Another Moving Experience

I've said it before: A change of address is a moving experience.

And of course, all the boxes have been emptied, the dishes and clothes put away, the books alphabetized, the rental house cleaned and ready for its next tenant.

If you believe that, I've also got a bridge to sell you. You can make money on this one, too--it goes up and down in the middle, so you get to charge a fee to get across (or threaten to interrupt travel if someone doesn't pay...).

I don't know if I've mentioned that Jenn's birthday was last weekend. We were on our way to Annapolis in the last few hours of RAAM at the time, so we didn't get to celebrate properly on that day. However, on our return home last Monday, she got her big birthday present from me: a Ryan Vanguard much like my own. She zoomed around the block on it, then put it back in the garage as there was so much work to do (on the houses and on the bike).

Last week, she called me about getting it set up to be her commuting rig. Her employer is big on United Way stuff, and is doing a fund-raiser this week in which employees show off their rides and garner votes. Jenn figured this was as good a time as any to trick out the bike, so we went through a few catalogs and accessorized for the hard-core cycle commuter.

I got to put the toys on the bike yesterday, in between sessions of preparing for testing my riders in the New Rider Clinic and dealing with little things on the new house. Jenn got to do a bit longer ride on her bike last night, despite not feeling well. I fine-tuned the handlebar placement a bit, and may need to shorten the seat-to-pedal distance a bit, but we got it mostly right the first time. I rode the bike briefly before moving the seat to fit her, and was quite pleased with how an unladen Vanguard feels after riding my heavily-outfitted bike so much.

She now has: a rack (Axiom brand, with some ridiculous weight capacity), a Planet Bike rack trunk (into which she can lock her lights rather than tote them inside when she's at work), fenders (Planet Bike), taillights (Planet Bike Super Flash), a be-seen headlight (Planet Bike Blaze half-watt flasher), headlight set (Cygo Lite Dual Cross Pro NiMH), and a Delta Airzound horn. We also got her a set of Axiom Typhoon panniers, into which we could pack a week's worth of laundry.

Will she win? Who knows? She'll get a few votes, just because there are a few folks at her workplace that are willing to buck a trend. She works in a four-story building, and is known as the one office worker that rides (some of the cafeteria help ride some times, but Jenn is the only office person there who rides regularly).

With the move, my internet access has been interrupted for a few days. I'm typing this during a break at the store, but must get back to work. Sadly, I won't be able to make it to Car Free Happy Hour this evening, and will likely miss Drinking Liberally this Thursday too. One of the things I liked about the rental house is that I could walk to a nice tavern like Brendan's or BBC, enjoy a beer or too many, and stagger home without having to drive or even ride a bike.

I'm back home

...but still VERY busy, catching up on stuff that didn't get done while I was gone and stuff that needs to be done for upcoming projects. I don't know when I'll get time to go through the recordings I made of my various thoughts during the trip, but I hope to do so soon.

In short, Team Type 2 finished Sunday morning, at 7 days, 15 hours and 10 minutes, two whole minutes ahead of the last finishing team in our division. Given that we had one team member and one crew member go into low-blood-sugar-related urgencies, several team and crew members fighting intestinal bugs (at least four shifts of racers went out missing a rider), some severe weather we didn't face last year and a couple of other extra challenges this year, I'm not upset. We learned a lot. Would I do it again? Perhaps. I have some conditions I would place on future participation, and Jenn and I will talk about those in the coming weeks.

Most of the race is a blur for me, but I remember being in absolute awe at what scenery I had opportunity to see out the RV windows, especially in southeastern California and Arizona. We were in the area of Monument Valley part of the time, and I couldn't help but think about geological time and how many centuries it would have taken to create the rock that became Monument Valley, and how many more to remove what had been removed to leave the magnificent sights that remain. I also thought about seeing that rock, over there, and thinking about how a century or so ago one would think in terms of "it's going to take me a week to get to that rock on foot, and I'd better have enough water with me to get there and to my next water source..."

In the short term future, I am:

Moving! We closed on the house less than fourteen hours before leaving for California. The moving party is scheduled for this weekend should anyone reading this in time feel like joining in the celebration. Food and home-made ice cream will be available, as will an assortment of beverages--some adult in nature.

Working like crazy to catch up with various things at the store. I am sure I have an assortment of item descriptions to fine-tune, in addition to doing some repairs that were waiting for my touch.

