my dad showed up this morning and molly and shannen get out here this afternoon. lots of crazy stuff out here as usual. i've got get on the picture taking.
doing some last minute packing. i'm off for the playa today. we bought $100's worth of beer yesterday. it's a pretty impressive sight.
i finished reading the porn clerk, ali davis' blog. she ended up in a segment on the npr show this american life.
from there i started looking around and found this speech ira glass gave at a dinner outlining his 10 commandments of radio.
don't even ask what i'm doing up at this hour i've been telling myself that i'm going to sleep in 10 minutes for the last 4 hours. okay the real reason is i've been up reading the blog of a clerk at a porn store.
i've gotten the blog moved over to moveable type and it's working pretty well. i'm still trying to get the archives and some other stuff setup the way i want it.
i went back and added all the old bike trip emails. both 2000 rno-slc and the 2001 transam are now in the blog. i'm going to get category index pages setup so that it's easier to find the entries.
i'm back in reno. i'm going to head out to the desert for burning man tomorrow or sunday. i've got a couple of old blog entries to add but they're stuck on my palm, the sync cradle is in portland but my laptop and palm are both here. it's kind of a bitch being half moved.
while i was in portland i got to goto the george bush protest. he came to town to raise money for a republican senator, $1000 a plate kind of thing. a couple thousand people turned out to welcome him with signs ridiculing just about every part of his administration's policies. it was great to see so many different people coming out to give bush a hard time. there was a march over to the hilton where the dinner was being held. the cops had closed off the streets a block away in all directions so people just kind of marched up to each barrier and stared at all the cops in riot gear.
it was a peaceful demonstration until the cops tried to push everyone back half a block. the ended up pepper spraying a ton of people in the crowd with no warning as they started pushing people over with their batons. the cops decided driving two squad cars through the middle of the crowd to the barricades was a rational and safe idea. as they were practically running people over some people started jumping up on the car and trying to vandalize it so the riot cops started firing rubber bullets into the crowd. one guy who'd been hit by one showed me his welt, it was the size of a softball.
on the whole the cops were pretty well behaved. the could have done a lot better but they actually showed more restraint than i'd expected. when big bush came to portland back ten years ago protesters brought the city to a halt and he christened it portland "little beirut". hopefully it's retained the title.
i've been following the story of the joint forces's millennium challenge 02 wargame. it seems that the commander of the red team, which was simulating an unnamed arab nation, quit half way through the game. his orders were being countermanded by those running the game to ensure that the blue team, simulating us forces, won. there are several articles out there but the army times' piece is the best i've read.
the atlantic put together an excellent article about security, primarally related to computers. it almost seems like a publicity piece for bruce schneier, half the article seems to have been pulled from back issues of his crypto-gram news letter. now don't get me wrong, he deserves the attention, he's one of the few people who's advocating rational security measures, i'd love to see him in charge of homeland defense.
israel pulled out of bethlehem but their right wing wants no such thing:
Uzi Landau, the public security minister, assailed Mr. Ben-Eliezer at a cabinet meeting, saying, "You should have destroyed the Palestinian Authority to its very foundations."
you get the feeling that arafat has almost been setup to take the fall for the next bit of violence that's guranteed to happen.
over the weekend my brother and i packedup the uhaul then drove most of my belongings up to portland. i'm in my apartment but still haven't really unpacked. my excuse is that since they're putting in new windows (hopefully today) and they need me to keep my stuff out of their way, leaving it in boxes is the easiest way to accomplish that task.
charles flew home yesterday, i'm trying to get my school stuff straight. if i can get into the western exchange program i'll pay 1.5 * in state tuition which would be about $2000 a semester less than paying out of state. that'd start to add up pretty quick.
i'm going to try to get back down to reno by the end of the week pack up for burningman and head for the desert.
walk down the street in portland and no one will look you in the eye. If you do it's intepereted as consent to ask you for change. it's not limited to the stereo-typical panhandlers: an unshaven guy with a hardluck story and a sleeping bag or a crusty punk with facial tattoos and a dog. middle class looking kids from 20-30 ask you for change, most are polite you say no. someone even yelled up from the street below to my second story apartment window asking if i had any sparechange "i'm trying to get home". he was shaved and wearing a frat boy-esq sweater. i tossed him down twenty-something cents before i realized how silly it was. it's hard to reply negatively when someone makes a "reasonable" request, my instinct it to try to help. but when your asked several (6 today) times in the course of a day it starts to become annoying. my plan is to start answering thier "reasonable" requests with one of my own, "do you have an extra stamp?", "can i have a cigarette?", "where'd you buy those shoes?". if they repeat their query i'll repeat mine. when they reply i'll say "it's cool, don't worry about it" or "hey thanks" as i walk away.
