Tag: biking

Weather Gone Bung – November 2024

The month began with more rainless days. The streak continued for over 35 days. There were wildfires in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. At the very end of the month, the weather switched to wintery. Brrr. Climate change will be the death of us.

The election results shocked me. I can’t believe that Harris didn’t even win the popular vote against the most flawed opponent in history. As I recall Biden won by only tens of thousands of votes in the swing states. In a tight race, misogyny and racism exceeds incompetence and corruption. The next four years are going to be painful. As for me, I am turning off the TV and skipping the alarmist articles in the newspaper about what is going to happen. Worry is like carrying an umbrella on a sunny day.

Bicycling

The quest for 10,000 miles carries on. I hit 9,000 miles on November 7 and finished the 865-mile month with 9,623 miles.

I did two event rides. The 60-mile Cider Ride featured a posse of six. We had good time and the pizza and beer afterwards were delicious. The Ride for Your Life was a more somber affair. The ride was 8 miles from Bethesda to the Lincoln Memorial. The event raises awareness about traffic violence in the U.S. Getting to the start was a 21-mile ride in itself, making for a 43.5 mile day.

My back woes were really getting to be unbearable in October. I went to a wedding and the pain was tough to take. I also had neuropathy (pain and tingling in my right hand and arm) that seemed to worsen by the day. After riding my recumbent upon my return, I could barely stand up. I had been researching platform pedals for a while when I kept hearing that when using them you need to move the saddle forward. So, on a whim, I moved the saddle on the CrossCheck forward a few millimeters. My comfort on and off the bike was immediately improved.

I bought some MKS Lambda platform pedals and put them on the Tank. It was the first time in 40 years that I had ridden without toe clips and straps. I found I needed to raise the saddle a tad but the resulting position served me well. Even better, the pedals work great with my overboots and with my hiking boots.

Unfortunately my neuropathy returned. Earlier in the year I developed trigger finger on the middle finger of my right hand. (The finger will randomly lock in a crooked posture like a claw. Eek.) A hand surgeon gave me a shot of cortisone. Time will tell if sets me right. He also tested me for carpal tunnel syndrome. I passed! So I have a medical BOGO and, as a bonus, a pinched nerve in my neck.

A couple of week later I went for a deep tissue massage. It was pretty painful but the therapist concurred with the surgeon about the pinched nerve. She pulled me this way and that. She pressed one knotted muscle after another. I hurt all over. But two days later I felt much improved.

Reading

The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto tells the mostly overlooked story of New Netherland with a focus on New Amsterdam. My wife gave it to me for my birthday and I thought it was going to be a snoozer but it turned out to be very interesting. (I am from Albany, New York which plays a role in the story so I have a heightened personal interest.) New Amsterdam, like “old” Amsterdam was a mixture of melting pot and wild, wild west. The town was an outpost of the Dutch West India Company which specialized in privateering, raiding non-Dutch vessels and stealing their goods. New Amsterdam was on the threshold of becoming a sort of proto-US when the Brits showed up with their warships and took over. God save the king and all that nonsense.

The Hunter by Tana French. This grand thriller is a sequel to French’s The Searcher. Cal Hooper is a retired Chicago cop living in rural northwestern Ireland. He’s an outsider and a distrusted guarda (cop) to the locals who make living in a small town something out of a Sartre play. A couple of grifters come to town in search of gold. Crosses and double crosses, plot twists and turns, and that’s all before the murder. And then the Dublin police show up. Eek.

Watching

Endurance is a National Geographic documentary about the 2022 search for the wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship at the bottom of the sea near Antarctica. The film interweaves the story of the Endurance expedition of 1914 to 1917 and the search for the wreckage nearly 10,000 feet below sea level in 2022. I’d already read two books on the Endurance so I knew the story of the expedition but I found the documentary interesting nonetheless.

Mat Ryder’s Great Divide Mountain Bike ride – After watching the video series of his ride across the US by road, I decided to check out his ride from Banff, Alberta to Antelope Wells, New Mexico along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route last year. Steep climbs, scary descents, wildlife (grizzly bears, elk, bison, rattlesnakes, llamas, free range cattle, hawks, vultures, and more), rain, impassable mud, hurricane- remnant winds, blistering sun, high altitude, and more. There was also amazing scenery, appalling meals, and incredibly friendly people. He crossed the routes of my 2018, 2019, and 2022 tours in several places. This video series comes in roughly half hour installments (beginning here) or in one edited three-hour movie.

