Crunch Time

All right! It’s Friday morning and I’m writing a post I meant to write a few days ago. I guess that’s nothing new, but I’ve got plenty of real news to make up for it. Prepare for an uncharacteristically quick recap (seriously.)

1) Evan’s bike! He’s got a 2011 Kona Sutra with some modifications to make it prettier (read: most of the silver things in the picture are now black).

A box that shipped at 4lbs arrived from Grass Valley, CA. I lifted it and thought that Henry had forgotten to include the package.

Then I opened the box, and sure enough it was in there. The tiny, tiny “it” was in there. “What IS the tiny ‘it’?!”, you’re all wondering…

Either that, or you already know, because I’ve been talking about the stinkin’ tent for ages. Anyway, it weighs 2.5lbs. TWO AND A HALF POUNDS. Including its stakes, poles, and flysheet. Henry Shires, you are a god among men, and your TarpTent is on my list of coolest things acquired this year.

In addition to owning the bike, Evan is RIDING the bike. This is important, because it will be required soon. A lot. He even looks happy about it.

In other non-trip-related news, Evan made an amazing Gozleme dinner the other night to have our clients Chris and Rita over, and with the rest of the lamb leg, he made lamb roast, with roasted vegetables. Gastronomic heaven, folks.

One of the highlights of my week (okay, my life) was getting a private NYCKELHARPA concert from Chris and Rita. You are marveling at the fact that Chris and Rita own Nyckelharpor, and are playing them in their under-construction house? Me, too. It was AMAZING.

 

First of all, it was amazing because I’ve never heard a Nyckelharpa, let alone two of them, in person. Second of all, it was amazing because it was Chris and Rita making beautiful music in the home they’ve been dreaming about for years. I was brought to tears several times while they were playing. Don’t tell Evan, Chris or Rita, though… I’m not sure any of them noticed.

Dom, the astronaut neighbor, came over for dinner, and Rita cooked us an amazing meal of salmon, asparagus, scalloped potatoes, and homemade bread. Rita is a bread woman, and she makes some fine loaves. We are lucky that she shares.

For desert was an amazing RAW fruit pie with almond/date crust and tons of sliced fruits and raisins for filling.

I think this was an important turning point in the house’s evolution, and we could all feel the joy emanating from these homeowners at having guests sit around their kitchen island (a giant slab of soapstone, amazing) in their furnished kitchen, drinking wine and eating great food until after dark, then wandering the house and chatting some more… This is what brings “home” to a house.

I’m so proud of Chris and Rita for being patient through the process, and so sorry that Evan and I will be leaving for a month! There is much to be done, but there’s space to live in there, and they’re slowly settling in.

 

So, Evan and I leave tomorrow for Saint Louis. We’re going to stop near Castle Rock, CO for a very important two-year-old’s birthday party, then stay in Lindsborg, KS for the night (the tiny Swedish town where I stayed and helped Jess prepare for her wedding, and watched the cute little kid Avery). Then off to STL on Sunday, and we’re hoping to be on the bikes by the first of May.

Cross your fingers, guys! The lines will go flat for a day or two here while we run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

 

In closing, a word about my mother, who has encouraged me along many a bumpy, hilly, windy, stupid ride, and makes a donation to the shelter when I hit some kind of milestone… Thank you for always, always, always being there, mom, even when I’m in another country, another state, another city, and sometimes what seems like another planet. You are not only bolstering my spirits with donations to Avenues, but you’re bolstering the lives of youth. Mom… you rock.

Catch y’all on the flip side.

 

Gearing Up (and Down) for Departure!

Man, oh man! I have no recollection whatsoever of the weeks preceding my trip to California last fall being so HECTIC. My hopes of blogging regularly through the prep-work have been dashed by shopping, and cooking, and cleaning, and working, and sleeping… I gotta stop sleeping.

Even with all of the hectic days, the elk are still around. We were excited to find them all lying down at the top of a hill the other day, and as we pulled up they stood up, one by one. If you’ve never watched an elk stand up, I’ll give you a play-by-play. Actually, I’ll just tell you that elk stand up butt-end first. Then, it appears as though they bend their elbows to get the rest of themselves up. Once they were all on their feet (fair is fair–I’m not about to harass the elk while they’re still lying down), I started hooting and whistling at them. Ultimately, it ended in a lot of running elk.

