If you were wondering…

…yeah. I’m still working on the panniers.

Also, the ‘granola bars’ are edible. Crunchy in an under-cooked bean kind of way, but with the head cold I’ve been rocking for the last week or so, it doesn’t really matter what I put in my mouth. 🙂

Homemade granola bars?

Being the child of my mother, I am often wont to throw a mish-mash of ingredients into a pot, put it on the stove, and call it a day.
My mom is the queen of whatever’s-in-the-cupboard stews, and I’d like to think I’m following in her footsteps. It all started last night with The Bean Pot.

(Merlin is, apparently, bored with The Bean Pot.)
Last night, I put some beans from the cupboard into The Bean Pot to start them a-soaking. Today, I decided I wanted them to be the base for some granola bars.
Never mind that beans aren’t in anybody’s recipe for granola bars–they’re a great source of protein and cheap to boot! I’ve been trying to think of ways to save money while on the road, and I’m hoping that after some finagling I can get something to work involving beans.
The pulled-from-the-cupboard-all-willy-nilly ingredients included:
-a big lump of peanut butter (it had to have been around 3/4 cup…or something)
-a big squeeze or two of honey (maybe 1/4 cup?)
-a nearly full scoop of soy protein powder (don’t even begin to think that I know how much I actually put in. It was provably around 3 tbsp.)
-water, since soaked beans need a little boiling

So I set that all to boil in a pot. I tried a mashed potato masher to get the beans to smash, and I tried one of those things you use for a great crisscross on peanut butter cookies (no, not a fork, smart aleck), and then I put it through the magic bullet..which crapped out after maybe a minute.
So I scooped this gunk into a baking dish, threw a bag of banana-nut-oat-flake-bran-fiber (read: a bag of cereal for which I have no box…and have no idea what it actually is) cereal in with it, stirred it all up, and voila!

I MADE HOMEMADE SUET!

…I wonder what it tastes like.

And then there were two!

It’s been very hot here, and with a whirlwind couple of days of heat and power outages and state shutdowns (oh my!), it’s been hard to update the blog. Nothing much doing for training rides, because it’s been too hot, and I’ve been waking up late, and…drumroll, please…

I’ve been working tirelessly on getting the front panniers done. The one on the left looks a little wonky, but that’s only because it’s not full. The one on the right has my tent in it, with room to spare! I’m pretty much overjoyed.

One funny thing that happened whilst sewing was this:

Yep, that’s a blue side on black panniers. For some reason, my sweltering brain flipped a piece over, and the blue cordura that’s on the inside everywhere else is on the outside.
I’ve been thinking up excuses for this to make it seem like I did it on purpose. So far, I’m thinking it’ll be like socks with an L and an R on the toe–I’ll never mix them up. Also, that’s where I’ll probably put little finicky pockets, since it’s where my left hand can most easily reach.
So that’s the big news. Hopefully I can crank through the rear panniers, and start doing some loaded training!

I’ll leave you with a picture of my mom’s cat Daisy on top of my jeep. That’s the new soft top in the picture!

Hopefully I’ll have more pannier updates soon.

we have a winner.

After a lot of hours of sewing…I have one pannier.

Now, to finish the rest.

If only I could teleport.

Up until recently, I had plans to drive out to my starting point, San Francisco, with a Montessori teacher whose job was bringing her out to the west coast. I was pretty dang excited to drive with an interesting lady and her 11 year old pup, but unfortunately most aspects of this trip have been way too easy, so the universe decided to finally hand me some difficulty.
My potential ride departs august 6th, and there’s no way I’d be able to leave that early. This is for many reasons, including Ramadan, a Muslim fasting time that lasts through august. At the Starbucks where I work, we have an exceptionally number of east African customers, many of whom celebrate Ramadan.
The gist of Ramadan and why it keeps me here is that my Muslim customers will be fasting all day, from sunrise to sunset; once sunset hits, their fast can be broken. For my Starbucks, this means that there is an insane rush of customers from sunset until we close at midnight. Basically, I refuse to leave my store in the lurch, and force someone new to handle Ramadan rushes.
But because I’m not leaving until late august, I’m left struggling for a strategy to get to the west coast. I could fly, and pay a lot of extra money to fly my bike out. I could take a train, but again, it’s an investment. I could bus, but they’d make me ship the bike. It’d be cool to drive, but I’d need a vehicle, or a way to get my jeep *back* to Minneapolis.
Arthur is looking into making the drive, but it’s a bit of time to take off work.