i'd been trying to get movable type up working as a blogger replacement for a while and it's finally about ready to go live. i'm trying to minimize the broken links that will occur during the transition by replicating the archive format that blogger produced. mt will let me do a bunch of cool stuff and make older trip related posts a lot more accessible.
i've gotten a bit behind in the emails, i'm going to get that straight today.
staying with chris and mike in san jose and they took me down to frys for my first time. what a horrible thing to do to someone who's been deprived of that kind of sensory overload. i ended up with a minidisc player that i probably shouldn't have bought, it's pretty sweet though.
modest mouse is tonight. steve's driving over and we'll go see them then he's going to drive over to the nbg fest tomorrow and afterwards we'll drive back to reno together.
SAN JOSE - As I left my friend Chris's house this morning I checked the PocketMailer to see where I was supposed to be. The top email had the address for City Hall and said 11:00. I rolled up and found Fay, Martin's friend, her first question was "Where are the bike cops?". "What bike cops?". Apparently I was supposed to have met the bike cops and some other people at Cesar Chavez park at 10:30, ooops. I rode down to see if I could find them, it was farther than I thought so I turned back. As I came across the street I saw a TV camera. I pulled up and apologized for missing the escort. Mayor Ron Gonzales gave me the proclamation and Channel 5 video taped it then interviewed me. The really just wanted to talk about water consumption so the angle they were pursuing was pretty clear. When I caught the news that evening there were about 5 seconds of video of me riding crammed in a story about keeping hydrated in the record heat. A radio station was there too, they seemed interested in an actual interview but I never heard it air. The bike cops showed up shortly after and I apologized to them too. The TV people wanted to get a few shots of me riding so I said good bye and headed back to my friends house.
Didn't make it far though. I ended up buying a news paper and sitting in front of a 7-11 drinking a slurpee to cool off. It was record heat after all. An hour later I finally made it back to the house.
Tomorrow's a down day (I'm going to go see Modest Mouse play) so no email. Look for the conclusion of this trip on Sunday though.
SAN JOSE, CA - Leaving San Francisco was one of the harder departures. Two nights with the Trembaughs had me feeling like one of the family. Why go running off down the peninsula. I was really asking myself that when I started trying to navigate my way out of the mess of one way and dead end streets in South SF. Two hours later I'd managed only 10 miles and a mile was probably the longest I stayed on any one street.
There are some mighty militant drivers in San Francisco and I found two of them on the way out. The first was a white late model Dodge Stratus. He passed me on a down hill then slowed down and moved over to the right in front of me until I, thinking he was going to turn right, moved out to the left. Then he accelerated a bit and began weaving back and forth down the street. I was still under the impression he was just lost and looking at a map or something. The first clue was when stopping at a light he parked as far to the right as possible so I couldn't pass him, but again thinking he was turning I ignored it. At the next light I was able to get around him and then as the light turned green took off down a bit of hill. I guess you could say I was sure he was an asshole right about the time he pulled up next to me and swerved at me, by the second swerve there was no question. At the time I wasn't really worried about him hitting me. He seemed like he'd done it before, besides I was too busy trying to figure out how I to get my bike pump loose so I could put it through his window. All I could manage was to leave a good amount of saliva on it. He turned at the next corner but it was going uphill and was far enough ahead I didn't bother to follow him. I did keep an eye on the mirror in case he tried to sneak up behind me for another pass. That was the last I saw of him but a couple of blocks later a fellow in an older blue Turbo Z pulled in front of me and went so far as to drive the length of two city blocks with his tires squealing against the curb so I couldn't pass him. I just rode behind him shaking my head and chuckling at him, I could totally see him at Less Schwab asking for a set of tires with extra thick sidewalls.
For some reason the realization that I had ridden all the way to SFO, the San Francisco International Airport, struck me as very funny. It was a place I'd been several times both by car and by plane, for some reason it seemed really absurd to have ridden all the way there from Reno by way of Portland. Even more absurd was to consider all the places I've been by way of in my life. Picturing a trail of string left everywhere I'd been between my birth in Dallas TX and that instant, sitting on a bicycle in front of SFO. Seeing it criss cross the world world, tangling to knots in some places, a long solitary line in others. It helped put the trip in perspective. I started wondering where I'll have left that string between then and the next time I find myself at SFO. [Hopefully some of that made sense, I almost dumped it twice.]
