portlandia: Pinkies up, full steam ahead. Such a good...

portlandia:

Pinkies up, full steam ahead.

Such a good show….

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"When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins."

“When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.”

- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

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Crashlands

Crashlands:

I love Crashlands. It gives me all the warm and fuzzyies of Clash of Clans without the feeling that I need to quit to save my sanity.

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Futurama

Futurama:

Shut up and take my money!

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Pebble 2, Time 2 + All-New Pebble Core

Pebble 2, Time 2 + All-New Pebble Core:

I wish I didn’t have to wait until December for my Pebble Core, I want it now!

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The Tale Of Tallest Rabbit

I’m currently reading The Tale of Tallest Rabbit by Roddrigo D. Lopez. It’s a nice easy read so far. Rodrigo is also part of the excellent Major Spoilers Crew who have several fun and entertaining podcasts such as Top Five and Critical Hit. I’m working harder to keep to my plan for reading more. It’s difficult to make time but worth the effort.

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Pebble Health

I am going to try out Pebble Health for a while to see how I like it. I am not one to obsess over tracking my number of steps each day but I am curious to see how well it monitors my sleep habits. If it starts to kill the battery… delete.

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I always enjoy a train ride, followed by a bike ride. It...

I always enjoy a train ride, followed by a bike ride. It doesn’t get much better than that! The Ohio Towpath is a really beautiful trail to bike or hike.

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whorinforcorin: Portlandia A O River!

whorinforcorin:

Portlandia

A O River!

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Neil Gaiman on Why We Read and What Books Do for the Human Experience

Neil Gaiman on Why We Read and What Books Do for the Human Experience:

You can never read enough books…

“We need libraries. We need books. We need literate citizens.

I do not care — I do not believe it matters — whether these books are paper or digital, whether you are reading on a scroll or scrolling on a screen. The content is the important thing.

But a book is also the content, and that’s important.

Books are the way that we communicate with the dead. The way that we learn lessons from those who are no longer with us, that humanity has built on itself, progressed, made knowledge incremental rather than something that has to be relearned, over and over. There are tales that are older than most countries, tales that have long outlasted the cultures and the buildings in which they were first told.” - Neil Gaiman

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Listening to Audiobooks

I have a few preferences when it comes to listening to Audiobooks on the go. On Any Platform - I use Audible to play purchased books. I have lots of books I purchased through Audible over the years. It is a reliable app that works well. Downloading is easy right in the app. The only downside is that it won’t play my rather large library of books in MP3 or other formats. To do that, well, it depends on the platform… On iOS I have been very happy with Bookmobile, it is simple and just works very well. On Android there are several options, including free ones. I chose Listen Audiobook Player for it’s ease of use and clean way it handles files. There are a few others that work well such as Mort and Smart AudioBook Player. I rarely listen to books on the PC but when I do it is usually in VLC.

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Pebble Time

While it still has some bugs to work out, the Pebble is a nice watch overall. It was nice to only charge it once during our 9 day trip. I am looking forward to seeing the larger screen of the upcoming Pebble Time 2.

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Camp Breakdown

This is a short time lapse video of us breaking down camp along the GAP trail.

https://youtu.be/8Ub6ud1M9QU

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So I thought I’d write down some of my thoughts now that...

So I thought I’d write down some of my thoughts now that the big bike trip is over. Several people have asked me if I would do it again. Yes, absolutely. Even though the heat was at times very hard to deal with, the ride was very beautiful. I had a great time spending time and talking with Stefani who didn’t complain a bit.

What surprised me on the trip? I was not as sore as I thought I would be. That is not to say that I was not fully ready to get off the bike nearing the end of the day’s ride, I definitely was. And I was sore for a while after getting off the bike but usualy by the next morning I was good to go. My rear was a little sore every day but the biking shorts did help with that. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The thing I had the most trouble with is pain in my hands and to some extent my shoulders. I constantly tried to shift my hand positions while riding but even so my palms hurt every day. Wearing the gloves did make it bearable but I would like to research a little to see if other people have similar issues and how they deal with it. Stopping to rest and get water at regular intervals was a great way to alieviate some of the discomfort and fatigue. The shoulders did not hurt until later in the week, I think it was mostly because of the posture on the bike for such long periods of time.