Can you blame them? I’d probably run away if I was hooting and whistling at me, too.

Back to our regularly scheduled HECTIC.

This depicts the contents of the three packages I received last week. They all arrived on the same day, and I had a heck of a time sorting clif bars, electrolyte chews, and various other sundries.

Also in the packages:
-A super-bright German-made taillight that pulses instead of flashing. Research shows that strobing or flashing lights can impair the depth perception of those approaching them (read: motorists). Do I want a car not knowing how far away I am as I ride along the side of the road? No. The taillight was minimally packaged, and charges via USB, and I’m pretty excited to try it out.

-A 4L dromedary. Sorry, guys, it’s not a dromedary camel… Just a water bag. I’ve already got a 3L dromedary, but since there will be a dude riding with me, the more dromedaries, the merrier. That goes for the camels, too.

-A GARMIN! That little box sitting next to the Clif bars in the picture is my new bike computer. I’m hoping it turns out as awesome as I think it is. This thing uses GPS to track speed and distance and elevation, and thusly calculates things like speed of ascent/descent and hill grade. Given the number of hills we’re going to be doing, I’m really and truly stoked to see exactly what we are contending with. In the event that it turns out not as spiffy as I think it will be, Evan will have my normal bike computer on his bike, so we can get distance measurements done the old-fashioned magnet-on-the-spokes way.

Not in the packages, but new to the bike:

This is where the (Down) in my post title comes from. That’s a new crankset, guys! It’s a Shimano Deore XT, geared 22/32/44, whereas the old one was a Shimano 105, geared 30/39/50. What does this mean? It means I can spin like a madwoman up hills.

Basically, I’ve geared everything down, switching from a road crankset to a mountain bike crankset. This makes for less strain on my knees, because I’m doing more spinning than I am grinding up hills. In the Appalachians, this will make all the difference in the world, and it’s more likely that my knees will not give up on me.

Evan and I are trying out some different and new gear for this trip, too!

First of all, we have some plates and Swedish-made plastic sporks. He introduced the novel idea of cooking pancakes for breakfast some morning, which I thought was just splendid, but with only a pot and a mug, not feasible. So off to Denver we went.

At REI, we found the plates, which we hope will double as both pan and plate. I also bought some kinesio tape, which is a stretchy athletic tape that will support my knee if I start having pain. If I’m lucky, I won’t have to use it!

We stopped at Wheat Ridge Cyclery and picked up some clothing, too. Evan picked out a nice Pearl Izumi jersey that’s white, so he doesn’t overheat in the humid climate, and I picked up a sleeveless triathlon-style jersey, so that I, too, do not overheat. I found a pair of cycling gloves in the same style as the ones I used last fall, so I picked up a pair of those (I’m not one for change, so I stuck with what I knew).

The other big stop we made was at Denver Fabrics, where I picked up some ripstop nylon, seam seal tape, velcro, and some rubber-coated cordura. Rita was nice enough to let me borrow her sewing machine, a lovely Swedish Viking, so I’ve been doing this for the last few days:

Why, yes. That is the beginning of a dry sack! I enjoy the ones I currently own, but Evan doesn’t have as many as I do, and dry sacks and stuff sacks are great for keeping gear in order inside a pannier. Unfortunately, they are so stinkin’ expensive. So, as with a lot of things, I bucked the consumer trend (sort of), and decided to do it myself.

Lastly but not leastly, I found a pair of Specialized Riata mountain biking shoes, just like the ones I wore on the first part of the trip, which have mysteriously disappeared. This pair is brown, not black, which isn’t ideal, but I think I’ll cope. I was never really good at the fashion thing, anyway.

The things we are still waiting on are a tent and a bike with its fixings.