Getting ready to do RAIN in a few weeks. I was seriously preparing myself to say I wasn't ready, and to offer to drive support for Larry and Ed instead of riding. I've been talked into considering having Jenn on the back of the tandem and going a bit less than twenty miles an hour all the time, but I have to discuss it with Jenn before deciding. 160 miles in one day is simply a long day on the bike in that light. I remember struggling with some grades late in the day, and zooming up others, with no good reason for different performance levels on an hour-by-hour basis. We'll see how the discussion goes this evening...

If I don't have time to make blog entries, I know those of you who care will understand.

Are we ready to RAAM?

Yep, we are all but off to the races!

Final load-out is happening in another hour or so. My gear is already loaded, one of the perks of being a driver of the Rider RV.

It's been a very busy couple of days, to be sure. Tech inspection went very well--only one minor point, and that was a burned-out light bulb in one vehicle's taillight.

Of course, with preparation for something like this, there is always the list of forgotten stuff, stuff that everyone thought Henry was bringing, but Henry thought someone else already had it there, and so on. Part of the "busy" is dealing with that.

Then there was the dinner problem. To be fair, it was a case of inaccurate expectations. The hotel where we stayed in Carlsbad was not equipped nor staffed to deal with sixty hungry riders and crew, so dinner at the hotel didn't work very well. The barbeque I had off-property wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best I'd ever had. It did beat going hungry.

RAAM is about the riders, though. I'm here doing something I do reasonably well to make it so the riders can do their part. They get to show off soon. 2:00 local time this afternoon is race start. Their bikes are ready. Their legs are ready. Their hearts are ready. The "hay is in the barn."

We are ready for RAAM.

California, here I am

It's been a tumultuous couple of days for me. The closing, scheduled for Tuesday morning 8 June at 10:00, almost got pushed back until after my trip. This was not an option, for several reasons, not the least of which being that the seller had all her household belongings packed for travel.

Even a few hours' delay would have killed the deal for me. It was quite the emotional roller-coaster. It did finally happen, though. We closed on the house Tuesday afternoon. It's ours (well we share ownership with the finance company, but...). Jenn and I spent Tuesday night there, and got up far too early (and not early enough) so that we could fly to California Wednesday morning.

Several folks' flights were delayed, so we didn't get as much done Wednesday afternoon as we wanted. I spent some time working with another RV driver on our crew, building her confidence level in the unfamiliar-to-her environment of a vehicle with about four times the shadow size of her normal car. I spent some time later working on the Team Type 1 race wheels--installing Tufo Tubular Rim Tape instead of traditional rim cement and getting the team tires ready.

I spent almost all day building bikes for the race. Several of them desperately needed cleaning, despite team emails to the riders suggesting that they clean their bikes before shipping them for the race. Once the bikes were cleaned, we applied electrical tape panels then reflective tape on the electrical tape (so the reflective tape could be removed later without harming the paint schemes). We replaced a fair number of cables, some chains, a cassette or three, and a tube or two, then added lights as required by RAAM rules.

It took a while to do all this--Team Type 1 racers each have two bikes (road and time-trial styles) and Team Type 2 has road bikes (save for one rider who brought two bikes), for something like twenty-five bikes for three mechanics to build, tune, and kit out for the race.

We had a team meeting later in the evening, and were reminded of the importance of observing several key rules of the race. Some of us were assigned debit cards for specified purchases, we clarified a few other operational issues (showers are inside the RV, instead of a less-than-satisfactory outdoor shower system, for example) and some introductions were made. It's going to be an interesting trip. There will be some photo sessions tomorrow, followed by official inspections over safety issues and a couple of meetings so that RAAM officials can assure themselves that all racers and crew have had opportunity to hear about any changes to the rule book, the route book or anything else they think we need to know.

My mental clock is on some unknown time schedule. It's going on 3:30 EDT as I type this (12:30 in the morning out here), and I'm tired. I'll probably have stuff to edit into this post at some point. I hope I can remember it when I'm in a place to post it...

Count down timers

It's not that I'm anxious or anything.

Really.

As I type this, the closing on our house is a bit more than twenty four hours away.

Our departure for RAAM is a bit less than forty-eight hours away.

Still lots to do before I'm ready for either...

I'm about forty miles short of two thousand logged miles for 2010. I *might* get more than half those miles in tomorrow's errand-running. I may get a few more in on Tuesday, depending on how the timing works on the house closing and other tasks I need to accomplish that day.