What would I do different? If I knew if was going to be so hot every day I would make plans to alternate each camp night with a hotel or B&B. I think I would rig up another water botle or two to take with me because there were a few stretches of path where there was no easy access to water. Sometimes it was not obvious when stopping at a “town” if there were any stores there. It might be a good idea to check the maps closer at intervals along the way for places to get water and mark how close to the trailhead they are. I would also practice a few longer rides with full weight on the bike. Time just didn’t permit us to really do that easily. Front panniers would be nice to more evenly distribute the weight on the bike. Both of our bikes were back heavy which made it a little more difficult to lift the bike over things or push them up very steep inclines. Fortunately we did not have to do that much on this trail. One thing I was irritated with was the Sporks that came with my Dualist cookset, they are very flimsy. A better set of silverware would have been nice. Using the MSR Pocket Rocket was awesome, it boils water in no time flat. I would also recommend Good To Go Meals for interesting and tasty dehydrated meals. We had the Pad Thai and the Indian Vegetable Korma and both were good. That is not to say you need to buy dehydrated meals though, you can certainly get by a little cheaper by improvising. We also had Hummus-Tuna wraps that we created ourselves for lunch. Tuna in Foil packs mixed with a little hummus (Casbah packaged, just add water) were pretty good. We occasinally bought some fresh fruit to snack on, and stored it in a insulated lunch bag we got at a dollar store. We had a bunch of the Don’t Go Nuts Granola Bars which were fantastic snacks. Did we take to much stuff? Yes and no, we could have done without things but overall I think we did pretty well. I think I would trade out the cookset for a simpler metal cup that could be used to boil the water. My sleeping bag was a cheap flannel one which really would not have been enough if the temperature would have been cooler. I would like to invest someday in a little nicer down bag, something that would compact well. The polar bottles worked well, it was very refreshing to have cold water to drink.

How was the milage? I am not a world class biker, I am probably below average and more on the slow side but I thought 45-65 miles a day was a great choice. More than that would have been very rough. If you want to do more sight seeing at stops along the way, I would cut the milage down some. We did most of our sight seeing on the trail itself. I think I calculated about 380 miles total, the trail itself is 330 miles. Several of the towns have difficult hills to get to places. Getting to the Divide was a tiring uphill ride but that downhill right after it was heaven. The trail would be more difficult northbound I think…

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Stef and I played games and chatted on the train ride back. I...

Stef and I played games and chatted on the train ride back. I really love riding the train, as long add you are not in a hurry to get somewhere. A tip to remember though, if you want a full meal selection, don’t take the last dinner reservation. The views are nice up until it gets dark. It will be so nice to sleep in my own bed again!

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Had a delicious dinner at Nando’s Peri Peri with the...

Had a delicious dinner at Nando’s Peri Peri with the awesome Jeff Kress who then took us to tour the botanical garden to see the famous corpse flower. Interesting. Off to get a good nights sleep before the train ride home. We couldn’t have had a successful trip with out support on the home front, thanks Dan, Kellie and everyone!

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Got an early start today, which was a good thing because the...

Got an early start today, which was a good thing because the trail was busy. Mile marker zero was way too tough to find! We did finally locate the little white marker right behind Thompson Boats. We then went and suited our bikes at the hotel and used their bathrooms to get the worst of the trail grime washed off. We are now having brunch at Bus Boys and Poets. Sweet potato pancakes, yum!

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Yesterday was a pretty long day. We started off slow trying as...

Yesterday was a pretty long day. We started off slow trying as best we could to avoid mud. After a really slow 15 miles or so the pace was able to pickup. We did have beautiful scenery again which has been a constant on this trip. We have seen deer every day on the trail usually multiple times. Lots of squirrels, a big girls and more than our share of midges. We got to Horsepen Branch where we were supposed to camp and didn’t like how close to the trail it was so we pressed on to Swains Lock which was much nicer and only leaves us 17 miles to D.C. Ate delicious IndianVegetable Korma we brought with us.

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After such a promising start and a few delicious smoothies at...

After such a promising start and a few delicious smoothies at Desert Rose, about five miles out a thunderstorm hit. Twenty miles in a down pour, through mud and silt was not a good time. I made an executive decision (since more storms are predicted) and got us a hotel in Shepardstown. There was no shelter for that span of the trail and it was really slow going because of the ruts in this section. Fortunately the hotel had a hose and we were able to clean us and our gear up. Most everything is wet and we have things strewn all over our room in an attempt to dry out. We did do a full load of laundry which was sorely needed. The storms should be done tomorrow by around 9am, so we may get a late start. We did about 53 miles today, only 72 more trail miles to go! Off to play some games…

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7 South Pennsylvania Avenue Our Wednesday night stay at the...

