I call this my Heinz post. How come? Why, because I have to Catch up, of course!
The last post would have been okay I suppose, had I followed it up soon with another one and another one that were just the same style. But left as a final note on a marriage, it is a tad underwhelming. My apologies.
Because of the lateness of this post, I will change from doing a play-by-play recap of the previous day in a roughly chronological order, to simply giving you the highlights from the days I didn't blog yet. I will even add bold headers to the different sections as a gift to you guys, so if you get bored of reading geek stuff then you can skip to right where you want to go. Okay... commence tomatoey sauce- NOW:
Keep'n it White and Nerdy
Originally, dX wanted me to bring down my computer, so we could kick it in Counter Strike like old times, but I told him their was no way I could seriously game on that thing. It is...lacking. I am too ashamed to even post the specs on this blog...not that I game very much these days anyway, but I do appreciate and use the power usually.
I have been needing an upgrade now for awhile, so one of the ideas I had was that I could build a system while down there and ship it back. But when you boiled it down, it really didn't make any sense- I would be paying way to much, rushing myself into the purchasing, limiting my choices, and probably end up using some of the money I wanted to use for his gift. I didn't decide this, though, until after I got there, so I had brought my own optical drive with a windows XP CD, as well as a spare hard disk of questionable lifespan. But thats another story.
And so, being the easy going guy he is, dX took the news in stride. It turns out, he had accumulated a collection of computer pieces since he had moved out there, so we decided to REALLY kick it like we used to: Spend some quality time with the hardware on a makeshift bench, and Electro-static precautions that would make a QA representative faint. I'll spare you the details of building the box, but it was a lot of fun. dX and I hadn't really gotten down and dirty with a system like that in awhile, and we both agreed that it was our quickest build ever- when we actually sat down to work on it, we finnished it up in a few hours. And it was unnaturally fast- we had scrounged up 128 MB of ram, and put it in a 400 mhz P2 system with a crummy old 32 MB ATI card, but the thing FLEW. I kid you not; it was more responsive then my current system at home. And oh yeah; we loaded it up with XP. I cut down the services that ran considerably, but still- it was an impressive feat. I used it as my own system, and when I left he gave it as a gift to his sister.
People who don't smoke and cars that do
The night before the wedding, dX had a little party with me and a few friends. I hate to call it a bachelors party because of all the pejorative connotations that come with that term, but thats what he called it so that I suppose is what it was. Basically, it was a bunch of guys, hanging out, laughing, eating pizza and dorritos, and playing Game Cube. It was alot of fun.
A guy named Fritz and I both needed to get some money from an ATM to help pitch in for pizza. Since Fritz was was the first one there, we decided to all duck out for the errand and get some snack goodies while we were out.
"Can we take your car- is it running okay?" dX asked.
"Well, the radiator is a bit leaky... hows yours?" Fritz responded.
"Oh, just a leaky radiator? Psh, my alternator might be going..."
"Okay cool, we'll take mine".
Ahh, those fateful words. The radiator turned out to be more then a little issue, and it got very bad by the time we had got to our first stop. Steam was coming steadily out from the hood. We decided to stop by an auto store. They were pretty sure it was the cap on the radiator, so we picked up another of those and some radiator fluid. When we added just a little bit of the fluid, the thing fired up like a smoke generator- steam clouds erupted violently into the night. It did this for several minutes, until it was finally cool enough to put the fluid in. There was much laughter, and I was heard to say "DUDE- where's a camera when you need it? I'm SO blogging this."
We finally got the fluid in the radiator, and it seemed to improve with the new cap. We drove a very short distance to Wal-Mart from there, and as we were cruising through the parking lot, Fritz kept looking back in the mirror. "Dude," he said "Am I smoking?"
When we parked and got out, we found- quite graphically- that we indeed had been. It wasn't like something was on fire, it wasn't a black smoke- but the tail pipe was emitting enough emissions to make Al Gore cry. dX thought perhaps the O2 sensor was faulty. I just sat back and wished I had a camera again- the smoke from our tailpipe was even more fantastic then the radiator. It rose slower and lingered more. You could literally see our trail from the auto store to Wal-Mart, rising slowly into the heavens. When we drove, it must have looked like we were the world's slowest rocket powered car.
But wait, it gets better- when we headed back home, the radiator problem came back. With vengeance. Whenever we stopped at a stop sign, the steam from the hood would quickly flood the view from the windshield in less then a second, like our own personal fog area. Luckily there wasn't any other cars around at those intersections- we would stop, the view would disappear, we would go, and we could see. As long as we kept going at all, the steam was pushed around us.
When we parked I wished again that I had a camera. The vehicle was a sight to see. Smoke coming out one end; steam coming out the other. It was hilarious. Fritz ended up having it towed out of there in the morning.
Coffee, Coffee, everywhere and all the drops to drink
I think I mentioned before that many in the grooms family work at the a very nice local coffee establishment. Just in case your passing through some time, its called "Harbor lights". Personally, I think it sounds more like a cigarette then a coffee shop, but the atmosphere and quality of beverage more then makes up for the odd name (I mean, its KANSAS- there aren't any harbors to speak of). I told you already about the George's caramel mocha blast. I suppose that the rest of my experiences won't translate as well in print. I'll just say- Its a great place. They have books, and games out for you to use if you want to at both locations. Its a great atmosphere. OH! And I almost forgot-
They make custom soda's there. Yup- on demand. I had an irish creme soda- with (get this) whipcream. The groom's mum told me that about the custom soda's and made me one. I think its basically club soda/soda water with flavor shots on demand. I don't know exactly how its done, but I can tell you why its done- because they taste AWESOME. And whipcreme? On soda?
....
GENIUS!
I told everyone there "The boys back home will never beleive this- 'Whaa? Whipcream in soda? Your making that up!' and I'll be like 'No man really! Thats what they do in Kansas!' it'll be great."
Wedding
The wedding went off pretty much with out a hitch- well, sans of course, the Marriage of dX and his new Bride. But this, I'm told, was entirely intended.
I got to meet Sarah (dX's wife- man that is still weird to say), which was great as until this point I had never had the oppertunity. And she was a great person- Conesiur of coffee and music, edging a bit on the artsy side, yet able to love a geek and even having established some welding skills. I'm very happy for them.
Super duper suite
The wedding wasn't a huge operation, but it wasn't ghetto. It was still very nice, even if the couple wasn't made of money. Nate and I, for example, were basically their getaway vehicle. Get away to where? The Chateau (said with extreme accentation- shut up, its a word now), but of course! They were kind enough to bring up their suitcases and such so we got a chance to see the establishment. It was some high class stuff. The room's looked like something out of the imagination of a Disney set designer- I think their's was an "island escape" theme, complete with a huge front end of a ship that served as the balcony and bedroom, a giant jacuzzi and exotic trees and plants a plenty, shooting from everywhere. There was probably more, but we didn't really hang around to long...
Neil Gaimen Evangelism
I got to hang out with Nate a bit as well, (if you recall in a post previous, I dissconnected his family from the internet using his computer- always a great ice breaker) but that night and the next day, I got to spend some more time with him. It was a blast- Nate is a genius and (I had forgot) an Artist. He sketches quite often, always striving to better his craft. I was almost sure that he would appreciate Mirror Mask. I was going to bring it with me to watch before I headed out, but of course, being myself, I failed to remember to. But things turned out all right; after dropping off the happy couple, we took a jaunt down to the local video rental establishment.
On our way we discussed the pros of wearing suits. Originally, he had protested his general level of discomfort in the suit and that he didn't really look forward to wearing it. But by the time of the wedding, we had both noticed that it was quite fine indeed to be wearing the suits- not only were they comfortable as heck (I know, I know- its a misnomer, okay?), but they also gave us the strange urge to possess and use a Katana, a handgun, or (preferably) both. They just make you feel and look that cool. So on that note, we walked into Hollywood video, commenting that we were probably their best dressed patrons ever and joking to each other that we could just buy the establishment if the lines were too busy.
If you haven't seen Mirror Mask, I'm very sorry but there really isn't any good way I can explain it. I just ask that you go, look at the trailer, then rent the movie. Heck, you can even watch it for free in semi cruddy quality on Google Video, legally. Or, preferably, buy and watch the DVD. Whatever you do, watch this film- then you will know that it is indeed an amazing movie. And it will seen a foregone conclusion, that yes, OF COURSE, he loved the film.
And you would be right. He found it quite impressive. I also evangalized Regina Spektor to him, which I wasn't as sure about. But he recognized and appreciated her genius as well. He was fasinated by how expressive and subtle her face was in the videos. "I have to try and sketch her" he said.
And that, in a nutshell (a very large, approximately 2000 word nutshell), was my trip in Kansas. Happy? Good.
So. What happend with you guys while I was gone?
Showing posts with label dX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dX. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Thursday, February 01, 2007
I broke the internet.
Hello everybody.
Heres a small update of whats gone down since the last post. Sorry its taken so long, things have been crazy busy and fun over here.
So, on the 31st I left on the plane (on time- early, even!) and successfully landed and was picked up by 10:22 local time. Much better.
Mrs. F narrated the drive through Kansas as we went. We ended up picking up Nate, which was a blast. He still was wearing one of his awesome hats.
We got to their house and I ate some monkey bread. I go ape over that stuff. *ducks*
I spent alot of time chilling out with Nate in his room. He decided he wanted to show me a game he got called Prey, because of some crazy multi-dimensional mind bending physics engine stuff. He had recently rebuilt his computer, so he had to reinstall it. At this point, he found out he had misplaced his key. And his manual. "I just cleaned up my room..." his voice trailed off for a second. "Oh man, I hope I didn't throw it away."
Long story short, since he couldn't find it I decided to see if I could find it first online, and when that didn't work, I decided to port scan to see if I could find any hidden FTP servers that might have a key.
That, put simply, was a horrible idea. You see, port scanning is basically where, instead of using a search engine or typing in a website URL, you simply start at one part of the internet and start looking door to door till you find something. Its fun. You can find websites at random, or other things like file sites that aren't availible normally. You can find all sorts of weird network devices. You can find print servers from Itally (my friend did once). A friend of mine got me hooked on it for awhile, and we would share our findings every now and then.