In San Mateo an hour before showtime I called Martin and told him I didn't think I'd make it to Palo Alto on time. He had someone with the city and call and give me directions. I got on El Camino Real right as she told me I had around 15 miles to go. Her advice was to take the train in. The only problem I saw with that was I'd be sitting around for 30 minutes before it showed up, I knew I'd have gone crazy waiting for it. I crammed a donut down and prepared for a push. I don't mind being in that kind of a crunch, trying to see if I can make it happen. The short of it is I arrived with 10 minutes to spare.
There was a quick ceremony at the Bike Station, an old train station that housed a bike shop and bike storage for commuters who take the train. Three or four city councilpeople turned out (some of them even riding over) and presented me with the proclamation. Two bent riders showed up, Mark and Mike. Mark had ridden his Vision and Mike had ridden his Sun EZ-1 he'd converted to an electric hybrid. It was something he'd been working on for a while and was very happy to talk about it. [For more info about his bikes check out http://www.25mph.com ] After the ceremony the two of them rode out to San Jose with me. Mark's going to let me stay with him on Saturday night before the ride into Santa Cruz. We went by his house so I'd know where it was. Mike headed home and Mark and I grabbed dinner at the all you can eat salad restaurant before I went on out to where my friend Chris lives.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Short day today. In the morning I got to hop on the ole internet and kill some time catching up on email and paying bills. I was suprised at what a good job I'd done saving money on this trip until I cut the $600 worth of checks that paid for everything.
Kern and one of his sons--they're twins so I've no clue which one--went down to City Hall with me. They actually watched my bike for me while I went in to find out what was going on. I met up with Giddeon Baum who works in Supervisor Aaron Peskin's office and Dave Snyder the Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, a group that's done a lot of great stuff in the city. We met up with Supervisor Preskin, who rode cross country several years ago, down stairs and Mayor Willie Brown's representative, Tyrone Jue of the Department of Neighborhood Services, showed up shortly there after.
Supervisor Peskin, made a few brief remarks in suport of the greenway effort and making me sound like a standout guy (he obviously didn't have to put up with me the whole way cross country) before presenting me a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. That really ment something to me, partially because it was for me personally, not the NBG, but mostly because it was coming from someone who'd been out there. Mr. Jue followed that by presenting Mayor Willie Brown's proclamation declaring August 7th 2002 National Bicycle Greenway Day in San Francisco. I'd have really liked to meet Mayor Brown, as my friend Chris said admiringly, "That guy is such a pimp."
Afterwards I rode back to Kern's apartment and caught up on my relaxing. Kern took me out and showed me some of the city so I could take some pictures.
Kern and my friend Joe Lane would get on pretty well, they've got the same cheerful disposition and coffee habit. A quick anecdote about Joe that might explain a bit of both of them. He and his cousin were out on a backpacking trip and ran out of toilet paper. Joe's cousin suggests using the coffee filters instead. Joe won't hear of it vowing that he'd "use the permits first". Not that I mind being around either of them, it means I end up drinking good coffee.
Tomorrow: Palo Alto
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Birds diving at my tent woke me from a good night's rest in the hills above Berkeley. I started what, based on my cycle map, I thought would be a steep decent into the city only to realize that I'd been reading the arrows indicating grade backwards. I a few miles of steep hill later I was finally rewarded with my first view of the Bay.
In Berkeley I got a hold of Josh Ratner the Bicycle & Pedestrian Facilities Coordinator with the City of Oakland. Since I was early he gave me directions down to his office. When I got there he took me out for a couple slices of pizza before we had to ride up to the meeting point.
At the rally point, a pavilion next to a lake, we met up with two cyclists and turned around and came down the brand new bike lanes on Grand St. to City Hall. There I was met by Oakland City Councilwoman Jane Brunner, who I'm told is also a cyclist, Georgia Richardson, the council president(Ignacio De La Fuente)'s, scheduler and several other city employees and bike activists and a reporter and photographer from the Oakland Tribune. The proclamation was read and then presented to me by the Councilwoman. There were a some short speeches by the various dignitaries and they even let me say a few words. I was very pleased with the way it all went. Afterwards the plan was for some riders to escort me down a bike route on the way out of town but I ended up spending a half hour talking to the reporter and most of the riders had dispersed. I'm looking forward to getting the paper tomorrow and seeing out how it turned out. [The writer got a ton of stuff mixed up but you can read the story online.]
