‘Cos no adventure is complete without a pickled beets disaster

While I was loading my Ortleib bag int my friend’s car, I froze when I heard the clink of broken glass. Apparently I had tossed in a jar of pickled beets (present for my friend) in there and it had smashed to bits in transit.

Fortunately it was in a stuff sack so the glas was contained within it. Unfortunately the stuff sack also contained all my power and data cables, so I spent an hour picking out pieces of glass and beet from the cables, and wiping them all down. The astonishing thing is that the vinegar seems to have been corrosive enough to create pock marks in the metal prongs of the power cables.

*sigh*

(The other jar of vanilla strawberry jam survived unscathed, so all was not lost on the present front.)

Itinerary for tonight…

Thursday, July 16, 1009
Depart 11:00PM SeaTac (SEA)
Arrive 6:14AM +1 day Cleveland (CLE)
27B, Economy/Coach Class, Boeing 737-800
Continental, Flight 274, 4 Hr 14 Min

Friday, July 17, 2009
Depart 7:30AM Cleveland (CLE)
Arrive 9:15AM Boston (BOS)
22A, Economy/Coach Class, Boeing 737-700
Continental, Flight 1467, 1 Hr 45 Min

Depart 12:30PMBoston (BOS)
Arrive 1:25PM Lebanon (LEB)
Economy/Coach Class, Cessna
Cape Air, Flight 1877, 0 Hr 55 Min

Some last pre-journey words…

I leave tomorrow night on the red-eye to Lebanon, New Hampshire, with no less than two connections (one at Cleveland and another at Boston). I will arrive in Lebanon at 1:25PM (east coast time) where an old childhood friend will pick me up. I might go pick up my bike from Lebanon Motorsports and ride it to her place. I’ll hang out with her part of the weekend and start the big ride on Sunday heading up north towards Montreal.

I don’t have all of the details of the route planned yet, just the first few days where I plan on seeing most of New England, riding some good roads, and stopping at cool little towns, maybe even doing the occassional tourist thing. I hope to be in Ohio on the 31st after which I start heading back out west. You would think that with one month off, I will have all the time in the world to ride without feeling rushed, but I’m sure reality will be far different. On the way I hope to meet many old friends. :)

Assuming my various devices work as they should and I have cell phone coverage, I will post on here as often as I can.

That is all. Thanks for coming along on the ride! :)

Blogging on the road…

So far my attempts to blog while out on my rides have been limited to stumbling across internet cafes in random cities, logging into my account, and posting an update. While on the Alaska ride, I got slightly more sophisticated and set up a discussion list to which people could subscribe to get my broadcast emails.

For the x-country ride, I decided to further investigate different ways of blogging and sending real-time updates via my phone and/or computer. I am carrying a netbook with me to facilitate composing blog posts. I’ll update either when I have access to wifi/internet cafes or from my cell phone.

In my mind, there are two kinds of blogging modes – regular blogging and micro-blogging. Here’s some info on how to set up and use either mode.

MICRO-BLOGGING

Micro blogging is defined as posting mini-updates about your status to a feed that people can subscribe to. The most popular services are Twitter and Facebook. Facebook has a Twitter app that pulls Twitter updates (tweets) and posts them as your Facebook status updated. I figure that the best way to micro-blog would be to tweet via a mobile phone (a Samsung i760 which runs Windows Mobile 6) although you can certainly use a regular computer if you happen to be at one.

Here are various ways to mini-blog. The steps assume that you have a Facebook and Twitter accounts.

UPDATE STATUS IN PLAIN TEXT (VIA SMS)
Be warned that unless your mobile phone plan provides unlimited texting, this is a surefire way to rack up a huge phone bill. When I last checked, Verizon doesn’t allow unlimited texting except between mobile phones, so I decided not to go down this route.

1. Link your Twitter account to Facebook. Search for Twitter app and allow it access to your Facebook account. Note that your Twitter account needs to be set to Public for this app to work.
2. Log in to your Twitter account and go to Settings. Select “Devices”, add your mobile phone number and set Device Updates to “On”.
3. Send texts to the number 40404
4. Your texts will appear as status updates on both Twitter and Facebook.