Well, we told Mr. F what we were doing thinking he'd get a kick out of it and he got really upset. "DON'T PORT SCAN ON MY NETWORK! I don't want the liability..." and about that time, the scanner stopped working. And so did all of our connections outside to the internet. The whole house had lost the network. And he used IP Telephony, so... the phone died too. Yeah, smooth move Zeke. Way to make an entrance. Either we had got ourselves shut down for port scanning, (I guess it was against their Terms of service?) or we triggered hit something that freaked out the cable modem. I felt so bad.
Eventually Mr. F had to go to the Road Runner (Their ISP's) office and have them reset it. Talk about a comedy of errors...
So that was a bad start, BUT! It honestly got better... That night Mr. F himself even bought me a "George's Carmel Blast" at the coffee house half his family works at, Harbor Lights. It was really really good. Legend has it, that a guy named George would always come asking for a Carmel Macchiato with extra extra carmel. The guy REALLY liked carmel. Finally Tim started experimenting with his drink, finally stumbling upon glazing the inside of the cop with carmel, then doing the rest and putting whipped-creme and carmel drizzle on top. Word got around, and when they redid the signs, they put it up as "George's Carmel blast". Man, I want a drink named after me! So cool...
I am a day or two behind at this point in posting, but instead of sit on this post for another day, I'm going to let it go. I'm off to the wedding rehearsal now...
Heres a small update of whats gone down since the last post. Sorry its taken so long, things have been crazy busy and fun over here.
So, on the 31st I left on the plane (on time- early, even!) and successfully landed and was picked up by 10:22 local time. Much better.
Mrs. F narrated the drive through Kansas as we went. We ended up picking up Nate, which was a blast. He still was wearing one of his awesome hats.
We got to their house and I ate some monkey bread. I go ape over that stuff. *ducks*
I spent alot of time chilling out with Nate in his room. He decided he wanted to show me a game he got called Prey, because of some crazy multi-dimensional mind bending physics engine stuff. He had recently rebuilt his computer, so he had to reinstall it. At this point, he found out he had misplaced his key. And his manual. "I just cleaned up my room..." his voice trailed off for a second. "Oh man, I hope I didn't throw it away."
Long story short, since he couldn't find it I decided to see if I could find it first online, and when that didn't work, I decided to port scan to see if I could find any hidden FTP servers that might have a key.
That, put simply, was a horrible idea. You see, port scanning is basically where, instead of using a search engine or typing in a website URL, you simply start at one part of the internet and start looking door to door till you find something. Its fun. You can find websites at random, or other things like file sites that aren't availible normally. You can find all sorts of weird network devices. You can find print servers from Itally (my friend did once). A friend of mine got me hooked on it for awhile, and we would share our findings every now and then.
Well, we told Mr. F what we were doing thinking he'd get a kick out of it and he got really upset. "DON'T PORT SCAN ON MY NETWORK! I don't want the liability..." and about that time, the scanner stopped working. And so did all of our connections outside to the internet. The whole house had lost the network. And he used IP Telephony, so... the phone died too. Yeah, smooth move Zeke. Way to make an entrance. Either we had got ourselves shut down for port scanning, (I guess it was against their Terms of service?) or we triggered hit something that freaked out the cable modem. I felt so bad.
Eventually Mr. F had to go to the Road Runner (Their ISP's) office and have them reset it. Talk about a comedy of errors...
So that was a bad start, BUT! It honestly got better... That night Mr. F himself even bought me a "George's Carmel Blast" at the coffee house half his family works at, Harbor Lights. It was really really good. Legend has it, that a guy named George would always come asking for a Carmel Macchiato with extra extra carmel. The guy REALLY liked carmel. Finally Tim started experimenting with his drink, finally stumbling upon glazing the inside of the cop with carmel, then doing the rest and putting whipped-creme and carmel drizzle on top. Word got around, and when they redid the signs, they put it up as "George's Carmel blast". Man, I want a drink named after me! So cool...
I am a day or two behind at this point in posting, but instead of sit on this post for another day, I'm going to let it go. I'm off to the wedding rehearsal now...
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
The all star of gate D3
Its amazing how quickly you get used to things.
Yesterday at 9 I was confused and frustrated about staying the night. By midnight I felt like I knew the airport almost completly.
I knew where the outlets were. I knew where all the internet stations were- the one that the well intentioned but mislead Continental staff told me didn't exist. I knew where the tunnels and moving sidewalks were. I knew the bathroom system. I even had a favorite urinal that I considered mine... (Thats really where I got a bit concerned that perhaps I had grown TOO comfortable...)
At first, I sat by an outlett to charge my PDA and batteries. I listened to Illinois by Sufjan Stevens and watched the airport staff scury outside through the window. I kept thinking how cool it was the way all those people and specialzed vehices were working together. I wish Abe was there to see it too- he would have loved it.
Sleeping was not so easy. I tried several things, finally slouching over in a phone booth. A guy on a cleaning machine passed me a couple times. Then one time I saw him pass me- then back up. He called once. I ignored him- I was afraid he was going to tell me I couldn't sleep here. He called a second time. I looked up groggily, doing the "who, me?" gesture. He asked if I was staying the night. I told him I was. He said "Let me see if I can get you a cot." and sped off. I was ever so thankful.
Long story short, he wasn't able to find one in this half of the airport. But he assured me there was some through the tunnel. I thanked him and ran off- by this point I allready had a pretty good grasp of the geography of the Airport- which, if you know me is pretty suprising.
The only one I found was behind a continental service desk. After passing it a few times looking for others, I finally bit the bullet and jumped the gate to retreive it. Okay, so the gate was open. I took it back set it up by gate D3.
That actually helped only mildly, since, well..... Its a cot. My arms didn't know where to go and proved a perpetual problem. But I did get some sleep- dont ask how much, I have no idea.
I went over today to a place that said it served- PROUDLY served- Phoneix Cofee. I had taken Brad's wisdom of getting cofee while here to heart. I decided it had to be local. I got a mocha phoneix something something. It was flipp'n GOOD. I could taste the chololate, yes- but the coffee was certainly there, strong and not acidic. Just how I liked it. I got a breakfast sandwhich there as well. The people behind the counter were the nicest people I've met in any store in awhile. But everyone sees nice here.
Okay, over my time again.
Everyone, thanks for the comments. It made logging on worth while. Anon, MHT is Manchester Airport. Oh, I see someone said this already. Quick, you are. Hannah- you crackedme up with the Kevin Max thing. You do realize he's getting on nowadays, right? In years and in girth? ;)
Later e'ry body.
Yesterday at 9 I was confused and frustrated about staying the night. By midnight I felt like I knew the airport almost completly.
I knew where the outlets were. I knew where all the internet stations were- the one that the well intentioned but mislead Continental staff told me didn't exist. I knew where the tunnels and moving sidewalks were. I knew the bathroom system. I even had a favorite urinal that I considered mine... (Thats really where I got a bit concerned that perhaps I had grown TOO comfortable...)
At first, I sat by an outlett to charge my PDA and batteries. I listened to Illinois by Sufjan Stevens and watched the airport staff scury outside through the window. I kept thinking how cool it was the way all those people and specialzed vehices were working together. I wish Abe was there to see it too- he would have loved it.
Sleeping was not so easy. I tried several things, finally slouching over in a phone booth. A guy on a cleaning machine passed me a couple times. Then one time I saw him pass me- then back up. He called once. I ignored him- I was afraid he was going to tell me I couldn't sleep here. He called a second time. I looked up groggily, doing the "who, me?" gesture. He asked if I was staying the night. I told him I was. He said "Let me see if I can get you a cot." and sped off. I was ever so thankful.
Long story short, he wasn't able to find one in this half of the airport. But he assured me there was some through the tunnel. I thanked him and ran off- by this point I allready had a pretty good grasp of the geography of the Airport- which, if you know me is pretty suprising.
The only one I found was behind a continental service desk. After passing it a few times looking for others, I finally bit the bullet and jumped the gate to retreive it. Okay, so the gate was open. I took it back set it up by gate D3.
That actually helped only mildly, since, well..... Its a cot. My arms didn't know where to go and proved a perpetual problem. But I did get some sleep- dont ask how much, I have no idea.
I went over today to a place that said it served- PROUDLY served- Phoneix Cofee. I had taken Brad's wisdom of getting cofee while here to heart. I decided it had to be local. I got a mocha phoneix something something. It was flipp'n GOOD. I could taste the chololate, yes- but the coffee was certainly there, strong and not acidic. Just how I liked it. I got a breakfast sandwhich there as well. The people behind the counter were the nicest people I've met in any store in awhile. But everyone sees nice here.
Okay, over my time again.
Everyone, thanks for the comments. It made logging on worth while. Anon, MHT is Manchester Airport. Oh, I see someone said this already. Quick, you are. Hannah- you crackedme up with the Kevin Max thing. You do realize he's getting on nowadays, right? In years and in girth? ;)
Later e'ry body.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
dot dot dot
So... for those of you who didn't know, I'm going to see my friend get married in KS this week.
Well. I won't pontificate around the bush, because I am on a airport computer and being charged by the minute. I am stranded in Cleavland. I'll update more later perhaps, but here is a brief recap of today:
Got up at 8:00ish.
Ate, hung out with Mo and then Jen.
Packed.
Washed nice wedding clothes.
Packed.
Packed.
(So far so good)
Learned something about a friend of mine that made me very sad and a bit angry.
Got to MHT with my sister. Aparently- the time on the e-ticket is the time the plane LEAVES. Not the time you BOARD... I think I knew that but...still. Missed 2:10 flight. Got resheduled to the 6:00 o'clock flight.
Called mom. Told her that we needed to call my friend's mom so we could tell her not to pick me up. She kept looking for the number then said someting like "oh! Grandma Streeter fell and broke her-" *pause* "I gotta go, I'll call you back."
