2010 Bike Trip

Church@fargo plymouth ucc.Flat,breezy,temp=80.giant turtle.No restaurant.

June 21, 2010

I posted the above last night via text message, thinking there was no internet in Hitterdal (“Hitter”-dal), population 200. Amazingly, the city park was free to camp in, has water, bathrooms, live electric outlets in the shelter, and as I discovered this morning at 6 am, had not one but two wireless access points with good signal strength.

The entire ride yesterday was flat. There are absolutely no mountains here. Fargo had a lot of potholes, but several miles after crossing the Minnesota border, the road improved considerably.

This is the maximum grade we saw all day – less than 1 percent, I suspect.

Lots of lakes, some blue, some brown

The few businesses in town were closed, except for Pump -n- More. This was our food supply, and I also got 50 cents worth of gas there for the camp stove. We’ll have to stock up before we hit the road. The next town, Callaway, is 30 miles, and also population about 200.

Pump -n- More was the only place open

Elliot is eating well, and has good energy. At Quiznos in Fargo yesterday, he had a Prime Rib Au Jus sandwich, and two sammies. We got a box of vanilla wafers for the road, and he finished his portion before I got through even half of mine. At the Pump-n-More, he had a hot pocket, and still had a full dinner an hour later.

Chili mac for dinner

Children here have about as much fear of strangers as Emperor Penguins do. Local kids were playing in the park, and stopped by. Meggie (short for Megan, I think) showed us Lake Flora, and told us that in the winter, it freezes over and they have Polarfest there. She said people jump in (reminder, we’re in Minnesota, now), and that her mom dove in with costume.

7-year old Meggie was our guide

As we were settling down, Mona Erickson, one of the neighbors living next to the park, called us over to see a huge snapping turtle in her yard. It has just laid some eggs, and their cat was hissing at it. Her husband Jerry explained that the neck is about 8 inches long when it comes out, and demonstrated by tapping it with a yardstick. BOOM! It was like a trap going off. The animal is all muscle.

Huge snapping turtle. That business card is for scale.

This morning, we went to the Pump-n-More, where the locals gather in the morning. Carl and Wanda own the Heritage Rose B&B in town. Call 218-962-3245 if you need a room. Larry is the former Mayor, and gave us free postcards. He is married to Carol (not shown, at the women’s table). They said it’s 75-80 miles to Itasca park, so it’s potentially in range. Also, no supplies until Callaway 30 miles away, so we stocked up on snacks.

Hitterdal breakfast club: me, Carl, Morris, Larry. Not shown: Dean, Earl.

There was a brief thunderstorm last night. Good thing we set up the rain fly on the tent.

June 20, 2010 7:33 am CT

Hector Airport in Fargo was not large, and when we got in at about 5 pm yesterday, it was not busy. We assembled our bikes right in the baggage claim area, and no one seemed to have a problem with it. Since it was between flights, a taxi driver named Randy stopped by to chat with us and give tips on the road ahead. I gave him a card. We also met another family from Spain, with a grandfather who lives here. We didn’t introduce ourselves, but I know the grandson’s name was Pedro. Gave them a card, too.

Assembling and adjusting a bike in a hurry is not as easy as it looks.

And we're off!

I'll have the crab cakes, and throw in salmon, chowder, and shrimp, all for around ten bucks.

We’re en route! Left the house this morning at 4:25 am for San Jose Airport.

At first, the guy at the counter said our carry-ons wouldn’t fit, and wanted us to check them for $25 each. This, on top of the $200 each for the bicycles. I was able to demonstrate that the bags (cardboard boxes I made exactly to 14″ x 22″ x 9″) fit in the tester, so he let us go. He weighed the bikes, and got 42 pounds for one box, and 41 pounds for the other. For $200, you would think they wouldn’t quibble about weight! We were easily within limits, by the way. We wore our helmets onto the plane, saving yet more packing space.