UPDATE STATUS IN PLAIN TEXT (VIA EMAIL)
1. Link your Twitter account to Facebook. Search for Twitter app and allow it access to your Facebook account. Note that your Twitter account needs to be set to Public for this app to work.
2. Create a Twittermail account. You will be asked for your Twitter username and password and provided with a private, cryptic looking email address like abc123@twittermail.com. In Settings, you will need to set the email account that you will post from e.g. your gmail or hotmail email address.
3. You can set whether just your status update will be just the subject, body or both subject and body.
4. You can also set whether any images you send will be published to Twitpic if you have an account there.
5. Log in to the email account you set in step 2 and send email to the twittermail account.
6. Your email will be published to Twitter and Facebook in a few minutes. There can be a lag of up to 5 minutes.

IMAGE UPDATE STATUS WITH IMAGES (VIA EMAIL)
1. Link your Twitter account to Facebook. Search for Twitter app and allow it access to your Facebook account. Note that your Twitter account needs to be set to Public for this app to work.
2. Create a Twitpic account. You will be asked for your Twitter username and password and your twitpic account will be set up and you will be assigned a pin and an email address to which you can email updates. The email address will be of the form twitterusername.pin@twitpic.com.
3. Send an email from any email account to your twitpic email address with an attached email. If you are on a mobile phone, you can browse to an image you just took with your phone’s camera.
4. ALTERNATIVELY, you can send email to your twittermail email account from the previous section, and if it is linked to your twitpic account, you can post an image the same way.
5. The image you emailed will be uploaded to twitpic.com and your status update on Twitter and Facebook will be updated with a twitpic link.

UPDATE STATUS WITH VIDEO (VIA THE QIK APP)
1. Set up an account at Qik.
2. Link your Qik account to Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you have linked Twitter and Facebook, a post made to Qik is somehow posted only as one update on Facebook.
3. Install the Qik app on your phone (assuming they support your phone’s model)
4. Start up the Qik app and take some streaming video
5. The video is uploaded to your Qik account and a status update is made to Twitter and/or Facebook with a link to the video

REGULAR BLOGGING

Assuming you have a blog set up via a popular blogging service like WordPress, Blogger, Livejournal etc, you can blog in the following ways:

VIA THE WEBSITE
Obviously you can just log into the website and update your blog. It’s harder to do on a mobile phone, but it can be done. Try and compose your post offline on some word processing app on your phone, or on a computer and then transfer to phone.

VIA A CLIENT
If your blogging software provides a mobile client, that would be one way to go. I don’t know of any client for WordPress or Livejournal that works on WM 6.0.

VIA EMAIL
Blog on WordPress via email
Blog on Livejournal via email

If you attach an image to your email, it will be posted on Livejournal seamlessly. Not so easy for WordPress though because blogging to WordPress via email only works if you send email that is plain text, not html encoded, so there is no way to send images.

Gear List

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the gear I bring with me for a long roadtrip.

RIDING GEAR
Motoport mesh kevlar riding jacket (GP2)
Motoport mesh kevlar riding pants (Ultra II)
Motoport Aero-Tex liners for jacket and pants (waterproof/windproof/breathable)
Gerbing heated vest (with on/off switch)
Techniche Evaporative cooling vest and tie
Arai Quantum2 helmet
Daytona Lady Star GTX boots
Held Akira gloves
Lightweight silk balaclava

LUGGAGE
Cortech Sport Saddlebags
Ortleib Rack Pack (Large – 45L)
REI waist pack (camera, gps)
Camelbak bladder and backpack (water+ice)
Roadgear Tank Map Holder

TOOLS
Bike toolkit
Pliers
Chain lube (travel size)
Genuine Innovations tire patch kit
Slime air compressor
3/8 ratchet with sockets and extensions
Nitrile gloves
Duct tape (wrapped around ratchet)
Electrical tape
JB Weld
Zip ties
Rag

ELECTRONICS
Mobile Phone
GPS – Garmin Zuo 550
Camera – Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28K
Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7
Helmet wireless intercom system – Cardo Scala Q2
iPod

CAMPING
REI Quarter Dome Ultralite T2 2-person tent
Marmot Teton women’s sleeping bag
Big Agnes Sleeping Pad
REI TiWare Nonstick Titanium Pot
REI TiWare Mug
Propane stove and tank
Spork and spatula
Salt/peppers/spices shakers
Small jars of oil and small container for garlic paste
Small vial of soap, scrubber and rag
Fire starter
Spade