Beatles ’64. This is a documentary that trots out film and interviews about the Beatles first trip to the U.S. There’s nothing new to be seen, of course. I watched it while I was doing laundry. The performances benefited from new techniques that clean up the sound and isolate the band from the screaming crowds. It’s interesting to hear parts of their first U. S. concert in a boxing ring at the Washington Colosseum, now home to an REI store. I was one of the 70+million viewers who saw them on Ed Sullivan and didn’t “get” them. They were very different from what I was used to. I was a little too young and wasn’t into music yet.

September 2024 – Wet/Nice/Wet

The weather in September 2024 in the mid-Atlantic suffered from bipolar disorder. It started out rainy but then we were treated two two weeks of gorgeous weather. The last two weeks have been a washout. Fortunately for me, when it rains this time of year, the droplets are warm. Riding in the rain has actually been kind of pleasant.

Biking

With both The Mule and The Tank back from the bike shop, I was ready to ride my steeds into autumn. During the nice weather weeks, I did a 56-mile ride in the Virginia Piedmont. I wasn’t feeling all that strong at the start but I listened to Mitch McConnell and I persisted. I was aided by a MASSIVE club sandwich at a country store in Orlean at the 20-mile mark. The climb up Naked Mountain was pretty tough, even with the new, lower gearing on The Mule. The traffic and rumble strips on US Highways 17 and 50 was nasty but I had a good time regardless. I followed this ride with a couple of 40+ mile rides, one on The Mule near Middleburg, Virginia and the other on The Tank in Talbot County, Maryland. The latter featured me running out of gas on the drive to the start and a pleasant 10-minute ferry ride.

Otherwise I solved my where-will-I-ride-today problems by running errands by bike. My bikes took me to a building supply place in suburban car hell, to a pharmacy to get a flu shot, to the polls to vote, to a diner to have breakfast with my wife, to Nats Park three times, to Friday Coffee Club four times, on a fruitless search for the best Italian sub in DC, and on a tour of auto body shops to find a good place to take my car (my neighbor backed into my car with his big pick up truck a couple of days ago).

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s 50 States Ride came around on the calendar and I was once again joined by a fabulous posse. This year we had Michael, Kevin, Chris, and Sara back from last year and several new additions. New friends of the posse included Neena, Richard, Imogen, Wolfgang. Mac, Constance and, at the next to last pit stop special guest John. This was my 16th 50SR and one of the toughest. Many of us will be riding together on the WABA Cider Ride in early November. There will be pie.

For the month I logged 940 miles, my first sub-1,000-mile month since May. I will begin October with 7,945 miles for the year. If I average a little over 22 miles a day until the end of December, I’ll break 10,000-mile mark for the seventh straight year.

Watching

Baseball – The Nationals closed out the season by bringing up a bunch of young players from the minors. And the results were pretty much as expected. Mediocrity. The best thing the Nats have going for them is the bike valet at the ballpark, conveniently located 15 miles from home.

Movies – Monsieur Spade is a six-part noir mini-series in which an old Sam Spade gets involved in shenanigans in a French town. Everyone is trying to find a young boy, but why? Like the Maltese Falcon, the boy is a classic McGuffin. Clive Owen plays Spade. Understanding the plot requires some knowledge of French involvement in Algeria in the 1950s. Unfortunately, this info isn’t provided until the next to last episode.

From Russia with Lev – A documentary about how a Ukrainian grifter became an intermediary for Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump in Ukraine, helped Trump get impeached, and destroyed himself and many others in the process. Absolutely fascinating how a nobody could become a close associate of an incompetent and corrupt president.

VIdeos – I looked forward to the end of each week to watch the latest installment of Mat Ryder‘s ride across the country.

Reading

North Woods by Daniel Mason. The tale of events in a single home somewhere in western Massachusetts. The story begins in the 1600s and continues episodically into the 21st Century. Along the way, it touches on aspects of American history including the Puritans, apple farming, abolitionism, murder, lobotomies, the loss of native flora and fauna, and more. Sound weird? It’s not. A very fine book.

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton. This one’s a whodunit set on a island after an apocalyptic event. Rather than explain why, let’s just say this one wasn’t my cup of tea. After 200 pages and dozens of red herrings, I could not have cared less who did the murder or why.

What fools these bicyclists be – 50 States 2024

Saturday was the Washington Area Bicyclists Association’s annual big fundraising event: the 50 States Ride. The ride is a triumph of marketing over sanity. Participants pay $80 to ride 60 hilly miles in the heat and humidity (when it’s not raining), all within the eight wards of the District of Columbia. Did I mention that the streets are open to traffic? We’re havin’ fun now!