Then-
My sister got a call. One of my cousin's friend has been missing for over 24 hours.
Then we finally got ahold of Mum. She says she is having trouble finding the number. Grandma fell and broke her arm.
Oh, and Chris- our OTHER cousin- was hit by a drunk driver. Head on.
Miracuously, he's alive. I am not sure, but I think the girl is too...
So. That was a sort of sucky few hours.
Then our plane got held in the air for like, 25+ minutes because of the weather and volume of traffic.
But hey! This is some adventure. I've stopped reeling enough now to laugh at the bizarre amount of stress that just landed on me. Funny stuff.
Despite all this, I still can't wait to go and see my friend and his bride get maried.
Later er'y body.
Well. I won't pontificate around the bush, because I am on a airport computer and being charged by the minute. I am stranded in Cleavland. I'll update more later perhaps, but here is a brief recap of today:
Got up at 8:00ish.
Ate, hung out with Mo and then Jen.
Packed.
Washed nice wedding clothes.
Packed.
Packed.
(So far so good)
Learned something about a friend of mine that made me very sad and a bit angry.
Got to MHT with my sister. Aparently- the time on the e-ticket is the time the plane LEAVES. Not the time you BOARD... I think I knew that but...still. Missed 2:10 flight. Got resheduled to the 6:00 o'clock flight.
Called mom. Told her that we needed to call my friend's mom so we could tell her not to pick me up. She kept looking for the number then said someting like "oh! Grandma Streeter fell and broke her-" *pause* "I gotta go, I'll call you back."
Then-
My sister got a call. One of my cousin's friend has been missing for over 24 hours.
Then we finally got ahold of Mum. She says she is having trouble finding the number. Grandma fell and broke her arm.
Oh, and Chris- our OTHER cousin- was hit by a drunk driver. Head on.
Miracuously, he's alive. I am not sure, but I think the girl is too...
So. That was a sort of sucky few hours.
Then our plane got held in the air for like, 25+ minutes because of the weather and volume of traffic.
But hey! This is some adventure. I've stopped reeling enough now to laugh at the bizarre amount of stress that just landed on me. Funny stuff.
Despite all this, I still can't wait to go and see my friend and his bride get maried.
Later er'y body.
Monday, August 28, 2006
The most exciting day of my life so far
So I don’t have too much time to post right now, but I just had the craziest day ever and I know a lot of people are asking me to blog, so here you are. Perhaps I’ll get around to the soulfest stuff later, or maybe I’ll just merge it into another post. Or maybe not. But anyway, here goes. I think after you read it you’ll certainly agree that it's worth it. (Or you’ll just read about it in the papers, heh.)
I was at the Mall shopping around (which I rarely do, but that’s another story) and suddenly who else but dX walks up to me! Yes, for those of you who are paying attention, that’s the same one who went on the bike trip with me and the same one who should be in Kansas!
So apparently he was going to surprise me or something, but decided to blow it by coming up just like we had been hanging out all day and show me his new paintball gun. It was a really really REALLY nice one- I seriously don’t think I’ve seen a sweeter looking gun- and so to try and beat him at his own game I answered him just as matter of factly as if I was in on everything-
“Wow… that is…really nice. But dude, how much money you going to spend on that? Don’t you need it for some other stuff?”
Apparently not. Anyway, it was sweet. So what if he had to eat ramen for the rest of the month?
We went around the mall for awhile… not much I really remember as extremely special- well okay, I knocked over some stuff cause I’m such a klutz…. But I have an excuse. Occasionally I had the weirdest sensation. It was as if everything was going at a slower frame rate, and my vision emphasized the edges of everything I saw. It was like a filter for a weird music video. I know I was moving in real time but it felt slower- its hard to describe. At first I just wrote it off but I couldn’t ignore it when it went on for like 5 minutes. Finally I told dX about it.
“Dude its so weird…its like, playing a game on really old hardware or…slow motion or something.”
He just gave me that trademark dX expression of “ooooookaay” and I said “Well anyway it stopped now” and that was the end of the conversation. It happened about twice after that only for about 5 seconds at the most. It was starting to weird me out though.
We decided to splurge and get some sorta expensive mall food- I was getting Japanese of course. Right before it was my turn to order, I heard some commotion behind me. A guy was going around to people, and everyone was trying to discreetly get away from him. It was odd- the line behind me just started emptying out.
“Come on, you… you seem to have enough money for food yourself… I need some food..”
He came up to a guy who must have just ordered from a Boston market type of place:
“Come on! You just bought a rotisserie chicken… like you can’t afford to get me some food.”
He was getting closer to me. I got that feeling when you see a homeless person coming up to you- half danger, half pity, 100 percent uncomfortable. But now as I turned around and saw him I realized he was young (teens/early 20s), well dressed and didn’t look in desperate health at all. And he was headed towards me.
Dang it… what am I going to say?
Then I got the sense that something was odd. Something wasn’t right- he was coming towards me at an unhealthy speed and he had his hand in his pocket. Then suddenly it happened again: everything got real slow. I honestly think I experienced one of those moments you read about- were adrenaline kicks in and gives you perfect clarity.
He started to lean into my direction and I stepped a little to the side. It seemed to take forever. Then he shifted his weight to try and catch me- I started freaking out and used my arm to push him back. He resisted hard and there was a bit of a struggle while I pushed him until finally I sort of rolled him off my arm and then pinned him down. I was right. He had a knife. Then I recognized his face.
I had seen him around the mall all day. Most of the time were when things got slow for me- so that was it. I have no idea how I knew he was dangerous, but I must have. My mind turned back to one time in specific- when I knocked over stuff and ticked off that guy behind me. It was the same guy. WHOA- just, WOAH. I was freaked.
At that point I was sort of shaken, and I really don’t recall what happened exactly in what order. But at some time I remember seeing none other then my friend Dan M in the mall as well and the guy started to attack him! I started to run towards him but I knew I wasn’t going to get there in time.
“Oh God… please help him hold him off till I can get there.”
I was about 8, maybe 10 feet out and the attacker had a razor blade of some sort and started to raise a blow. But suddenly Dan pulled out this crazy thing I had never seen before- it was like a stinking energy weapon. It looked like a high-tech cattle prod. He activated it and the guy was shocked, but amazingly wasn’t down. He tried to grab him and got shocked again. I could actually see the sparks…. By then I got there and I helped wrestle him to the floor. I don’t remember if we killed him or not, but I looked back at the energy weapon just as he retracted it back into….or, no, wait.. Oh man- Shoot! Maybe this was a dream. Ehh, never mind guys.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
World view
Hey everyone, I'm off to World View academy. Should be fun- I'll be sentient enough to talk sometime saturday morningish. Until then, here, have some random pictures!
Here is us setting up ourselves to leave from the Kittery Trading post.... last minute checks, etc.
dX getting trying to fight insanity from the bugs while I tell him to stop so I can take a picture...
This is about where I discovered my wheel wasn't in that hott of shape...
Some mandatory down time, courtesy of dX's ankle...
Proof that we did indeed go Kayaking... (M. Fam, you are seriously the best!)
"Four Winds", the RV we stayed in...
(The camera is weird and distorted the image; it wasn't really bent like that...)
...aaand last but not least, dX (who henceforth wants to be called "ghost") sitting in the front seat of CJ's car shortly before deciding to chuck the directions.
Thats all folks, have a good week!
Here is us setting up ourselves to leave from the Kittery Trading post.... last minute checks, etc.
dX getting trying to fight insanity from the bugs while I tell him to stop so I can take a picture...
This is about where I discovered my wheel wasn't in that hott of shape...
Some mandatory down time, courtesy of dX's ankle...
Proof that we did indeed go Kayaking... (M. Fam, you are seriously the best!)
"Four Winds", the RV we stayed in...
(The camera is weird and distorted the image; it wasn't really bent like that...)
...aaand last but not least, dX (who henceforth wants to be called "ghost") sitting in the front seat of CJ's car shortly before deciding to chuck the directions.Thats all folks, have a good week!
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Night 4 and day 5- Concert and church
Greetings everyone, from Londondenderry NH! The trip is complete; we have returned to our respective drop off points and I for one miss it allready.
I posted Day 4 a bit early since I didn't know what was going to happen that night. Well, enough happend to warrant disclosure on this here blog. Note: I still don't have my USB cable, so I will have to upload pictures later. Possibly tonight, when I can put my SD card into my Dad's camera.
Shortly after posting the last blog, dX got off of the phone with his friend CJ. He said CJ was going to a show in Epping, and he could take us. Epping... we drove through there on the first day of our trip! Since biking was out of the question, the hudson home was kind enough to let us leave our bikes with them and pick them up later.
After waiting a long long time, CJ finally found us and picked us up. We threw our packs in the back seat and drove off... CJ and dX go back along way and were talking about the old days while I sorta chilled in the back seat. It was funny just to listen to their conversation. Eventually dX told CJ to take a left at exit seven, meaning to take a left after pulling off the highway. But CJ interperted it as "exit 7 will be on the left". So we missed that road. He decided to get off on the next exit, but it wasn't the right highway. They puzzled over the map just a bit and then CJ looked at dX and said
"Dude, do you want to find this the like we used to back in the day?"
"I'm game."
With that, CJ took the directions and crumpled them up into a ball, then threw them into the backseat.
"You must swear to not open and offer advice from those directions."
"Upon my honor." I replied.
We pulled out in the general direction of the concert laughing and having a good time, deciding that getting unlost could be just as much fun as the concert, but actually we found it very fast. We had pulled over to get gas and CJ chanced to ask where the venue was. The girl gave him a weird look and pointed out the window and said "Right across the street." We got there in time to still see 3 or 4 opening bands, though one of the bands that CJ had freinds in had allready played.
I was going to try and describe what the concert was like, but it was so huge, I think I will save it for another post. I'll just go into a little detail this time:
Okay, the music. I will be honest- Hardcore can be somewhat of an aquried taste, and even for me, I am not always in the mood for it. Its got alot of energy though and there really is alot of talent to be heard in it. The first band that played was "Our last night". They were a 5 peice band- drummer, guitarist, a singer who I think played guitar as well, a screamer and bass player. The unusual thing was that the screamer was 13. But he was incredible.
