Everything But The Kitchen Sink

Hi there. Just finishing up digesting a delicious dinner prepared by Chris. The last I'll have at my gracious host's house until the next time I visit. He made us something that he calls General Rufus's Chicken. Apparently, there was a General Rufus in Chris's family who fought in the Civil War. "I just want to honor my family history in some special way," Chris says when I asked him about it. It is a tasty affair and you can ask him for the recipe if you are so inclined. I am.

So I thought one of my final entries from the west coast should be a catalogue of everything (other than the bike) that is going to accompany me on the long ride. I'm also including a display picture of everything (Chris's suggestion). Enjoy.

In no particular order:
1 pair cycling shoes (Specialized MTB)
1 pair (old) running shoes
1 bar of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Peppermint (ooo tingly) and soap case
1 razor w/one replacement blade (who knows if I'll get around to shaving at all)
1 container of BUTTer (I wouldn't ask if I were you)
16 fl oz No-Ad Sunscreen SPF 50 thank you very much
1 Toms of Maine stick deodorant
1 vial Doctor Saing's Orange Oil (brought back from Thailand and good for aches and pains)
1 container floss
1 tube Blistex 1
container of Carmex (sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't)
1 Rand McNally Atlas from 2005
1 complete set of Adventure Cycling maps (Northern Tier)
1 set of Adventure Cycling maps (Great Lakes connector)
1 bath sized Pac Towel
2 hand sized Pac Towels
Assorted set of bungee cords
First aid kit (everything but the morphine)
30 feet of cotton cord
1 Roll of black Duct Tape (woo!)
1 Chica Bag (birthday prezzie from Jen and Al)
MSR Blacklite camp cook set and utensils
MSR Dragonfly Stove with small propane tank
1 Tripod
1 Canon A560 digital camera (plus extra memory chip)
Pair of Ortleib Bike Roller Classic rear panniers (orange!)
Pair of Nashbar panniers given to me for Christmas about 5 years ago
Pair of Camelback rain covers re-purposed as raincovers for Nashbar panniers
Marmot 2-person tent Kelty 25 degree down sleeping bag
1 10 millimeter wrench
1 adjustable wrench
1 Topeak Alien Bike Tool (gracias, Trixie)
1 bent hex wrench
1 set of tire levers
1 pump
1 patch kit
2 spare inner tubes
1 container Super Glue
1 Leatherman Tool
1 plain old pocket knife
Assorted bag of nuts and bolts
4 oz loose black tea (just to get me started in the morning)
1 tea infuser
1 tin cup
1 magnesium fire starter w/flint (courtesy of Kent Peterson. Thanks Kent!)
Kryptonite cord bike lock + extra length of cord
1 cel phone + charger
4 AA rechargeable batteries + charger
1 Grundig mini world band receiver AM/FM/Shortwave
2 notebooks
2 Uniball ball point pens (Red)
1 copy of Discarded Science: Ideas That Seemed Good at the Time
3 pair cycling socks
2 pair ankle socks
1 pair Thai farmer pants donated by Chris
3 pair cycling shorts
1 pair regular shorts
3 pair boxers
2 cycling jerseys
3 cotton tees short sleeve
1 long sleeve cotton tee
2 cotton button shirts
1 waffle thermal top
1 Marmot Precip rain jacket
1 North Face windbreaker
1 helmet
1 pair cycling gloves (thanks Jen and Al)
wallet
passport
20 Canadian dollars and an Altoids box to carry change in (thanks Chris)
and oh yes, the ROOSEVELT hat. Mustn't forget that.

Whew...and it all weighs less than 45 pounds and fits on my bike. At the end of this ride, I'm sure that I'll compile a list of things that I wish I had taken and items that I wish that I hadn't.

This Has Nothing to Do With Cycling

A little more than two weeks ago, right before leaving for Seattle, a package arrived in the mail. The return address identified the sender as my nephew Mark. The notebook! It had finally arrived.

Mark takes old album covers and turns them into journal notebook covers. He showed some to me the last time I was in North Carolina and I was really impressed. He had a pretty decent collection of vintage covers to choose from and I jokingly asked if he had, in his library Whipped Cream & Other Delights. Turns out, he did. I unwrapped the package and there it was, a beautiful 7 x 9 notebook with said album cover perfectly cropped. That is...nothing is missing that can't already be missed. Or do you miss my meaning?

I remember this album being one of a very few albums that my parents owned. I also remember not liking this album for the music. In fact, I don't think I ever played it on our stereo system. I didn't actually become familiar with the Tijuana Brass until I was an adult.

It's a notebook I'll prize for a long time. It ended up being too heavy to bring with me on the trip however. Mark has about a dozem more examples of his handy work here.

They're available for order too, I think. I've been meaning to get to mention of Mark's handiwork for a while now. He's a sharp tack, that Mark.