At the gate, the agent announced that there was some scheduling trouble the previous night, so our flight was absolutely full. He asked for volunteers to check their carry-on bag at the gate, at no charge. That was a good deal to me, so I did it.

Both of us were dead tired. Elliot slept 2 hours the previous night; I slept 20 minutes. And now we’re in Salt Lake City Airport. This place looks remarkably like Hawaii, at least, the dry Ewa side of Oahu. The only difference is a slight trace of snow on the mountains.

Our breakfasts were unconventional 1-item bowls at Manchu Wok at the airport. Almost $12 for two, then another $2.50 for a Snapple lemonade for Elliot.

This airport has free Wi-Fi, which is how I’m blogging right now. Good thing we didn’t check Elliot’s carry-on – that had the laptop. We got in at just after 9 am local time, and don’t leave until 1:48 pm. We’re supposed to get into Fargo, ND at about 5 pm. Then it will be a mad rush to claim the boxes, and hopefully, assemble the bikes right on the spot at the airport. We’d better get more rest.

June 19th, 2010 2:34 am.

There may come a day when I’m finally too frail to do adventures, too feeble to go wandering.

Or worse, a day when my mind is so withered and cowardly that I dare not venture out, or my soul so addicted to comfort and luxury that I loathe any change.

BUT NOT TODAY.

Today (or technically yesterday) I shaved with an electric razor for the last time . I used a hairdryer for the last time. I used a big bottle of shampoo – actually, a big bottle of anything – for the last time. I will share a bed (however briefly) with Merrianne for the last time. This is probably the last time I’ll see a city of over 100,000. For the next six weeks, I mean. I will take off my normal street shoes, and not wear ordinary shoes until August.

As usual, packing took up until the last minute. Our flight leaves at 6:20 am, so we should get there 2 hours in advance. I expect we’ll be quite tired in Fargo, but will have a whirlwind of activity getting set up.

Talk to you soon.

June 17, 2010

Twenty-two years ago, a pretty and athletic girl accompanied me on the Transamerica trail. Precisely twenty-one years ago today, we were married.

Elliot is our youngest child, of course.

There seem to be some common threads in the mindsets of those who must carry everything on their back:

• That flexibility, ingenuity, and humor more important than technology;
• That comfort is often more of an inconvenience than a necessity;
• That gratitude for little things is the best entertainment (think Survivorman eating a toasted Witchetty grub);
• To tread lightly – not only is it less work, it preserves treasures for later;
• And finally, to travel light – size and weight dominate thinking.

Seriously, I’m debating not bringing a comb to save weight and space. But I woke up in the tent on our shakeout ride and my hair was all wild. This was bad, but not real bad. My hair is short, and I can brush it into shape with my hand (sort of). It’s going under my helmet, anyway. And my appearance is not crucial operationally. There are some women I know whose hair is an asset – to the extent they probably get freebies and better treatment because of it. That doesn’t apply to me. Merrianne wants me to take a comb. What do you think?

It’s less than 3 days until we fly to Fargo. Most of our stuff is staged, but not packed. Before disassembling the bikes, I weighed everything. I weigh 149 pounds. With the fully loaded bike in my hands, the bathroom scale reads 204. I took off all the packs, sleeping bag, tent, and water bottles, and weighed again. 173.5 . That means my bike is 24.5 pounds, including everything that is bolted to it. The rest of the gear – handlebar bag, rear panniers, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, tent, cooking gear, 3 pints of water in the bottles, and all the rest of my stuff – is 30.5 pounds. I was 15 pounds lighter on the previous tour 20 years ago. That’s like a pound a year!

Elliot has less weight, both on himself, and his bike.

22 years ago, on the TransAmerica bike tour, do you know how many rechargeable batteries I took? None.

But today, whether on a bike, car, or plane, there always seems to be a shopping bag full of electronics to lug along.