As it was I just made it on the last train under the Bay that bikes are allowed on. I popped out at the Embarcadero BART station and had to ride from there. Kern Trembath had offered to let me stay with his family and him so I called and got directions to the house. For a few years I've wanted to ride in "The City", as we call it in Reno. I love urban riding, senses alert, weaving through stopped cars, sprinting to make the end of a light, screeching to a halt to avoid a pedestrian who's wandered out into the lane. All the stuff your mom doesn't want to know about and San Francisco has plenty of it. Fortunately there's plenty of bikes on the road and they've gotten the cars trained to give you some space if you assert yourself. I had a blast riding through town. Going through an intersection half way up a good stiff hill a lady driving a mini-bus looks out at me and yells "Are you smiling?". Of course I was smiling I was passing commuters with a loaded bike.
Kern his wife and two sons--who seem much older than their 13 years--were wonderful. They still hadn't finished unpacking after moving into their new apartment and in the midst of it all were letting me stay with them. I spent several hours talking with Kern and Sally about bike touring, politics, and a million other things. It most fun I've had without a bike in weeks. I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to have met and spend some time with them. They'll be people I'll try to visit every time I'm in town.
Tomorrow: San Francisco, I'm hoping the media coverage continues. Local cyclists would be great. I'm told some are planning on coming "if they don't get arrested" at the Cheney protest earlier in the day.
I've made the big time. Napa was great today, Oakland looks to be even better tomorrow.
NEWS FROM
PUBLIC WORKS AGENCY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 5, 2002
Contact: Kathryn Hughes (510)238-6493
Josh Ratner (510)238-3983
National Bicycle Greenway
Connecting Cyclists to Cities
Oakland, CA - Councilmember Brunner of the City of Oakland is holding a press conference to welcome Andrew Morton, the relay rider for the National Bicycle Greenway, who will bicycle to downtown Oakland from Eugene, Oregon. Councilmember Brunner will present a City of Oakland proclamation to Mr. Morton in support of the National Bicycle Greenway, a proposed interconnected nationwide network of bike-safe roads and paths. City of Oakland Public Works Agency Director Claudette Ford and the San Francisco Bay Trail Project Manager Janet McBride will also be featured speakers. Mr. Morton is one of a series of bicycle riders who are cycling between cities from coast to coast to draw attention to the National Bicycle Greenway concept.
WHAT: Press Conference for the National Bicycle Greenway
WHO: Councilmember Jane Brunner, Public Works Agency Director Claudette Ford, Bicycle rider Andrew Morton, and the San Francisco Bay Trail Project Manager Janet McBride
WHEN: Tuesday, August 6, 2:30-3:00.
WHERE: City Hall Steps
One Ogawa Plaza
14th and Broadway
Oakland
"The National Bicycle Greenway initiative supports bicycling. We have an interconnected system that works for automobiles - it's time we design facilities that are accessible to cyclists." said Councilmember Brunner.
According to the City's Public Works Agency Director Claudette Ford, "The National Bicycle Greenway dovetails with our City's bike plan. This event also draws attention to the Countywide Bicycle Plan issued last year by the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency and the recent Regional Bicycle Plan, issued by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission," she added. "New bicycle lanes on Grand Avenue and the Embarcadero Bay Trail are regional bicycle facilities that encourage cycling to Lake Merritt, downtown Oakland, BART, and along the Bay."
Residents are encouraged to attend the press conference and welcome Andrew Morton to our downtown. For more information, call Kathryn Hughes at (510) 238-6493. See also the National Bicycle Greenway website: www.BikeRoute.com
RICHMOND, CA 08/05/02 - Up early and with only with a few things to do before meeting the Mayor, my host Peter showed me a short loop I could take out through some of the vineyards [still have no idea how to spell that]. It was great. I got a couple pictures and saw some beautiful country side spread over rolling hills. By the time I was done I felt like I'd earned breakfast.
I stopped in at Bicycle Madness and they sold me a bike map of the North Bay and a new rear tire. Replacing the cheapie I got in Chico with another slightly less cheap tire that would run at 110 psi instead of 65 psi was a major improvement. I picked up 2-4 miles per hour on my average speed.