Trevor, the lead screamer of Our Last Night, in all his adolesent glory
He was having so much fun, jumping around, interacting with the crowd- the band was AWESOME. He got the crowd going, too. The other band that I thought was really good was Sparks the Rescue- they had two guitarists and a bass player and an amazing drummer. They played what I've heard reffered to as "fantasy guitar" though I'm not sure if that is the proper name- its the kind of almost cheesy sounding guitar sound used alot in the 80s. But it really sounds cool with these guys, and they are REALLY REALLY tallented. They kept doing call and answer stuff back and forth with the guitars really fast- playing a riff partly on one guitar, then on the other, then back on the first one all within a second or two, then playing the chords together in perferct sync- very technical and really impressive sounding. They did this all while jumping around and dancing all over the stage, just short of hitting eachother. I'm not sure if this does the music justice, I suppose you just would have to be there.
The dancing was inSANE.... but I will leave that and my analyztion of it for another post.
After the show we went back to CJ's house in Wilton and crashed there. His room was so crowded with music stuff- guitars, drum kits and cymbol peices everywhere, a keyboard, a piano, sheet music- it was ridiculous. The room was small too- there were two futons, but both were full of stuff. They basically just started grabbing stuff off of it and throwing it in corners and under the beds- wherever they would fit. I got the floor, but I had to twist my self into unatural shapes even to fit on that. It was cool though.
The next morning was Sunday, and we went to dX's old church. He suprised alot of people by showing up, and it was neat to see so many people thrilled to see him. He caught up with alot of people briefly and then we left since CJ had to drive us back to Hudson to pick up our bikes before he went to work. We had accepted an offer for Lunch at someone's hosue in Merrimack but we called back to cancel since it would have meant putting at least 20 more miles into our trip and by this time we were needing to get home.
We arrived back in Hudson got our bikes out, thanked the family again for their awesomeness, and headed off. We made good time, though we got sore quicker then usual and took a breather. I had a peice of jerky and a crumbled poptart, but it occured to me that dX hadn't had any breakfast at all. He was feeling it I think. We got back on our bikes though, and I even pushed mine to 25 to say that I did it.
Somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00 we rolled back into our home turf and let oursleves in. It was a good feeling, though no one else was back from Church yet.
So thats it- the trip is over! It was alot of fun and yet it seemed shorter then expected. We learned alot. The tone of the trip was totally different then we had thought orginally. At first, we thought there was going to be alot more camping, but it turned out to feel only like a bike trip when we were on the road- we had so much fun with everyone at our host homes that when we were off the road it only felt like hanging out with our friends- which is fine, I assure you. dX kept mentioning how amazed he was at how nice all my friends were that we stopped at.
Though sometimes it seemed taxing while we were on the trip, we know we didn't ride nearly as much as we could have. Next time I do this I plan on doing something bigger.
All in all, we traveled 99.6 miles or so according to my calculations. I might as well say that we biked 100 because I'm sure some of the unrecorded stuff totals .4 miles easy.
100 miles in 4.5 days. Not bad at all. But it has only wet my appetite- I know I can do more. I mean, we didn't even get to make our smores or light a fire outside for crying out loud- we went house to house so quick there was no camping needed. Next time I think, I want to use the tent or loose the tent- poor dX carried that and a blanket- I only carried a blanket- that we ended up never using. We ate the ramen only at our host homes. Same with the hersheys. It was really fun, but in retrospect it seems a pity we packed that much stuff we didn't need. Of course, on a longer trip with out such cool friends we would need it... but I am rambling. In the end, it was an amazing experience and I got to have fun not only with dX but with everyone that I hung out with- I really feel blessed that I got to get to know so many awesome people better.
To everyone who helped us out on the trip: Thank you so much!! You made our trip go waaayyy better then either of us planned for. You were all so wonderfully nice, and I think I got to know all of you better. Sharing your home with someone you know for a day is awesome enough, but sharing it for two vegabonds is incredible. I dedicate this trip (is that possible?) to you guys.
Until next post everyone... thanks for reading.
I posted Day 4 a bit early since I didn't know what was going to happen that night. Well, enough happend to warrant disclosure on this here blog. Note: I still don't have my USB cable, so I will have to upload pictures later. Possibly tonight, when I can put my SD card into my Dad's camera.
Shortly after posting the last blog, dX got off of the phone with his friend CJ. He said CJ was going to a show in Epping, and he could take us. Epping... we drove through there on the first day of our trip! Since biking was out of the question, the hudson home was kind enough to let us leave our bikes with them and pick them up later.
After waiting a long long time, CJ finally found us and picked us up. We threw our packs in the back seat and drove off... CJ and dX go back along way and were talking about the old days while I sorta chilled in the back seat. It was funny just to listen to their conversation. Eventually dX told CJ to take a left at exit seven, meaning to take a left after pulling off the highway. But CJ interperted it as "exit 7 will be on the left". So we missed that road. He decided to get off on the next exit, but it wasn't the right highway. They puzzled over the map just a bit and then CJ looked at dX and said
"Dude, do you want to find this the like we used to back in the day?"
"I'm game."
With that, CJ took the directions and crumpled them up into a ball, then threw them into the backseat.
"You must swear to not open and offer advice from those directions."
"Upon my honor." I replied.
We pulled out in the general direction of the concert laughing and having a good time, deciding that getting unlost could be just as much fun as the concert, but actually we found it very fast. We had pulled over to get gas and CJ chanced to ask where the venue was. The girl gave him a weird look and pointed out the window and said "Right across the street." We got there in time to still see 3 or 4 opening bands, though one of the bands that CJ had freinds in had allready played.
I was going to try and describe what the concert was like, but it was so huge, I think I will save it for another post. I'll just go into a little detail this time:
Okay, the music. I will be honest- Hardcore can be somewhat of an aquried taste, and even for me, I am not always in the mood for it. Its got alot of energy though and there really is alot of talent to be heard in it. The first band that played was "Our last night". They were a 5 peice band- drummer, guitarist, a singer who I think played guitar as well, a screamer and bass player. The unusual thing was that the screamer was 13. But he was incredible.
Trevor, the lead screamer of Our Last Night, in all his adolesent glory
The dancing was inSANE.... but I will leave that and my analyztion of it for another post.
After the show we went back to CJ's house in Wilton and crashed there. His room was so crowded with music stuff- guitars, drum kits and cymbol peices everywhere, a keyboard, a piano, sheet music- it was ridiculous. The room was small too- there were two futons, but both were full of stuff. They basically just started grabbing stuff off of it and throwing it in corners and under the beds- wherever they would fit. I got the floor, but I had to twist my self into unatural shapes even to fit on that. It was cool though.
The next morning was Sunday, and we went to dX's old church. He suprised alot of people by showing up, and it was neat to see so many people thrilled to see him. He caught up with alot of people briefly and then we left since CJ had to drive us back to Hudson to pick up our bikes before he went to work. We had accepted an offer for Lunch at someone's hosue in Merrimack but we called back to cancel since it would have meant putting at least 20 more miles into our trip and by this time we were needing to get home.
We arrived back in Hudson got our bikes out, thanked the family again for their awesomeness, and headed off. We made good time, though we got sore quicker then usual and took a breather. I had a peice of jerky and a crumbled poptart, but it occured to me that dX hadn't had any breakfast at all. He was feeling it I think. We got back on our bikes though, and I even pushed mine to 25 to say that I did it.
Somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00 we rolled back into our home turf and let oursleves in. It was a good feeling, though no one else was back from Church yet.
So thats it- the trip is over! It was alot of fun and yet it seemed shorter then expected. We learned alot. The tone of the trip was totally different then we had thought orginally. At first, we thought there was going to be alot more camping, but it turned out to feel only like a bike trip when we were on the road- we had so much fun with everyone at our host homes that when we were off the road it only felt like hanging out with our friends- which is fine, I assure you. dX kept mentioning how amazed he was at how nice all my friends were that we stopped at.
Though sometimes it seemed taxing while we were on the trip, we know we didn't ride nearly as much as we could have. Next time I do this I plan on doing something bigger.
All in all, we traveled 99.6 miles or so according to my calculations. I might as well say that we biked 100 because I'm sure some of the unrecorded stuff totals .4 miles easy.
100 miles in 4.5 days. Not bad at all. But it has only wet my appetite- I know I can do more. I mean, we didn't even get to make our smores or light a fire outside for crying out loud- we went house to house so quick there was no camping needed. Next time I think, I want to use the tent or loose the tent- poor dX carried that and a blanket- I only carried a blanket- that we ended up never using. We ate the ramen only at our host homes. Same with the hersheys. It was really fun, but in retrospect it seems a pity we packed that much stuff we didn't need. Of course, on a longer trip with out such cool friends we would need it... but I am rambling. In the end, it was an amazing experience and I got to have fun not only with dX but with everyone that I hung out with- I really feel blessed that I got to get to know so many awesome people better.
To everyone who helped us out on the trip: Thank you so much!! You made our trip go waaayyy better then either of us planned for. You were all so wonderfully nice, and I think I got to know all of you better. Sharing your home with someone you know for a day is awesome enough, but sharing it for two vegabonds is incredible. I dedicate this trip (is that possible?) to you guys.
Until next post everyone... thanks for reading.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Day 4- Best coffee EVER
Greetings all- this is an early post for me, as the day isn't really over yet and I'm still in Hudson. But I don't know exactly when I will get to a computer next, so I figured it would be good to post the happenings of the day here.
Last night we slept in an awesome camper- very very comfortable. The family was going to a party from 11 to 1ish, but they said if we wanted to come back after that we could go Kayaking (sp?) with them in a local pond. We of course, agreed to the arrangment.
Before we went down to the water though, we had some time to kill. So we decided to head over to Nashua to check out some trails that our hosts told us about. After making a short stop at Showtime computers, we ended up at Mines Falls. It was pretty neat- a few nice wide easy going trails and alot of water. After that we decided to just sort of chill and talk by the river for a while.
