Author: Rootchopper

Down a pint

With warming weather, I am starting to bump up my mileage. On April 28 I managed 52 miles on Big Nellie. I chose the hilly route to Falls Church to buy some Halt pepper spray at a bike shop. It was closed. Derp.

I continued west to Vienna to see if Bikes at Vienna sold any. Nope. I did get to chat with the ever- loquacious Beth. She was dying to get her hands on Bike Nellie for service work, but that will have to wait until I wear out the chain later this year. She mention that she had a recent chat with Lawyer Mike, a loyal customer who is a regular at Friday Coffee Club. Mike bought an electric assist Hase Pino tandem. The front is a recumbent, the real conventional. Mike’s son is developly disabled so the bike allows them to go on weekend excursions. The son is the stoker, which means he sits up front on the recumbent half of the bike. Mike is the captain in back. It’s an amazing design and works great for them.

I had intended on continuing west of the W&OD trail to check out a new bridge over Wiehle Avenue in Reston but Beth told me it isn’t installed yet. So I headed back east. Not a half mile later Mike and his son passed me going west. (They stopped at Bikes at Vienna on their way to a milkshake place in Reston.) I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen someone I know on a bike in the last year.

Temperatures were unseasonably warm but I made it home in decent shape, making sure to take a swig of pickle juice to ward off leg cramps.

I did an easier 30-mile ride the next day, again on Big Nellie. I finished the month on Tuesday with a day off the bike and a blood donation at the Bloodmobile parked at the hospital down the street. Back at home, I set up my tent to make sure I remembered how to do it. I slept in it overnight. It rained. I stayed dry. I slept very deeply in three roughly two-hour stages. I guess the blood donation factored into that.

The weather on May 1 was perfect so I got on The Mule and headed out for what turned out to be a 52-mile ride from my house to Bethesda, Maryland and back. After emerging from the new tunnel under the Humpback Bridge on the Mount Vernon Trail, I noticed a couple of people standing around checking out some Canada geese. Among the adult geese were a handful of yellow-green goslings busily snarfing up grass. The first goslings of the year are always a welcome sight.

First goslings of 2023

I continued onward up the Capital Crescent Trail, stopping in Bethesda to snack on a few cookies I brought then I headed back, down Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park. The temperature was in the 80s but the shade in Rock Creek Park took the edge off the heat. Seeing all the green made me all but forget that stick season is barely over.

On my return, I crossed the Potomac River on the 14th Street Bridge. The ramp connects to the Mount Vernon Trail pretty much exactly were I saw the goslings. This time there were 20 of the fuzzy little critters being tended to by a pair of adult geese. As I stopped to enjoy the goings on, Miles, another Friday Coffee Clubber, came by on his electric-assist Brompton. What’s with these encounters? Miles was on his way home from work and he sped off south on the trail.

More goslings later on the day

After some gosling zen, I headed south as well. About four miles later I came upon a horrific scene on the adjacent George Washington Memorial Parkway. A crash had just occurred. (Miles passed the site before the crash and I arrived just after it.) A BMW was speeding north on the Parkway. The driver passed two cars in the right lane. The driver of the van had entered the Parkway from a perpendicular side street. Eye witnesses said the BMW was going “about 100 miles and hour”. It hit the van and sent the van airborne for what witnesses said seemed like three seconds before it landed on its roof on the Parkway. The BMW ended up upright in the wide median between the north and southbound lanes.

Insane crash aftermath

The force of the impact destroyed the front end of the van, sending parts, including the entire engine, off into the grass on my side of the roadway.

The engine and assorted other debris

The elderly driver of the van had been removed from the vehicle by passersby and was being attended to. He was in rough shape, but was conscious. A school-aged boy who had crawled out of the van was sitting on the grass about 20 yards away, surrounded by some super nice folks. He didn’t have a mark on him and seemed remarkably calm. (He complained to the ambulance crew that his back was sore but there were no surface injuries visible.)

It is amazing to me that no one was killed. (As far as I know, that is; the elderly driver, the boy’s grandfather, is in critical condition.)

The rest of the ride home was blessedly without incident.