That’s right, EVAN’S BIKE IS STILL NOT HERE. Before you assume that I’ve gone into full-on panic mode, given that WE LEAVE ON SATURDAY, I will reassure you that the bike has arrived at the *shop*, and has been assembled, but the shop forgot to call Evan last Friday when it was finished. We enjoyed a nice ride today, with him on my blue Cannondale, and me on my touring bike, with a headwind both ways, and I’m just going to trust that when the bike gets here Evan’s going to be a total champ about it.

The tent I’m not so worried about. It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, and weighing in at just over 2.5lbs, it’s less than half as heavy as my tent. The tent I carried just for myself.

I am so excited to be carrying less weight, which will surely be the case, what with warmer weather, and another pack-horse to split the weight with me.

So all in all? I’m good. The weather’s been great.

and I met Chris and Rita’s friend Ian the other day.

He’s a different kind of cycle tourist, namely one with a motor, but a nice guy nonetheless. If you’re ever down near Abiquiu (I think that’s Albequerque for some of us), whether biking the Great Divide mountain bike route or on a Motorcycle riding the Divide, stop in at Bode’s General Store, and Ian’s house is just down the street. Hopefully, Evan and I will have a chance to visit him sometime this summer or fall.

So, long story short… I’m busy. Busy sewing and ironing,

and busy trying to sort out this mess.

The guest room is in full-on touring mode (no, we aren’t taking the guitars along), and I’ve been working really hard at getting things sorted out and ready. There’s grocery shopping yet to be done, and a bike yet to be gotten, but I think it can be done.

Lastly, but not leastly, I need to make a big shout-out to the first donor of Part Two, my Auntie Jodi.

My dad’s side of the family has been so supportive of my endeavors–my Grandma Alice, aunts and cousins were a presence in my life while I prepared to move to Prague, and I am so blessed to have their support in this trip, too.

Thank you for getting the fundraiser back in motion, Jodi!

With the last work week before the tour ahead of me, I can’t guarantee that I’ll post anything in the next six days, but I will sign off knowing I’ve given you more than enough to read for now. 🙂 Enjoy the week, everybody!

Spring, Sprang, Sprung! The Tour Carries On.

Well, folks…

Apparently it’s been four months since I wrote. Time flies when you’re not pounding out the miles alone in the middle of Kansas, or on some spooky trail at night (ahem, I mean YOU, Katy trail). It has been a full four months, starting with some much-needed time in Minnesota, hanging out with some of my favorite people and animals.

I definitely had to visit my long-time friend Diana and her amazingly well-behaved and cute dog, Kita. We’ve known each other since sixth grade, and neither of us has gotten any less awesome. Unfortunately, I only snapped a picture with her dog. What was I thinking?!

I also got to see Kristen, another of my amazing friends. Kristen counsels summer camp with me, and offered to store my stuff in her basement while I was away on tour. She also makes a wicked batch of shortbread, and can decorate a mean tiny Christmas tree.

Of course, I paid a visit to my old household, where I was (sort of) greeted by Merlin.

He’s thinking, “You left me. We are over. I can’t even look at you right now.”

After an awesome few weeks at home, I was blessed to be able to attend the giant Christmas gathering that is thrown by my dad’s side of the family. It comes complete with approximately forty of the cutest kids I’ve ever seen. Like my cousin’s kid, Julia.

The next morning I was off to the airport. I flew in to Raleigh, NC, where I met up with Evan, who I hadn’t seen in approximately a thousand miles. We had hoped to meet up on the East coast once I BIKED there, but I went and mucked it all up. It worked out for the better, though, because I got to meet his niece Abby. That’s right, Abbi and Abby in the same vehicle on multiple occasions. Buckle your seatbelts, folks. Double trouble in the backseat.

We saw a farmer’s market, (in December, hear my incredulity…)

And even went bowling with Evan’s cousin’s whole family. (Thanks so much to Aunt Sally for hosting us, and to Kecia and John and Becca and Abby for some fun times!)

When it came time for leg two of the trip, we had a small fiasco involving a last-minute rental van from Quebec–but we arrived in Philadelphia intact, having passed through Virginia, DC, Maryland and Delaware on the way. Once in Philly we did all of the Philly things that Evan had been missing since moving to Salida, which means that we ate Cheesesteaks for four days straight.

