82times

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2009-04-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

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Blog moved a little

2009-04-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hi. 82times.blogspot.com will no longer be updated.

Blog will be located at 82times.com.

Go there instead of here.

Philadelphia, Jersey Shore, NYC, finish line

2008-09-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

The trip is over. I rode a total of 4,765 miles this summer in a great zig-zagging arc across the United States.

There's more to say about Philadelphia and arriving at the shore (both of which were inspiring moments), but I'll say it all later. I'm in New York for a couple of days and I've shipped the bicycle back to California already. From here I'm headed to Boston by bus for two nights, and then to Champaign, IL by plane and will be there for about a week. Friends, I'll be back in California the weekend of the 20th; let's celebrate.

WV, MD, PA

2008-09-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I limped out of West Virginia with a cracked rear rim (screaming down foggy, rainy, steep descents), and got a new wheel in Cumberland, MD in the midst what was one of the most intense weeks of climbing I've had all summer. The mountains out west are taller, but the climbs are nowhere near as steep as they are throughout the Appalachians. The C&O Towpath was too muddy to use, so I took the Old National Pike one of the first grand east-west highways in the nation, which is now mostly empty because of the interstate highway system (paralleling I-68 and I-70 through western Maryland). More huge climbs. I'm not the first cross-country cyclist to think this, I'm sure, but I underestimated West Virginia and western Maryland. Pennsylvania I'm sure will have lots of ups and downs between here and Philadelphia.

I rode through Hagerstown and onto Frederick, MD and had a great visit with my cousin Eric and his wife Alex. Yesterday afternoon, I rode into Pennsylvania to catch up with an old friend. Today, on through York and toward Lancaster mostly using one of Pennsylvania's signed cross-state bike routes about which I've read mixed reviews (route information link - I'll be on route S across the southern tier of the state).

I'm fast approaching the end of this long trip. I'll stay in Philadelphia through the weekend and then plan on riding through the pine barrens of New Jersey, up the Jersey shore, and then taking the 35 minute ferry from Atlantic Highlands (at the very northeast tip of the Jersey shore) to Manhattan. I'll likely ship the bike home from somewhere close to the ferry terminal to simplify things in New York City. A couple of days there and then I'm homeward-bound, either on planes or trains--I haven't decided yet. So far, I've ridden somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,500 miles.

Crazy ride down the mountain

2008-08-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

The road was wet, the fog was thick, the coal trucks were in a hurry,
and the grade was steep; but I survived and now I'm having lunch at
the Chat 'n Chew on the Maryland side of US 220.

I'm 20-some miles out from Cumberland and a bike shop which can help
me diagnose and/or doctor up this back rim of mine. I'm also hoping
for the best.

What's wrong with this picture?

2008-08-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's me putting my finger through a giant hole in the sidewall
of my rear tire. And, yes, I'm in the creepiest motel room in all of
West Virginia. $24.58 after tax.

I rode through a 10 mile sliver of Maryland this afternoon and the
difference between the two states based on road conditions and first
impressions is serious. Tomorrow, I'm gladly headed for Maryland again.

I've mounted my spare tire, but this drama may not be
over. ...grumble, grumble...beat-up rim from that rough trailriding a
few days ago...the rim may be a little...cracked...let's all hope for
the best at least until I can get somewhere with a bike shop...in
Maryland.

Now that's a switchback

2008-08-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

The traffic on US 50 died down significantly a few miles east of
Fellowsville (the sign for which had been vandalized to read
"Cranksville") and then the real climbing began. So far, I've had two
mountains to get over, each of which having 9% climbs for 3 miles up.
It's beautiful up here.

From here I'm aiming toward Frederick, MD to visit some family before
heading into PA and Philadelphia.

Tunnels of West Virginia

2008-08-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

For most of the way between the Ohio River and Clarksburg, WV I used
the 72-mile North Bend rail trail which includes 9 dark, damp, echo-
filled, spooky tunnels. People have often asked me on this trip if I
get scared out there all by myself. Up until now I always said no
without a second thought. Those tunnels, though, were scarey. Some are
as short as 300 feet, but at least 3 of them were longer than 1000
feet, one nearly a half-mile long. Some had a couple inches of water
through long stretches, some had a couple inches of mud I tromped my
way through. I had to dismount and walk through many of them, and
there were a couple occasions when I couldn't see the light at either
end from the dark, dark middle. I bought fresh batteries for my
headlight at the only store in Cairo after the first tunnel.

The western half of the trail is in pretty good shape, but things get
rougher in the east. If I were to do it again, I don't think I'd use
the whole trail without some knobby tires. I was fine, but it was
rough riding in sections.

Yesterday, the rain (and the hills...and the narrow roads with coal
trucks) slowed things down for me and I only made it 32 miles to
Grafton. Today (through more rain), I'll hit the far western Maryland
state line and may end up in West Virginia again. West Virginia is the
only state which is entirely within a mountain range. I'm not seeing
any high peaks in this part of the state, but the terrain is rugged
and the ups and downs are steep and unrelenting.

Athens being the exception

2008-08-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

I had a real nice visit with some old friends (Dan, Amy, and little
Elise) who I've known from both Austin and Silicon Valley. Athens (in
southeast Ohio, at the edge of Appalachia) is a university town with
more granola eating citizenry than gun-toting folks, a big contrast
compared to the rest of the Ohio I pedaled through.

Ohio was hard

2008-08-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

Ohio, though its roads were infinitely better than those of
neighboring Michigan, was hard on me. Nowhere in the United States
have I been honked at and cursed out as much as in Ohio.

Headlines to go

2008-08-20T06:58:00.000-07:00

This newspaper is from a few days ago, picked up in Dodgeville,
Wisconsin, but the headline is one worth remembering. I've seen great
signs of things to come for cylists who use their bikes for
transportation. The separate infrastructure in Madison made a strong
impression on me. The Southwest Commuter Path in that city rides like
a legit bicycle freeway, with onramps and exists, a stripe down the
middle to keep traffic organized, and hundreds of cyclists enjoying
their ride to and from work, school, errands, etc. I was told it even
gets plow service in the winter--amazing. The exit ramps have real
street signs making it easy to navigate. Planners: if cycling
infrastructure is built to help people do things they already need to
do, it will be used.

Majestic Plaza Tuesday Morning

2008-08-20T06:00:00.001-07:00

Strip malls under grey skies on Tuesday morning headed out of East
Lansing toward Ann Arbor. As you can see, the camera wouldn't even
work right, which was an apt fit for my low spirits. Michigan has not
been easy.

This morning in Ann Arbor, though, things look decidedly rosier.
Special thanks to Lynn and family for a comfortable night in the
executive suite guestroom of their home; and to Kayo for riding with
me into town from Dexter on what has definitely been the prettiest
part of my Michigan transversal.

On that note, I can't forget to thank Dee in Cobb, WI, Rachael in
Madison, and Leigh & Kris in Grand Rapids, MI. Since entering these
populated areas of the eastern Midwest, I've stayed with some families
from warmshowers.org, a website with the specific purpose of arranging
hosts for cyclists on long journeys.

Farewell, Wisconsin

2008-08-19T09:25:00.001-07:00

Wisconsin was a blur, and Michigan's turning out to be the same
(though trickier to navigate). Robin met me in Milwaukee for a couple
of days off in that surprisingly beautiful city. There's plenty to
say, but I'll spend the time saying it at a later date. The photo here
is from the ferry across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee, WI to Muskegon,
MI.

Checking in and road names

2008-08-12T19:36:00.000-07:00

Ah, the roadside payphone. A lot of towns in the west no longer even
have one; or they do and there's no longer service to it. Tonight's
payphone in Cobb, WI worked like a charm with my calling card so I
could check in with my sweetie from afar as cell service is very
spotty here.

