This is a short post about two very unrelated topics.
Pedaling
Have you ever wondered what riding across the United States is like? You can save yourself a whole lot of pedaling by watching the videos of Mat Ryder as he rides from west to east. As of today, he has posted four “episodes’ each describing several days of riding. He’s an excellent commentator and videographer.
In between action shots, he talks to the camera, giving a spot-on description of each day’s travels and travails. Yes, there are plenty of miseries along the way but his camera captures so much of the beauty of his route. You can almost feel his relief as he reclines in a mountain river on a 100+ degree day. So far, he’s ridden the TransAm Trail from Astoria, Oregon to Hamilton. Montana, the reverse of the route I took in 2022.
He even uses a drone for some truly beautiful views from on high. (Sorry. These views are not visible to earthbound riders.) How the heck he does this is beyond me. He must spend an hour every day setting up shots of him riding past the camera and such.
Here’s Episode 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdYErlkO2_g
The others are easily found on his YouTube page. Thanks to the folks at Bikes at Vienna for bringing this video series to my attention.
Paranoia
Today I became convinced that this blog had been hacked and that I was being stalked, online and in real life. As you may know, a few days ago as I was riding home on my recumbent, a stranger, a man in shorts walking a dog, called out to me by name. Of course, I know people read my blog but it’s quite unsettling for someone to know my first name as I don’t use it online very often.
Well, today I was finishing a ride about a mile from home. As I turned onto a street, I noticed a man in shorts walking on the sidewalk in my direction. He called out to me and used the word “husky”. I didn’t hear anything else he said but it immediately upset me.
Was this the same man as before?
Over the weekend I visited with an old friend in DC, about 18 miles from home. She was with her Siberian husky. I didn’t mention it to anyone outside my home so it seemed extremely improbable that the walker was referring to her dog.
A few days ago I drafted a blog post that briefly mentioned that the size of clothes for overweight boys in the 1960s was “husky”. Draft posts are not supposed to be visible to the public, so you can see that I was quite concerned. Had the walker hacked my blog?
I searched all over the WordPress site for information about security, privacy, and draft posts to no avail. I googled the topic and everything I found said that draft posts are not visible to the public.
I was totally puzzled until my daughter, a recent law school graduate, walked into the room.
“What shirt were you wearing on your ride?”
“The U Conn School of Law shirt you gave me.”
She laughed. U Conn’s sports teams are called the Huskies.
Derp.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
Whew! What a relief! UConn.
Thanks for the video. I watched the first day. Interesting packing – his rear panniers look tiny and his handlebar bag looks huge. But I haven’t done a loaded tour in decades, so who am I to talk?
I agree. His handlebar bag includes all his video stuff including the drone. He does manage to carry plenty of food and water somehow .
I’m still laughing at the husky situation. I’m glad you shared it here.
Huskies, I am LOLing. Thanks for the link to the Mat Ryder page!
He’s also on Instagram. Today he posted that he made it to Nebraska.
cool!!
So funny! How smart of your daughter.