Okay, not really. We celebrated Christmas, and we took a bus up to NYC, and almost missed our bus back, and ate a few Cheesesteaks. I learned that there is nowhere in the whole world, except some joint in Denver and maybe one in LA, that a person can buy a REAL, AUTHENTIC Cheesesteak. Also, for us Minnesotans, the concept of a “hot hoagie” from Davannis made Evan and his family cringe, collectively. All of the Gists, cringing at the same time.

Big thanks to John and Linda for having us as guests. I’ve got so much to say about these people–they’re so kind and welcoming, and amazing illustrators to boot. If you haven’t heard of John and Linda Gist… Please, do yourself a favor and Google them, or Oogle them, or YahooSearch them–find their work. They can make any botanical item (yes, even a head of garlic or a fungus) look GOOD.

After a whirlwind week or so on the East coast, and a missed flight to Minneapolis (I’m not going to point any of my fingers at the guy who sat next to me on the flight…), we finally got to my homeland, where we had a couple of days to hang out and get my things ready for a big, fat change in my life.

So I crammed as much of Minneapolis as I could into those few days (read: hot dish and whipping donuts on the frozen lake (read: just kidding)), and then we crammed as much of Abbi and Her Stuff into my Jeep as we could, to make a long haul to Colorado. After leaving Diana’s house (Diana, thank you for your hospitality!) at around 1:30AM, and getting out of my house at around 4AM, we drove ALL day through nasty snow, nasty wind, and nasty manure smells, finally reaching Colorado around midnight.

But hey, all of that white-knuckled driving with three bikes on the back of a Jeep Wrangler whose soft cover acted not unlike a sail at full mast–it was worth it. I get to be around this all the time.

Well, some of the time. Now that it’s April, there’s a bit less of the snow stuff, but the same amount of the mountain stuff and the sun stuff. Over the winter, Evan and I went snowshoeing several times on the property where we are working.

“The property where you are working..?”, you ask?

Evan has been working hard on a timber frame home for nearly two years. The clients are the wonderful Chris and Rita, who instantly welcomed me into the little building family. One (or two) of the coolest things I was lucky enough to help Evan with? The two red spiral staircases that connect the three levels of the house. This is a picture of Chris and Evan after finishing the first staircase.

My main responsibility at the site is getting all of the interior timbers sanded and oiled. When the timbers were installed, they suffered a few forklift marks and some drips of water, and some dirt and grime. So as I sand them, I am trying to get a lot of the marks out, and as I oil them, I’m sealing them for strength.

In February, Evan and I got to have a mini-vacation to Joshua Tree, California, where there are enough wind turbines to power all of my nightmares for the rest of my life. One turbine isn’t too scary, but a whole field of them honestly creeps me out. This picture doesn’t even capture the creepiness… because this field contained about six times what’s in the picture, and there was another one across the highway. Turbines in the hills, turbines in the valleys… A full-on turbin-ocalypse.

We didn’t go to see the turbines, though. We went to stay at this awesome structure called Rosa Muerta, and to explore Joshua Tree national park.

Rosa Muerta is a cinderblock house with a semi-open roof and a covered porch area. It’s set into the ground to keep it cool in the summer, and in February… well, let’s just say that the roof only sheltered us from some of the wind. Lucky for us, though, there was a hot tub outside where we took refuge when the temperature dropped.

Rosa Muerta is home to some crazy looking cacti.

And Joshua Tree National Park is home to some great hiking trails, like the one that took us to the top of a mountain!

According to the park’s informational pamphlet, one can see Mexico from this summit on a clear day. I looked and looked, but nothing really screamed “MEXICO!” at me. So down we hiked, and I found some rocks to scramble up.

It was fun to take a bit of time off, and we even got to explore LA for a bit en route from and to the airport. Then it was back to snowy Colorado for more fun.

And more not-fun, which came in the form of food poisoning. Thanks to Evan for putting up with my fever and whininess!

We took lots of trips to Denver, which involved this long stretch of valley where the wind whips and the snow flies and the temperature drops… and it’s white-knuckle scary.

