To Vegas and back

Poolside
(Photographer in the sunglasses!)

March dragged on and on, and we finally had to make it end. We went to Las Vegas. Cheap airbnb, one blowout meal, no gambling and a sunny 72 degrees. Perfect. Julia the Sun Goddess spent most of her time in a lounge chair by the pool, I was rather more bookish, inside-ish. We walked all over.

As a former municipal reporter, I had to wonder about Vegas zoning practices. Consider:

Does it meet setback requirements? Do they consider aesthetic fit? What about the density? All these issues would certainly be raised by members of your average suburban zoning board. Can't we spread those buildings out a little bit? No thrill rides allowed! And, TAKE THAT STATUE DOWN!

One might wonder,  thematically: Is it an amusement park? A tribute to liberty? A lesson in Gotham architecture? Or could it possibly be about commerce?

I wonder.

Here's the one picture we took of me:

I and my friend the Sphinx look like we belong somewhere else.

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Lately I've been carrying four gallons of water on my rides. Crazy, I know.  But it adds about 34 pounds, roughly what I will carry on my coast-to-coast trip. My Tosa route has several pretty good hills, including a 1.5 mile uphill (Swan Boulevard), and it's a -- excuse the expression -- sonumbitch. The mountains out west will be bigger, badder and more frequent. Even if it makes me only a little more ready legwise, it gives me the feel and balance of the weight, and prepares me psychologically for what's to come.

Yesterday, holding the bike, standing on the sidewalk, the bike tipped backwards and a kindly pedestrian who thought I was nuts helped me put it back to rights. Geez.

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I've almost reached by MDA fund drive goal of $5,000! Thanks so much to everyone who contributed! A little more will put us over the top, and we can go beyond that if we like. If you want to give, go to  JON'S MDA DRIVE.

The bike store experience

This is the latest stop in my quest to put my bike to rights for this big trip. I have tolerated little eccentricities in its operation for years, but they are no longer charming, and I'm going to make my bike work right if it kills me. Why, I would even spend a little money.

It's my low front gear that really bugs me. The derailleur doesn't reach the small chainwheel consistently and I'll surely need that for mountain climbs. 

I am not an adventuresome bike-fixer myself, would rather have a professional do it, but many of your bike fixers are not socially supple. They are generally youthful, sometimes with ponytails, and they don't look you in eye sympathetically while you try to explain why your bike is not working right. Instead they look into the distance or idly at the bike while you explain the problem, and by the end of what you have to say you are nearly pleading and are convinced that it's not the bike but YOU that is not working right. 

Somebody should offer a course in how to connect with the afflicted middle-aged biker. Or, elder biker.

There -- I've managed to sound like a cranky old man.  

One way or another I will get this fixed and we will leave Astoria, Oregon, Thursday, May 30, and ride east. 

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My fund drive has almost reached the goal of $5,000 -- just $215 to go!

Claim the crown at JON'S MDA DRIVE.

Thanks many times over to those who have given!

A speck on a map

Garmin InReach SE+

I got a little GPS for my travels. It connects to satellites, I'm told, and can tell you where you are. It has a whole bunch of functions, but mainly me and the Ms. wanted some way to stay in touch. Last year, in the UP, there were whole days when my cell had no coverage, and I can only think that in the wilds out west, it'll be the same.

I can send any number of preset messages saying, like, "I'm OK," or "I'm in camp," or "My dinner was eaten by a bear," or actually just write a normal message. And then, say, if it's Julia, she'll get a link to a map showing where I am, and she can write back. If she's not too busy.

I have tested it, and it actually seems to work. You have to use it outside, and a clear sky is best, but I used it in cloud cover the other day and my message went through.

Also, it has an SOS button to call out the national guard if I'm in dire straits. It's that red strip on the right side, and the button itself is hidden under a cover so you don't press it accidentally.

I'm anxious to ride outside. But it's 20 degrees today, with snow and ice everywhere, and I'm just too old for that. Too old, probably, to cross the country. Although I was inspired the other day by watching "Lawrence of Arabia." Maybe I should get a camel.

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For God, Mother and Country, consider JON'S MDA DRIVE.

Thanks everybody out there, we're closing in on $5,000!

A sad family tale

Dorothy Place

Sister L came and we spent two long days sorting through boxes of stuff my mom left us. We achieved huge reductions -- 12 or 16 boxes, something like that -- and made a few discoveries.