Subtext Anniversary Reading

Last night I attended the Subtext Reading Series 13th anniversary reading. Subtext recently moved from it's world headquarters at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle to The Good Shepherd Center's Chapel Performance Space. There were over 20 readers! Fortunately for the audience, each reader was allowed a maximum of 2 minutes to read. Since Chris has been deeply involved with the subtext series he was a featured reader. Some of the other readers included were Curtis Bonney, Joseph Bradshaw, Daniel Comiskey, Christine Deavel, April Denonno, Diana George, Adriana Grant, Marion Kimes, Drew Kunz, Sarah Mangold, Ezra Mark, Bryant Mason, Robert Mittenthal, Paul Nelson, Mickey O’Connor, John Olson, Roberta Olson, Willie Smith, Craig Van Riper, Nico Vassilakis, and Maged Zaher.

Chris (because his name was drawn from a hat first) went firt. He was--of course--great. He read from his "Bunny" series and I had a blast listening to some newer parts of it.

As I was sitting there waiting for the reading to begin, I realized that it was exactly a year ago to the day that I had read in the subtext series. Here are two poems from that set (just to shake it up a bit).

Cardboard Fact

Adjectives tell you what to think
of what you remember of this conversation.
Someone deep inside the mountain is a bully.

Someone who wants to play with you,
but won’t say they want to play with you.
Those we know and don’t know

but mostly don’t know.
Blood, in this exploratory scenario, is spilled
and always a defiant so-and-so when Secret

Idea finds absent a in language
while befuddled b wallows around in the circuit
architecture of corporate aggravation. And so on…

Indie Screenplay

On a landscaped island in the lush
middle of the office park parking lot
a focus group talks about Zeno

and his paradox. The tiny plastic toys
cry “Open wide” and wide I open
to the nefarious lollipops of pulp magazines.

You only missed me by minutes.
Stealing ideas for bikinis,
Secret Idea is charting it all down.

“Eiffel Towers in those fish-nets.
Fish nets in the Eiffel Tower.” Advance the frame
in order to remember what you remember.

Shakedown (or Getting Lost is Half the Fun)

Yesterday, I took the new bike on a 55-mile shakedown ride. That is, with everything I'm going to take with me loaded onto the bike. See picture at left. We sped through the Burke-Gilman Trail around the northwest portion of Lake Washington to where this wonderful trail ended and then attempted to find the Sammamish River Trail to take us all the way down to Lake Sammamish (love that name). The idea was to take the SRT to the I-90 trail, the I-90 trail to the Elliot Bay Trail back to the Burke-Gilman and then to Chris and Mo's house. When the B-G Trail ended I spent about 30 minutes looking for the SRT. Despite asking a number of other cyclists and motorist, I was unsuccessful and found myself staring at the prospect of being lost. Oh well, I said, I'll just head south and will eventually hit the I-90 trail (mind you, I'm not really sure which way is south and the I-90 is about 15-20 miles away). I had been averaging about 18 miles an hour on the B-G Trail and I was feeling pretty confident. Three 25 degree climbs later, I wasn't feeling so confident. Oy, the Seattle area has some unforgiving hills. I finally found my bearings and made my way slowly (due to busy traffic and more hills) through some posh neighborhoods until finally I hit the I-90 trail. I have got to digress for a minute. Seattle is the best city I've ever ridden a bike in. Period. There are so many miles of non-motorized trails and bike paths that it boggles the mind. NYC is making strides, but are still way way way behind in this respect. The I-90 bridge is a lovely ride that goes across Mercer Island kind of the same way that the Queensboro goes over Roosevelt Island--except about 5 times as long and with a trail devoted solely to bike and pedestrian traffic. It was beautiful. The 45 degree climb that was waiting for me on the Seattle side of the bridge was not. I was having a little trouble coaxing the front derailleur to shift into Granny so I ended up pushing my bike up the final 3rd of this climb. Boo! I wandered north from this climb until I found myself at Volunteer Park. Nearly a year ago, Chris introduced me to this lovely spot. I wasn't quite able to enjoy this spot though. I had biked 50 miles so far and it was getting dark. Oh, I forgot to mention that I didn't start this ride until about 3:30 in the afternoon. I made my way to Eastlake Avenue and after crossing University Bridge, was back at casa Putnam in about 5 minutes. Overall, I'm tickled pink with the Surly. It provides an extremely tight ride. I think I may have nailed the weight distribution on the first try, but don't want to count my chickens yet. Because of the front rack, I've got a limited turn radius (the top of the rack hits the downtube if I turn too deeply, I'll need to be careful of that), but the bike seems to handle pretty well. My stopping ability isn't the greatest, especially on the downhill (again, I'll have to be careful here). I went to bed last night sore, but very happy with the initial results. Today, I'm going over to the Bicycle Alliance of Washington to meet Kent Peterson. He's the author of Kent's Bike Blog and someone who knows a great deal about long distance riding. He's also a terrific writer and has an eye for the quirky. I like the quirky too. I think we're going to have coffee and talk shop.

Red Hook Vendors Pressed to Get New Permit

Those of you who know me know how much I love the soccer taco season in Red Hook. This news from The New York Times is just horrid. Horrid, I tell you.

Bike Governor's Island

I just learned that Governor's Island in NYC is once again open to to the public this summer. What's more, they're allowing cycling in designated areas. This is very cool (car free!) and I hope I make it back before their summer season ends. I'd love to check it out. Here's some information. Looks like a bunch of concerts and stuff are taking place there too.

Some More Seattle Images

Here are a few more images I've taken over the past week or so.