This year was the 21st running of the 50 States and my 16th time participating. I’ve been riding WABA events with Chris, Michael, and Kevin for several years now. Remarkably they have not grown tired of my company. A couple of years ago Chris invited Sara with whom he worked. The five of us form the core members of the posse. (Domitille, a sixth recent member, had to miss this year’s ride due to injury. We hope to have her back in the fold for WABA’s Cider Ride in November.) Our posse members invite others to join us. This year Chris invited Isabon, Sara invited Jenna and Richard, Kevin invited Neena. Isabon brought her father, Wolfgang. Monica, who rode the last couple of rides with us, decided to volunteer at a pit stop but sent along Constance and Mac.

The course changes every year. Lately it has gone clockwise around the city. The course is tweaked to show off new bicycle infrastructure, sponsors’ projects, and changes to the cityscape. Having done this ride since 2006, I can attest to the fact that DC today is vastly different than it was 18 years ago.

Funny. It looks flat on this map.

The dozen of us lit out from the start in the Edgewood neighborhood smack dab in the middle of DC. We timed our departure to avoid other groups whom the ride organizers send out at intervals with ride marshals. We don’t mean to be antisocial but when you get over 20 people of different skill levels riding together in the city the congestion can get stressful. There were a few miles where we were bunched up with other groups but by and large we were successful riding as an independent unit. As is often the case, we adopted a couple of course marshals, Micah and Stephen, along the way. At the rest stop around 45 miles into the ride I was greeted by an old friend. John is the father of one of my son’s best friends from high school. He was riding the event for the first time and looked considerably fresher than me.

Two Johns at the Wegman’s pit stop in Northwest.

Michael decided to ride the entire ride on bikeshare bikes. Every so often he’d veer off course to trade in his bike for another. I think he gets some sort of points from the bikeshare folks and avoids rental charges. He managed to obtain electric assist bikes for the hillier sections. We hate Michael.

Chris told me that his GPS file indicated there are 11 significant climbs along the route. I counted 45, a triumph of misery over digital mapping science. The worst climb goes one steep mile from MacArthur Boulevard to Macomb Street in the northwest section of the city. After a brief downhill, this monstrosity is followed by a second, soul-sucking half-mile climb up Cathedral Heights. Six miles later we descended into Rock Creek Park only to climb right back out for a mile. Dang.

Instead of using the digital file, I use the paper cue sheet. Actually, it’s a 18-page booklet containing nearly 270 cues. This virtually ensures that I will make a wrong turn. This year I set a PR, making four wrong turns. (Actually one was semi-intentional as I saw three of our riders obeying the GPS audio instruction and turning a block early and going off route. I followed them in order to lead them back to the course.) Ironically, earlier in the ride after we crossed over the Washington Channel, a course marshal made a wrong turn entering East Potomac Park. I ignored the error and stayed on route. The Mule abides.

The clockwise course seemed somehow hillier than in prior years. I struggled for most of the ride even though The Mule had a new, lower climbing gear thanks to Beth at Bikes at Vienna. It may have just been the heat (mid-80s) and humidity at work or perhaps the fact that I’m old, decrepit, and grumpy.

By 58 miles I had had enough. We could have gone straight to the finish but the course meandered through the campus of The Catholic University, along the super nice cycletrack on Irving Avenue Northwest, and past the bizarre looking McMillan Sand Filtration site which is being developed into a mixed used community by one of the event sponsors. After McMillan we had a tedious one-mile ride in heavy traffic to loop back to the finish.

After the ride, the posse hung out at the after party which, owing to our slow riding pace, was all but over. Still we ate some sammies and hydrated our weary bodies. (I went all Stanley Kowalski and had a Stella.) I guess the ride was a success because several posse members expressed an interest in doing the (considerably easier) 60-mile Cider Ride in November. Well done, y’all.

Most of the posse after the ride. Clockwise from left: Richard, Chris, Me, Sara, Michael, Constance, Mac, Jenna, Micah, Kevin, Neena.

Many thanks to all the volunteers and WABA staff for all their hard work on this event. Special thanks to Mike and Lisa who convert their home in Tacoma into a very welcoming pit stop every year. And to Patti Heck who stood at the corner of Alaska Avenue and Geranium Street Northwest to take photos (links above) of riders as she has done for many years now.