Thursday I rode The Mule to a big box hardware store for some home repair supplies. I wanted to take it easy but the store was on top of a big hill so climbing was involved. After shopping, I went for an exploratory ride through Kingstowne and the Fort Belvoir areas The Kingstowne part of the trip was intended to avoid a brutal hill on the direct route to Fort Belvoir. The roundabout route I took cut the one big hill into three manageable ones.

It was hot and muggy during the ride. I drank all my fluids. At home I hit the floor to do my physical therapy exercises. When I went to stand up, the back of my left leg seized up with a humungous, very painful cramp. After it calmed down, I went straight to the kitchen for a shot of PJ.

Today I rode to and from Friday Coffee Club on only four hours of sleep. The weather was fantastic: 70 degrees and breezy. The pollen, however, was not. I had three coughing fits brought on by pollen coating the back of my throat. I used albuterol to calm my lungs and managed to ride home without incident. PJ was imbibed.

I was going to attend to a home repair project but the weather was perfect for napping on the deck and so I did.

Tomorrow I plan on riding 50 miles in the cold rain.

April Go He Won’t – Yet

T. S. Eliot wasn’t entirely wrong about April. Although I must admit April in the mid-Atlantic is decidedly less cruel than it is in New England or upstate New York where I spent my first 29 Aprils.

Reading

Chip Wars by Chris Miller. This book had been recommended by multiple friends. They were right. It’s pretty amazing. It’s the story of the semiconductor industry. Sounds boring, right? The technological aspects are fascinating, but the geopolitics of the chip industry are mind-blowing. Miller tells the story artfully from the very first transistor to the chips that power artificial intelligence.

Watching

The big watching event was the eclipse. We drove to my in-laws’ place in northern Indiana. From there, we drove back roads to Portland, Indiana near the Ohio state line. We were in the zone of totality. Our battle plan worked like a charm with considerable help from the weather gods.

Yeah, I watched the NCAA women’s final. but, for me, April is all about baseball. Nationals fans are a bit like Jim Carrey’s character in Dumb and Dumber: so you’re telling me there’s still a chance! For baseball fans, July is the cruelest month because by mid-summer your team’s flaws become undeniable. For now, the Nats are within a game of .500 and the young talent is starting to show real promise.

I rode to two baseball games at Nats Park. It was a bit chilly but I drank some beer. The games were fun. The ride was funner.

Riding

I took a week off for the first time in years and managed to ride 22 days for a total of 707.5 miles. For the most part, the weather was pretty good. I brought Big Nellie out of the basement and rode it 322.5 miles. Little Nellie chipped in 229 miles. The Mule contributed 156 miles. The Tank took the month off as I tried with fitful success to get rid of the nagging neck pain I’ve been dealing with for months.

I did two long rides of 53 and 52 miles on Big Nellie. The last one in near 90-degree heat.

I’m more than 300 miles below last year’s pace despite having an extra calendar day. I sit at 2,981 miles which projects to 9,017 miles for the year. I need to get my fanny in gear if I hope to make 10,000 miles. I expect to take several days off in May for a family event so 10K will be a challenge.

I spent a good deal of time doing tour prep. Of course, I keep thinking of things to add to my load, meaning I will be sending home a package after the first week like always. Yesterday I acquired a dog whistle, pepper spray, sunscreen, and a small can of shaving cream. Today, I set up my tent in the backyard. As usual, I forgot a few steps but even so the whole thing took only ten minutes. After that I compared my stock of spare tires to the ones on The Mule. I checked my records and the rear Schwalbe Marathon tire has 6,000 miles on it. I should get me another 1,000 miles or two before replacing it. The front tire, a Schwalbe Mondial, is in even better shape.

I also found a kit to overhaul my Top Peak Road Morph pump, a pump that has proven to be barely adequate over the years. It took forever to get the pump apart and when I did I dropped a tiny spring that went somewhere far far away. I also discovered that the replacement o-ring was the wrong size. Clearly, the bike gods were telling me to buy a new pump so I ordered a Lezyne high volume mini floor pump. Beth at Bikes at Vienna recommended Lezyne pumps. There is one video online that slams the design (if you’re not careful you can pull the valve out of the tire!) but it’s hard to imagine it can be any worse than my Road Morph. Time will tell.