So this is my conundrum. I’m weighing my options, and would love it if there’s anybody out there with an opinion. How would YOU get to the west coast with a bike and gear?

An ocean of fabric

The other day, I found myself at Midwest Mountaineering. This place is honestly heavenly for anybody who likes camping, canoeing, hiking, or even just looking trendy in Smartwool and Patagonia. Midwest is where I got my hammock (which goes with me whenever I’m camping), my stove (an MSR whisperlite international, which can use just about any type of fuel), my saw (the Sven Saw, an amazing invention), my water filter (again, MSR), my tent, my sleeping bag, my raincoat.. Pretty much anything I use outdoors and love is from there. Okay, except my bikes.
The thing that makes Midwest even cooler is what lies above the main level. Thrifty Outfitters is located on the second floor. It’s a veritable treasure trove of thrift. You can get wool socks for six bucks. You can get hats and gloves and jackets and tents and sunglasses and packs.. all for reasonably cheap. If you live in Minneapolis and have never visited, it’d be well worth it. www.midwestmtn.com is their website, and they have seasonal sales. Sometimes there is a dog or two there, and there are always several friendly salespeople around.

I digress. The reason I was AT Midwest in the first place was to buy clips for my panniers. Thrifty Outfitters also has a counter where you can buy clips and clasps and d-rings and Velcro and webbing by the foot, and sailcloth and pack cloth and ripstop..

WordPress decided to crash and delete everything after this, so I’m going to quick recap–you probably didn’t need to read that much anyway.

Mischa was with me at Midwest, and he saw his friend Brent working Thrifty Outfitters, and then Brent and his coworkers convinced me to buy this:

That’s 10 yards of cordura fabric, because Seattle fabrics decided they weren’t sending me the things I had ordered. Dang. I got this fabric for half price, on account of Brent and his salesperson wizard friends convinced me to buy TEN FREAKING YARDS. I’ll never need to buy fabric for packs again. I also walked out with 16 d-rings, four heavy duty clips, and 40 feet of webbing.

That’s my roommate’s cat, Merlin. He likes to get all up in my business.. he’s been playing on the fabric since I spread it out.

I’ll leave you with that. Hopefully next time I show you something blue, it’s shaped like a pannier and attached to my bike.

Oh, fenders. Oh, yeah.

Yesterday, I attempted (read: I fiddled with a single part while Arthur actually worked) to install my fenders. The ones I purchased are made by SKS, a German company, and are constructed of metal sandwiched between plastic. They’re lightweight, seem very durable, and are a total bitch to install.
First, I ended up using another handy hardware gadget–simply put, it’s a strip of metal about 1.5mm thick, bent at a right angle, with two screw-holes. Basically, it takes a hole that sits horizontally and makes it sit vertically, and vice versa. I fiddled with this for a good half hour, while Arthur installed the entire front fender.

It was at this point that he discovered we would need a bigger tool to trim protruding metal parts (my front rack is constructed in such a way that it moved things around a little). It was also at this point that I presented him with four little pieces of plastic that are part of the front fender. Which were not, at that point, attached to the fender.

We then put the kibosh on Operation Fender. That’s right, folks, it was getting *that* frustrating. We were hungry. So Arthur drove my disassembled bike back to my house, I biked there on my other bike, and Arthur drove back home, got his bike, and biked to my house. (confused? I was, too.) Grilling ensued, bonfiring occurred, my coworkers came over, and we met the neighbors and their pets. I slept soundly in the air conditioning, and when I woke up I knew it was time to tackle The Fenders again.
See if you can spot the ‘bigger tool’ I used to trim the metal stays.

Overall, it went pretty smoothly this morning. Now that I have fenders, I just need a storm so I can test them out.

Update!