Gassed and Windblown

With the prospect of several days of rain ahead, I decided to drive over to Easton, Maryland to do a ride on level ground. The ride would include cool grave yards, colonial era towns, a ferry, and corn and soy fields. Most importantly there would be no hills.

There being no hills, I opted for The Tank, my Surly Crosscheck. This bike is heavy and, despite a recent modification to its gearing, is best used on this kind of terrain.

I have put about 1,000 miles on my 2009 Honda Accord this year. The last time I bought gas it cost me about $3.70 per gallon. My wife, who drives considerably more, has been telling me about finding gas for under $3.00. With a fuel gauge indicating I had a tad less than 1/8th of a tank, I headed out to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in search of cheap fuel. No problem. My gas tank holds 19 1/2 gallons.

By the time I reached the Bay Bridge, I had gone about 50 miles. My fuel gauge indicated that my tank was empty but, as we all know, the needle on the fuel gauge always goes below empty before the tank is truly empty, right?

I made it over the Bay Bridge and started scouting out a gas bargain. I passed a dozen gas stations, all of which had prices in the high $2.90s. With the needle in the empty, red zone, I continued on. Some basic math indicated that I should have plenty of fuel left. As the highway turned toward Easton, I passed a gas station that was partially obscured by some box trucks. No worries, I’ll just go to the next one.

There wasn’t another station for over 20 miles.

With the station in sight on the opposite side of the divided highway, I was about to change lanes to turn toward it when my car said, “Not today”. The engine sputtered once then cut out. Did you know that cars lose speed remarkably quickly when they run out of fuel. A total car bonk! The traffic behind me not so much.

I looked to the right and saw that there was no shoulder, only a drainage ditch. Eek.

Luckily the turn for the gas station was at a signalized intersection with right and left turn lanes. I guided the car into the right turn lane and rolled to a depressing stop.

With my emergency flashers on, I decide to hoof it to the station. I emptied one of my three water bottles to use as a gas container and started out. Cars were lining up at the red light. A white SUV rolled up and the driver asked me if I was okay. I explained my situation and he asked, “Would you like a gas can?”

Yeah, buddy.

He turned onto the road to the right, stopped, and pulled a small gas can out of the back of his hatchback. I thanked him profusely and told him I’d be back in a few minutes. After a long wait to cross the highway at the light, I made it to the gas station, bought about 2 gallons of fuel and headed back to my car.

On the way back, a passenger in a different car waiting at the red light leaned out the window and said something like “I hope your day gets better.” Despite the hassle of running out of gas, I realized at that moment that I wasn’t the least bit upset. After all, I had been driving for 52 years and this was the first time I had run out of gas.

My car, and my bike on a rack on the rear, thankfully, had not been rear ended. I decanted the gas into the gas tank then drove to the side street to return the can. The SUV was nowhere to be found. I stood around holding the orange/red gas can high so that perhaps my Good Samaritan would see me. No luck. In the end I drove off to Easton with an empty gas can and some heartfelt gratitude.

Once in Easton I saw a sign for $2.85 gas. Yes! When I got to the pump, I saw that it was a special rate for Royal Farms club members. I being a Royal Farms philistine paid $2.97. When karma meets irony, you pay the man, Shirley.

As for the ride, it was a tad shorter than planned. I stitched the ride together from the excellent brochure from Talbot County (of which Easton is the county seat). The brochure shows six rides of between 26 and 38 miles. Color coded maps and cue sheets are included. And one master map shows all six rides. I started on the blue route, switched to the brown route, then planned to finish on the green route.

The first 15 miles on the blue route featured a strong tailwind out of the east. I zoomed from Easton to Saint Michaels with ease. After meandering in Saint Michaels for a while, I headed east into the wind, crossing the Tred Avon River on the Bellevue-Oxford ferry. From Oxford I continued east, switching to the brown route, a tour of interesting old graveyards. Along the way, I watched farmers in their big corn harvesting machines taking in the last crop of the season. The machines look like massive green barber shears on wheels.

At Dover Road I turned to join the green route, a tour of more farms, mostly soy and corn. Somehow I managed to miss a turn and ended up on a highway that would cross the Choptank River. I checked the Google and realized that crossing the river would add about several windy miles to my ride.

Having already ridden about 20 miles into a strong headwind, I decided to pack it in and reversed course back to Easton, going off route in the interest of exploring some backroads. It was a good decision. Forty one windy miles was enough for me on this day.

I highly recommend the brochure. If you are looking to get away from the city and want some easy, low-stress riding, Talbot County is a good choice. The ferry ride is my favorite, but make sure to check the ferry schedule. Also, bring cash for the $7 one-way fare.