I am down to two items yet to be acquired: a small bottle of Dr. Bronner’s castile soap (it always comes in handy) and a tiny metal valve adapter so that I can use a gas station air pump in a pinch. So tomorrow I will celebrate May Day by doing one last shopping trip.

Giving

This month I made my semi-annual donation to World Central Kitchen in the days after their team in Gaza was killed by the Israeli military.

I also made a donation to Warmshowers.org. If you donate now, you will be entered into a lottery for a new touring bike. Sounds good to me.

Finally, I gave blood this morning for the second time this year. They asked if I wanted to give a double red donation but, with a tour looming, I decided to go with a unit of whole blood.

Tour Prep Continued – Dogs

With the start of my tour about three weeks away, I continue to stress out about the aggressive dog situation in Kentucky and Missouri. Last night I watched some YouTube videos about dealing with dogs while riding. Many of them suggest slowing down. (My reaction: AYFKM!) Often the dog will sense victory and back off. They say that you cannot outrun a dog. (This is poppycock. I’ve outrun several.) If the dog doesn’t disengage, dismount, keeping your bike between you and the dog. (This is insanity. I was out for a ride in my home town when a hyper-aggressive dog made a run for me. The dog blocked my way so I dismounted. It was a standoff for the better part of 30 minutes. Needless to say, I was terrified.) My friend Charmaine often stops and just calmly talks to the dog. It works for her somehow. A third idea is to throw small objects like roadside rocks or gravel at the dog. No need to hit the animal. Or even better you can fake like your throwing something. The dog will disengage. (This makes sense to me.)

Letter carriers use Halt or some other pepper spray product. I had a small can of Halt on a mount attached to the handlebars of Big Nellie on three bike tours in the mid 2000s. I never used it but it provided peace of mind. Halt is preferred to other products because it comes out as a stream not a mist, meaning it’s less likely to end up getting blow into your eyes. Amazingly, I found the can the other day and it still works. I can’t seem to find the mount though.

I was once attacked by a huge, aggressive dog in Belle Haven Park on the Mount Vernon Trail near my home. I was riding Big Nellie and didn’t have pepper spray. Seeing the dog’s teeth at eye level was pretty scary. I ended up going off the trail and crashing. The dog declared victory and went back to its master. I called the police. They came in minutes.

A few weeks ago, I bought a small air horn. It’s intended use is to alert bears to your presence while hiking. Yesterday I was discussing dogs with Beth at Bikes at Vienna. They don’t sell Halt but she showed me a similar, considerably larger horn that the shops sells. She also told me about a customer who rode a recumbent trike across the country and used a dog whistle of some sort. This is makes all kinds of sense to me. Since you can put it on a lanyard and hang it around your neck, it means you can have easy access without letting go of the handlebars. (My friend Reba uses a referee’s whistle instead of a bike bell.) I am riding to a local CVS to get one today.

Other options include spraying the dog with water from your water bottle or spraying the dog with bug repellent (the stuff tastes nasty). This comes out as a mist and can backfire.

As a last resort you can yell at the dog. My 2019 and 2023 biking buddy Mark simply yelled “GO HOME!” and, according to Corey his wingman, the dog would stop chasing him. Others online suggest “GET OFF THE COUCH!”.

So I plan on a multi-tiered approach. Sound first. Rock throwing second. Pepper spray third.

If you have any additional suggestions, let me know in the comments.

There’s no crying in pickleball

My apologies to my readers who thought that yesterday’s post was about me. The phone app reblog function didn’t permit me an introduction. So today, I am reblogging a post from Mary, Ed’s wife. Having been in her shoes in the past, I must say she does a far more eloquent job of describing the situation than I could have done. For me the feelings of uselessness were the worst. You know the situation is bad when pickleball is source of solace.

You Can’t Play Pickleball By Yourself

A Folk Remedy Goes Mainstream

My wife’s family is from southern West Virginia we’re summers are hot and humid. According to my wife, her granny used to administer pickle juice to remedy heat-related muscle cramps.

A few months ago I was lying in bed when I was beset by the worst muscle cramps I’ve ever had. They extended from my butt to my ankles in both legs. And they lasted for over 15 minutes.