Then came one of the coolest discoveries to come out of this trip: Riverwalk Cakery & Coffee House. They are in Nashua- 35 Railroad Square, to be exact. dX saw the words coffee shop and he suggested we check it out. I was game, so we locked up our bikes and went in.
The second we got through the doors, everything screamed CLASS at us. The colors, the chairs and tables- imported, the lot of it as we later learned, from all across Europe. dX got a chia latte and I got a Irish cream iced latte. The coffee was unbelivable. It was strong, but not acidic. It was bloody perfect- the only words I can think of to describe it. I also got a expresso brownie and we sat down and talked for a bit in the shop. I noticed that it had its own blends, and that there was a large obscure and expensive looking machine in the far end of the room. I asked him about it-
"Oh, that is the roasting machine."
So yeah- he roasts his own coffee. This got me interested, and I started talking with the owner who was the only person on staff at that hour. The shop has been here only 5 months and he says he allready has regulars. Its not hard to see why- he knows coffee. He buys his own beans still 'green'-and he buys them straight from importers he knows in New York and Boston. He makes his own blends by knowing the crop they came from and using different beans to counteract eachothers weaknesses and compliment their strength. He's from Germany and hes awesome. I now know an awesome place to go for coffee- and if I ever have to impress some girl by buying a 5 dollar 59 cent peice of cake I know where to do that to.
After that we went Kayaking- wow, sooo much fun. It was dX, Lyndsi and I in occean Kayak vessels across the lake. When dX heard that they we could go Kayaking he said "dude, you'll love it. Kayaks are like the moter cycles of cannoes." Boy, we he right. We went so much faster then in our big cannoe and we had a ton of fun- though apparently biking endurance does nothing for the upper body strength it takes to Kayak. Lyndsi pWnd! us- and she said she only went once, bah! All in all it was a great day.
Right now I am waiting for dX to see if he has enough money to cover us going to a show. If he does, were going to the show then going home. If not, we'll just be going home.
I'd post some pictures of the mobile homes and of the Kayaks but sadly I seemed to have misplace my USB cable.
Well, thank you all for reading. Have a great one!
Last night we slept in an awesome camper- very very comfortable. The family was going to a party from 11 to 1ish, but they said if we wanted to come back after that we could go Kayaking (sp?) with them in a local pond. We of course, agreed to the arrangment.
Before we went down to the water though, we had some time to kill. So we decided to head over to Nashua to check out some trails that our hosts told us about. After making a short stop at Showtime computers, we ended up at Mines Falls. It was pretty neat- a few nice wide easy going trails and alot of water. After that we decided to just sort of chill and talk by the river for a while.
Then came one of the coolest discoveries to come out of this trip: Riverwalk Cakery & Coffee House. They are in Nashua- 35 Railroad Square, to be exact. dX saw the words coffee shop and he suggested we check it out. I was game, so we locked up our bikes and went in.
The second we got through the doors, everything screamed CLASS at us. The colors, the chairs and tables- imported, the lot of it as we later learned, from all across Europe. dX got a chia latte and I got a Irish cream iced latte. The coffee was unbelivable. It was strong, but not acidic. It was bloody perfect- the only words I can think of to describe it. I also got a expresso brownie and we sat down and talked for a bit in the shop. I noticed that it had its own blends, and that there was a large obscure and expensive looking machine in the far end of the room. I asked him about it-
"Oh, that is the roasting machine."
So yeah- he roasts his own coffee. This got me interested, and I started talking with the owner who was the only person on staff at that hour. The shop has been here only 5 months and he says he allready has regulars. Its not hard to see why- he knows coffee. He buys his own beans still 'green'-and he buys them straight from importers he knows in New York and Boston. He makes his own blends by knowing the crop they came from and using different beans to counteract eachothers weaknesses and compliment their strength. He's from Germany and hes awesome. I now know an awesome place to go for coffee- and if I ever have to impress some girl by buying a 5 dollar 59 cent peice of cake I know where to do that to.
After that we went Kayaking- wow, sooo much fun. It was dX, Lyndsi and I in occean Kayak vessels across the lake. When dX heard that they we could go Kayaking he said "dude, you'll love it. Kayaks are like the moter cycles of cannoes." Boy, we he right. We went so much faster then in our big cannoe and we had a ton of fun- though apparently biking endurance does nothing for the upper body strength it takes to Kayak. Lyndsi pWnd! us- and she said she only went once, bah! All in all it was a great day.
Right now I am waiting for dX to see if he has enough money to cover us going to a show. If he does, were going to the show then going home. If not, we'll just be going home.
I'd post some pictures of the mobile homes and of the Kayaks but sadly I seemed to have misplace my USB cable.
Well, thank you all for reading. Have a great one!
Friday, June 30, 2006
Day 3- Just chillaxin
Greetings from Hudson everybody!
We woke up today around 9:00. When I got out of the couch I was sleeping on I went over to the room dX had crashed at.
"Dude-" he said, "we have a problem."
The problem was his ankle. He had hurt it last night while flipping off of his bike, but it didn't look like it was going to be that big of a deal. When he woke up on it though, he could barely limp with it.
This, to say the least, complicated our plans- eventually we decided to get some ice on it, and he wanted to rap it in a bandage- but oh wait! The bandages we bought were in his backpack. Where was his backpack? In Jakes car. Well thats fine, but- wheres Jakes car? Not at his home. You see, dX had left his pack in the trunk of the car, which should have been fine- but as it turned out, the van one of the family members was using broke down, so they had to use his car. And that put us with out bandages.
So, after a little bit of griping and a lot of good strong coffee (they make the best coffee over there, seriously) I biked off to shaws, which was really just a stones throw away from the house I was at. I got an Ace bandage there for a ridiculous 5 dollars and 59 cents. Talk about a rip off...
Anyway, we got back and he applied it to his poor aching foot. By this time it was probably 11 or so. He could barely walk on it still, but I was trying to convice him that biking would be different. Renee said that she thought it wouldn't be good to work much on it. There was a slight back and forth, but we did in the end relent to chilling out there for a bit. dX could still work on computers, and thats what he did:
This picture very much sums up the tone of the day. We chilled, we watched some videos, we talked. And thanks be to Renee and their family for letting us- we don't know what we would have done otherwise. Thanks again guys for your generosity and everything, your flipping amazing!
About 3ish or so, dX was walking around on his foot LIGHTLY. I had convinced him to try riding his bike earlier to see what it was like, and he concluded that it was possible and as I suspected, it was actually better then walking. So at 3 or so in the afternoon, we decide to try and visit some of his friends in the area. We found out Renee had a bike, so she got to come too since it was so close. We headed up the road about a mile or 2 really fast since dX and I were not wearing those huge backpacks we were used to. Renee was actually keeping up pretty well. We got to the place where we suprised a few of dX's old friends and then we decided to move on for a good trip down memory lane. After catching her breath and downing some water, Renee went all hardcore and said she was down with it too. We biked over to dX's old house, all the way to amherst where we stopped at a cafe for food. It was really nice, and I played a pretty evenly matched game of checkers with Renee (but I won in the end). Then we biked back- About 20 miles in all.
When we got back, it was allready 5ish. We were trying to figure out what our next move was... we wanted to camp, but we didn't know what place we could camp at that was near enough. In the end, we decided to stay over at our lovely stop at Hudson- as it turned out, we were just 10 miles out anyway. We biked down through Nashua, only stopping once- there was a concert going on in some park for free. The musicans playing were all in their middle to late ages, but they were playing some funky music and they were good. dX and I stayed there for just as much as we could afford, then we got back riding. We arrived at our new destination at about 7.
This host home is awesome- They gave us cold cuts to go along with our ramen, they gave us icecream, and we've got to just talk with them and have a ball. They are into everything cool here... I don't know how specific I can get with names and things since it is 1:26 and they are all in bed. I got to watch The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe with two people who haven't seen it yet. It was an interesting experience- they watched movies with captions on, and I actually got little bits of dialouge and background chatter that I never quite got before.
Well, thats about it for me- I am devilish sleepy and I must be off to bed. Today was pretty much just a chill, relaxing day. We, once again, don't really have tomarrow very much planned out but I'm sure it will be great.
Till next post- farewell.
We woke up today around 9:00. When I got out of the couch I was sleeping on I went over to the room dX had crashed at.
"Dude-" he said, "we have a problem."
The problem was his ankle. He had hurt it last night while flipping off of his bike, but it didn't look like it was going to be that big of a deal. When he woke up on it though, he could barely limp with it.
This, to say the least, complicated our plans- eventually we decided to get some ice on it, and he wanted to rap it in a bandage- but oh wait! The bandages we bought were in his backpack. Where was his backpack? In Jakes car. Well thats fine, but- wheres Jakes car? Not at his home. You see, dX had left his pack in the trunk of the car, which should have been fine- but as it turned out, the van one of the family members was using broke down, so they had to use his car. And that put us with out bandages.
So, after a little bit of griping and a lot of good strong coffee (they make the best coffee over there, seriously) I biked off to shaws, which was really just a stones throw away from the house I was at. I got an Ace bandage there for a ridiculous 5 dollars and 59 cents. Talk about a rip off...
Anyway, we got back and he applied it to his poor aching foot. By this time it was probably 11 or so. He could barely walk on it still, but I was trying to convice him that biking would be different. Renee said that she thought it wouldn't be good to work much on it. There was a slight back and forth, but we did in the end relent to chilling out there for a bit. dX could still work on computers, and thats what he did:
This picture very much sums up the tone of the day. We chilled, we watched some videos, we talked. And thanks be to Renee and their family for letting us- we don't know what we would have done otherwise. Thanks again guys for your generosity and everything, your flipping amazing!About 3ish or so, dX was walking around on his foot LIGHTLY. I had convinced him to try riding his bike earlier to see what it was like, and he concluded that it was possible and as I suspected, it was actually better then walking. So at 3 or so in the afternoon, we decide to try and visit some of his friends in the area. We found out Renee had a bike, so she got to come too since it was so close. We headed up the road about a mile or 2 really fast since dX and I were not wearing those huge backpacks we were used to. Renee was actually keeping up pretty well. We got to the place where we suprised a few of dX's old friends and then we decided to move on for a good trip down memory lane. After catching her breath and downing some water, Renee went all hardcore and said she was down with it too. We biked over to dX's old house, all the way to amherst where we stopped at a cafe for food. It was really nice, and I played a pretty evenly matched game of checkers with Renee (but I won in the end). Then we biked back- About 20 miles in all.