My ride today was gorgeous, 63 miles on an alphabet of smooth, hilly,
trafficless county roads: C, S, M, G, and Q. The Wisconsin naming
convention is nice--rather than "X16" or "A52" like Iowa county roads,
the simple letters in Wisconsin are actually used by the locals when
giving directions. In other states, paved county roads often have two
names, like "Middle Calmar Road" (which locals recognize) and
"W38" (which is printed on maps and no one has ever heard of). You can
probably see how the Wisconsin version makes understanding where you
are a lot easier for a traveling cyclist.

Riding again

2008-08-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my first day back on the bike after two weeks split
between Decorah, IA, Champaign, IL, and Chicago spending good time
with family and helping Robin get settled into her new library science
grad school home. I rode yesterday 56 miles to Prairie du Chien, WI,
crossing the Mississippi for the last time on my great zig-zagging arc
across America.

My folks came to meet me for breakfast here in Prairie, and that was a
nice final send-off. It'll take me a few days to really get back up to
speed again, but I think I'll be flying fast once I step off the ferry
on the other side of Lake Michigan.

The ride yesterday was beautiful, passing through Luana, Monona, and
Marquette among other places (a veritable afternoon mail route, which
you'll understand if you're family to me or close enough) before
crossing the great river. I even saw a yellow cropdusting airplane on
the old Forest Mills road, which was a first for me.

The Plan, revised

2008-08-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

One week off in Decorah, Iowa - completed.

One week off in Champaign, Illinois - in progress.

This weekend I'll make my way back to Decorah mostly by train to begin the eastward cycling trip again where I left off 12 days ago. This map explains the gist of what is to come.

View Larger Map

First, I'll ride through the great state of Wisconsin and take a ferry across Lake Michigan; then, I head south and east one way or another toward Athens, in southern Ohio; on from there to the DC area; up through Philadelphia and then to New York. The route on this map is just a general idea. Very few of the actual details (as usual) have been worked out.

I've decided on New York as my "at least that far" destination.

Iowa arrival and intermission

2008-07-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

I rode 125 miles through very hilly terrain to arrive in my hometown of Decorah, Iowa Friday evening and the last two days have been the busiest I've seen all summer. I have a lot of family to catch up with, plus Nordic Fest was in full swing upon my arrival. Attached here is a photo from the Winnesheik County Democrats parade float that I thought was awfully clever.

After the lefse, varme pølse, krumkakke, and søt suppe; the waltzes, polkas, two-steps, and schottisches; the parade, performances, and fireworks, the town of Decorah began to quiet down again. Yesterday in neighboring Postville, though, a crowd of at least 1000 gathered for a prayer service, march, and rally for immigration policy reform. I attended to show my support for the families that have been torn apart by what was the largest immigration raid in the history of our country two months ago. The New York Times has covered the demonstration.

Munger Trail and river bluffs

2008-07-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

The trip south from Duluth started with 63 miles of beautiful paved
bike path, the Willard Munger Trail. After lingering over a big meal
at The Buffalo House (a dozen miles into the trail) I made it to
Finlayson, riding in the dark until 11 PM. I generally don't ride
after dark, but thought I'd give it a try since I was on separate
cycling infrastructure with smooth asphalt. Those 2 hours in the dark
were exhillerating but quite spooky. In the deepest wooded stretches,
I half-thought a troll would snag my leg while a crossed over one of
the many old bridges. The fireflies and quiet were worth the effort.

The next day, I began cutting my way over to the St. Croix River,
which is the state line between Minnesota and Wisconsin north of its
confluence with the Mississippi. I ended up in Taylors Falls, MN and
ate what was arguably the fanciest meal of the whole summer. Four chef-
selected courses, each paired with its own wine. I won't go into all
the details, but the desert was a peach blueberry cobbler with a scoop
of homemade seasalt vanilla ice cream, which was amazing.

Today was a fun ride. I'm thinking of starting a petition to rename
these river bluffs the Saint Croix Mountains. I had a nice lunch in
Stillwater, MN with Dave, an interesting man who is involved with some
really unique cycling events in this area which I'll describe more in
a post next week. Art in the bike shop across the river in Hudson, WI
set me up with a beautiful set of maps for the next leg of my trip.

For tonight, I'm tenting near the north edge of Lake Pepin. I can hear
raindrops tapping my walls which should cool down this warm and sticky
night. Tomorrow, I hope to have a huge day and make it all the way to
Decorah, IA where my whole family is waiting. This may take two days,
though, as biking a century-plus on the humid roller-coaster roads
here seems like it should be hard. Something I've learned on this
trip, though, is that the hard parts are hard, and that's just fine.

Long ships of coal and iron

2008-07-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

I took a harbor cruise on Lake Superior yesterday afternoon and saw 1000-foot ships hauling the same coal I passed by in the Powder River valley near Gillette in Wyoming. I had wondered where all those hundreds of heaping train cars were headed, and here in Duluth was my answer. The largest of the ships are bound to the Great Lakes and cannot go out to sea. This one was going to carry massive tonnage of coal to a power plant in Detroit.

Some ships carry taconite, a low-grade iron ore that's pulled from the ground in the iron range of northern Minnesota. Others load leftovers from North Dakota sugar beet processing in pellet form, taking it to Europe and North Africa to be used as livestock feed. From the water, I could see a blue rock salt candy mountain, laying in wait for use on icy winter highways. I saw great piles of stone and ore of different shades from light limestone to coal black.

Today, I head south on the Willard Munger State Trail, which starts with 63 miles of paved bicycling infrastructure. Over the next four days, I'll ride through 4 states: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.

Across Minnesota to Duluth

2008-07-21T14:32:00.001-07:00

On my way across Minnesota, I met many nights' worth of generous and hospitable people. Special thanks to Gary and family near the smaller of the two lakes named Tamarack; Linda, Janey, Teresa, Wolfie, and the whole Iron Horse crew in Nevis; Lauren & Mary at the campground on the other side of Grand Rapids; and Davey & Midge at the Econolodge in Hermantown. Obviously, I'm leaving out a lot of details and mini-adventures here. Minnesota from west to east really flew by.

The photo here is another important part of bicycle touring logistics. Often, I'll wash out the day's clothes in a campground sink and hang them to dry atop my rolled-up sleeping bag during the day, secured with a bungee cord. This is serviceable, but finding an honest-to-goodness laundromat is worth my laundry's weight in quarters.

I've taken yesterday and today off in Duluth to rest up for the big push into northeast Iowa, where I'll have nearly a week off the bike to spend time with family where I grew up. Now I'm off to take a little tourist harbor cruise in Lake Superior and I think have a look around a railroad museum. Duluth was and still is a big shipping city and I hope to get a feel for how that came to be. Also, I'm still holding my breath for an Alan Sparhawk & Mimi Parker sighting, as I've long been a huge fan of the Duluth-native band Low.

Fargo jet set

2008-07-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Fargo was such a nice city that I took two days out of the saddle to
relax and explore a little. There's a vibrant downtown area spilling
off of Broadway with excellent food (try Hodo), interesting
storefronts (walk into Sign & Symbol for an interesting conversation),
and hip urban coffee shops (Atomic Coffee, where the fashionable Fargo
youth intermingle with rotund retired farmers, sweet old ladies
reading inspirational books, and the work-from-wifi para-cubicle set).
Oh, and seeing a movie in the restored art deco movie house downtown
is worth an evening, too.