Saint Michaels
When there are no cars waiting, bicyclists and pedestrians can summon the Bellevue-Oxford ferry with this signal
The Tank on the Talbot
New pavement, pine needles, no traffic. Works for me.
The rail trail in Easton.

Going long for sunflowers

Two of the highlights of summer in the DC are the Lotus and Water Lily Festival at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and the sunflower blooms in the exurbs. I went to Kenilworth three times this summer. It’s a little over 20 miles from home. The only downside to going there is the fact that the flower ponds have no shade. The flowers are pretty but the heat and humidity are intense. No complaints from me though. Pick a lotus blossom and stare and your brain goes to a quiet place.

One problem with these two events is that they occur at nearly the same time. Fields of sunflowers can be found in many places but McKees-Beshers Wildlife Management Area in Maryland is pretty easy to access by bike. Easy, that is, if you don’t mind riding a long way.

The sunflower fields are a little over 40 miles from my house. What better way to see if I still got it. I haven’t ridden over 75 miles in a day in over a year. My tour fiasco this summer combined with my upcoming birthday (don’t ask) has eroded my self confidence.

I took The Mule to Bikes at Vienna the other day. It needed some serious TLC. Because of staff illnesses and the usual summer repair surge, they are backed up big time. No worries. I have other bikes.

Gulp.

Recently I have ridden Big Nellie, my Tour Easy recumbent. Recumbents are normally ideal for people with bad backs. Despite the fact that I have put 51,000 miles on this bike, I have lately been experiencing nerve pain after riding it.

That leaves me with Little Nellie, my wee Bike Friday, and the Tank, my Surly CrossCheck. The former is tough on my lower back on long rides. The latter has been such bad news for my neck that I have all but ignored the bike for three months.

No guts, no glory. I decided to ride The Tank. Three days ago, I took it for a 40-mile ride, an out and back affair on the paved Washington and Old Dominion trail. The trail from Vienna to Leesburg transitions from suburbs to towns to fields of data centers to somewhat wooded areas. Northern Virginia farms used to grow bites; now they grow bytes. I had 19 deer and two bunny sightings during my ride. When I finished my neck and back felt fine.

The next day I rode The Tank another 40 miles. This time I rode to Friday Coffee Club. After that I rode to northeast DC to scout out the parking situation for September’s 50 States Ride. (It’ll be my 16th. The posse is looking good!) After a stop at home, I did an errand run to the local pharmacy. Once again my back and neck felt fine afterward.

Yesterday, after sleeping only about three hours then procrastinating all morning, I took off for the sunflowers. I rode the Mount Vernon Trail to Georgetown where I picked up the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath. After three miles I climbed up a steepish hill to MacArthur Boulevard. This road goes straight to Great Falls, Maryland with just one hill along the way.

In Great Falls I switched back to the towpath for about 13 miles. I saw egrets and herons and deer along the way. After crossing Seneca Creek I took an unpaved path through the woods to River Road. River Road is a hilly, two-lane road that is a favorite of speeding drivers. The hill west from Seneca Creek is steep and long, not the kind of thing The Tank is good at. We made it to the top after which I heard a creepy skidding noise behind me. An SUV driver had slammed on its brakes and slid on the glazed asphalt. A few seconds later he stomped on the gas and blew by me with engine groaning.

A couple of miles later I came to the parking lot for the sunflower field. (There are more than one but I’d already ridden 40 miles. No need to go further.) Having left my cane at home, I used The Tank as support for my short walk to the field. The flowers nearest the parking lot were short and dried out. I continued to the far side of the field along the electric fence which has been added since my last visit. I stopped when I saw what I came for. Peak bloom. Dang.

Time to head back. I retraced my route knowing that I had not eaten enough (just a few cookies) since breakfast. Despite being nearly flat, the towpath can be a grind. No gliding , just grinding. This is what the Tank was designed to do.

At Great Falls, I realized that I was flirting with a serious bonk. Time get serious. I switched back to MacArthur, thankful for the smooth asphalt. With about 20 miles to go, I switched back to the towpath for a few miles. This section of the towpath is the bumpiest part and my arms started to grow weary of absorbing the shock. The palms of my hands started to blister, the result of wearing five-year old gloves. Dumb.

The ride back on the MVT was business as usual. Arriving at home, you could put a fork in me. I was done.

Once again, my neck and back were fine. Go figure.

Today I did an easy 30-mile recovery ride. I only felt tired near the end.

