It’s like starting all over from scratch.
Guess that’s what I get for being lazy. I haven’t put in any time on the bicycle in way to long. What used to be a simple ride home from work was a seemingly endless journey this evening. I used to ride both to and from work with no issue what so ever. Now just one way and my legs are jelly and my butt hurts. I remember, this is what it felt like when I first started riding. At least this time I know it’s no big deal. It doesn’t last forever.
Haven’t really done any riding lately but I did decided to start collecting some of the inexpensive gear that I might want to have with me. One of those pieces that has intrigued me for a while now is a cook set.
There are thousands of options for camping stoves but I wanted the smallest, most simple, and super reliable option.
I settled on a Mini Trangia. It weighs way less than a pound complete with the pot, fry pan, stove and wind screen.
The best part is the fuel. It burns alcohol. That’s right… booz. I tested it with the Everclear that has been sitting around the kitchen for over 2 years now. I figured if I’m not drinking it maybe I should just cook with it. It takes about a table-spoon to boil enough water for a bowl of rice. I even tried cooking with spiced rum. It worked, but I’m not wasting any more of my rum on cooking. I’ve done rice and oatmeal now a few times each and they always come out perfect.
The cool thing about cooking with alcohol is that it’s available anywhere, easy. No looking for a propane bottle, no nasty liquid to spill, no fancy pumps, nothing. If you spill pure grain alcohol it cleans itself up with no leftover smell. It’s just easy. If there’s a hardware store or a liquor store you can get fuel easy. As long as I remember not to drink it all I’m set.
OK, I’ve been gone for quite some time due to personal, and boring, reasons. I’d share it all but it really has nothing to do with bicycles or TransAmerica. Besides, everyone who knows me knows what’s been going on and anyone who doesn’t could probably care less. Don’t worry. It wasn’t prison or anything like that.
The whole time I’ve been away from the blogging world I have been keeping the odometer running on the old bike. My average mileage is way down but I have managed to put in 857.7 miles since the last reading.
Nothing much exciting to report for those miles; several broke spokes, several flats, a new front wheel… you know, stuff like that.
Thanks for following along.
Total Miles: 2987.2
Wow! One more round trip to work and I’ll be over 3000!
Yup, I didn’t even move the bicycle for 10 days. I had Jims P/U and didn’t want to leave it at work. And, you know me I couldn’t just go for a ride at lunch time or something. I know, excuses excuses.
The positive thing is though… By the end of the 10 days, yesterday, I was really getting tired of driving and although it would have been easier to just keep the P/U one more day I went out of my way to get it back to his house.
It’s good to get back on the bike. Early on I feared taking days off because I thought I’d just quit. Now it doesn’t bother me because it’s really obvious to me that I’d rather ride than drive, even in bad weather. I think that means I’m over a pritty big hurdle.
Miles since last update: 80.8
Total TransAmerica Training Miles: 2129.5
It was a 28.7 mile round tripfrom my front door. Two things make that significant.
1) That is the longest uninterupted ride I have done. I have done more in one day but it has always come with a long break in the middle.
2) I didn’t have to do it. As everyone knows I usually wont ride unless I have somewhere to go. In this case I just decided I need to get in some miles. When I got to Jasper I decided that was to easy so I went on to Lowell.
Up Hill Both Ways:
I figured the ride back was going to be easy since it was up hill all the way there. Wrong. I have no idea how the road engineers did it but I’m pritty sure it was up hill both ways.
Well, the “Name My Lizard” contest has been canceled. It seems the lizard has struck out on his own. I don’t know if he felt like I was smothering him, trying to take away his freedom or he just didn’t want to get attached but he took to opportunity, while I wasn’t looking, to jump off somewhere between Franklin Blvd. and work. When I got to work and looked down he was gone. I hope he didn’t feel I was being to pushy by trying to label him with a permanent name.
Oh well. I wish him a safe journey. If you see him tell him I said, “Hi”. I’m glad I got the photo I posted before we went separate ways.