The photo here is from the Plains Art Museum which has a vibrant
regional collection as well as world class travelling exhibits. Most
interesting to me was the Walter Piehl painting. Never before had I
seen Western Americana themes (i.e., rodeo) depicted in a legitimately
contemporary style. Tight, reworked draughtsmanship overlayed by
expressive abstracted colors capturing the jolting movements of
bullriding. Kind of a more figurative Diebenkorn, if Diebenkorn would
have spent his time in Wyoming rather than California.

Fargo is on the list of places to go back to.

Thus far and the plan

2008-07-15T15:54:00.001-07:00

I've ridden more than 2500 miles so far since leaving San Jose six weeks ago. I'm taking two days off in Fargo, the biggest city I've been through since leaving the bay area. From here, the plan is to ride across Minnesota to Duluth, a small city on the shores of Lake Superior that I've always wanted to visit. After that, I'll ride 300 miles south through Wisconsin to my hometown of Decorah, IA just in time for Nordic Fest; then onto Urbana-Champaign, IL; and then Athens, OH. The route from Fargo to Athens looks something like this:

View Larger Map

The exact route is still to be determined as I go. The section between Decorah and Urbana may or may not be on a bicycle, and after Athens, my options are open again. One option I'm thinking about is to ride across Pennsylvania to Philadelphia (a former home of mine), then across the pine barrens of New Jersey, up the Jersey shore followed by a ferry into Manhattan. After that I could even ride the length of Long Island and take some ferries to Rhode Island and possibly ride through Wareham, MA (another town I've lived in) and then up to Boston. I'm really getting into speculation here, though. True destination beyond Athens, OH: unknown.

Any road heading east

2008-07-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

I made some serious progress across North Dakota due to some heavy
winds straight out of the west. The winds were so strong that I
altered my plans more than once. Basically, the only possible
direction of travel was east. After camping near Lake Sakakawea at Van
Hook, I planned to head for Minot and take a day of rest. The route
was simple: 50 miles east, 16 miles north. Well, the first part was
easy, I coasted at 20 mph for most of that. When it came time to hang
a left on US 83, though, the North Dakota wind told me firmly that I
wasn't going that way. I tried, but with gusts up to 50 mph, it was
impossible to keep that loaded bike on the road. So, east it was, by
any means necessary.

ND Hwy 23 came to an end eventually, though, and I had three choices:
north, south, or straight across on some eastbound prairie trail
pictured here. This is one of the more manicured sections, but some of
that 5 miles was a pretty wild ride. I feel like I tested the off-road
limits of the Champagne Trucker that day.

All told, 126 miles on Friday and 100 miles Saturday puts me in
Cooperstown, where a street dance happened last night. The loud rock
cover band was well received and the pork sandwiches were excellent.

Dramatic North Dakota Landscape

2008-07-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

I certainly wasn't expecting this kind of scenery on Wednesday, but
there I was headed north through the Killdeer Mountains and crossing
the Little Missouri River. Up and down and up again, over and over in
the 95 degree heat.

After the climbing was done, I was at Lake Sakakawea, a manmade lake
formed by damming up a section of the Missouri River. At this point, I
was cruising right along the Lewis & Clark trail.

Oh, blessed campground shower

2008-07-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

I passed by some beautiful scenery today, but did ride 115 miles to
Killdeer (that is, I didn't stop to take too many photos); hence, here
is a photo of a glorious part of my bicycle tour experience: the
campground shower.

The wind blew every direction today, sometimes with me and sometimes
against me. The strongest winds, though, always come off those heavy-
loaded trucks related in some way to this latest incarnation of the
Western Dakota oil boom. Tonight after dinner I talked to some
hardworking drillers, electricians, truckers, you name it, who are
getting in as many long shifts as they can while the gettin's good.
They say there's more oil here in the Dakotas than anywhere else in
the US (including what's untapped in Alaska), but you just never know
how long these busy times will last.

Black Hills and Grasslands

2008-07-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

I made it to Spearfish late Saturday night and took Sunday off with
the family of a friend. It was so dark that I finally had opportunity
to test out my contrived headlight sytem. It was great night riding
because I could smell that good smell of fresh cut hay and I saw my
first glimpse of fireflies in more than one summer.

The Black Hills are host to a much more dramatic set of geological
features than I had anticipated. Interstate travellers: hop off I-90
and drive up Spearfish Canyon for really superb natural beauty. My
host Chris took for me a drive through the canyon, past a now fallow
longstanding gold mine, and on into Deadwood, with its historic main
street where Wild Bill was shot down and casinos draw busloads of
folks willing to make a donation to the local economy for a shot at a
little or not-so-little jackpot. Thanks again to D'Anna and Chris for
all the hospitality.

Monday morning, it was north on US 85 into the wind. It may be hard to
imagine, but I was nearly ecstatic to be riding into a stiff,
relentless headwind through long rolling rangeland and the sweet smell
of alfalfa. I did make it 90 miles all the way to Buffalo, population
380 and county seat for Harding County. My maternal grandmother's
parents actually honesteaded west of Buffalo near Camp Crook and
Capitol, MT.

At press time, I'm sitting underneath the welcome sign for North
Dakota, and already today I've had someone point out a handful of
Fretheim names in the local phone book. I can hear the soft whistling
two-note tune of an oil derrek in the middle distance.

The mountains have given way to the hills

2008-07-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hills that go up and down and up again are mentally tougher than a big
mountain pass for me, and it'll be hills I bet for another few days
until I get to the northern tier of North Dakota.

For the moment, I think I'm finally on one of the major cross-country
bicycling routes, as I've met a few others and seen even more from a
distance. Among them have been Ross and Josh (http://gordthegreat.blogspot.com

) who were having a great adventure riding from Seattle to their home
state of New York.

Today I hope to finish up with Wyoming and enter South Dakota. The
scenery yesterday consisted of hay fields and coal mines on hill after
hill after hill. Towns on the map of the forgotten section of Wyoming
I passed through yesterday were only a bar/restaurant/post office
combination with signs in the window reading "Spotted Horse,
Population 2, Elevation 4026."

Ucross on the 3rd of July

2008-07-04T04:23:00.000-07:00

Look up the Ucross Foundation and you'll see where I spent most of
yesterday. There were a couple thousand people, a great band I need to
find out the name of (who played such crowd-pleasers as "Trailer Park
Fire," "All Night Chicken Trucker," and "Mama Was a Roughneck"), good
food sold by the Buffalo FFA, and an impressive half-hour fireworks
display to cap the evening. Pretty good for Ucross, population 24.

The photo here is pretty tame. As the night built up steam, the grass
before the stage tent had probably 200
People dancing with great enthusiasm. My question is where did those
hay farmers learn to twirl their partners like that?

The Foundation is an artist residency program that hosts visual
artists, writers, and performing artists, and the town got its name
from the original ranch (whose symbol was, you guessed it, the letter
U combined with a cross). The cottonwood trees were absolutely snowing
down fluffy stuff all day long.

Ducking out of the rain for a spell

2008-07-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

I only made it [downhill] 50 miles from my big family get-together before another day off. I'm glad I checked the weather forecast before camping out last night--there was thunder and lightning, 70 mph winds and power outages, all of which were much more pleasant from inside my motel room than they would have been from inside my tent. There have been more predicted storms for this afternoon and evening so I've been enjoying downtown Sheridan and have booked one more night to stay indoors. Tomorrow--east on US 14 toward Gillette through what I've been warned is pretty remote country.

The big success story so far today: I had my right-front pannier repaired at King's Saddlery here in downtown Sheridan. A rivet had popped loose and was replaced with a short bolt by the original owner of the bags. This was structurally sound, but would tear apart a plum or loose apple I would happen to put inside. The nice folks there fixed it for me in 2 minutes flat free of charge. So, if you're in need of rope, spurs, a saddle, or things of that ilk, I can heartily endorse King's.