Back on Friday in Sacramento while I was waiting for the guys at City Bikes to swap out the derailleur I met a lady named Sandy working there who lived in Napa. I told her about the ride and that I'd be going through there on Monday and meeting the mayor. She was interested and said she'd email some other riders in town and the Eagle Cycling Club of which she's a member.
Sandy really got the word out. After the events in the last three cities having little participation from local cyclists--mostly because we weren't able to find the Sandy in each town that could let the right people know about it--I was blown away to see the 10-15 cyclists, some on recumbents, that showed up. The fact that that many people turned out from a relatively small town made a big statement: a lot of people care about safe cycling in Napa. Best of all the Napa News was there with a reporter and photographer to document the whole thing. [ I'm told there are a few inaccuracies but you can read the article online ]
Mayor Ed Harris came out read then presented me with a proclamation declaring August 5th National Bicycle Greenways Day in Napa. We got some photos taken, talked to the news paper reporter, then the riders escorted me out of town. Before they left they showed me the best way to get down across the bay into Martinez.
While stopped at a gas station to check my email on the payphone a guy walked up to talk to me. Now if I'd had to make two guesses about Kurt based solely on his appearance I'd have said "volunteer firefighter" and "into dirtbikes". He didn't let me entertain those prejudices long, I believe his first sentence was "So how's the 'bent treating you". He had both a Trek road bike and a Rands recumbent and as he put it, "Most of the time I can't decide which to ride. The recumbent's so much more fun but I paid a lot more for the Trek and feel like I ought to be riding it.". He told me exactly where the shuttle across the Benicia Bridge left from and even offered to take me across in his truck. I declined, thinking that in the spirit of the ride I'd go as far as I could on my own and where CalTans said I had to take a ride, I'd take a ride.
The shuttle left from a Park and Ride lot just north of the Benicia Bridge on 780. The driver was a champ, since the bike wouldn't fit in the rack on the back of the bus he helped me get it in inside and just let me park it in the isle. The only other passenger was a road rider in the popular Postal Service spandex suit who told me a joke. "Lance Armstrong and his team were stopped by French custom for bringing in an unknown substance."
Now you say "Oh really".
"Yeah, deodorant."
I got myself put back together after the ride and started up into the hills. The plan was to find a place to camp then drop into Oakland for the meeting tomorrow. The evening was one of the best I remember. I spent the last of it chasing a golden sunset over one hill after another. Coming up to a turn I'd see the final red light shining on the dried grass and dark knarled trees. Rounding it and I'd be temporarily blinded by that big orange ball hanging there challenging me to try to make it down and back up the next hill before it set.
NAPA, CA - With only 30 miles to go today I was in no hurry to get started. Not that I could of if I wanted to, the speaker that sounds my wake up alarm on the PocketMailer went out, I wasn't up until almost 07:15. Even then, rather than heading on to Napa I decided to ride back to Winters to fill up water and get breakfast.
A few hours later and a few pounds heavier I started back out of Winters. On the way I met a couple on BikeEs, "You the one coming down from Oregon?" he asked. I told him I was, "Yeah, been following you on the internet.", I got a kick out of that.
Up the mountains to Napa. The road was a pretty, winding through fields full of yellow wild flowers with the occasional tree standing watch over it, and on past Lake Berryessa. Unfortunately on the weekends lakes bring out the SUVs pulling boats and jetskis. I had to keep an eye out for wide loads but even that wasn't too bad. The road riders were out in force, most of them doing their best to ignore anything not wearing spandex. One rider stopped and talked with me for a few minutes, he said he was looking forward to some chili at the cafe at the junction up ahead. When I got there I stopped at the cafe and tried their lunch. The service was terrible and the food wasn't much better. I guess someone that just rode up from Davis is a bit too hungry to give an objective restaurant review.
I pulled into Napa in the late afternoon and rode around a bit checking out the town. I missed all the vineyards the way I came in, supposedly they're all to the north of here. I called up some of my father's friends that live in town to see if I could stay with them. Lilo and Peter were wonderful hosts, cooking an amazing dinner with pesto made fresh from their garden. They tried to tell me I just caught them on a good night, but I'm sure eating with them on a bad night would be a lot better than what I usually pay for.
Tomorrow before I meet the mayor I'm going to hit up the AAA and try to find some routing information to get into Oakland. I'm unsure what the deal will be with the bridges. My choices seem to be I-80 or I-680. Maybe I can take a bus or something.