When we got back, it was allready 5ish. We were trying to figure out what our next move was... we wanted to camp, but we didn't know what place we could camp at that was near enough. In the end, we decided to stay over at our lovely stop at Hudson- as it turned out, we were just 10 miles out anyway. We biked down through Nashua, only stopping once- there was a concert going on in some park for free. The musicans playing were all in their middle to late ages, but they were playing some funky music and they were good. dX and I stayed there for just as much as we could afford, then we got back riding. We arrived at our new destination at about 7.
This host home is awesome- They gave us cold cuts to go along with our ramen, they gave us icecream, and we've got to just talk with them and have a ball. They are into everything cool here... I don't know how specific I can get with names and things since it is 1:26 and they are all in bed. I got to watch The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe with two people who haven't seen it yet. It was an interesting experience- they watched movies with captions on, and I actually got little bits of dialouge and background chatter that I never quite got before.
Well, thats about it for me- I am devilish sleepy and I must be off to bed. Today was pretty much just a chill, relaxing day. We, once again, don't really have tomarrow very much planned out but I'm sure it will be great.
Till next post- farewell.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Day 2- Blowouts and bruises
Greetings friends and fiends, from lovely East merrimack!
We got up today at Mr. and Mrs. C's home welcomed by the smell of blueberry pancakses, ham and coffee. Thanks again, Mrs. C!
dX packing up at Mrs. C's house- beginning of day 1
I read more of "Out of the silent Planet" and ended up calling the bike shop in Derry to make sure they would be there- a good thing, as "the number you have dialed is not in service at this time". We talked it over very briefly, and Mrs. C gave us the number to a place she recomended on Kelly st- Jakes Bike shop, 25 miles away. We took off at about 9 o'clock.
It was tough going with the wheel- even though I had unlatched the rear brakes, it was still lightly touching the side once every revolution. We were on our way to route 28, but we only got about 4 miles out:
I was riding down a slight hill when suddenly there was a loud bang- for a split second I wondered what it was, then for a split second I thought I blew out the tire and should try to slowdown, and the last few second I felt myself riding increasingly on the rim. But suprisingly, I didn't loose control. I yelled up ahead at dX "BLOWOUT, MAN BLOOWOUT!!!" It took him a little while to get the idea and slow down, but in the end I pulled over and we took a look. On the plus side, I didn't have to use my bike kit to to take the tire off or the innertube out- I don't know how it stayed on the wheel at all. When I pulled over, they were off.
We discussed shortly putting on my spare and inflating it, but we decided rather quickly that it was crazy-talk. The wheel was in BAD shape- I knew that, and putting another one would be tirecide (you know like homocide...). So we went up to a nearby house and bummed a phone to call Mrs. C with. Thankfully, she had offered to pick us up in the case of an emergency. We sat around and wait for a while. I read more of my book.
Eventually Mrs. C came to the rescue and after taking the wheels off our vehicles, we put it into her minivan. She took us to the Jakes shop, which is now one of my favorite bike places- the guy there was really nice and knew what he was talking about.
It was in bad shape- spokes that were stripped, spokes that were broken- it was a bloody mess. In the end I had to replace the wheel, the innertube AND the tire- for the tire had a gash in it from the blow out as well. All in all I dropped $75 on it- alot of money, yes- but actually a VERY good deal.
From there, we biked to our first real destination of the day: Barns and nobooks.
I would tell you how many miles it was, but I sort of broke my bike computer- I sent it back into configure mode and I don't have the instructions that tell the computer what wheel size I have. Anyway, we got to the store early so I read the rest (more or less) and met up with my group. It was great to see the people again, though of course Brad and Kiaya were missing, which was too bad. :(
After the book meeting was over, me and dX were pretty much playing it by ear. We had the vauge notion of entering Merrimack because we knew several people there- we just couldn't get ahold of any of them. But we headed out anyway, having to back track a couple miles to hit the right rode, and the storm started coming up. We put on our ponchos this time, but the wind was much worse then the rain- and pedalling against it wasn't as bad, probably, as the stupid flapping sound it made right in your ear. Also, dX almost got ran over by an absent minded moterist. But at least we were mostly dry.
Eventually we got on route 3. dX wanted to pull over at a dunkin d. You see, he's been away so long in Kansas (Where allegedly there is only 1 dunkin donuts and its an 1 hr 45 minutes away at that) that whenever he sees a Dunkin Donuts, he gets impullsive. We pulled in, I situated my backpack differently (the straps are killing me) and we went inside for a second. dX goes up to the counter and comes back a minute later. Dramatically, he throws a box of a dozen donuts down upon the table with a loud thud. I look up at him-
"Dude..."
"I hope you don't have anything against maple or choclate."
With this he flips open the lid- the box is split evenlyh between the two flavours, six each.
All I can think is that there is no way we can eat this many donuts quickly and not get cramps while riding. I had maybe 3, I think he had 5. We gave one to a person I knew from co-op that happend to walk in and we squished the rest into my backpack while dX made some calls on a payphone. When I had got my backpack back on (a difficult and painful ordeal) I went out to meet him again. He was smiling "Dude, I talked to Jake and Renee- they can meet us at the library in about half an hour. Lets get going!"
We started back up. It was tiring work- the weight of the packpack was heavy and it seemed to bounce up and down more then usual, which really irritated me because it made the pain in my arms more noticable. We climbed two large hills- they were murder. Finally we came upon the library, and for some reasons we had beat our companions there, which gave me a chance to get online and work on the blog a bit. It was really open there and nice- just give the receptionist your first name and BAM!! full xp box with adminstrative rights- even a USB port! Very nice indeed.
Jake and Renee made it but we we were talking too loud for the library, so they took us down to this place called King Cone. We each got a small, which was huge- more then I could eat before it melted and made a mess of me.
After hanging out there for a good 45 minutes, they drove us back to our bikes and took our packs with them to their house. With all that weight off of us, we flew down to their home in double time- it felt really really great. And thats where we are now.
Tim and I are having a blast over here- and to pay to pay for it we've been trying to work on their PCs and cook them Ramen. I got one of there boxes in substantially better shape then when I found it, and I unloaded 4 packs of the ramen here for part of our meal. I'm excited because that means my backpack will be that much less bulky. Rock rock on!!
Tomarrow, we don't have totally planned out. We are basically a day or two ahead of schedule and a little bit off of the planned route. We will probably bum around Milford for tomarrow, visiting a bunch of dX's old friends and hang outs. Should be a nice easy going day I think maybe. Then perhaps tomarrow we can find a place to actually "camp out" at and use some of this ramen and alcholioc fire starter!
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and comments they really are apprecited.
Mrs. C: Thank you so much for the emergency services and hospitality. dX was really blown away by the pampering we got there; it made his day.
Lyndsi: Oi, it is looking like possibly saturday for your place. Hopefully I can call you tomarrow to let you know for sure- it might change. Don't know how much time we will take with Milford, and Hudson is a large journey and we have two days left.
Mum: Thanks for the ponchos, they work pretty good when applied to the body. Who would have thunk it?
To ladyofnarnia: Thanks so much for letting me take the book so I could read it. You rock.
Jake and Rennee- dude you people are awesome. Thanks for everything! And Renee, sorry about not getting all of your face in that picture.
Bander: Dude, sorry I didn't come over today. It just didn't work out- our plans were shifting all over the place and it would have meant backtracking and loosing preacious time. Sorry though!
Kiaya: Thank you for trying to solve our weather problem. Actually, it might be working. Today didn't rain much at all, and when it did, it only rained breifly. Whatever you did over there seemed to mess with the forcast, so keep it up next time you see rain in our future.
More tomarrow, guys! Thanks for reading.
Update: dX flipped/flew/jumped off of his bike last night (end of day 2), and hurt his ankle. Apparently worse then I thought- he sort of limps with it now and its in to much pain to walk on much. We've got ice on it but dX's backpack is in a car that got taken to work unexpectedly since another vehicle died.... so the bandages aren't here. I'll be biking down to shaws for some emergency supplies. We'll try to fix him up here and see what he can do. Okay, that will be all- as you were.
We got up today at Mr. and Mrs. C's home welcomed by the smell of blueberry pancakses, ham and coffee. Thanks again, Mrs. C!
dX packing up at Mrs. C's house- beginning of day 1
It was tough going with the wheel- even though I had unlatched the rear brakes, it was still lightly touching the side once every revolution. We were on our way to route 28, but we only got about 4 miles out:
I was riding down a slight hill when suddenly there was a loud bang- for a split second I wondered what it was, then for a split second I thought I blew out the tire and should try to slowdown, and the last few second I felt myself riding increasingly on the rim. But suprisingly, I didn't loose control. I yelled up ahead at dX "BLOWOUT, MAN BLOOWOUT!!!" It took him a little while to get the idea and slow down, but in the end I pulled over and we took a look. On the plus side, I didn't have to use my bike kit to to take the tire off or the innertube out- I don't know how it stayed on the wheel at all. When I pulled over, they were off.
We ponder our prediciment. The verdict is unanamouse: cRaZy!
We discussed shortly putting on my spare and inflating it, but we decided rather quickly that it was crazy-talk. The wheel was in BAD shape- I knew that, and putting another one would be tirecide (you know like homocide...). So we went up to a nearby house and bummed a phone to call Mrs. C with. Thankfully, she had offered to pick us up in the case of an emergency. We sat around and wait for a while. I read more of my book.
