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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