I don’t know what I am happier about doing 81 miles, my first time over 80 miles in over a year, or riding The Tank without pain for the first time in two years.

Totally worth the effort.

The towpath. Not a bad way to get around.

A great blue heron waiting on dinner in the canal.

Widewater, a section of the canal 12 miles from Georgetown.

June 2024 – Dog Days Came Early

It’s the last day of June. Time to assess.

It is a rare thing when one of your very best days on a bike comes a day after one of your worst but that’s what happened to me this month. The ride from Draper to Whytheville was a gawdawful slog. The ride from Whytheville to Damascus was joyful. Go figure.

Multiple dog attacks over the course of two days completely ruined my interest in continuing my tour this year. When people who know the scene tell you to carry bear spray, it’s time to stop which is what I did. Since then I’ve been looking through journals on Cycleblaze.com and Crazyguyonabike.com to see if I had overreacted. Nope.

Only a couple of bike tourists made it through “dog alley” between the Kentucky border and Berea, Kentucky unscathed. Two were bitten. Two were knocked off their bikes.

I filled out a survey about the US Bicycle Route System a couple of days ago. I commented repeatedly that my route US Bike Route 76, in Kentucky is downright dangerous because of the dog situation. It’s a shame because, despite the brutal climbs from Charlottesville to Berea, the USBR 76 is worthwhile.

I finished the tour with something like 835 miles under my pedals. After taking a day off, I rode 17 days in a row around home. During these period I tweaked my saddle and handlebar height to good effect on both The Mule and The Tank. Yesterday in high heat and humidity I rode up one of the steepest, nastiest hills in the area and didn’t die. (The last 100 yards were most unpleasant but I made it without stopping.)

With a nearly rain-free month, I cracked the 1,000-mile threshold at the end of the month, reaching 1,089 miles. For the year I’ve reached 4,991 miles, on pace for a shade over 10,000 miles, despite taking two weeks off. I have no designs on another bike tour this year (although the Natchez Trace is tempting.)

Maybe the best thing that’s happened this month is the big reduction in neck and back pain I have experienced. I was pretty miserable all fall and winter, but a visit to a massage therapist in May and a series of daily PT exercises have paid huge dividends. I am standing up straighter. I have most of the range of motion in my neck back (although the saddle tweaks aren’t helping in this regard.) And I can walk about 50 percent farther without experiencing pain in my lower back.

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.

Leaping into a New Year – January 2024

Riding

The month started out a bit slow and stayed that way. I think I ate more cookies than miles. By the end of the month, I found hills to be a bit more challenging. Ugh.

I rode 634.5 miles for the month. This was my lowest mileage month in two years. I did 90 miles on Little Nellie, 307.5 miles on The Tank (my CrossCheck), and 237 miles indoors on Big Nellie. (I convert time to miles based on 10.5 miles per hour.) The Mule took the month off.

My long ride of the month was only 35.5 miles and this was split up into three rides. I rode 30-miles round trip to Friday Coffee Club with a detour to a hardware store on the way home. I followed that up with 5.5 miles on two short rides running errands to the office supply store and a different hardware store.

I ran a ton of errands by bike this month. The errands help me get motivated to ride outdoors on cold days. I have noticed that the daylight is lasting much longer now. I did lose about a week of outdoor riding because of two light, but messy snow events.

My indoor riding has helped me get some reading done (see below). I am currently halfway through David Copperfield which is turning out to be not quite the slog I had anticipated.

Watching

The Big Dig – I began listening to this nine-hour podcast from WGBH News last month. It tells the story of the biggest urban highway project in the country in which Boston’s infamous elevated Central Artery was buried and a new tunnel to Logan Airport was built. I learned only after listening to seven episodes that a video version is available on WGBH’s YouTube page. If you are into transportation, construction, infrastructure, urban planning, and such, you really should listen to this. The entire ordeal reminded me of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and Panama Canal as described in books by David McCullough.

Loki Season 2 – Oddly well acted mess of CGI and multidimensional nonsense. There’s this sacred timeline and it’s spawning branches but the time loom can’t control them so the time lines will break and everyone who lives on them will die. Or something like that. YMMV.

Echo – Another mediocre Marvel miniseries centered on Maya, a Choctaw, deaf, amputee, who is a badass fighter, of course. Promos make it look as though Daredevil has a big role in this but he’s in it for all of a minute. Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner, is in it for a few seconds.

Armaggedon – A Netflix Ricky Gervais stand up movie. Crude. Funny in parts.