This is a picture of our grandmother, Dorothy, probably in the late 1920s, when she graduated from nursing school. She's so beautiful, and looks a little like, well, my sisters. She was born in 1908 and died at 30, in 1938, asphyxiating herself in a car on a hillside overlooking Hollywood. She left a note addressed "To Anyone Who Finds Me." It said,  "Hollywood is very beautiful, at night, with all the lights, isn't it?" She left the address of a childhood friend she had been visiting, and the local police department precinct.

In family letters late in her life a relative said her condition "cast a pall over the family" and there is a mention of epilepsy, but I think that was just a guess. She was probably already pregnant with my aunt, Greta, when she married Ole, given Greta's birth date. They divorced after my dad was born, and her filing says she was leaving Ole because of "cruelty and nonsupport." In the 1930s, during the Depression, without a formal education, it would have been a tough time for anybody.  

Dorothy remarried, and just a few months later left that husband and went to California. My dad was 5 when she died; Greta, who was born deaf and had other ailments, was 8. My dad had a brain scan performed on Greta after her death, and it showed characteristics of trauma, as if Dorothy may have tried to end that pregnancy.

It's a sad story, particularly for Greta, whose life was very difficult. The wonder is that Dad almost never reflected on it, became a very successful physician, and was a great dad. 

So that's the story of our grandmother, just one of many found in the boxes. 

There's a book in there somewhere. 

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My bike ride planning continues apace. I'm pretty well mapped up. I was struggling with how to cross New York state, till I found these:

Beautiful maps that take me through Ontario, to Buffalo, to Albany, and all the way in to NYC. 

Perfect!

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If you've got that giving feeling, consider: JON'S MDA DRIVE

More empty bags

Open.

Closed. 

If you want to take a long bike trip, start saving now. Nothing about it is cheap. But before I got these big waterproof bags, I used nylon panniers that would soak through in a rainstorm, meaning I had to wrap everything I put inside in a plastic bag of its own. Inevitably, sick of the hassle, I would just start throwing things in, or the bags would tear, and stuff would get wet anyway.

I've been obsessing over routes. I'm pretty well mapped-up to Milwaukee, but crossing Michigan  likely will be by following my phone. I'm getting a map for the ride through Canada, along the northern edge of Lake Erie, and a couple touring books that should take me along the Erie Canal and the Hudson. By then I'll be pretty close.

If I can do it at all. I'm counting on the purpose of the fund drive to propel me forward. I'll try to remember that when I'm fighting a headwind on the endless plains of North Dakota.

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Sister Lydie is coming this week to help me to sort Mom Memorabilia. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.

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Need a reason to feel good? Give at JON'S MDA DRIVE. 

So darn cold

Thursday morning

This is the state of things. So cold that, when I made a brief foray outside to see if my car would start, my face hurt. Schools have been closed most of the week, and even the court system was shut down  Monday, yesterday and today. Suspects are languishing in cells awaiting their bail hearings, and Ms. V has been sentenced to spend her days with me -- though I'll just note that I'm not the one laying down the law.

By Saturday (see above), it's supposed to be 40 degrees. A 60-degree swing in 48 hours. Maybe nice enough for a bike ride, if I'm not suffering from temperature-change vertigo.

We've been watching "Money Heist" -- a gang of thieves wearing Salvador Dali masks break into a Spanish mint and print money for themselves. They have ideals -- to enrich themselves without taking from anybody else. That's the single elevated notion sustaining 9+ hours of viewing. You could get through a quarter of "War & Peace" in that time. But, hey, we love our Netflix.

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How's your MDA? Check out JON'S MDA DRIVE.

Buying an empty bag

New bag

New bag, interior, with maps. 

This kick-butt handlebar bag was Ms. V's Christmas gift to me, by which I mean she said I could buy it. It's waterproof, light, capacious, lockable, and, uh, spendy. But, as Bruce has said of Ortlieb bags, "They're the state of the art."

My mom used to say, of my dad's boats: "Oh, yes, they cruise so nice there on the highway behind the car," which is where they got a lot of their use. This is like me taking a picture of my bike bag on the bike in the house. Sits pretty nice there in front of the filing cabinet.

Taking a look at my maps yesterday, I got a little involved and spent hours at it, lining them up in order, numbering them, trying to figure out the route on a large US map. Planning is the most fun part of any trip. But planning without going is just a form of dreaming.

Not to knock dreaming.

I'm making flight plans. First time in my whole life I've made flight plans four months early. I hope to fly to Seattle the week before Memorial Day, and start riding with Bruce May 29 or so. There's a bike store in Astoria that will take UPS shipment of your disassembled bike and put it together for a small fee. About $100 to ship it in a box, and $50 to put it together. Cheaper than checking it on a plane, even if they would allow it.

So.

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To contribute to my MDA drive, click here: JON'S MDA DRIVE.