And as a friend of mine said, "May the sun of summer shine on your faces",
andrew
WINTERS, CA - Not really in the habit of sleeping in I was up at 07:00 and packing. Carol cooked breakfast and as a touring cyclist I couldn't say no. She gave me directions on how to get to the bike path along I-80 into Davis. I wished her and her four dogs well and began navigating my way out of town.
On the Sacramento River they were having boat races. I stopped to watch for a minute and ran into another BikeE owner. We talked for a while before I headed out through West Sacramento. I found the bike route along I-80 to Davis and fought wind the whole way there. Along the trail I found an old guy hoeing away at weeds and stopped to ask what he was up to. Well George was probably 70, had glaucoma and couldn't see real well but he spent a big chuck of his time out along that trail picking up trash, keeping the weeds back and doing other maintenance. He'd accept donations for tools or whatever people wanted to give him. I offered him some pretzels but he said after he finished the 60 foot long stretch he was working on he was going to go get a chicken dinner at a place he liked down in West Sacramento. The sun glasses I'd found along the highway on the coast were more to his liking though. I really liked George, he seemed like somebody who'd had some hard luck, some through his own fault and some because of others, but was going to do what he could with the time he had left. He told me "If when I was 20 I knew what I know now you know what I would of done? I would of got me a bike and rode all over California. I was stationed in Monterey. I only worked four days a week. Know what I did instead? Sat in a bar looking at the bottom of a glass and counted the days until I got out of the army." I really felt for George he said he'd love to take a trip like mine but with his eyes the way they were he couldn't see to enjoy it much less do it safely. He gave me his PO box number and I'm going to keep in touch with him, I think it'd be a real kick to spend a week with him, take a nice laid back trip out around part of the Central Valley. Who knows.
In Davis I cruised around for a while and got something to eat. The last time I was through there was on a trip with Brad and his dad maybe 6 years before. It didn't seem to have changed much, found the book store and taco stand we'd stopped at. It's a cool little town but I didn't feel like I belonged there, a bit snobbish maybe.
I rolled on down some farm roads to Winters, only 35 miles from Napa and stopped in the store. I pushed my bike in and asked where I could park it, the manager pointed then asked me where all I'd been. It was kind of funny, I ended up telling maybe five people about the trip. One of them, John, a truck driver for FedEx and I ended up talking in the in the produce section for at least 15 minutes. He was blown away by the where I'd been on a bike, I told him about the website hopefully he'll get on the mailing list. I need to make up some business cards that say "Andrew Morton, Adventurer" I'd spellcheck it of course.
well i guess it was bound to happen. my blue gt mt bike got stolen out of the basement of the apartment building. i've had it for five years, it was heavy and cheap but i'd replaced everything on it besides the frame and bar ends. it was probably only worth a couple hundred bucks but it's a couple hundred bucks i don't have. i didn't ride it much, i would of given it away if somebody i knew really wanted it.
i guess mostly i'm glad it wasn't the b'kee. it's been taking up 4.5 square feet of my tiny studio apartment. finding that missing probably would have sent me into a kicking fit trying to share my loss with of all the other bikes that weren't stolen and their owners.
what really pisses me off is that the bike theaf(sp?) lives here. the basement is locked, you've got to have a key to get in the door. they weren't quick, judging by the looks of the cable lock they left behind they spent some time on it. if i hadn't found the lock i could have almost convinced myself that i'd imagined leaving the bike down there. as it was i walked back and forth a few times... where did i leave that bike... before seeing the lock coiled around the base of the pole forced me to admit that yes, it'd been stolen.
fuck 'em. i hope they're riding on it tomorrow, they start down a big hill, some thing distracts them and they don't notice the pot hole untit the front tire's in it. the crappy shock bottoms out and they loose their balance sprawling out into a lane of equally distracted motorists.
SACRAMENTO, CA - I woke up with forty-something miles to go and not a lot of hours. I got off to a good start but as the day heated up the wind picked up. Not wanting to be late again, and this time for reasons solely within my control, I started really pushing. I rode down CA-99E, taking the last turn off before it merged with I-5. Stopping only once to buy a couple of power bars, I navigated the back roads on into the city. Just as I was about to ride under I-80 Carol, with the mayor's office, called. She got me on a rails to trails path that let me finish up the last 10 miles on Sacramento's amazing greenway system.