The Enemy Below – Robert Mitchum, U. S. warship captain, faces off with Curt Jurgens, U-boat captain, in WWII. I saw it as a kid and loved it. Star Trek ripped it off. Das Boot did it 1,000 times better. Still entertaining though.

Barbie – An absolutely fantastic opening sequence but otherwise meh. I am a big Greta Gerwig fan but let’s just say I wasn’t the target audience for this one.

Two NFL “Championship” games – I watched the Super Bowl semifinals so that I may look somewhat knowledgeable at our friends’ annual Super Bowl get together on the 12th. I need to bone up on my Taylor Swift songs though.

Reading

Why We Love Baseball by Joe Posnanski. What better way to spend the time before spring training than reading 350 pages of stories about baseball. IYKYK. There all all kinds of oddball anecdotes in this book but sadly it leaves out my two favorites from the Washington Nationals. Juan Soto hit his first home run five days before he was called up officially to the majors. Weirder still was how Michael Morse hit a grand slam without a bat in his hands. As Joe Garagiola said, “Baseball is a funny game.”

Prequel by Rachel Maddow. Americans, acting as agents of Hitler’s regime, carried out a long campaign to keep the US out of WWII and, even, to try to violently overthrow the US government. Sound familiar? If you listened to Maddow’s podcast Ultra you pretty much know this story. This book fleshes out many of the details that could not fit into Ultra. Among other things, the plotters used the free mailing privileges of a number of sitting Congress people to distribute Nazi propaganda. Suffice it to say, the connections to recent events is obvious.

Blood Memory by David Duncan and Ken Burns. The companion book to Burns’s American Buffalo documentary on PBS. Both the book and the film are excellent. The book and film describe the slaughter of tens of millions of buffaloes and the efforts to bring the buffalo back from the edge of extinction. Just seeing one of these creatures up close is an intense experience. I can barely imagine seeing them as far as the eye can see.

Eat, Poop, Die – How Animals Make Our World by Joe Roman. Birds do it. Bees do it. Whales do it. It turns out poop (and pee) is a wonderful thing.

Medical

Lumbar Spinal Stenosis – My lower back woes continue. They are getting worse incrementally in spite of me doing a physical therapy session nearly every day. I decided to take up walking for a couple of weeks. It’s uncomfortable and slow. Using a cane is a must. I managed to top out at 3 1/2 miles one day last week. I read today that Merrick Garland, the U. S. Attorney General, is having spinal decompression surgery to address his similar problem. It will be interesting to see which doctor he uses and how he makes out. Personally, I don’t know how much longer and I put up with this.

Neck woes – Somewhere back in December or November I screwed up my neck. It feels like I have whiplash. I think I brought this on with a combination of fiddling with the handlebar height on The Tank and doing side planks as part of my stenosis routine.

I get sharp pains that shoot up into my head when I turn my head. I can feel the tightness in my lateral neck muscles with my fingers. It even affects my bite. I was seriously considering going to my doctor for some advice or maybe an x-ray (to ROC – rule out cancer) just to be safe. On a whim I pulled Yoga for Cyclists off the shelf and looked up neck stretches.

Basically the stretches involve moving your head to the each side as well as the 45-degree forward position. My neck is so screwed up that I actually had to gently guide my head back into a neutral position between stretches. I am happy to report that after just one session of stretches my neck felt much better.

I learned a couple of things. Neck stretching should only be done to the sides and front. (This is contrary to the stretches in Richard Hittleman’s classic yoga book.) Rotating your head back makes things worse. I augmented the book’s stretches with corresponding head twists (assisted by a gentle guiding hand). I can now comfortably turn my head while riding which is kind of important when you’re trying to avoid big metal things.

And Finally…

Done

A Shorts Story

A few days ago a cold, snowy week gave way to temperatures above 40 degrees. I decided to brave the snowy trails and bike lanes and ride to DC to drop off some books at a used book shop. What normally would have taken 90 minutes each way took 115 because there were so many places where snow and ice made my route unrideable. Having made it about ten miles riding and walking, I decided to take a chance on some snow and slush on the trail that connects the Crystal City neighborhood of Arlington to the Mount Vernon Trail. I made it about 100 yards before encountering more snow and ice. I decided to hell with it and rode over it. Bad idea. I went down on my side, fortunately landing in a pile of powder on the side of the trail. This is why I don’t like winter riding. Had I landed on a hard surface I’d have been in a world of hurt. I picked myself up and continued on my way, making sure to avoid another crash. I made it back home without any further calamities.