CLOTHING
Fleece
REI balaclava
Microfiber base layers (top and bottom)
Crocs
Ex-officio moisture wicking underwear
Wool/moisture wicking socks
Sunglasses

EMERGENCY SUPPLIES
Length of neon orange rope
Emergency blanket
Glow stick

PERSONAL ITEMS
Liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner
Toothbrush, toothpaste, floss
Divacup
Hairbrush, hair ties
MSR Ultralite Pack Towel
Woolite/Tide travel sized sachets
Contact lenses, solution, glasses
Band-aids, painkillers
Eagle Creek cubic container for it all

MISCELLANEOUS
Leatherman
Whistle/compass
Petzl headlamp
Earplugs
Sony tripod
Camera filters
Protein bars
Business cards (mini-cards with email address and blog URL to hand out to people you meet out on the road)

FOOD AND DRINK
Protein bars
Nuts
Fruit
Coffee juice
Flask

SUPPLIES
Siphon
Gloves
Cooling vest
Extra face shield
Slime air compressor
Winter gloves

PARTS
Clutch lever
Brake lever
Gear shifter
Headlamp
Spark plugs
Fuses

BOOKS
MOA Anonymous book
Journal and pen
Maps
Guidebooks

The SV has landed…

Lebanon Motorsports in New Hampshire called me this morning to tell me that MY BIKE HAS REACHED THEM. So yay it reached them a week ahead of time, so I don’t have to stress out that it might not get there by the time I fly down next week. Part of me is a bit miffed that JC Motors overestimated and told me it would be there a week later (on the 17th) so I had to postpone my plans by two weeks instead of one. I could have been there now and starting my vacation a whole week earlier if I had known.

I’m not going to be negative though. The guys from the store were totally cool about hanging on to the bike for a week instead of just a day as planned, so I owe them some good quality beer when I go to pick it up. I also talked to them about maybe replacing the kick stand on the bike with a longer one and they said they could totally do that and charge me for 15 minutes of labor (which would be pretty unheard of in these parts). I’d be thrilled if that can be taken of for so cheap while the bike is just sitting there.

The first part of the plan is complete and I’m pleased. I will join my bike soon and together we will have strange, mad adventures together. :)

Day 5… le fin

Day 5

Day 5 woke up somewhat early going by the past few days’ record. Got up, showered and went to Linda’s Restaurant again to get breakfast. Breakfast was a hotcakes shortstack and a side of eggs. The pancakes of course turned out to be so super-size that I could only manage to eat about a quarter of the serving.

I wanted to take the shortest path home that I could while still catching a couple of good roads on the way. I crossed back over into Washington, heading north towards Goldendale and then on a little backroad – Bickleton Highway – that would lead through Bickleton and end at Mabton, where I would get on 82W and then 90W home. The backroad was about 60 miles long and a little out of the way but it really paid off because it was completely remote and scenic. You know it’s a good ride when you’re not checking your speedo, but just going with the flow and responding automatically to the road without thinking about it. The towns that the road went through are hardly even deserving of that description, but it’s what you would expect going through rural America.

Hitting 88W was a reality check of the dreary freeway slabbing through miles of arid desert that lay ahead before I was finally home. I wanted this part to be over quickly. :| Got off at a little town called Buena to catch another supposedly scenic backroad to Moxie City. The road led through the Yakima wineries and I suppose it was pretty but the dry heat was getting to me and I was getting a little hungry by now.

Stopped at Moxie City and went to the grocery store to get supplies for lunch, then rode over to the local state park and sat in a shady grove of trees to eat a well deserved lunch and a bit of a nap.

From here on it was back to 82W where it had gotten really windy – almost as bad as it had been on the gorge. I slowed to a 60mph crawl in a 70mph speed limit zone, which sucked but I didn’t feel safe going any faster when the wind was trying to rip my head off every few minutes. :| Got off at Ellenburg and took Highway 10 to Cle Elum so that I could go a bit slower. It helped a bit with the wind because there was more tree cover.