I decided that the following battery-powered devices were important enough to bring on this trip:

• Camera
• LED flashlights (2)
• Cell phones (2)
• iPod touch
• Netbook
• Cyclometer

The cyclometers use button cells that are not rechargeable, and merit no further discussion. The camera and LED flashlights both use AA NiMH batteries, so we must bring a AA charger. The iPod touch has a unique Apple connector. We have two cell phones, each with a unique charger. The netbook has its own power brick. This is the largest of the chargers, when the line cord is taken into consideration.

Clockwise from top left: iPod charger, netbook charger, standard cord for netbook charger, AA/AAA battery charger, Motorola cell phone charger, Tracfone charger

And here is what I’ll be taking:

Clockwise from top left: (3) USB wall plugs, iPod cable, netbook charger, shortened cord for netbook charger, AA/AAA battery charger, short Motorola cell phone cable, homemade Tracfone cable

I was able to find very short cables for the iPod and one of the cell phones on the internet. I couldn’t find a short charging cable for the tracfone, so I got a regular data cable, and shortened it These three USB cables plug into the wall adapters at the top left. If we had infinite time, we might get away with two or even just one adapter. However, having three will let us charge all our devices at the same time, and also, if one breaks, we won’t be dead, just slowed down.

The Panasonic battery charger I got at a flea market for one dollar. It works great, and has the feature of fold-in power prongs, so it packs nicely.

Nothing could be done about the netbook charger, which is already smallish for a laptop charger. However, I was able to pick up a spare cord for a dollar at a flea market (I get a lot of things for a dollar), and shorten that to about a foot long.

The final set of chargers is smaller, lighter, and has the added bonus of not having long cords to tangle.

In my relentless quest for size and weight reduction, I’m considering what to take as a towel. In the past, I tried drying myself with T-shirts, but found that it didn’t work very well. I need a dedicated towel. What could I use that’s small and light?

At the local flea market, they were selling Shamwows at 3/$5, or $2 each. I got one, and plan to use it as my towel. Actually, I cut it in half, to make a towel 14″ x 20″. “Made in Germany” is stamped right on the towel. And you know the Germans make good stuff.

My friend Ahmad advised me never to try something for the first time on a major trip. Respecting that wisdom, I’ve been using this half-Shamwow as my bath towel for the past few days. It seems to be enough. My trick after a shower is to ruffle my hair to get most of the water out, then squeegee as much water as I can off my skin using my hands. That leaves only a little bit of moisture for the Shamwow to pick up.

There are only two drawbacks that I can think of for now:

1. It’s too small, too thin, and too stiff to use as a wrap for warmth; and
2. It’s too small to wrap around myself to walk around after a shower, unless I want to give someone an unexpected thrill (or unexpected laugh).

On Saturday and Sunday (Memorial Day weekend), Elliot and I did our shakeout ride to New Brighton Beach. We took the route that I knew – up and over Highway 9. Although I had hoped to leave at 9 am, we ended up leaving at about 11. I wanted to pack as realistically as possible, packing all kinds of things I knew we would never use on this ride, but would use on the real trip.

Ready to go

The climb up Highway 9 was uneventful, although it took 92 minutes. I considered that good, because it was only 12 minutes slower than our time with no load at all. Like last time, we stopped at the top for lunch. Elliot ate 3 hot dogs. I had only one, knowing that the next 15 miles were basically gentle downhill, and sprinkled with towns.

We stopped at Johnnie’s Market in Boulder Creek to get some dinner supplies and snacks. We stopped again at a gas station in Ben Lomond to get 50 cents worth of unleaded for the camp stove. I called Merrianne (my wife) on the cell. She remarked that we were just about to go up “the big hill.” What big hill?!? I thought our climbing was done for the day! I found out that they call it Graham Hill Road for a reason. It might have been one, two miles tops, and there was little traffic, but I had no idea when it was going to end. I was in the granny gear all the way up.

My sister-in-law Janet and her family lived near the top of Graham Hill, but I didn’t even want to bike even the extra 100 yards of hill to find out if they were home. We instead went over and down the other side, stopping at Graham Hill Center at the bottom. I called from there. They weren’t home. From the store, I got possibly the best Popsicle I’ve had in my life – one of those coco delicias.