Today is January 26. I rode The Tank to Friday Coffee Club, leaving just before dawn. The temperature was around 60F. I wore shorts. Yeah baby! It is amazing how much nicer bike riding is in shorts as opposed to long pants. On the way I encountered dense fog and somewhat cooler temperatures along the Potomac River.

The Washington Monument from Gravelly Point Park across from DC

Our band of merry bike riders enjoyed their coffee outdoors today. A week ago it snowed and, for all I know, nobody went to Coffee Club.

After a couple of hours of discussing our various medical woes and discussing other pressing issues of the day, I rode back toward home. The fog had lifted and the sun was burning off the rest of the clouds. The ride downriver was as good as it gets for January.

Today was a good day to put in some extra miles so I stopped at an Ace Hardware store in Old Town Alexandria. After a quick transaction, I was back on the bike riding further south to pick up some milk at the local grocery store. (So far, the only downer to the morning had been the near sour milk I had poured over my Wheat Chex before leaving home.)

Once at home I read the paper and grabbed some lunch before heading back out on the bike to buy some tax software at an office supply store. I dropped the software off at home and headed back out again to drop off my lawn mower blade to be sharpened at the neighborhood hardware store. While there I picked up 15 pounds of bird seed which fit nicely in my two large Ortlieb panniers.

Once back at the ranch I gave The Tank a look over to see how the salt and sand and brine was treating its chain. The chain had rust spots along the side plates so it was past due for some new lube. I took the bike onto the back patio operating theater and successfully made things right.

While I was working on the bike, the air conditioner kicked on. The inside temperature and humidity felt like June. It was a muggy 80F degrees outside when I finished my chores. Dang.

Riding 2023

When I was recovering from pulmonary embolisms in early 2018, my friend Katie B. sent me a t-shirt that said “Never Underestimate an Old Man with a Bicycle.” This year, during which I turned 68, proved her right.

I rode 11,532 miles this year, my second most ever. As usual, I put the most mileage, 4,630, on The Mule, my touring bike. The other three bikes shared the rest of the burden nearly evenly. This was quite a surprise because I had all but stopped riding Little Nellie, my small-wheeled folding travel bike. Riding it even for just a handful of miles just killed my back. So, as a last resort before selling it, I switched the bike from drop bars to more upright H-bars. The improvement was incredible. I ended up riding 2,155 miles on it.

The conversion and a ton of other work including new hand-made wheels for The Mule and Little Nellie were done by the folks at Bikes at Vienna. I give my special thanks to Daniel, Tim, and Beth for keeping me rolling all year.

The year featured my 11th long-distance tour. I rode a 2,653-mile loop from DC to Bar Harbor to Erie, PA and back home. I did a bit of walking here and there but I did myself proud for the most part. There was one memorable hill in downstate New York. I took one look at the beast and I dismounted and started walking. It was laughably steep. I made it through an intense hour-long thunder storm in Ontario and a code purple air quality day in Erie, PA without harm. Oddly, the hardest part of the whole trip was pushing my loaded bike up and down the detour of the Paw Paw Tunnel on the C&O Canal. I used Warmshowers more on this trip than ever before. I had many great hosts but special recognition goes to Katie and Tom Huntington in Newcastle, Maine who put up with me for two nights, one going up the coast, the other down.

My longest mileage month was June, 1,702 miles, all of which was on tour. The shortest months were February and December at 730 and 749 miles, respectively.

I rode the 50 States and Cider Rides with a splendid group of folks. Special thanks to Michael, Chris, Monica, Sara, and Domitille who rode both with me. I also did the Great Pumpkin Ride solo (and picked up my umpteenth long-sleeve technical shirt in the process). I ended the event year by participating in the Ride for Your Life, which raised awareness about the scourge of traffic violence in the DC area. Kevin, Jacob, Bryan, Lili, Annette, and Nina joined the 50 States posse. Katja, Timothee, Miguel, and Lisa rode with us on the Cider Ride. Annette, Shira, Leslie, Jeanne, and Monica did the Ride for Your Life Event.

Six years over 10,000 miles. Dang.

After over two decades of membership, I upped my game and became a lifetime member of the Adventure Cycling Association. If I had known I’d have been bike touring for so many years, I would have saved myself a bunch of annual membership dues and become I lifetime member long ago. My loss is Adventure Cycling’s gain.

And as always, here’s where my bike odometers stood at the end of the year. Total mileage on all four is 176,944.

End of Year Odometer Readings: Clockwise from top left: Big Nellie, Little Nellie, The Mule, The Tank.