Getting on I90 at Cle Elum turned out to be a nightmare because of a massive traffic gridlock. The view of the bumper to bumper traffic miles ahead made me worry that that’s how it was going to be all the way to Seattle. This turned out to be unfounded though as the freeway split up into more lanes and traffic finally started moving. I managed to get up to a comfortable 70-80mph pace for the rest of the ride. It was a relief and a delight to finally be riding back through typical Pacific Northwest foliage with the cool weather and the evergreens fringing the freeway. I had never quite noticed how pretty I90 was for an interstate. It was still a bit windy but exceedingly manageable. I pondered all the things I would do when I got home to figure out how I could beat the wind the next time – install my old windshield, try to get a closer fitting jacket so the wind wouldn’t billow around in it, see the suspension could be tweaked at all to make it handle better etc.

I got into Seattle at around 6:30PM – way later than I had hoped – but it was still sunny out. Rode into the parking lot, parked, unloaded. I was home. It wasn’t quite the ride I had had in my head when I had started out, but it had had its moments.

Photos coming soon.

Days 3 and 4

Day 3 saw me leaving Redmond and heading out west towards Sisters. It seemed like a charming little town which I unfortunately didn’t stop at. The weather continued to be marvellous and the route I picked to head towards Eugene – 126 and 20 west turned out to be neat little roads – remote, winding and twisty. There were a few Snow Zone signs which made me a bit nervous, not wanting a repeat of the previous day’s experience, but fortunately all the roads were wide open.

The best ride of all was a little winding backroad called Brush Creek Ln. that led south from Sweet Home to Springfield. It was a glorious lazy, winding road that ran through rural lands with little farmhouses and sloughs – my favorite kind of road. :)

From Springfield, I got on I5 and took the quickest path to Dexter, OR. It was great to see the old familiar faces of people I hadn’t seen in almost a year! I found a spot up on the hill to pitch my tent – happy to finally be using it.

The party was good and mellow. Nobody got shit-faced and fell in the ditch this year, but we did have the gigantic 10 foot bonfire and a live band.

Day 4

Day 4 – Sunday – saw me waking up later than expected (mostly on account of being woken up by loud, chirping birds – why on earth do they do that?! – and not being able to go back to sleep for  while). Got breakfast, said my goodbyes and took off, this time north on I-5 for the shortest path to Portland. I managed to ride 120 miles non-stop before I finally reached PDX.

Had lunch at my favorite Cuban restaurant – Pambiche – sugarcane juice, fried plantains and an appetizer plate of Cuban goodies. I managed to not have a siesta and got back on the bike to head to the Columbia River Gorge.

I was hoping to ride both sides of the river and spend the night at a friend’s place in Washougal. Alas, like the rest of this trip, fate had other plans for me.

The ride started off on the old Columbia River highway which was a cool, historic road that would have been rad to ride early in the morning some weekday, but was absolutely tourist hell on a late Sunday afternoon on Memorial Day weekend. After about 15 miles of crawling along at 20mph I finally got on I-84 which I rode about 100 miles through Hood River and The Dalles.

At The Dalles I crossed the bridge over into Washington to head east to see the mock Stonehenge monument. This is when what had been a glorious day slowly turned into hell with side winds that threatened to rip my head off every few minutes. It was scary enough that at one point I just stopped, feeling a little paralyzed with fear and wondering how to get the hell out of there. I finally wound up going 15 mile east to see the Stonehenge, took some pictures and then went off to find a campground. The closest one was full up though and I ended up crossing back into Oregon to find a motel in Wasco. I called my friend to tell him that I wasn’t going to make it to Washougal after all. :|

So here I am now, in Dinty’s Motor Inn (I kid you not). Dinner, a hot shower and a warm, soft bed has taken the edge off a bit and I’m feeling a little less bummed about my best laid plans all going to hell.

Ah well, win some, lose some, right? Let’s see what tomorrow brings. I want to find the shortest path back to Seattle so that I can get there by afternoon and chill out and enjoy the rest of the day in  my old familiar neighborhood. But I’m not holding my breath.

Day 2…

Day 2 of the ride was again a mixed bag of worms. We got a pretty late start heading out of Portland. By the time we were packed and ready to go, it was almost noon. Our plan was to take 224 south, then hit 26 south to go past Bend and camp in the Deschutes area.

After we went past Estacada though we saw a sign that said that there was no through access because of the snow. We stopped and called ODOT who said that it was a mistake and that the road should be clear. Feeling more assured we went on.