Our Wednesday night stay at the C&O Cycle Bunk House. Met a young girl traveling North solo here. There was a Sheetz a few blocks away so I got several large waters and two large chocolate milks for our late night snack.

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Clear Sky, 83°F 4, Clear Spring, MD 21722 A nice ride from...

Clear Sky, 83°F

4, Clear Spring, MD 21722

A nice ride from Hancock to Williamsport about half done for the day. Having lunch and smoothies at the Desert Rose Cafe.

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Scattered Clouds, 92°F 11 East Main Street Lil Ben’s Milk...

Scattered Clouds, 92°F

11 East Main Street

Lil Ben’s Milk Stout at Buddy Lou’s. Waiting on my Crabcake Sandwich and Brussels sprouts. Yum!

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Scattered Clouds, 92°F 6 East Main Street 58 miles in to our longest ride and I’m spent and...

Scattered Clouds, 92°F

6 East Main Street

58 miles in to our longest ride and I’m spent and ready to keel over when up ahead I hear Stefani…. singing. :-)
Another rough day complete. We ate our lunch by the Paw Paw tunnel after we were chased away from our fist stop by little flying bugs. The tunnel was not fun, muggy, narrow and bumpy. We had to walk the whole thing and we were both dripping wet by the end. Nothing like the previous tunnels. 210 down.

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Light Rain, 70°F 101-129 North Smallwood Street We had a great night’s sleep at The Bruce...

Light Rain, 70°F

101-129 North Smallwood Street

We had a great night’s sleep at The Bruce House Inn and we can smell something delicious in the air while finish packing. We played a few games last night and then hit the sack early as we were both very tired.

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Clear Sky, 82°F 203 Fayette Street We had Pad Thai from Good To Go meals on our first camping night...

Clear Sky, 82°F

203 Fayette Street

We had Pad Thai from Good To Go meals on our first camping night which was very good and easy to make. Tonight we are having our Mountain House Raspberry Crumble with some fresh bananas we picked up at a Save A Lot for dessert. The crumble was good, just a little too sweet for me. We are both looking forward to a good nights sleep in air conditioning.

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Clear Sky, 80°F Great Allegheny Passage We made it to the...

Clear Sky, 80°F

Great Allegheny Passage

We made it to the Divide!

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Clear Sky, 76°F Great Allegheny Passage Woke up early and rode...

Clear Sky, 76°F

Great Allegheny Passage

Woke up early and rode to Meyersdale. Having breakfast at the G.I. Dayroom. We have about 8 miles to go to the Divide. Overcast and humid but much cooler ride!

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A “small” pizza in rockwood

A “small” pizza in rockwood

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Clear Sky, 81°F Great Allegheny Passage Lots of beautiful...

Clear Sky, 81°F

Great Allegheny Passage

Lots of beautiful bridges and scenic views. Today was much better weather wise but the millage was still very difficult. We stopped at the Lucky Dog Cafe in Confluence for lunch which was delicious. Staying the night in Rockwood and thankful to get a shower. I really thought I was in better shape! Riding with all that weight is very tiring. Stef is awesome, no complaints, and keeps the pace consistent.

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Point State Park

Point State Park

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Point State Park

Point State Park

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Broken Clouds, 89°F 69 Main Street Yesterday was brutal. Hot,...

Broken Clouds, 89°F

69 Main Street

Yesterday was brutal. Hot, humid headwind in the sun. By the time we got to Roundbottom camp we were both exhausted. I had cramps in my legs while riding, mostly from the heat. Beautiful scenery though, absolutely gorgeous along the river. We got a late start with a little confusion on which trail we were on so we did about 55 miles for the day. The camp was very primitive but we got there just before a brief thunderstorm and the three sided shelter kept us dry. We setup the tent without the fly to keep the bugs off. The late start did let us vs have s delicious lunch at the Over the Bar Bicycle Cafe.

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Broken Clouds, 71°F Edinburg Township, OH On our way. Powered...

Broken Clouds, 71°F

Edinburg Township, OH

On our way.

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