Seeing me in agony my wife ran and got me a banana. In between excruciating spasms o managed to eat it but the cramps continued. Next she brought out the heavy artillery. She gave me a shot glass worth of pickle juice. Damned if it didn’t work like a charm.

A couple of days ago, I rode to a local bike shop in search of electrolyte tablets for my bike tour. Next to tablets in the shelf in the store was this:

Organic! Extra Strength! Will I be banned from Olympic competition?

I bought two bottles.

As a trial, I drank some pickle juice from a jar in our refrigerator after yesterday’s ride. It tastes wretched but I’ll do anything to avoid mega cramps like I had last year.

Mid-April Bentabout

Yesterday I spread eight bags of mulch then went for a ride on Little Nellie. I lasted 16 1/2 miles before nasty weather nearby chased me indoors. I rode the equivalent of another 16 miles on Big Nellie in the basement.

Today the weather was perfect. I spread another 8 bags of mulch, ate lunch, and decided it was time to free Big Nellie from its winter perch on the resistance trainer in the cellar.

Big Nellie starts working on her 2024 tan.

I took the inland (away from the Potomac River) toward DC. Near the Pentagon, I discovered that a road reconstruction project was nearing completion. This included a new traffic circle and some new bike multiuse trails. After the traffic circle and the I-395 underpass there’s a second traffic circle. Here the new trail connects to a trail that goes under the GW Parkway and intersects the Mount Vernon Trail at the Humpback Bridge.

The new underpass at the Humpback Bridge. Note the sign says that there is a barrier ahead but the barrier is gone.

After using the underpass I looped up onto the bridge where I saw two bike tourists. They were gazing at the monuments across the river and DC and discussing something. I figured they were trying to find their way somewhere.

I rode on and crossed the Memorial Bridge. Near the Lincoln Memorial I noticed that the tourists had stopped on the trail behind me. I circled back and asked them if they needed help. They said they had just flown into Reagan (note: NOBODY in DC calls National Airport “Reagan”) and were riding to Pittsburgh. Been there. Done that. So I gave them encouragement and some directions then idiotically proceeded to go exactly the way they were going to get on the C&O Canal. (Why didn’t I just say “Follow me”? Derp.)

We rode more or less together along the river past the beach volleyball courts, under the TR Bridge, past the Kennedy Center and the Watergate when I decided to take them past the Swedish Embassy on the Georgetown waterfront. Just before the turn to the embassy we saw signs for the C&O Canal Milepost 0. I had never seen it! It was the perfect photo op.

Dallas tourists Raegan (sic) and Sue near the Lincoln Memorial.
Milepost 0

After the photo I directed them to the Water Street cycletrack. Go thata way. Do not stop until you get to Pittsburgh. (It’s really that easy!)

As for myself, I headed up Rock Creek Park to see the trees leaving out and check out dogwoods and azaleas and wisteria and more. After about ten miles I left the park and headed into Bethesda where I picked up the Capital Crescent Trail and zoomed back down to Georgetown and, eventually, home.

The ride ended up being 53 miles. It is my longest ride since the Cider Ride in early November. Thanks to Big Nellie’s comfy ride, I arrived home not the least bit sore.

Back in the saddle

The day after returning home from the eclipse, I took my Bike Friday out for a 30-mile spin. It did not go well. For a start, it was a blustery day. I struggled mightily to maintain any speed on the bike at all. This was, after a week of rest, rather discouraging.

That evening I went to the pharmacy for my seventh (I think. I’ve lost track.) covid vaccination. I didn’t sleep well but rode The Mule in intermittent light rain to Friday Coffee Club. A strong tailwind had me cruising along at 15 miles per hour, something that doesn’t happen very often. While at Coffee Club, a front must have passed through because I was rewarded with a second tailwind on the ride home.

My ride home from Friday Coffee Club featured some flooding

Today, I mowed the lawn for the first time in three, very rainy weeks. The mower kept bogging down in the thick grass. It took about 30 minutes longer than normal. Between the covid shot, my lack of sleep, an extremely high pollen count, and the hard mowing effort, I was wiped out when the work was finished. After a lunch break, I decided to go for a short, easy ride.

The Mule made it about a half mile before it broke into a full on gallop. What the heck? Gusty winds were blasting me through the neighborhood. When I turned into the wind, I completely surprised myself by barely losing any speed. What the heck?