Highway 224 was a blast – mostly remote, twisty and scenic with its views of the Clackamas River. Imagine our surprise when 70 miles down we got flagged by another rider who said that there was 2 feet of snow two miles down the road! And sure enough there was. :|

This meant that we had to double back 70 miles (although a very gorgeous 70 miles of road) and decide what to do from there. After we reached Estacada again, we stopped to get a bite to eat and ponder our options. We ended up deciding to head north a bit, get on 26 and then 97 south. I didn’t think that we’de make it there by dark, especially because I was a little tired after four hours of riding and I didn’t really want to be riding another 3-4 hours.

We made a good effort of it and rode 100 miles non-stop before we reached Madras. The route overlooking was beautiful although with lots of traffic. There were a few spots that made me gulp and slow down because of the heights (curse the fear of heights). At Madras, Sarah decided that she wanted to continue on to Deschutes while I decided to stay put because I was too tired to continue. We separated and I went on to Redmond and found a place to sleep at for the night.

My phone’s LCD screen had inexplicably cracked earlier that day and I was without access to GPS and internet, not to mention phone numbers of people that I needed to meet this weekend. It was almost an imperative for me to have found a hotel room with internet access. I got online and got all the directions and phone numbers I needed. I also tried calling my own number from the hotel room phone until I finally got it to turn on and be receptive (not easy when you cannot actually see the screen on the PDA). The hotel bill will not be pretty.

Today I ride out to Eugene, I’m not sure down which way yet. Maybe highway 126 over to Sisters and then 120 to SPringfield and then south, or 97 south and 58 west. I am leaning towards the former because the latter is the route I followed last year.

I’m not sure when I will be online next. Maybe tonight or in two days, whichever comes first. :)

Day 1 of Memorial Day Ride…

I left home at around 2:30PM on Thursday evening to catch the 3:00 ferry to Bremerton. Made it there a few minutes before they started loading. Rode on, parked, went upstairs to the deck and took a few photos of the gorgeous skyline with the Space Needle in the distance.

The ferry ride was about an hour spent in silence and contemplation. Finally for a long ride by myself, I think. Alas, fate had other plans for me.

Got off the ferry a little before 4:00PM, rode off and promptly missed the turn to 403 and got hopelessly lost. Google Maps stopped working so my GPS fob was useless. Finally made it back on the freeway in 15 minutes, thinking – “Away I go! To freedom! The open road! The wind on my face!”

And got stuck in a bumper to bumper traffic for the next 1.5 hours in 80 degree weather and a rapidly overheating bike, not to mention a slowly cooking me.

Apparently the Hood Canal bridge closing up north was forcing a lot of people to take a detour south and head back north via the route I was on. To think that the only reason I hadn’t taken it was because I wanted to avoid the gridlock in Tacoma. :|

At one point the heat got so unbearable that I pulled off the side of the road. I saw another bike stopped a little ways ahead and rode up to her to see if she was okay. She was, we chatted a little, then got back on the road and rode side by side for a little while. Her name was Dina and she rode a Harley Sportster. She was a typical Harley rider in leather jacket, chaps and a half helmet – the kind I never dreamt I’d be chatting up, but bad traffic makes for strange bedfellows. She was pretty cool too so I invited her to stop with me at the next rest stop where I planned to wait until traffic got better.

Finally we reached Belfair and I saw a McDonalds which appeared to be an oasis (a clear first indication of a heat stroke), I turned off the main road and went in to get ice cream and a long drink of cold water.

We waited in there and chatted about our biking adventures. She had had an interesting life – she had lived in England, New Mexico, and all over Washington state. She rode and camped a lot.

We sat there for about an hour by which time the traffic had subsided. I was beginning to have doubts about ever reaching Astoria before 10:00PM (when the hostel said they would be closing) especially with the Memorial Day traffic heading down 101 towards the coast. The heat had sapped a little bit of my strength and I wasn’t looking forward to riding another 200 miles before dark.

I decided to ride with her to Olympia and then south towards Kelso, where I’d decide to either head south to Portland or west to Astoria.

It was dark by the time I got to Kelso, so Portland it was! Portland, and Sarah, and a pint and a soft, warm bed for the night.

And so here I am, getting ready to load up the bike again and head on south to the Deschutes area in central Oregon. They say there is an obsidian flow that you can walk through. More on that tomorrow.