July 2011
107 posts
In Niskayuna (basically Schenectady (basically Albany)), New York, at the home of Derek’s parents. Good to be here.
Tomorrow is the penultimate day: mountains, Massachusetts, and contra in Greenfield (do come!).
My eastern terminal point is the Media Lab building at MIT. (Aside: I’m starting as a grad student at the Media Lab in September. That’s why I’m headed to...
Just finished a five mile descent into the valley wherein lies Herkimer, New York. Whenever I read the name of the town I hear a question mark like ‘Herkimer?’. It’s 57 degrees; right now post descent my fingers aren’t quite working right. Writing this is taking a very very long time.
5:30 in the morning. 70ish miles to base in Schenectady. Today should go quick.
I have been informed that Ithica is actually spelled Ithaca. Apologies to Ithaca.
My SPD sandals were indeed delivered within 24 hours. To San Francisco.
Off I go to Ithica to buy some shoes.
I’m near Ithica, New York, with a whole buncha Schneiders. Sarah and Anna, in addition to brother and mother and assorted partners. I’m spending five whole days here while everybody is collected together, partially because I’ve moved so quickly across the country that I’ve gotten ahead of my Boston plans. My apartment doesn’t start being an apartment until August 1st....
Finished “The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood” by James Gleick. The history and theory chapters were delightful but the perfunctory Flood chapters were all “Who can keep up with all this email am I right?” which didn’t add much to my life. Started quite strong. Petered out.
Still working on Sinclair’s Oil! which is actually not quite as good in terms...
An ever-unreliable sign out by the highway reported 101 degrees. I’m at Cera’s family home in Geneva, for the evening.
Epic. Tailwind.
In Avon, NY. Projected high is 99 degrees. Forty more miles to go, to Geneva, NY. About this time, at 9:30am, I think: “Is this all? This isn’t so bad!” The first sixty miles of any day, in the pre-dawn to mid-morning, fly by. Gets my hopes up. But these next forty miles: every day, it’s these that consume the bulk of my day, and my limited supply of perseverance.
The...
83 degrees at 4:45 in the morning. I wonder if at some point today it will simply be too hot to ride; if I’ll have to pull off the road and find shelter as if from a storm.
Along similar lines as the biblical plague of mosquitos in Montana, I’m in Cleveland dealing with a straight-up Noah’s ark style rainstorm. It began with a thunderstorm. When the thunder advanced on to elsewhere the torrent stayed. For hours. Now every flat place with poor drainage is under an inch of water. My tent was a trooper but could only do so much. I fear I will have to pack,...
Begging for homestays:
Does anybody know of someone who would be interested in putting me up in:
Buffalo, NY (two nights hence)
Schenectady, NY (three nights out)
Utica, NY (six or seven out)
Pioneer Valley (one night after that)
Also! Are any New England friends interested in joining me for the last leg between the Pioneer Valley and Boston? We could take it a real easy two days, even. Leave...
Enjoying my soft serve from a roadside stand in Huron, Ohio. There’s an outlet on the side of the building, so I plugged in my phone. The proprieter came through, pointed at the plug, and gave me this head-shake you-should-know-better look like I’d just peed on his wall, admonished me, and unplugged my phone. If this fellow learned what is now passing for proper manners in big cities I...
130 miles yesterday day. A little over 100 today. Woke up at 1:30 to roll out at 2. Back on the Northern Tier trail. Found a bunch of tourers in camp this morning, though they were of course asleep. No running water at the campsite; my shower was a dip in the green Waunee. Nothing ever dries here, though I do have several hours of gently dropping temperatures to look forward to. B out.
Grand Rapids, OH. The air punches you in the face whenever you step outside. Forecast into the triple digits later this week. I should be in New York, but it’ll probably make no difference. Off to bed now, so I can wake up at 2am. Every extra hour in darkness, the better.
Sociology and urban planning report: the soil in non-urban Indiana appeared absurdly fertile. Correspondingly the human...
Got a wicked case of the shakes. Having a hard time holding small things, like ATM cards. It feels like low blood sugar, plus a little bit. My hypothesis is that my body fat level is getting low enough that when my blood sugar runs low my body starts to shut me down to conserve fat. Question for skinny people: does that happen? Bad case of the shakes if you spend more calories than you eat? The...
I’ve crossed into the eastern time zone! Level up!
OH MY GOD MY BEER COFFEE WAS NOT DECAF AS SPECIFIED. NEVER LOSE TWENTY POUNDS IN THREE WEEKS AND DRINK A TRIPLE. DO NOT.
Okay now I’m in this place called Aldi. It’s a chain store of some sort. I thought it was a supermarket but…it’s not really a supermarket. It’s something different and yet vying for the same evolutionary niche. It’s like a marsupial wolf supermarket.
Had a nice mellow day in Chicago. Woke up late around 8, and saw the last Harry Potter movie alone at 10am. Stocked up at TJs, and then slept read and slept in a park on the west side of Chicago.
Tomorrow it’s up at around 3am to get a jump on city traffic and afternoon heat. South through Gary, half of the day within the Chicago/Gary Termination Shock. Then Through the Chicago GIA and...
I’m in Chicago. Taking a rest day. Maybe see that one movie.
So far I’ve avoided dysentery, but it does appear I’ve got some nerve damage in my right foot: the pinkie-right corner is mostly numb. Things like this have happened to me before. I’m not too worried: after a few months things seem to sort themselves out.