Work has kept me somewhat busy this week, but definitely not too busy to do some bike preparation and hanging out with friends. Had a beach day with my sister, who biked and met me halfway at Lake Calhoun (how exciting it is that my sister LIKES riding her bike!!), did a little shopping yesterday (finally, fenders! I’ll reveal them once I’ve gotten them properly affixed to the bike), attached a headlight mount to the front rack using some tidbits from the hardware store.. the bike is really coming along. I’m hoping to have the rest of the fabric for my panniers by Monday so that I can use my next day off to do a little sewing.
Today it’s beautiful out, though somewhat balmy at 88 degrees. Arthur and I met up at the Mayday Cafe this morning–I love this place because it’s alway chock full o’ kids and dogs–then headed to lunch with his dear, lovely mum. We ate at a fancy schmancy place in St. Paul called W. A. Frost & Company; sitting out on the patio with big old trees and ivy and shade was amazing at midday, and the food was delicious. After a short coffee break, I returned home to find a package from vistaprint! My business cards are here! Check it out:

I intentionally left my full name and phone number off, and the back side is blank. This allows me to give as little or as much information as I want, without having to find a scrap of paper to write it on. Also, I feel like a more legit bike-fundraiser-lady with business cards. Hopefully I’m better able to spread the word about this endeavor!

For now, I’m off to take a shower, then headed to Arthur’s again to install fenders and hopefully spend some time outside. I’m hoping to have more substantial updates in the near future, but for now, go outside, dear reader! It’s gorgeous!

A Great Day With Kristen!

Kristen is my good friend and fellow camp counselor. Today, we met near Lake Calhoun for a bike ride. There was a lot of side-by-side riding and some great catching up; a slow-ish, short-ish ride, but much needed Kristen time and a GREAT day for riding! We took the greenway back toward my house, then went to the Loring Pasta Bar for brunch. This was the point at which Kristen tried her very first mussel (if you’re my friend on facebook, there’s video footage)–I’m proud of her for being willing to try new things.

Because it was a flat-fee brunch, we both stuffed ourselves with various and asundry foods–sushi, fresh fruit, eggs benedict, chicken wings, mussels, clam linguini, miniature creme brulee, chocolate dipped strawberries…we ate a little bit of everything, then lounged at our cushioned shady outdoor table. We looked a little out of place from the Sunday brunchers in our padded shorts and jerseys. Most of the other patrons had likely just come from church, and had the snazzy getups to show it.

After leaving brunch, we visited Erik’s, where Kristen got a chance to meet dear Arthur, and I got a chance to be his obnoxious customer. I ask a TON of questions whenever I’m buying bike stuff, which is a good thing for me, but terribly taxing on sales associates. Kristen bought new socks, and I bought socks, gloves and yet another water bottle cage. (side story: one time, my bike frame was little, such that it was impossible to put a water bottle into the cage that attaches to the seat tube because it’s such a small spot. So I had to get this fancy side-loading cage, and now my dinky water bottle fits like, well, a small water bottle in a small spot. Perfectly.)

We then slowly made our way back to the house where Kristen is dog-sitting, and I got to meet Fynn. Fynn is a wire-haired fox terrier, and she’s got sass to boot. I snapped a picture of her in the yard after an intense meeting with a little dog named Jimmy. Fynn needed to eat a whole lot of grass (she loves eating grass..) to calm down from that encounter. Side note: Kristen’s awesome Trek is on the right, and the bike I’ll be riding across the country is on the left!

Kristen and I baked pizza and ate way too much, her friend Joel came over, and then our fellow counselor/friend Eric showed up, and then my mom showed up. It was a lovely little gathering of people, and I arrived home feeling blessed, and a little sunburnt, and ready to do some hardcore digestion of all the food Kristen and I consumed today. Wahoo!

Fundraiser Update: We are at 325 dollars! THIS IS AMAZING! I have business cards coming in the mail so I’ll be better able to spread the word (SUPER excited about those!), and I’m so hopeful now that some donations have started to come in. We are doing an amazing thing, guys. Seriously, so grateful.

Happy fourth! Be safe!