I'm afraid the number of bike miles may have to take a lower priority than getting things done quickly, though. I still have lots to do before leaving Wednesday morning. I can't plan to have time to shop for stuff out west, but there will be some stuff I'll have to buy, just because I can't take it on the airplane with me.

Just a few more days...

The anxiety level has been pretty far up there of late, what with the house closing approaching, my trip to support Team Type 2 in RAAM, time away from the store, lots of repairs and new bikes to make happen at the store, getting ready to move as soon as I come back from RAAM, attempting to manage the LBC New Rider Clinics, and whatever else gets tossed on my plate.

There was some question whether the loan would actually happen, but that apparently got resolved today (if it weren't for the very last minute, NOTHING would get done in this country!). The lawyer in whose office the closing is scheduled to happen reported to my realtor that they have a green light for the closing this coming Tuesday.

Wow. Tight timing. No room for delays, no room for performance failures and no room for performance anxiety (or at least no room for it to flourish...).

When I get back, I will have time to get home, change clothes, and get on the bike for the class. I have part of my preparation done now, and will wrap it up over the weekend, during forced breaks from sorting/packing stuff in the house for the move.

I can't wait for July, when I get to prepare for Ride Across Indiana. I figure I have the base miles from my commuting, but I don't have the long miles. I'll have to cram a double-century prep into about three weeks. Fortunately, RAIN is not a double century, and is no tougher to accomplish than some of the local century rides. Hopefully, the annual Madisonville Century will be on the schedule, as it's as good a gauge for me as any.

Which of course reminds me that I have some schedule preparation to do before I leave town...

Back to the checklist!

I just looked at my page on mycyclinglog.com, and realized that I'm about a hundred miles short of two thousand miles for the year. Will I break two thousand before Wednesday morning? I'm sure I'll get there by the end of June.

Even as disappointed as I was with my May mileage count, I still rode more than I drove. Had I found time to ride club rides on Sundays, I would have done better, but getting ready for the upcoming move seemed more important, somehow.

Still lots to do before the weekend...

It's a new month

June is upon us!

Lots of stuff going on for me: The house purchase is starting to look like it might actually happen! There are only a couple of pieces of the puzzle left to assemble (I hope), and most of what's left is out of my hands at the moment. I'm still shepherding as much as I can, and planning for the crunch time to come next week as best I can.

I'm up against a deadline or three, you see. Our closing is scheduled for Tuesday morning. I'll have Tuesday afternoon to change (and repair a couple of) the locks on the house, before we fly out to California Wednesday morning for RAAM. We'll spend Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday and Saturday preparing for our race, which starts Saturday afternoon. Not to worry, I have an assortment of folks set up to do random drive-by inspections at both houses, to make sure nobody burns down either one while we are gone. All the good stuff is already boxed up, anyway, and one would have to go through a LOT of boxes to figure out where it is.

Nothing like a little stress in one's life.

Before I leave town, I have to prepare the lesson plan and working materials for the New Rider Clinic class to happen on the 21st, as I will fly home just in time to get home, change clothes, air up the bike tires and ride to the class. Maybe I'd better have a back-up plan in place for that, too, eh?

The commute was a bit different today, too. Jenn spoke with Bob (owner of Bluegrass Bicycle, and my boss) at the Mayor's Ride on Monday, and their discussion led Jenn to think Bob would find value in looking at our Burley trailer. Since I was riding the Raleigh to work today, anyway (the Ryan seat mesh broke last week, and I'm a bit concerned that it would break worse if I keep riding it before replacing the mesh), I pulled the trailer to work with me. As I was getting ready to go home, I found I had reason to visit my mom for a bit on my way home. Going to her house involves a roughly half-hour addition to my travel time (it's about a half-hour to her place from work, and about an hour home from her place), so I did that. I had removed the headlights from the Raleigh the other day, and had yet to reinstall them, so I needed to leave Mom's in time to get home with some light left.

Mom lives near Long Run Park. Best route home from her house is roughly Aiken Road to Old Henry Road, Avoca Road to Anchorage, then KY146 to Lyndon Lane to Westport Road. Not a bad ride at all, frankly.

Except that Avoca Road is closed to through traffic right now. I figured (rightly, as it turned out) that I could walk whatever section was truly closed, so I rode past the closure signs. Apparently, some of the embankment supporting one edge of the road (beside a railroad track that serves the quarry operations off Old Henry Road) failed--there is a stretch of pavement two or three feet wide and forty or fifty feet long that is six inches or more below road grade. I can see why they would not want motor vehicles to pass each other along there!

And, yes, I got home before dark!