Flutterby™! : Road Trip 2006-07-04 03:03:05.415105+00

Road Trip

2006-07-04 03:03:05.415105+00 by meuon 10 comments

Friday after work we (Nancy, Joe and Me) drove to San Antonio (999.2 miles), stopping for coffee at Cafe Du Monde at 1am on the way. We picked up a U-Hual trailer, loaded up a new friends stuff, and headed back home (985 miles). Nothing eventful, just lots of fun channel surfing on Sirius Radio. We did make a quick trip in San Antonio to the Riverwalk and the Alamo while there.. but nothing to really make a big deal about, lots of people, food and alcohol mixed together.

Got home, took a nap and watched 2 sets of downtown fireworks from the deck. It's so nice to be home, and yet, I really enjoyed the road trip as well.

Welcome back. And, yeah, my excitement level for lots of people, food and alcohol mixed together has waned.

#Comment Re: made: 2006-07-04 22:55:14.358321+00 by: meuon [edit history]

Oh, I'll be there.. (CBC Wednesday Night Ride) Just did a few miles today, made a custom rack for my small saddlebags $6 worth of aluminum, 6 holes, 3 screws. 4 bends, 4 cuts. Poof, custom fitted very lightweight bike rack. A big difference, I only wanted it to be able to carry my small bags. I'm playing with being able to take a long trip or two (2+ nights) by this fall.

I talked to one person today who packed out at 50+ pounds of gear when touring. Wow. I travel much lighter than that, even car camping. I just got a new Hennessy Hammock, Less than 3lbs for the big expedition asym. I figure I'll pack out for a 2+ day run at 10-15 pounds.

I'm finding a better excitement level in more interesting people, whom are fun to be with and interesting without needing to blow a .5 in a breathalizer (them or me). The regional recumbent crowd is interesting, but it seems to be a crowd in which I'm already doing longer and faster with less health issues than most of them are. The CBC crowd is on the other end of that spectrum, (very healthy) and I'm building up some speed and stamina, slowly.

It's all got me yearning for a trip to Burning Man, just for the people and a completely disarming and re-orienting environment. Last week I stuck some glow in the spokes, Wrapped El-wire on the flag pole.. and took a cruise, it was good for my soul and the kids near the bridge loved it.

I think the ability to use a hammock is a geographic advantage. I used to camp with a hammock and a tarp and my throw bag (the nice thing about river gear is that it's so repurposeable), but out here I've been in many camp sites where finding two trees in a configuration that let me use a hammock would be tough.

My problem is that a few bad experiences leave me with various extra just-in-case gear: If I'm going overnight or away from easy rescue I always carry a spare set of polypro tops and bottoms 'cause of a bad experience in northeastern TN in late June one year; my road bike pack has a multi-tool with pliers, mostly 'cause that saved my bacon mountain biking once in a situation I'll probably never ever hit on a road bike; even if I think the camp site is developed I'll take a folding shovel in case I have to dig a latrine; that sort of thing.

Need to get work under control so we can take a vacation somewhere. Eastern Oregon, or southern Oregon to do the waterfall loop, further west in southern Utah than we've gotten thus far, Yellowstone... lots o' possibilities and desires.

I've used a Hennessy hammock a few times as a tent. Hung it from truck bumpers and roof racks, and used found sticks to prop it up as tent. It works. The hammock is a solo thing, Nancy likes the small tent, with an air mattress that barely fits. Besides, I like snuggling up with Nancy. :)

Yow. Credit card touring I'm fairly sure I could do with the additional room on my 3 liter Camelbak MULE (which I would link to, except that their website sucks and doesn't seem to want direct links). Maybe an extra pack if I wanted to go out to dinner, but a pair or two of cycling shorts and a jersey, a windbreaker shell (and maybe rain pants) and the aforementioned polypro seems like it'd get me across the country in conjunction with enough plastic in my wallet.

If I loosened the straps a bit I think all that would fit either in my aforementioned pack, or in a spare water bottle cage.

"Credit Card Touring" - I like that term.. Laughing. Eating out at local oddball Mom and Pop-ish restuarants is one of my reasons to enjoy travelling (and life), hence my not packing a kitchen when doing lots of things... but I enjoy sleeping, well, just about anywhere.

They kindly trucked my bags to each evenings location for me, which is good cuz my bike doesn't have a luggage rack, and being able to wear clean clothing after riding 60+ miles a day is quite the bonus.

Credit Card touring seems the way to go. I like comfort. Meaning my tent, clean clothing and the ability to bath regularly.

Eastern Utah: meuon and Dan - just name the days and we could make it a get-together. I'm a day's drive from Moab. I've got crash-space from those travelling west.

Bike Trips: 'round here, almost every trek over 30 miles includes going up the Front Range (4K feet of elevation in a couple miles). I'm not sure if I'm up for that yet on the 'bent, so I'm sticking to around town riding.

I did "OK" on a long mild grade with Warkitty today. at 4-5mph I can go forever, at 7mph I wore out and had to slow down. Today's total about 24 miles, 8 miles earlier in the day, 16 with a group. Tomorrow and Friday I hope to ride to work.