First leg complete; with the family now

2008-06-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

I made it to my aunt and uncle's cabin near Burgess Junction Saturday in the afternoon and will be here for a few days, happily disconnected from cell service. I have some pretty limited time with the net right now and need to focus on my route up to North Dakota and across it so this post will be quick.

Granite Pass (9000') was long, but not too difficult. Shell Canyon at the beginning of that climb was gorgeous, and if you're ever down that way, be sure to have a meal at Dirty Annie's before you start the ascent.

When I arrived at the cabin, there were 18 relatives there waiting at the gate to meet me--a pretty exciting moment I'd been pedaling somewhere in the range of 1700 miles to get to. Attached is a photo of my dad and I sitting on the old jeep seat at Riley's Point. We've been 4-wheeling, hiking, and trout fishing, eating and laughing together, and my laundry is all hanging on the line to dry. As my host and uncle Stan put it, it's great to be around my folks when they're 1000 miles away from home, in a beautiful setting just enjoying themselves. Being together in a place like this encourages people to talk about things they haven't talked about in years and really remember the great parts about being family. I'm learning a lot this long great weekend about people I thought I already knew by heart.

Flying along

2008-06-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

111 miles yesterday to Cody and 86 today, the last 10 of which have
been steady switchback climbing. Plus, I'm only halfway up this climb
to Granite Pass (9300'), which will be my highest yet.

Yesterday I really had to blow past a lot of incredible things in
Yellowstone, but this family get-together in Burgess Junction is a
much more unique opportunity. I basically entered at the south gate,
hooked around West Thumb Lake, and shot out the east entrance. Old
Faithful was not involved. I'm definitely going back to Yellowstone,
but would like to time my exploration to a quieter time in the park.

The ups and downs over the last two days have been wild. I was above
8000' at some points in Yellowstone, down to 3800' in Greybul for a
root beer float this afternoon, and tomorrow mid-morning I'll hit that
9300' pass.

Tearing through Yellowstone

2008-06-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

From Jackson through the Tetons and on into the South Entrance of
Yellowstone yesterday. Of course, I didn't leave Jackson until the
afternoon, but I still put on 71 miles before (well, sort of) dark. I
camped at beautiful Lewis Lake Campground, which, of course, was
closed--probably because there was still too much snow on the ground.
I camped at my first "this site reserved for hikers and bicyclists"
campsite, which made me smile. A bit of rain around 1 AM woke me up
quick to put on the rain fly (I swear I had a sky full of stars at 11
when I fell asleep...), amidst an otherwise peaceful night.

Due to some...less than helpful terrain recommendations ("yup, it's
pretty much flat from here") I didn't get to camp until late. Just
after the sun went down, I crested a 6-mile climb and found myself all
alone with a big bison on the narrow, no shoulder road. He was
trotting along the same direction as me in the right hand lane. Afraid
of spooking him, I swung wide into the left lane and slowed way down.
As I passed him, he turned his long head, from horns to that big
grandpa beard they seem to have, looked at me and huffed lightly. I was
amazed, and decided it was most wise to skip out on the photo op just
this time.

I also got to test out my new binoculars to spot a female grizzly bear
lumbering along from mid distance.

Today I'm shooting for Cody, which will put me at an ambitious 110
miles for the day. I'm optimistic, but we'll just have to see as the
day goes on.

On through Yellowstone after a good day's rest

2008-06-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it over Teton Pass without trouble Monday afternoon and spent all of yesterday relaxing and running some errands here in Jackson, Wyoming (bug spray, toothpaste, and sunscreen all needed replenishing). I'm very lucky to have Katie (a native of Jackson, pictured here) as a longtime friend. Getting to spend time with her and the rest of her family was such a treat. Just think--a real bed in a real home and a real home-cooked meal. Thanks especially to Betsy for the French toast, Hugh for the talks about routes and roads, busy Andrew for our quick morning chats, and Katie for our good catch-up talks and help with everything around town (and for taking me out to Teton Thai, a very fun restaurant I recommend to anyone in Jackson for a warm evening).

Now I'm ready to go the 280 miles from here to Burgess Junction to meet up with a whole slew of family from Iowa who will be there this weekend. This week is going to be 3 big days of riding followed by a few days off.

I did find a good pair of compact 8 X 25 binoculars while I was in town and look forward to using them on today's ride through Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Because of the family reunion and the timing of everything, I'll pretty much have to cruise on through these places without too much exploring. Luckily, at 12 mph, I don't miss much of my surroundings. I've never been through here before, and I'm definitely coming back to this area to linger in the future. Like many of the places I've passed through thus far, my experience reads like an invitation to come back.

A quick note about my photos on flickr: I think lots of things are out of order and there may be duplicates, etc. That'll probably be that way until I get to my hometown of Decorah in Iowa and have some solid time to "relax" in front of a computer. If you're interested in flipping through what's there, click the photo in the slideshow on the right side of this page and browse around.

Yesterday marks 3 weeks on the road and I believe that during today's ride I'll hit a cumulative total of 1500 miles. I'm getting pretty excited to meet up with family Friday evening and will likely stay there through Monday or Tuesday nestled in the Bighorn Mountains. It will be great to have enough time out of the saddle to do a good chunk of hiking, catching up with family (at least a dozen folks will be there, I imagine, including my parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, one of my brothers along with his wife and kids), and some genuine loving-care bicycle maintenance. Oh yes, I will have that drive train sparkling silver and may even true the wheels up a little.

Final night in Idaho

2008-06-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

The photo here is from breakfast this morning. I'm keeping this short
as tomorrow is a big day and I need my rest: 80 miles to my day out of
the saddle in Jackson and Teton Pass is between here and there. I
think the road goes up to 8700 feet...something like that, which will
be my biggest summit yet.

Rodeo Serendipity

2008-06-21T23:07:00.000-07:00

Today started out as a real challenge. Uphill and into the wind for 8
miles to another 7000-something foot summit. There was an Idaho DOT
weather station at the top and those aenenometer cups were spinning
like mad.

After cresting, it was a mostly smooth 30 miles into Mackay
(pronounced MACK-ee) where I happened upon the tail end of a town
parade and after a little asking around discovered that there was a
rodeo later in the afternoon. That settled that and I headed to the
Miner Hill Grill to grab a hot sandwich while the rodeo got set up.

FYI--they serve fry sauce in Idaho. ...and here I thought that was a
phenomenon exclusive to Utah.

I saw calf roping, barrel racing, whatever-you-call-it-when-they-ride-
those-bucking-horses, team roping, and bullriding.

I ended up stopping for the night in Arco, which was the first town in
America to be powered by nuclear energy. Their summer festival is
Atomic Days, which is next month. My legs had more miles in them, but
between here and Idaho Falls is 60-some miles of desert with no
services save a highway rest stop that one out of three locals polled
claims has drinking water. Heading strait east in the morning I
shouldn't have trouble getting through there but I really didn't feel
like attempting it today after all that rodeo business.

This whole trip through the great west I'm becoming more and more
interested in birds--what they find to eat, what they're saying to
each other, which activities are cooperative and which ones are just
every bird for themself. I think I might hunt a little for some
binoculars in Jackson when I get there (hopefully Monday).

Also: any birders who've been messing with the iPhone SDK, let's make
something really good...collaborate with the Audubon Society...the
whole deal. I think there's a really fantastic mobile application
waiting to be developed there...search for colors and characteristics
based on geolocation, add your own date/location/photos to a species
record. Someone will develop this application, I just have a suspicion
that it won't be of the highest quality because there likely wouldn't
be substantive financial reward as motivation.