I met up with Velda, a Roseville cyclist (also the nurse on the mailing list), and her son Chris at Discovery Park around 11:30. Ed Cox the Alternative Modes Coordinator with the city rode up a few minutes later followed by Carol and finally Joe, a rider affiliated with a few cycling clubs. Ed, Chris, Joe and I took a riding tour of some Sacramento's bike and pedestrian facilities on the way to City Hall. We got there a little before 13:00, Carol and Velda, who had driven back, met us shortly there after. The Mayor had gone home sick so the Parks and Recreations Commissioner stepped in and presented the proclamation in her place. Pictures were taken all around and a few people took a try riding my bike as I watched nervously shouting encouragements, "good, good, don't crash, just put your foot down" that sort of thing.
Afterwards Carol took Joe and I to lunch. She had to return to work but Joe volunteered to take me around to get my errands all taken care of. Off we went to City Bikes and after bribing them with a couple six packs of soda they agreed to replace my shifter and derailleur in an hour instead of waiting a week and a half as they'd originally suggested. While I waited I think I helped sell a couple of BikeEs, and I met the father of PocketMail's one remaining engineer (hard times all around). One more stop at a running shop for some shoe insoles and I was all set. Back towards City Hall. Across the street in Cesar Chavez Park I got to see Ed's off-duty pet project in action, free (as in tips) bike parking at the Friday night concerts in the park. It was a great idea. With the beer garden setup in part of the park it kept a bunch of drunk people out of their cars and their bikes from becoming tripping hazards. He said they've never had a bike disappear but sometimes people forget to pickup their bikes.
Carol was kind enough to offer to put me up for the night, on top of that she even cooked dinner for me. Tomorrow I'm going to head out for Napa, hopefully giving myself a bit more time and a more relaxed pace.
YUBA CITY, CA - I tried at 05:00 but it was still just too dark to get up. As the train rolled by across the street from the fair grounds where I'd camped at 06:00, I realized I'd better get a move on it.I started off by putting 20 miles in on Interstate 5. The shoulder was good, I didn't have to spend too much time dodging tire shrapnel and broken bottles. I just turned up the radio, stared at the mirror and let the miles roll by. In Red Bluff I got onto CA-99E a reasonably quiet farm road. It passes through orchards and fields with a fruit stand every few miles, I was really enjoying it until I got the flat tire. The tubes were slimed but apparently the hole was just too much for it to seal. I stopped, pulled all my gear off the bike, took the wheel off got to it. The tire looked to be done for. Apparently the dragging fender, I'd removed the day before, had rubbed off a good chunk of the tread. I had another tube but not wanting to put my a good tube in a bad tire, I patched it. After finishing up I realized... that was my my last patch. Feeling a bit nervous I reloaded the bike and rode on. My fears were realized when I heard the dreaded hiss again--the process of which coated all my gear with the escaping slime before it scabbed. I decided to risk it: just pump and ride. It took another couple of stops to pump but eventually the slime took. Not willing to trust my luck I picked up a new patch kit in the next town I passed.
I got into Chico and found that CA-99E turned into freeway on which bicycles and other non-motorized transportation are not allowed. I took the side road which looked to parallel 99 into town. Knowing the fastest way to find a bike shop, I asked some kids that rode by, they pointed out the bike shop that was right behind me. Inside the Bicycle Wheel, the owner, Scott hooked me up. He found a $12 tire that met enough of my specifications--mostly cheap--then let me use his stand to put it on and lube my chain. Confident in my equipment again (well that shifting thing hasn't worked right since I left Reno) I set off to get completely lost in Chico. If I'd just stayed on the road I came in on, that the bike shop was even on, I would have been fine. Instead I went off on a tour of Chico trying to follow 99. I found nice greenway along the river, some hunormous [it's not spelled wrong, it's a new word] car dealerships and other sprawl before accidentally ending up back on Park Street where I'd started. Feeling like an idiot after wasting almost an hour riding around, I finally asked how to get out of town. I made sure to double check the direction the guy was pointing lest I end up riding back to Redding.
South of Chico I was just trying to make up for the time I spent in town. The farm land flew by, granaries, trains, fields with those long legged and necked birds, I could have been in any midwest state. Tomorrow is going to be a hoot. Up at 05:00 (for real this time), then try to pick off the 50 miles into Sacramento by 11:30. Wish me luck. [Well we know I made it now though.]