The best Popsicle in my life

Travel through Santa Cruz and Capitola was a breeze. Motorists were very friendly. We pulled into New Brighton Beach State Park at a little after 6 pm. The sign said “campground full,” but that didn’t apply to the shared hiker-biker area. It was $5 for each of us.

The campground was only full for cars

There were 5 other cyclists at the campground – Jan and Anna (Jan was a man, they were like Dutch or something), Brian, Jerry, and Ian. I chatted with them for a while as I was cooking dinner.

The campground had showers – 2 minutes for 25 cents. That’s pretty cheap if you think about it. Elliot didn’t want to dry out his skin with a shower, but I decided to take one. I had two quarters, and the whole thing planned out. I got completely naked first, and planned to jump right in, even if the water wasn’t hot, yet. I put in the first quarter and rushed in. The water was already warm. I rinsed my hair vigorously, and sprayed my face and head. Then I moved on to the rest of my body. My goal was to get all the salt and sweat off. All this time, I was counting 1, 2, 3, 4, … When I reached 50, I realized that I was all done with the basics, so the rest was just enjoyment. My whole shower, 25 cents.

It got dark, and there was basically very little else to do but go into the tent and go to sleep. Cyclists don’t carry lanterns with them, generally.

When I was half asleep, Elliot said, “Dad! A raccoon knocked over our pots outside.” I passed him a flashlight, but we couldn’t see it through the window of the tent. I went outside to look. The coon had been into Elliot’s open handlebar bag, taken out the ziploc bag of cookies, gnawed a hole in it, and eaten every one. He was surgical about it. The cell phone and other items were left undisturbed. He didn’t even really knock over the (clean) pot, he just moved it to the side a little. There was no more food out, but I zipped up Elliot’s bag, anyway.

About 15 minutes later, I heard a scratching sound up the pine tree. Through the window of the tent, I watched a 20-pound raccoon climb up. I went outside to take a picture of him, but he ran away.

A bandit ate all of Elliot’s cookies

In the morning, Ian told me that there was a quicker and easier way back than Highway 9 – over Soquel-San Jose Road, and Old Santa Cruz Highway. I liked the idea of an easier climb and 10 miles less.

Elliot felt eggs and sausage. Since we had already proven the stove and cooking the previous night, I saw no need to make our own breakfast. I had hoped to find a McDonald’s, to get breakfast and blog over wi-fi at the same time. We first stopped at Gayle’s in Soquel, but they only had pastries. We got back on the road, and just around the corner was the Cookhouse Restaurant – just the thing. At the restaurant, we got to hear the banter of the locals, and joined in to the conversation a bit. I think we should adopt this rule on our real trip: if it’s a choice between meeting the locals and the internet, we should always choose the locals.

Elliot ate every bit, and I mean every bit

It was 4 miles of rolling terrain, then 7 miles of climb up Soquel-San Jose to Summit Road. Up at the top, there was Summit Market, a premium market like Whole Foods, but in the middle of nowhere. It had a plaza with shaded tables, and all kinds of interesting food, including made-to-order sandwiches, a salad bar, and a hot food bar. They had free wi-fi, but I decided to relax rather than get on the internet.

Sandwich at Summit Market

I took notes on this ride. Here were the main discoveries:

• Plastic bag holding camp stove is disintegrating
• Zyrtec helps. Elliot took one before leaving.
• A hat might help with warmth at night
• Elliot must bring sweat pants
• I need to get bigger sweat pants
• Careful opening sodas acquired on the road – they get shaken by the ride
• Put food away – raccoons
• Get real ear buds – Elliot’s retractable ones were clumsy
• Elliot’s handlebar end is loose
• Elliot rear derailleur cannot shift into lowest rear gear with granny
• iPod’s battery is dead after listening to it for the whole ride

5/18/2010

This has little to do with the bike trip, except that the trip was really the only reason for getting a phone at all. For $19.99, I got a Samsung T301G, charger, double minutes for life, and a 60-minute card. I ordered directly from the tracfone.com site, and shipping was free. Note that this is the same price as buying a 60-minute card alone. The phone was refurbished, but appears to work just fine.