Camping out

2008-06-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

Stanley was so beautiful and relaxed that I (of course) didn't leave
until well after noon. The late start didn't slow me down along the
very pretty winding road that followed the Salmon River 57 miles to
Challis. I was even spinning my big chainring for a good chunk of
time--something I really rarely do with a touring load. After stopping
there for dinner, I rode another 20 miles southeast of town along US
93 en route to Arco.

So here I am, camped out in nowhere, Idaho and there's some howling in
the distance. The overnight low's supposed to be somewhere in the mild
low 40s. I can hear a car pass by every few minutes but have situated
myself so as not to see them. I generally don't like to camp where I'm
not able to let someone know where I am (mostly to avoid anyone
thinking that I'm somehow trying to be sneaky) but there's really no
one to check with in these parts.

Ok, so the howling sounded like a coyote, sure, but these other
sounds...they are indecypherable to me. Probably some insane bird that
hopefully likes to sleep when I do. The photo here is the view from
inside my tent.

Bluegrass, hot springs, Sawtooth Range

2008-06-20T09:05:00.000-07:00

The fiddle contest and festival in Weiser was so much fun. Many thanks
to my Oregon desert friends Bob, Tim, and Lori for convincing me to
head on up there. The contest is one thing, judged and orderly inside
the high school. The fiddlers range through all ages from 9 to 90 I'd
imagine, and I heard one 9-year-old girl play a waltz prettier than
anything I'd heard in a good long while.

The rest of the fest is a disorderly confluence of fiddles, banjos,
mandolins, and guitars, huddled around tents and RVs who've come from
all over the west. The event's been happening since the 1950s and a
lot of folks come back year after year to get together with ILS
friends to play impromptu oldtime, bluegrass, or Texas swing in the
main camping field or off in Stickerville (so named for the goatheads
and stickers that used to end up on everybody's shoes). Thanks very
much to my new friends Barry and Jen for showing me around and
introducing me to Tim, champion fiddler John, farmer Ed with the huge
voice and so many others.

The next day, after unwittingly staying up till 2 in the morning
sitting around jam sessions, I pedaled 94 miles to camp at some hot
springs east of Garden Valley, ID, which really was a good reason to
linger through yesterday morning. I sat in a natural hot tub, so to
speak, overlooking the Payette River rushing down below. A lot of
rafting trips head through here and there were some serious looking
rapids that I'd imagine only the most daring river rats would attempt.

Yesterday, I climbed and climbed (and climbed) up to the 7200 foot
Banner Summit and here I sit in a nice little coffee place in the
little resort/hunting/rafting town of Stanley. The Sawtooth Mountains,
pictured here, are gorgeous. Today I'll be riding through them along
the Salmon River.

120 miles through the desert; day of rest

2008-06-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

Like I said in my previous post, it was 120 miles through the desert to Burns, OR and I'm happy to say I made it. When I got to the town of Valley Falls (consisting of one closed-down store, 3 houses, and 2 RVs) I was lucky to see the man who runs Oregon Desert Brine Shrimp outside his shed who let me fill up my water bottles before heading out into the most remote country I've seen yet. I didn't catch his name, but he lives in Portland most of the year but comes out to Lake Abert (an alkali lake, like the Great Salt Lake in Utah) every summer for the last 25+ years and scoops out brine shrimp while sitting in a small raft, takes them back to his shed to bag them up, and spends the rest of the year marketing and selling the wares. A really interesting guy with a really interesting way of making a living--inspiring. If you browse through my flickr page and think "who's the guy with those big trays of reddish-brown stuff?" --that's him. If you ever see this, thanks, friend, for the water.

The first 50 miles were beautiful. There's a rim of rock rising 2000 feet straight out of the ground along Lake Abert for miles, and the bird life is incredible for how harsh the terrain is. Giant boulders line the roadside and there's no traffic. There's a wayside rest area with a drinking fountain and a picknick table maybe 15 miles after the lake where I met up with three kind souls who offered me a fresh carrot and some wild Davis, CA plums on their way to the fiddle festival in Weiser, OR. I'm hoping to go a little out of my way on Tuesday or Wednesday to end up there and maybe meet up with them among the throngs of oldtime musicians.

The second 50 miles were brutal. FYI for any cyclists heading through: at press time, the store in Wagontire is no more, so bring and extra extra bottle to fill up at that wayside station. Also, Alkali Lake Station is just a highway maintainence yard, not a town.

Once I got to Riley, I still had 26 miles to go for Burns, but was able to fill up (and drink, and fill up again) my bottles and have a snack at the store there. Riley, as I learned, is a store and an RV. That's all.

In Burns, I took all of Sunday off for some good walking around ("Obsidian Days" which turned out to just be a travelling sales event for the rock hunter/RV set), napping, mapping, and mechanical maintainence. I feel ready to hit the road in the morning on Monday.

Oh! Good news. My friend DJ had time to upload the shots from my official pre-trip "photo shoot." Here's a photo and a link to the rest.

My body's in great riding shape now and after today's rest I'm ready to really start rolling down the road. For my family who'll be in Sheridan, WY at the end of the month, I ought to make it there just in time. Thanks to all my friends and family who've commented or emailed or SMS'd or called while I'm travelling. It's always nice to hear from familiar voices.

Oregon!

2008-06-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

That Bieber Motel was a great place to stay. The dinner I had in that
town ( at Moe's Pizza) was great, as was the breakfast at Kathy's the
next morning.

Thursday, I rode the 54 miles to Alturas and stayed in another $40
motel--I'm getting soft, I know. My rationalle, while sucking down a
peanut butter chocolate shake at The Munchbox, was that the 300 miles
of southeastern Oregon I was about to enter is pretty remote, and I
oughtta be around people while I can.

Friday, when I finally got on the road around 12:30 (after one more
Munchbox peanut butter chocolate shake, I absolutely flew down the
road. I'm camped out now in Oregon, about 20 miles north of Lakeview.

Just before crossing the border, I stopped into a wild plum winery and
tried some samples while talking with the owner. I ended up taking a
jar of wild plum jam along with me which I'm thinking is going to make
a nice breakfast.

Mmph, there are lots of other stories, and I'm noting that my
"writing" is a little bland. This one-thumbed typing is tiresome.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm going big and banking on some more winds from
the south. I'd like to get all the way to Burns, some 120 miles away,
though I'd settle for...um...anywhere with dinner. If you look at
Highway 395 on an Oregon map you'll see that there's not much out here
in the way of towns or services.

Down from the mountain

2008-06-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'm in hay and alfalfa country after a good 70 miles out of
Lassen Park. There's a motel here in Bieber (just north of Nubieber)
that charges $40.75 per night tax included. There's free coffee here
so as far as I'm concerned I'm making money on the deal.

Tomorrow I'll near the Oregon border after getting through Alturus

Lassen peaks

2008-06-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at noon I was at an elevation of about 200 feet in Chico.
Today around 6 pm I was starting my descent from 8500 feet, the
highest point along the Lassen Park Road.

At the top, there were frozen lakes and snowfields. The way down was
so cold I had wool socks on over my gloves and wore a kind of
wrestler's mask under my helmet. Frank and Nicole, I feel like you
gave me that mask thing for my birthday...well, it's coming in handy
against all odds.

Big thanks to Alex & family at the summit today for filling my water
bottles--I made it to Lake Manzania.

Ahh, PB&J under a flashlight, what a nice bedtime snack.

Late start, beautiful finish

2008-06-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

The photo here was taken along the Deer Creek Trail in Lassen National
Forest. Hats off to the local USFS for maintaining a really nice
trail, with frequent numbered (yet unobtrusive) signposts.

I didn't get rolling out of Chico until around noon yesterday, and had
to climb out of the valley for, I kid you not, about 18 miles
straight. Good riding, though, as the grades were all reasonable.