Eventually Mrs. C came to the rescue and after taking the wheels off our vehicles, we put it into her minivan. She took us to the Jakes shop, which is now one of my favorite bike places- the guy there was really nice and knew what he was talking about.
It was in bad shape- spokes that were stripped, spokes that were broken- it was a bloody mess. In the end I had to replace the wheel, the innertube AND the tire- for the tire had a gash in it from the blow out as well. All in all I dropped $75 on it- alot of money, yes- but actually a VERY good deal.
From there, we biked to our first real destination of the day: Barns and nobooks.
I would tell you how many miles it was, but I sort of broke my bike computer- I sent it back into configure mode and I don't have the instructions that tell the computer what wheel size I have. Anyway, we got to the store early so I read the rest (more or less) and met up with my group. It was great to see the people again, though of course Brad and Kiaya were missing, which was too bad. :(
After the book meeting was over, me and dX were pretty much playing it by ear. We had the vauge notion of entering Merrimack because we knew several people there- we just couldn't get ahold of any of them. But we headed out anyway, having to back track a couple miles to hit the right rode, and the storm started coming up. We put on our ponchos this time, but the wind was much worse then the rain- and pedalling against it wasn't as bad, probably, as the stupid flapping sound it made right in your ear. Also, dX almost got ran over by an absent minded moterist. But at least we were mostly dry.
Eventually we got on route 3. dX wanted to pull over at a dunkin d. You see, he's been away so long in Kansas (Where allegedly there is only 1 dunkin donuts and its an 1 hr 45 minutes away at that) that whenever he sees a Dunkin Donuts, he gets impullsive. We pulled in, I situated my backpack differently (the straps are killing me) and we went inside for a second. dX goes up to the counter and comes back a minute later. Dramatically, he throws a box of a dozen donuts down upon the table with a loud thud. I look up at him-
"Dude..."
"I hope you don't have anything against maple or choclate."
With this he flips open the lid- the box is split evenlyh between the two flavours, six each.
All I can think is that there is no way we can eat this many donuts quickly and not get cramps while riding. I had maybe 3, I think he had 5. We gave one to a person I knew from co-op that happend to walk in and we squished the rest into my backpack while dX made some calls on a payphone. When I had got my backpack back on (a difficult and painful ordeal) I went out to meet him again. He was smiling "Dude, I talked to Jake and Renee- they can meet us at the library in about half an hour. Lets get going!"
We started back up. It was tiring work- the weight of the packpack was heavy and it seemed to bounce up and down more then usual, which really irritated me because it made the pain in my arms more noticable. We climbed two large hills- they were murder. Finally we came upon the library, and for some reasons we had beat our companions there, which gave me a chance to get online and work on the blog a bit. It was really open there and nice- just give the receptionist your first name and BAM!! full xp box with adminstrative rights- even a USB port! Very nice indeed.
Jake and Renee made it but we we were talking too loud for the library, so they took us down to this place called King Cone. We each got a small, which was huge- more then I could eat before it melted and made a mess of me.
Renee and Jake in waiting in line at the King Cone
After hanging out there for a good 45 minutes, they drove us back to our bikes and took our packs with them to their house. With all that weight off of us, we flew down to their home in double time- it felt really really great. And thats where we are now.
Tim and I are having a blast over here- and to pay to pay for it we've been trying to work on their PCs and cook them Ramen. I got one of there boxes in substantially better shape then when I found it, and I unloaded 4 packs of the ramen here for part of our meal. I'm excited because that means my backpack will be that much less bulky. Rock rock on!!
Tomarrow, we don't have totally planned out. We are basically a day or two ahead of schedule and a little bit off of the planned route. We will probably bum around Milford for tomarrow, visiting a bunch of dX's old friends and hang outs. Should be a nice easy going day I think maybe. Then perhaps tomarrow we can find a place to actually "camp out" at and use some of this ramen and alcholioc fire starter!
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and comments they really are apprecited.
Mrs. C: Thank you so much for the emergency services and hospitality. dX was really blown away by the pampering we got there; it made his day.
Lyndsi: Oi, it is looking like possibly saturday for your place. Hopefully I can call you tomarrow to let you know for sure- it might change. Don't know how much time we will take with Milford, and Hudson is a large journey and we have two days left.
Mum: Thanks for the ponchos, they work pretty good when applied to the body. Who would have thunk it?
To ladyofnarnia: Thanks so much for letting me take the book so I could read it. You rock.
Jake and Rennee- dude you people are awesome. Thanks for everything! And Renee, sorry about not getting all of your face in that picture.
Bander: Dude, sorry I didn't come over today. It just didn't work out- our plans were shifting all over the place and it would have meant backtracking and loosing preacious time. Sorry though!
Kiaya: Thank you for trying to solve our weather problem. Actually, it might be working. Today didn't rain much at all, and when it did, it only rained breifly. Whatever you did over there seemed to mess with the forcast, so keep it up next time you see rain in our future.
More tomarrow, guys! Thanks for reading.
Update: dX flipped/flew/jumped off of his bike last night (end of day 2), and hurt his ankle. Apparently worse then I thought- he sort of limps with it now and its in to much pain to walk on much. We've got ice on it but dX's backpack is in a car that got taken to work unexpectedly since another vehicle died.... so the bandages aren't here. I'll be biking down to shaws for some emergency supplies. We'll try to fix him up here and see what he can do. Okay, that will be all- as you were.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Day 1
Update: Library found, pictures fixed. :)
More at eleven.
Hello, it is I and dX here- reporting live from Fremont at host home 1. To get a few things out of the way: Yes, were not dead and yes we are dry (it took a while though). Also, for those of you trying to get ahold of us via dX's cell- don't. We'll call you, somehow. The phone situation is that we don't have one, basically- only for fire or medical emrgencies. Which is nice. And lastly- ignore the dates on the pictures below. The camera has amnesia.
Okay- I think a picture is in order to start this post off proper: here is us, just heading out from the Kittery Trading post:
I got a rock out of my shoe there. That was good.
More at eleven.
"It would rain, wouldn't it?"
Hello, it is I and dX here- reporting live from Fremont at host home 1. To get a few things out of the way: Yes, were not dead and yes we are dry (it took a while though). Also, for those of you trying to get ahold of us via dX's cell- don't. We'll call you, somehow. The phone situation is that we don't have one, basically- only for fire or medical emrgencies. Which is nice. And lastly- ignore the dates on the pictures below. The camera has amnesia.
Okay- I think a picture is in order to start this post off proper: here is us, just heading out from the Kittery Trading post:
You know, looking at this picture, it looks like its a nice day in Maine. That goes to show you just how crummy my camera is. Or perhaps, it means that this was taken during a break in the storm- we had a few of those that gave us false hope our journey would be a boring one. But don't worry; it wasn't.
Shortly after this was taken, we began on route 1 heading south. This was really fun- we were going about 16 to 18 miles an hour over a road that was just shy of an interstate, with water spraying up in our face and everywhere else. We were totally soaked within 5 minutes, and I mean TOTALLY soaked. But we weren't bummed- we were almost giddy even-we finally had left. We made great speed to Portsmouth and went on to fnd the next turn we needed to make. I was happy; we hadn't become lost yet.
Somewhere along route 33, we were going up a hill and we one of those awesome red bull trucks went past us. Just as dX started to mutter a "sweet" it started slowing down and pulling over in front of us.
"What?"
"Dude" we both said at the same time. The vehicle stopped and the doors opened. Out of them came bounding some young woman.
"Where you guys headed?" one of them asked.
"Towards newfields- trying to hit some trails up there"
"You guys camping or something?"
"Nah, were doing this bike thing- four days, starting today in Kittery, going around the state.
"Dude, you guys are ANIMALS!"
Me and dX smiled. It was a compliment of the obsucure variety- but we enjoyed it.
"Well how about we give you guys some red bulls for the ride out?"
We responded with exclamations that of "sure", "thank you", "sweet", "heck yes!" or some such. They sped off and our morale was boosted. Now dX doesn't have a water bottle mount, but I do. It was being used though, and I hadn't enough room in my backpack to take it out. So we started off chugging half the red bull cans at first, then we got back on our way down 33 driving with one hand and drinking with the other. Hmm... maybe I should have brought the tiki mug, Brad.
The trip went on pretty well and uneventful for a while. I have so far been pleasently suprised with my navigation skills- I am not geographically inclined like my father, and when traveling at high way speeds or in a moter vehicle for that matter, I tend to have to turn around and miss roads twice and some such nonsence. But I didn't lead us wrong at all today, for which I am stupidly proud. Because, eventually, it wasn't easy.
You see, I had a map of my estimated route that I printed off. I put it in my pocket for safekeeping and quicktaking. Dad wanted me to spray it with some waterproofing material or something like that- but COME ON dad, it will be in my pocket- how could it get wet there?
Well I'll tell you how it can get wet there- very very easily when its raining and the tires are spitting up water into your face, lap and everywhere else. So the map slowly became unusable- I took it out a few times on the way to and in portsmouth, but each time I realized that it was getting in worse condition. By the time we really started to need it, I could tell it was falling apart. Eventually, the papers resembled a large wad of cheap gum that has been chewed for 5 hours to long. From there, I had to go by memory of what I knew while planning out the trip and by verification of passers-by. It actually worked out very well. Everyone was really nice.
Okay, back to the main story. We got on a bike trail that goes all the way from newfields to Manchester. Its pretty impressive- mostly well packed dirty gravel- almost like a highway for bikes, I commented. We rode that thing at about 16 miles an hour sometimes, just about the same as we would a road.
These pictures are of us stopping for a little jerky and water break. Good stuff.
So this road was impressive, but we had to get to fremont, and my plan was to follow another trail that goes down a good ten miles or so from this one into the general area of fremont.