The documentation for the Samsung T301G is terrible. All you get is a little card. And if you look on the Samsung site, the pdf is just that same little card. Thank God for the Internet. As long as someone in the world figures it out, Google will find their answer.

I actually bought the phone way back in March, to take advantage of a special deal. It sat idle in a corner of our bedroom until recently. TracFone minutes evaporate after a time limit, so I didn’t want to start service on the phone too long before I actually needed it. If I called their 1-800 number, I would get 10 minutes of time, and 60 service days. But if I activated on tracfone.com, I would get 20 minutes. So, I activated over the web.

• The website said the activation was successful. It also said to turn the phone off and on quickly to establish a network connection, and that it would take a few minutes to work. There was a note at the bottom of the web page that said if this didn’t work within an hour, call the 1-800 Tech Support number. So for the next hour, I did the dance of closing and opening the phone, even taking the battery out and putting it back in, but the display still showed 0.00 minutes and 0 service days left. I tried to make a call but it didn’t work. I called Tech Support, but found they were closed until 8 am the next morning.
• The next day, I got Lisa on Tech Support. She had a Filipina accent – it reminded me of where I grew up. She was very kind. After hearing my trouble, she gave me a long code to enter into the phone, maybe 32 digits. Voila! I had 20 minutes and 60 service days. That evening, I tried to make a call, but it didn’t work. I went to the menu to see if I had a phone number, but it was blank. By that time, Tech Support was closed until 8 am the next morning.

• The next day, I got Nan on Tech Support. She had a Filipina accent, and was very kind. After hearing my trouble, she gave me a long code to enter into the phone, maybe 32 digits. Voila! I had a phone number, which handily spelled MADE-BLIP. Remembering the previous night, I immediately tried to make a call. It didn’t work. I got a message saying “THE SERVICE YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO USE HAS BEEN RESTRICTED OR IS UNAVAILABLE. MESSAGE CA84065.”
• I called back to Tech Support, and got another woman with a Filipina accent. She was very kind, and kept apologizing for putting me on hold while she asked her supervisor things. After checking their billing system and trying a bunch of things that didn’t work, she decided that I needed a new SIM. This was after 30 minutes of debugging. I waited to supply my address so that she could mail me a replacement SIM. Then she said to turn the phone off and on, and tell her what I see. Voila! The phone now showed a little orange icon to show that it was connected to 3G, and gave the expected “Welcome” message. I thanked her for all her work, and hung up.
• Filled with hope, I dialed my home number. RING!! I hung up immediately, and no minutes were billed to the TracFone. I had lost my cool number unfortunately. In reprogramming the billing system, I got a new number that contained a 1 and a 0 – which don’t translate into letters. No matter – I was on my way.

Overall, I still view the activation experience as positive. Tech support was very nice, and I’m a sucker for kindness. So, my advice for lonely old men who have no one to talk with is: Get a TracFone, and try to activate it.

A Few Other Tidbits that the Documentation Didn’t Tell Me about the T301G TracFone

The volume control on the side of the phone is only for the ringer. To adjust the speaker volume, you need to go to the menu, Settings -> Sound Profile -> Phone. If you have keyboard beep turned off for some reason, setting the volume will be grayed out. In this situation, you must enable keyboard beep, set the desired volume, then disable keyboard beep again.

You would expect the Voice Recorder to be under the same tools menu as the camera, but it’s not. To make a sound recording, you must go to the menu, under My Folders -> Audio. It’s not a super-convenient thing to do, if you want to use it often for voice memos.

This model has a speakerphone, but nowhere in the documentation does it say how to turn it on. The speakerphone only works during a call, and you press the OK button to activate it.