The entire ride went like that. Before the ride, I was expecting to be totally exhausted when I got home, but I was invigorated instead. Dang.

On top of this surprising result, my neck seemed to be nearly better. I still lack my full range of motion but the shooting pains up into my head and the muscle spasms that keep my head from turning from side to side seem to be gone. Dang again.

I honestly don’t know what the cause of my neck problems is or are. It could be a whiplash injury from being rear ended while sitting on my recumbent at a stop light last fall. Or maybe something about the transfer of road shock on my CrossCheck was irritating my cervical spine. I stopped riding this bike a few weeks ago. A third possibility is the Big Three back exercises I’ve been doing for the last several months. One of the big three is a side plank that puts stress on my shoulders and neck. Another is a shoulder lift that, when done improperly, can strain the neck. I stopped doing them during my eclipse week off.

After my post-ride shower, I sat down to do some tour shopping. I bought three things from REI: bicycling shorts (I noticed the pair I have been wearing everyday for weeks is starting to fall apart), a very loud air horn (for my canine friends in Kentucky and Missouri), and a first aid kit (something I should have taken on my previous trips).

Next up was maps. Since I haven’t quite figured out where I am going I ordered the following maps from the Adventure Cycling Association: the sections of the TransAmerica Trail that go from Richmond, Virginia to western Missouri, the sections of the Great Rivers South route between Kentucky and New Orleans, and a section of US Bike Route 66 in Oklahoma.

I also printed out updates for each map set. These give information of changes to the routes and services along the way that post-date the production of the maps themselves. From these I learned that one section of the TransAmerica Trail in Kentucky is unusable. The updates provide a work around. I also learned that my destination in Ash Grove, Missouri is no longer viable. The City Park had a building set aside for bike tourists. The city also allowed bicycle tourists to use the adjacent swimming pool. I might just bypass this bit of the TransAm (as I did in 2019) and head directly to Arkansas. (It only shaves 12 miles off the trip.)

The Great Rivers maps are to be used if I call an audible and ride from Kentucky to New Orleans. I am also bringing a map that would guide me from Missouri to Omaha, in case I decide to head a different way once I get to the end of my TransAmerica jaunt.

I still have a couple of things to buy. I need to buy some electrolyte tablets for my water bottles. My hope is that this will stave off cramps. I also need a power pack for my phone.

Next, I will sit down with my itineraries and the map updates and see if I need to adjust my plans.

Totality Rocks

If memory serves, today was my third solar eclipse. Previously I’ve only seen partial eclipses but this time I went to the max.

A few days ago I drove to my in-laws’ house in northern Indiana. We had been planning to drive 2 1/2 hours to Muncie which is in the path of totality. We were dreading a traffic nightmare.

This morning we called an audible and switched our destination to Portland, Indiana. Portland is northeast of Muncie but is a much smaller town.

Using secondary highways and backroads, my daughter expertly navigated us to Portland in a bit over two hours. We stopped at a gas station convenience store and asked some locals if there was a park in town that would be good for viewing. Sure enough, the town park was one-half mile away.

The park was a bit crowded but we found a parking spot and set up. My mother-in-law had organized drinks, snacks and seating. My wife brought a fistful of eclipse glasses.

After a two-hour wait. We started to see some exciting eclipse action. To be honest watching the moon creep across the face of the solar disc over the course of 90 minutes is a bit boring. We could feel the temperature drop. The amount of ambient light was fading.

Then the big moment.

The last bits of the disc were covered as a tiny dot of red on the edge of the sun vanished. We could hear applause and hoots all through the park and across town. A cannon boomed. We sat in awe for some 3 1/2 minutes until the process reversed. We had expected the birds and spring peepers to become silent at totality. They quieted but we could still hear them.

Truth be told our eclipse glasses made it impossible to see the ring of fire of the total eclipse. Stupidly we peaked at the sun and the ring was evident. Wearing the eclipse glasses caused my pupils to be dilated making the ring look thicker than the one I’ve seen in photos.

Still, it was well worth over 1,000 miles of driving to see the big moment. Check another box off the bucket list.

My daughter and I watching the eclipse and getting nasty sunburns.
My mad scientist look