Last night was the first time I've slung my food up in a tree in case
of bears, and miraculously I was succesful without too many "antics"
which would have only been funny years in the future. I didn't get it
all that high up, so probably only the most curteous bear would have
passed it by; still, I'm glad I did so because I believe it would be
difficult for a hungry bear to show many manners at all had my food
been with me inside my tent.

Today I'll be passing through Lassen Volcanic National Park, which I
hear has quite a dramatic landscape. I may not ride too far if it
needs more exploration.

Big hills, rice fields, sprint cars, the biggest pork chop

2008-06-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

Starting out in the hills west of Williams, I packed up my gear and rode the 22 miles to town on minimal breakfast and water. Hungry, I rolled into Williams about 10 minutes before the annual town parade was to be held. On I pedaled through main street, the unassuming pre-parade curiosity. All the littlest kids on the curb and oldest citizens in lawn chairs seemed to think I was fun to see while everyone at ages in between looked mostly bewildered. I didn't stick around for the rest of the parade.

Next, in Colusa, I headed north on CA 45, straight into the brisk north wind, which incidentally was headed the opposite direction as my research had indicated would be seasonally appropriate for the area. This was alright, it just meant I'd be going 12 mph rather than 20 like I was expecting.

A fiasco of a flat tire incident in front of the Glenn post office, replete with a barking dog, ants crawling into all my panniers, and noisy wind that made it hard to find the holes to patch in my tubes. Oh, did I mention that the first spare tube I tried to use EXPLODED and sounded like a gunshot? ...a first for me.

...and that was just the back wheel. The front tire had a slow leak in it, too, which I've yet to find.

Wind and those tire problems made my day's goal of Chico mostly unattainable. Plus, I was low on food (again, foolishly) and a little...frustrated. It was 7 PM and I still had at least 20 miles to go. Lo and behold, miles from nowhere, there was a sign that read "Hoppy's River Glenn Bar and Grill." I pulled into what turned out to be a very small trailer park thinking I'd grab a quick burger and fries and get back on the road, fortified with bar food.

When I sat down at a table, though, I noticed there were nice cloth napkins and the menu had maybe half a dozen entres listed, all coming with a fixed menu 5 course routine. Soup of the day, the salad with homemade dressing, a SORBET course (remember, we're in a trailer park in the middle of rice fields and almond orchards), the main course, and then homemade desert. I ordered the famous pork chops, which were easily bigger than my head. One of these things was the biggest hunk of pork chop I'd ever seen (and I'm from Iowa, mind you) and there were TWO of them. Delicious, classy meal.

It had gotten late and I was running out of daylight so I inquired about a safe place to camp. The waitress (Jessie, the owner's granddaughter) let me know that I could camp right there in the park or they'd even let me sleep in an otherwise unoccupied travel trailer that was next door. Sue, the cook, was awfully kind and hooked up both the water and electricity for me that night in the trailer and I had a great night's sleep.

In the morning, I planned to leave early, but Bill Hopkins, the owner (and former dirt track late model/modified/sprint car driver...a lot like my dad back in Iowa) ordered me inside the restaraunt for coffee. Within 10 minutes, Bill's regular crew of 8 farmers and locals showed up drink coffee, have a quick chat, and roll dice to see who'd buy the coffee for the morning. All this took place on a Sunday morning at 7:15. Now, the place isn't open to the public for breakfast--these are just the old regulars that Bill puts on a pot of coffee for each day.

If you're EVER in the Chico area and are looking for a giant delicious meal, head down to River Glenn. Looks from the outside can be deceiving as this place is high class, gastronomically speaking.

After coffee and good conversation with Bill, George, and Richard, I took off for Chico on the Ord Ferry Road, about 3 miles north of River Glenn on Hwy 45. Bill and his dog Ben reminded me quite a bit of my dad Emory and his dog Jake, inseparable and loyal. Bill did take my card to keep in contact, but wouldn't take my money for the morning's coffee.

20 miles to Chico, and I made it just in time to be welcomed into the Chico Quaker Friends meeting by Peter and Emily, which was a nice way to start my first offical "day off" during this summer-long vacation. After that, I ate a giant breakfast at Jack's Restaurant, which was secretly paid for by a kind couple I talked to about my trip while there. Then I checked into the Thunderbird Lodge downtown, had my first shower in 4 days, and relaxed, spending much of the late afternoon at Empire Coffee, a cool little place that is a converted train car where they serve good espresso and have good music.

Today, I'm off to a late start headed toward Lassen Volcanic National Park and some big climbing to get there. I've been told the pass is at an elevation very high; I shudder to even mention that number now.

Cooling down my rims

2008-06-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

Friday's riding was mostly fantastic. After waking up early, making
the best cup of coffee I think I've ever tasted, and scribbling myself
out some directions for the day, I headed back out on the River Road
toward Calistoga. After a couple of miles I stoppped to put on some
sunscreen and here comes Paul, a local teacher I'd met two days
earlier. He was on a bicycle in Sausalito, but this time he was
driving a car. Between him and Francios (an intrepid bike commuter who
saw us talking), we came up with an alternate route that would get me
off the main rush-hour roads.

Paul & Francios, that route was beautiful, btw. Chalk Hill was very
pretty and very quiet. Ida Claiton was a hard climb for 4 miles up,
but the miles at the top were incredibly rewarding.
The photo here is from my descent of that road, which was steep and
had about 3 miles of rutted-out washboard gravel. I stopped here to
let my rims cool down just in case. I think I saw 3 cars the entire 12-
mile length of that pass.

The main highway headed north to Clearlake wasn't much to speak of,
but once I started heading east on 20, it was gorgeous, starting out
with about 4 miles of fast descending with sweeping views of the
central valley to come.

There isn't really anything on this road for miles and miles, so I'm
camped in some kind of public land along some kind of horse trail.

Thanks to 83-year-old Ron for the water, V8, poppy seed muffin, and
that sweet tomato a few miles before sundown. Ron is a California
original, a self-described "prunepicker."

It's morning now. When I get to Williams in about 18 miles I plan on
finding the biggest breakfast and cup of coffee that exist.

Tonight, I oughtta be in Chico without too much trouble. Supposedly,
headed north along the Sacremento River, the wind will be working in
my favor for a change.

The most welcome sign

2008-06-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

The photo here was the sign I was waiting for all day. I knew my first
few days would be difficult, going against prevailing winds, but I
didn't expect it to be this hard. Hard, hard day. Going to see the
Pacific again was a dumb, dumb idea. Route 116 here was the road
leading away from the coast along the Russian River, the river I'm
camped next to tonight, somewhere east of Forestville.

Tomorrow is finally a northeasterly trajectory, ending up who knows
where. Now I need to study up on my maps.

Also, I swear to god the guy next to me at this dumpy campground was
listening to Kid Rock earlier.

Windy!

2008-06-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

I knew today would be hard, but never thought I'd have to attack San
Francisco's Great Highway bandit-style like this. The headwinds were
so strong, and I was pummelled with sand blowing off of the iceplant-
choked dunes.

Heading over the GG bridge into Marin, I really had no clue how to get
where I wanted to go, despite many great maps provided by the Pacifica
tourist information storefront. Luckily, in Mill Valley, I met up
with Bruce, a rugged bicycle commuter, who showed me the way as far as
his place in Fairfax. Then it was up and over some mountain via Sir
Francis Drake Road all the way to Olema, where I'm camped tonight.

Friendly campground neighbors gave me an extra ear of roasted corn
which really hit the spot.

66 miles today.