Thats where stuff started getting interesting:
Again, the camera is really not doing reality justice here. Everythings over exposed- let me fill in for you what the camera can't. You see those puddles of muddy water? Thats all there is for several miles- I'd say probably 4 at least, but I was to busy swatting flies and trying not to fall in to count them. This was easily the worst part of this day- we started off by riding through them but I stopped trying that when I sank almost up to the top of my wheels and almost fell in head first. It was like quick-sand mud in some places. We had to get off our bikes and walk around 4 our of 5 of the holes. There was also some rough terrain around here; when I got back on the road I eventually noticed my wheel was out of true- in other words, it was bent up.
Not much else to report of the trip that would be too exciting to you: we stopped at a school for another breather:
I got a rock out of my shoe there. That was good. And then we finally made it to our host home! Mr and Mrs. C are so cool; they gave us an awesome homeade meal that filled us up much better then beef jerky, they let us have showers and they let us exist in an air conditioned house, all while making us laugh. Thank you!
Tomarrow we go for manchester, but we make a little detour through Derry to get my wheel taken care of. You see, I tried to true it but I made it worse- as usual. And its bent up bad- keeps hitting the breaks, and you can even see visibly where the wheel is bent just by looking at it. Soo... how am I going to get there? Well, on my bike of course. The work around I finally settled on was to unhook my rear brakes. Now before you all freak out, don't worry don't worry- I stop mostly with my front brakes anyway- my rears had some trouble to begin with. And actually not having rear brakes is no where as dangerous as my rear wheel anyway, so don't worry. But if you do want to pray for our saftey, as I know there are alot of awesome people who are reading this that do, pray specifically that my wheel does not collapse and that it does not cause me to break my axle. I'll be babying it the whole way to the shop, so I don't see why it should but its still a kind of big deal. I've never seen what its like to drive a wheel to destruction; on the one hand I'm curious what it would look like and on the other hand I'm really not wanting to find out just yet.
Now if you will excuse me, I have a book to read for tomarrow's lit class- if all goes as planned, I should still show up via bike.
Till the next entry,
---Us
The journey begins
Chances are, by the time you read this dX and I will have left for the beginning of our trip. Yes, that's right- for the few of you who didn't know, we did not get to leave Monday as expected.
This was probably better though, as we got to have more time for packing and bike tuning, etc.
And boy, did we need it- check it out:
We ended up leaving a little bit of the stuff we bought behind- we only took something like 18 packs of ramen instead of the whole 24. For shame- thats 78 cents just wasted! But you should see the ramen I have managed to cram into that pack already- I have practically created a super structure for the pack by bracing it horizontally and vertically, using exclusively ramen noodles. We also have a lot of jerky and these other preserved tasty meat products.
Oh, and somewhat impulsively, we decided to get smore supplies... we were walking down the aisle and saw the marshmallows and hersheys and sort of made a dash for it- reason be darned.
I don't know how it will work out, but I tried to pack the breakable stuff- pop tarts and gram crackers- surrounded by marshmallows. My idea is that it serve as a sort of edible shock absorber. We shall see.
Speaking of impulse buys, I also got a bike computer! It was only 8 bucks at walmart but it was so cool- has a speedometer and a odometer function, as well as some other stuff. We also decided to kill two birds with one stone- instead of getting kindling or lighter fluid, we just got an extra big pack of isobrupo-something... thats nasty stuff you put into your cuts to clean them. Its 91 percent alcohol, so it should serve as fire starter just fine. Actually, its already been tested. Trust me- it works like a charm. ;)
I know its hard to tell from this picture, but this backpack is totally crammed:
...and I haven't even been able to fit my Bible in there. I know the blanket can go on the outside, but I'll have to see what I can do about getting a pocket Bible for the trip... I dunno. Really wanted to bring one.
Oh, and here is our method of contact with the outside world:
Great, eh? Except this bring us to our mandatory "last-minute-crisis"- we left the charger in Fitchburg, MA. So yeah, hopefully we shall pick one up early in the first leg of the trip.
Well thats it for now... like I said, by the time you read this we should on our way!
See you on the road everybody!
(dX performs an unsolicited display of pyro-technics at an undisclosed location while bored last night)
This was probably better though, as we got to have more time for packing and bike tuning, etc.
And boy, did we need it- check it out:
We ended up leaving a little bit of the stuff we bought behind- we only took something like 18 packs of ramen instead of the whole 24. For shame- thats 78 cents just wasted! But you should see the ramen I have managed to cram into that pack already- I have practically created a super structure for the pack by bracing it horizontally and vertically, using exclusively ramen noodles. We also have a lot of jerky and these other preserved tasty meat products.
Oh, and somewhat impulsively, we decided to get smore supplies... we were walking down the aisle and saw the marshmallows and hersheys and sort of made a dash for it- reason be darned.
I don't know how it will work out, but I tried to pack the breakable stuff- pop tarts and gram crackers- surrounded by marshmallows. My idea is that it serve as a sort of edible shock absorber. We shall see.
Speaking of impulse buys, I also got a bike computer! It was only 8 bucks at walmart but it was so cool- has a speedometer and a odometer function, as well as some other stuff. We also decided to kill two birds with one stone- instead of getting kindling or lighter fluid, we just got an extra big pack of isobrupo-something... thats nasty stuff you put into your cuts to clean them. Its 91 percent alcohol, so it should serve as fire starter just fine. Actually, its already been tested. Trust me- it works like a charm. ;)
I know its hard to tell from this picture, but this backpack is totally crammed:
...and I haven't even been able to fit my Bible in there. I know the blanket can go on the outside, but I'll have to see what I can do about getting a pocket Bible for the trip... I dunno. Really wanted to bring one.Oh, and here is our method of contact with the outside world:
Great, eh? Except this bring us to our mandatory "last-minute-crisis"- we left the charger in Fitchburg, MA. So yeah, hopefully we shall pick one up early in the first leg of the trip.Well thats it for now... like I said, by the time you read this we should on our way!
See you on the road everybody!
(dX performs an unsolicited display of pyro-technics at an undisclosed location while bored last night)
Saturday, June 24, 2006
New ride, new life idea(s)
Hello, everybody. I'm back. For those of you who were looking for new material, sorry. I was sort of busy with life things and not updating my blog. But for those who’ve been checking, thanks. It’s cool to be read.
Alright- so I will start this off with a picture of my new friend:
(Tiki mug for display purposes only. Uttereast.blogspot.com does not condone drinking and cycling. Check your local state laws before drinking anything, eating anything, or breathing in certain restricted state wildlife zones. Buckel up, even when cycling if at ever possible. Voidware prohibited.)
That’s right, them right dere is my new wheels, yo! And don’t be hate’n just cause It’s 2 wheels instead of 4- for one thing, I’m sitting on 26’s and this baby has taken me 40 miles already and will take me over 133.16 more. It is a Schwinn S-30 and whenever it is not breaking, it is my friend. Its lighter then my old hard-tail (which in retrospect must have been made from some sort of lead alloy) and it climbs and accelerates really nice for soft-tail, or any bike for that matter. It even makes me feel cool sometimes, which is quite the fringe benefit. But wait- I’m getting ahead of myself, I know. Let me start at the beginning.
Probably as far back as two years ago, my friend (hereafter referred to by his alias, “dX”) and I talked about doing some crazy-go-nuts trip across New Hampshire over the power line trails. We decided to try it next summer, when dX would make a return visit to NH from his new residence in Kansas. He came up, but for various reasons I don’t recall, we never made the trip. This year, we have decided to right that wrong.
Originally, we planned on starting up in Canada and riding our way back south for a week or two over the power line trails. But eventually, due to the current restrictions of reality (such as our inexperience, flood levels and the difficulty in securing complete maps of power line trails) we decided to shorten the trip- From Maine, across New Hampshire as far as Milford, and then eventually back to my house, in 4 days.
That’s where the new bike comes in. You see, I had one already- a Boulder SE hard tail. Nice bike, but I killed it years ago. I took it in for estimates and it would have cost me as much as $230 to get it back into working condition. I figured if I looked hard enough, I could find a good deal on a better, newer bike for less money. But where?
I found “the one” astray in a police auction of seized possessions. I took it under my wing and had it fixed up. It had some loose bolts here and there and a bent wheel, but other then that it was in FINE condition. And though I’ve had to have the rear wheel trued twice since getting it, it now seems to be holding up very well… I’ve been trying to ride it far and wide to train myself up, and it is performing marvelously well. I love it… And I am so psyched to get going on this trip.
Just being on the verge of this adventure has birthed ideas that tantalize my brain- I’ve always been fascinated with under-the-radar, obscure ways of living: hoboing , truck driving, eeking out power and water beneath forgotten subway tunnels in New York, the cowboys of old and so forth… But I have come up with an idea that seems more immediately accessible to me: Nomadding Bicycle tech-gypsies. Or just “Bike Tribes” for short. In case you are still not clear on what I am talking about, think of it like this:
Gypsies; only with bicycles, a little less smelly, and hooked into the Internet wirelessly.
Think about it- the idea is insanely plausible. I haven’t run any hard numbers yet, but it would make your cost of living take a nose dive- you could work for maybe a few months and have enough money saved up to live in the outdoors for a few years. You wouldn’t need insurance, and you wouldn’t pay rent. Of course, you could choose to pay for a cell phone, occasional internet access or the occasional campground fees- maybe even a real motel bed if you wanted it- but the only mandatory costs would be food and things relating to bike maintenance. The best part is this: if you wanted to, you could still have a job in many fields. Anything you can do online, obviously you can do on the road now. With services like manpower, it would not be posible that people could get as much money as they needed for life from every industry in any State (and 68 other countries). Not to mention other, more loosley defined resorces such as Craigslist. Seriously, this is huge. It's outdoors, it's tech, it's social and it's wanderlust. All of which are pretty much in my top ten ideas of life. Whats not to love?
Okay… but as for now… Heh, it will just be a 4 day trip for me and dX. Several of our friends have also been nice enough to lend us their homes as hops along the journey where we will have access to modern marvels such as running water and internet. And of course, in addition to refilling water, taking a shower I plan on blogging whenever I can. I will bring my crappy camera and dX will probably have at least one camera amoungst his many gadgets. So- stay tuned.
Lord willing, we should be leaving this Monday (the 26th).
LatSee you on the road!
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