulse to wander.

This year I have a couple of little trips planned, just weekend trips with 1 week in Maine in just a few weeks. Next year, though, I plan to tackle the first of hopefully many extended bike tours. I will pick up the Adventure Cycling Association's Northern Tier route in Cleveland, and bike to it's Eastern terminus in Bar Harbor, Maine.

The route follows Lake Erie through New York and Pennsylvania, and then through the mountains in upstate New York and Maine. It looks like a beauty.

So, I need to talk my manager into giving me 3 weeks off next year. Once I have that, I can start planning this winter with the hope of leaving around this time next year. My hope is that Lauren and the girls can drive me and my gear up to Cleveland to see me off, and visit with her family for a week or so, then head up to Maine to meet me at the house there. I'll either ship the bike home and fly back, or ride back if there is a car there.

If anyone reading this is interested in this type of trip, you have about a year to plan! It's roughly 1000 miles, and I'm planning 3 weeks so there will be time for zero (rest) days, and to account for any days that mileage (60 miles/day average) aren't met for whatever reason.