First night - Half Moon Bay

2008-06-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

Starting from Japantown in San Jose, I pedaled 55 miles over the mountains and back down again to the beach. Robin met me here to camp together for the first night.

The redwoods were beautiful and thick. My descent down the misty mountain was gorgeous, but on a very rutty road called Tunitas Creek, where this photo of the Champagne Trucker was taken.

I'm letting go...of making this blog do everything I want

2008-06-03T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I've made the transition from buggy buggy Wordpress 2.5 (hosted flawlessly by pioneercreative.com) to Google-hosted Blogger. The post-by-email function here works, but the problem is that all themes are ugly. I think I'll just change it all the time.

82times.com redirects here. Blogger will host your stuff and use your own domain name, but I certainly couldn't get it figured out and have let go of that idea until the fall. I am at peace with this business.

flickr stuff oughtta work alright.

This gabcast thing...is supposed to post to this blog automatically when I call in and make a recording. It may or may not actually do that, so here's the link to listen to them:

And the feed to subscribe.

...and, I never got around to putting together a real map for the first leg of the trip, but here's the first draft version that has had many alterations but you get the gist. If you're going to be near this path in June, please be ready to wave at me, speeding by at a breakneck pace of 13 mph.

View Larger Map

test post

2008-06-01T22:43:00.000-07:00

testing the blog by email function...with a picture

Tiny Applescript: toggle iChat status

2008-05-15T22:34:00.001-07:00

This script toggles your iChat status between (away, "totally walking around") and (available, [whatever you had as your available status before]). It even works with Current iTunes Song(!).

If your status is available, then it writes your status message to a hidden file (.temp_iChat_status) in your preferences folder and changes your status to away and your status message to "totally walking around". Conversely, if your status is away, it reads whatever's in that temp file and sets it as your status message and makes you available.

Attach this to a keystroke trigger (via Quicksilver or the like) and life is grand.

Here's the script. And there you go. Here's a unicorn from Eeyore's Birthday in Austin.

Today I pulled this from the trash for you

2008-04-21T16:48:00.001-07:00

Tiny AppleScript: play iTunes video in QuickTime

2008-04-16T20:53:00.001-07:00

I really dislike viewing videos in iTunes. It's clunky, there's no support for multiple displays, I'm picky.

I wrote this little script to open and play the selected item in QuickTime, increase its played count by 1 (which marks podcasts as played in iTunes), and pause any music you might be listening to.

tell application "iTunes"
set theTrack to item 1 of selection
set theFile to (get location of theTrack)
set theCount to get (played count of theTrack)
set played count of theTrack to theCount + 1
end tell
tell application "iTunes"
if player state is playing then
playpause
end if
end tell
tell application "QuickTime Player"
open theFile
activate
play document 1
end tell

Ahh, that's better. I set this up with a Quicksilver trigger and am no longer grouchy. Ever. Download the script. For some reason, the playpause (or play, or stop, or anything else I tried) wouldn't work if I put all of the iTunes stuff in one tell block...so that's why there're two of them.

Tiny AppleScript: add current track to playlist

2008-03-10T17:40:00.001-07:00

Three lines, real simple:

tell application "iTunes"
duplicate current track to playlist "srsly partytime"
end tell

And then you can create a Quicksilver trigger to run the script; so, anytime you hear something and think "yo, that's my JAM" you don't have to leave the keyboard to make sure it gets in the rotation for your upcoming birthday party. A couple of tracks that should be on there right now:

Crystal Castles - "Crimewave"

Foals - "Olympic Airways"

Bike Friday is on order

2007-10-11T03:17:00.001-07:00

http://www.bikefriday.com

It will be canary yellow and I splurged for the Brooks leather bar tape to match the honey brown saddle. This could be the start of a product evangelism crusade for me as it is for many Bike Friday owners.

I'm also planning on heading up to the factory in Eugene, OR on the first of November to pick up my bike, meet the folks who built it, and do some day rides/light touring in the area (I'm thinking maybe a 3-day loop to the coast, over to Portland, and then back to Eugene and then ride Amtrak back home).

not my Bike Friday. imagine this one in yellow with leather accents...

If I haven't already gushed to you about it, Bike Friday custom-builds high-end folding/travel bicycles. The coolest part may be the travel case they sell for it which checks as standard luggage on airlines and has some add-ons that turn the case into a trailer you can haul behind you. Basically, this means I can fly anywhere and ride away from the airport car-free. Not that airports are the most bike-friendly places, but you get the idea. And its not some junky folder, either. I've ridden a couple of these and you forget you're on a folding bike until you look down. Feels like a legit road bike to be sure. This is something I've been getting excited about for months on end. I've never even owned a new new bike, let alone one custom-built for me.

Also, I treated myself to McSweeny's Book Release Club and Bowl of Cherries is a very entertaining read. Imagine--a funny book about a man awaiting execution in an Iraqi prison! Sounds like a laugh-riot, no? Well, the plot also involves an eccentric Egyptologist who is researching how the pyramids were build using sound waves to move the stones (which makes me extrememly happy as I recall an episode of Coast to Coast AM years ago while driving a mail truck at 3 in the morning in Iowa during which an eccentric Egyptologist claimed they moved the stones with sound and that a low F# is the frequency of the wobble of the Earth on its axis). That's right, I just gave a blog shoutout to late-night conspiracy theory AM radio.

About 8 people said they liked my sweater today, so that means I'm the freshest. This video is still the champion. It makes me wish I still had a copy of Lost Blues & Other Songs...which I can't find digitally anywhere. I may actually have to buy a physical CD! Totally stone age!

ASCII party tricks; word coinage

2007-09-20T21:40:00.001-07:00

growl...missing pictures from the Wordpress transition...

I come across lots of new words in the readings for my information science class this term. The whole field is fertile ground for making up new words. Aboutness, findabilty, satisfice, berrypicking. The list goes on. I've decided to coin three new words this week.

memesta - A digital gangsta who has a specific goal of spreading or popularizing a new unit of cultural information, and does so through a planned and concerted effort.

homepwnership - Annoying maintenance/labor/money costs of owning a home. You may own the house, but the house pwns you.

ASCIIwall - A wall full of ASCII art, the source of which may come from a video feed.

Meme becomes a more significant term for the info-saturation age based on how agile and fanned-out our new ways of "telling" are. Write about a meme on a popular blogging aggregate website and a potentially huge audience receives it. This may usher in the day of the memesta, a digital gangsta of ideas.

I like that idea so much, I think I'll be one. You see, here's how homepwnership came up originally:

I looked, and the word's been used before, but not very much as far as I can tell. Now, I've put it up on wordie.org, submitted it to urbandictionary (which surprised me--they have editors and I have to wait for my submission to show up!), and I'd imagine I could find some image of a tree falling on a house and put the word in block white letters near the bottom of the frame and post it randomly in fark forums and CL rants & raves. With the housing market crisis that's been in the news lately, its pretty timely. Default on your subprime loan? This is homepwnership in a big way.

And for the ASCIIwall. A friend of mine is helping Camille Utterback (a prominent interactive video artist) with an installation in San Jose this month. I also came across QuickASCII, a Mac command line tool that renders any Quicktime video into ASCII and plays it in Terminal. We were having a party, so I set to work on an installation for the event. Here's how it went:

iSight records 60 seconds of video

QuickASCII plays that video in Terminal, which is projected onto the wall.

iSight records another video while the first one is playing.

QuickASCII plays that second video.

Repeat 4eva.

Here's the janky AppleScript I wrote to keep the party going. I liked having the minute-long delay between recording and projection. That way, you noticed the installation, thought "hey--that's me" and moved your arm around. When it didn't move right along with you, you had to watch a little more to figure out what was going on. DJ took some good pics here.