But every time we survived that stretch of road, we got to go to Denver, where there’s Whole Foods and Ikea, and a climbing gym!

That’s right, folks. Instead of biking, I’m snowshoeing, skiing and climbing up massive walls. Also, check out the child on the left, who went on to completely conquer that wall.

One of the things I’ve been seeing a ton of, that I get really, really excited about every time is elk. There is a herd of 80-90 elk that passes through near the work site pretty often, and I’ve had a blast saying hi to them. Unfortunately, I haven’t pet any of them yet. They seem to want to keep their distance.

In other news, Evan and I bought an accordion, and I’ve been learning to play that, although I think Evan looks better holding it.

We visited some friends in Hotchkiss, CO, where I helped their two girls and two friends build a tire swing,

and on the drive home we stood at the edge of the Black Canyon of the Gunnisons (spooky name, spooky view), and nobody fell off the edge, and it was all good in the end.

Lately at the home site, Evan and I got the second staircase in (I really just hand him bolts and make sure things are plumb and level, while he uses all of the awesome power tools and makes all of the wood components look amazing), and I’ve almost finished all of the timbers in the main areas of the home. The view from my scaffolding is pretty sweet.

If we hadn’t traveled enough for you in this blog entry, I’ll give you one more journey. Evan and I got to go home for Easter weekend, and he got a Minneapolis haircut. He strives to look like James Dean post-haircut, and I’d say his stylist did a pretty decent job.

Here’s the obligatory Merlin picture (we’re on speaking terms again).

I managed not to take any pictures of any of the fun things we did in Minnesota, like my going to a meeting for the summer camp that I counsel, or seeing our friends, or going out for dinner, or going to church on Sunday… but I’ll blame the super-early flights we had coming in and out of MSP.

The elk were waiting for me when I got back, though their numbers seem to have dwindled.

Do elk go off and do other things this time of the year? Do they quarantine some of their cousins to stay back and watch the home turf? I’m stumped…

ANYWAY.

I’ve done a very quick’n’dirty catching-up, and the really IMPORTANT part of this entry is the part where I tell you….

*drumroll*

The tour is back on! Evan will be joining me for the last thousand or so miles, and it’s been fun doing some preparation work again. We’ve been busy at the work site, but I got in a training ride last week (1200 feet of elevation gained over 10 miles–that’s a training ride, right?), and Evan rode on a drop-bar bike (that’s the type of handlebars I’ve got) for the first time! Check it out; he looks like a natural. I’ll leave out the part where his first training ride was going *down* the 1200 feet over 10 miles, and I think we pedaled about three times over the whole ride. Whoops, I didn’t leave it out. 🙂

Not so natural is his choice to comfort test his helmet… in the comfort of our house.

But hey, who am I to judge? I get a riding companion, which I’m sure puts some people (*ahem*, mom, all of the ladies at church, every parent I’ve encountered along the way…) at ease. That’s right, folks. I’ll have a big, burly dude to protect me and keep me from falling off of mountains and stuff.

So that’s the news. We’ll be driving to Saint Louis at the beginning of May, and I’m hoping we can start pedaling from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses outside Waterloo, IL… maybe even straight from the picnic table where my trip so unceremoniously ended last November.

Welcome back to the blog, all. The fundraiser is back up and running–you can still reach it at my razoo page. Please consider a donation to Avenues if you haven’t already. Their latest news is that the North Minneapolis shelter is up to 21 beds (that’s five more full-time beds, guys!), the GLBTQ host home program is soaring with nearly 30 homes signed up to host GLBTQ youth, and the Suburban program already has 15 homes slated to start hosting at the end of the month! If that wasn’t enough amazing news for you, they’re starting a Minneapolis host home program, and their host home concept is helping other shelters across the country start their OWN host home programs.

Abbi Across America has raised over 6,000 dollars for the cause. We’ve still got over a thousand miles to ride… Can we top $7,000? Can we blow all of my dreams out of the water and do even more??

Thanks to those who’ve been here since day one, and welcome to any new faces that find their way here. Hope y’all can stay for the ride!