BTW, my miles since last accounting are 39.3 for a total of 1895.4 miles
OK, Here he is! We need your help coming up with an appropriate name for my tag along lizard.
Some Background:
I found him abandoned in the Burger King parking lot in Corvallis Oregon. He had apparently been cast aside by some careless kid who left him to fend for himself in a vast expanse of nothing but blacktop and dangerous moving vehicles.
As soon as he saw the spot on my handlebars that you see him occupying above he virtually glued himself there. He loves to ride along waiving his little feet furiously whenever we get up to speed. In fact, the faster I go the more excited he gets.
So, Please help us out. Post a comment with your suggestion for a name for my reptilian hitch-hiker.
The New Old Bike:
It’s been almost a month and I am very pleased with my new acquisition. I have done more research and found that it isn’t quite the super high quality I thought, but it is still worth way more than I paid and is plenty good enough for me for now. It is lite, more comfortable than expected, and way faster than my old bike.
New Mascot:
I have picked up a mascot. He is a pinkish-purple lizard. I found him looking very sad having been cast aside by some careless kid in the Corvallis Burger King parking lot. He just looked like he needed a lift. Now it’s as if he has glued himself to my handlebars. I can tell he thoroughly enjoys tagging along by the way he waves his little feet and tale furiously as I pick up speed.
I’ll be hosting a contest to “Name My Lizard” as soon as I have a picture of him to post.
Since I last wrote I have only done 208.5 miles in my quest to harden my body for the TransAmerica Bike Ride. Glad I still have 4 years to prep. My grand total for training so far is now 1856.1 miles. I am now about 2 weeks away from the magic 2000 mile mark and we all know what happens there.
OK, so it’s not brand new. It came from St. Vinnies so You know it was cheap. I had been looking because I wore out the suspension on the Walmart special I have been riding. I figured if I picked up some cheap junker to get me through a few months that would be OK.
Yesterday I see a bunch of bikes at St. Vinnies so I stop by. I notice this one raggedy looking old road bike with 2 flat tires and rust spots on one wheel. I figure, “what a junker, but it is complete and it has a funny name on the crest and the other parts like brake calipers”. Being fairly computer literate I figure I should look that name up when I get home. Here’s what I found at wikipedia:
Campagnolo, one of the most prestigious names in cycling, is an Italian manufacturer of bicycle components with headquarters in Vicenza, Italy.
Damn… I went back and bought it. I’ll do some more investigating but it was built by a guy in Van Nuys, CA with all Campagnolo parts. It is a mid 70’s (vintage) serious butt kicking road racing bike that has sat in someones back yard for a long time.
I got it in the shop and cleaned it up this afternoon and within 45 minutes it was ridable. All the major components are in good shape and holy crap it’s fast. Someone put some handlebars on it that just wont do, but other than that it is a serious go fast bicycle.
I’ll keep you upto date as I learn more about it. I’ll also try to avoid adding speeding to the list of things EPD wont let me do on a bicycle.
So, I’m riding down Franklin Blvd. in Glenwood when I hear someone yell, “beaned” and I feel a thump in the back as a bunch of guys pass me in a p/u. As naturally slow reacting as I am I never even flinched so I doubt they got the full excitement they were looking for. I stopped about 100 yards down the road and took off my jacket to see what hit me. Imagine that, A bean boritto splat on my back. How clever.
Think how incredibly brave these guys are though. To bean a guy in the back, after dark, when he’s on a bike and you are passing him at 35 mph… I can’t imagine the set these guys must have.
Oh well… add another 24.9 miles to my total. That includes the rest of this week including a trip from Springfield Walmart to Arctic for some work this Saturday.
Grand total: 1368.1 miles
For anyone new to perpetualpanic.com you can get a feel for what this is all about by reading the the early post, “setting goals and making plans“.
Basically this cronicles my progress as I get in shape to ride my bicycle across the United States. I intend to make the epic journey in 2013.