I'll upload some other pictures and give them the texasparty07 tag, too. I also had people hacking the KraftPad so we could play StepMania, an open source DDR clone. That's right, it just ain't a party unless AppleScript's involved and there's a hot soldering iron.

Sparklines, Squirrel Cage, Sunnyvale (again)

2007-07-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks.

I went to visit my brother and family in the Omaha metro area. Very fun visit and I took a bunch of photos at the Omaha Henry Dorly Zoo (here's a link). The pictures are stored on my local wiki because I thought it'd be an easy way to get good captions for all the photos. You see, my brother has a family pass to the zoo and I think they go there at least once a week in the summer. Hence, my brilliant 10-year-old nephew knows the name of every animal there. Plus, he gets to learn a little web 2.0 lesson in the process. Here's a youtube link to some little videos from the trip. Pay close attention to the ones about the famous Council Bluffs, Iowa Squirrel Cage Jail. Here's a Wikipedia article explaining the Rotary Jail.

Its crazy, but a lot of people (particularly most of my family until now) still have no idea what a wiki is. They know what Wikipedia is, and sometimes they know that anybody can edit it, but that's where it stops.

I must give a special shout-out to Edward Z. Yang (aka Ambush Commander), who wrote this great MediaWiki Extension that allows batch image uploading if you have good access to the server that your wiki is hosted on. SpecialUploadLocal worked like a charm to get my 80 photos into MediaWiki's mechanical stomach.

Within 10 hours of landing back in California, I went to a one-day class in San Francisco taught by Edward Tufte, a preeminent charts and graphs guru and information design expert. Amazing day. Smart guy. Seriously, until the mid-afternoon when I started getting tired, about every 3 minutes I had some "wow, this guy is really smart" thought running through my brain.

One big idea I took home: when presenting information visually, don't waste a single pixel on anything that doesn't convey information. For example, does that arrow really need to be big, green, and have a drop shadow? Probably not. Make it black or gray with a thin line and your audience will focus on the things on either side of the arrow more easily, rather than being distracted by your design. That, and annotate stuff that shows causality—heck, annotate pretty much everything.

His website has very nice information architecture/design forums that are moderated and full of other smart people saying stuff (and probably fanboy disciples, too). His four books are beautiful, and I got nice hardcover editions of each as part of the class. Now that's what I call takeaway. Here's the Wikipedia article about Tufte for a general introduction.

SF 44-57 This is a sparkline of wins and losses for the San Francisco Giants so far this season, generated at hardballtimes.com. Sparkline is a term Tufte coined to describe data dense graphics that can be displayed inline with text. (Wikipedia link) Basically, you've got a little chart or line graph that's a couple of inches long, as tall as regular text, and can convey a lot of meaningful information using potentially thousands of data points. There's a cool PHP package available to start makin' your own at sparkline.org. I'd love to start doing this with my own cycling statistics.

And the other big news—we signed a lease for a place in Sunnyvale and will move there in August. Oh, so much fun to pack everything up and move it all of 4.2 miles. Once we're settled in, I'm hoping to have a free Saturday afternoon to curl up with Beautiful Evidence.

Alaska pics are up; distributed human computation

2007-07-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

After about 8 man-hours of labor, I pared the photos down from 1500 to just under 200. Still a lot, but what can I say--Alaska was amazing. It is on my official list of "places to go back to." Wouldn't the Northern Lights be cool in wintertime?

Here they are, in five parts: Alaska07 pics. And here are a few shaky-hand youtube videos. The teaser image here is an ice cave underneath the Mendenhall Glacier outside Juneau.

Something I read in this month's Wired got me thinking of ways I could cut down on all that post-vacation photo labor. Wouldn't it be great if you could, say, put all 1500 of your vacation photos up on Flickr and have the hive mind of that established community tell you which 100 photos best represent the entire collection?

The article is worth reading, an interview with Luis von Ahn. Luis is the inventor of those squiggly/obscured strings of text used to prevent bots from setting up accounts for various online services. These are pretty darn useful for things like keeping communities legit (i.e., preventing spambots from overrunning Yahoo's game sites or craigslist's apartment listings). The device itself is called a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Humans and Computers Apart), and they're starting to be used for productive side-projects as well, like having unassuming computer users decipher words that OCR systems can't parse.

Other projects von Ahn has worked on are more like games that get bored cube-jockeys and dorm-dwellers to put their time-wasting cycles to work tagging images for use by massive web search tools. There are a lot of applications of this kind of distributed human computation good for broad, gigantic projects, but I'm curious to see if anyone has ideas of how this can be good for me. The crux here, as the article explains, is trying to make the work something fun, that people will play on their own volition, without you having to, like, pay them. Hit me up with great ideas and/or VC cash any time. ;-)

Psychedelic Soda from Brazil

2007-06-30T09:05:00.000-07:00

Guaraná Antarctica, apparently the most psychedelic soda in the history of man--I mean, come on, look at the label:

It kinda tastes like apple and, um, Rock Star. And(!), guarana is apparently a berry that has three times the amount of caffeine as coffee. Some labels might call it "guaranine," but that just means caffeine derived from this berry.

Seriously, it makes there be a guy kite surfing inside your stomach. And perhaps also a river of lava. Basically, your insides turn into paisley Katamari Damacy. And my favorite pizza place delivers it.

hot glue sliders google rank #1 soon!

2007-06-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

hot glue sliders
hot glue sliders
search for the phrase hot glue sliders

WELCOME CRAWLBOT OVERLORDS!

CRAWL ME, ROBOTS!@#

"hot glue sliders" is a very popular search among the blank generation and I can take it over leave it each time.

Don't drink the water

2007-06-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

Getting some take-out Indian food yesterday, I decided "y'know, I'm going to try one of the drinks in the case that's not a mango lassi." This was not a good idea. The guy told me it was a little sweet, like lemonade, and a little spicy, too. I thought that sounded alright.

According to all-knowing Wikipedia, "in Hindi, 'Jal' means water and 'Jeera' means cumin." That ain't no recipe for lemonade. It's still sitting on the table and I've still got the heeby-jeebies from the taste. I guess I'll take the vaguely insulting advice from the rudest waitress I've ever come across. "People like you like the mango lassi." That's right, whitey, jal jeera is for somebody else. Sniffle, sniffle in my gastrocultural incompatibility

corncat dashboard widget in two flavors

2007-06-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

I know this is what everyone has been waiting for. Here it is. Corncat, in dashboard widget form. I even made two versions! One with border and one without.

This cat will eat corn on the cob every time you hit that F12 button. Now that's unconditional cuteness. Corncat will probably make you happy. If you have one of the original prototype editions of corncat widget, please update to one of these as the file sizes are much more reasonable (i.e., 300K as opposed to 2MB).

Corncat animated .gif originally ganked from here. If you come across any problems with it, please let me know.

After 16 months, its about time

2007-05-25T10:24:00.000-07:00

I finally saw Steve Jobs in person this morning. This isn't really a big deal, but I've been working for the iTunes Store here in Cupertino for the last 16 months without crossing paths with my celebrity CEO and it was beginning to feel a little silly.

I think this post may epitomize the "minutia" tag. OK, Steve, we're both busy people, so let's get back to work now.

Choppin' On Drank

2006-11-22T01:41:00.000-08:00

I was pretty sick last week with a flu-like thing. I’ve been recovering steadily—the doctor I saw prescribed the real deal for my cough:

Yes yes, y’all—its the drank that made chopped and screwed famous. Codeine and Promethazine cough syrup. The purple stuff. That lean.

In honor of that, here’s a screwtape for the mogstas:

And, sorry, you can’t have any. The pharmacist said I couldn’t share. But you can download the whole tape if you want.