Tour de Detour

Posted on March 3, 2010 by RegenAxe

Before Anne and I biked the Great Adventure, we had a dry run. The Great Adventure was our 1982 bicycling trip around the country. On that trip we took six months off from work and biked 5,000 miles around the United States and Canada. Our dry run, I’ll call the Tour de Detour.

For part of a week, in 1981, we biked from the Cabin to Detour, to Mackinac Island and then back again to the Cabin. I came across these three pictures, that show Anne and I starting off on our Detour tour. In these photos, we are biking, not walking mind you, up the Green Tunnel Road. I wish that we could remember who took these pictures of us? Will the mystery photographer please step forward?!?

In the Great Adventure, in 1982, the list of cities that we toured include, to name a few: Arlington (TX), Houston, New Orleans, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Wilmington, Kitty Hawk, Williamsburg, Fredericksburg, Washington, New York, Providence, Fall River, Newport, Sturbridge, Rome, Rochester, Niagara Falls, Stratford, Sault Ste. Marie, Saint Louis (MI), Ann Arbor, Kewaunee, Superior, Kenora, Calgary, Banff, Lake Louise, Kamloops, Bellingham, Lopez Island, Seattle, Portland and then back to Arlington and of course Saint Louis, MO.

The Tour de Detour was a good shakedown cruise for us before we tackled the Great Adventure. We probably got less than two-hundred miles, but we learned a lot. The Great Adventure might not have gone as well as it did, without this preamble.

Another benefit of this little tour was that it allowed us to purchase the equipment that we would first use and eventually wear out, all in less than a year. That was a fun shopping experience. After the Tour de Detour, we discarded some of the items that we had carried, but added others to replace them. Examining these pictures, I noticed that we did not have helmets. I know that we added them. This was a process that continued throughout most of the Great Adventure.

In 1981 we were still newlyweds. Dan was less than five years away and Dave was just another two years after that. Before Dan came, we would buy our first (and so far only) home. The years stretched onward after that to today and beyond. Back in 1981 neither of us knew what the open road would bring, but we both rode out to meet it, together.

Panem et Circenses

Posted on February 8, 2010 by RegenAxe

Panem et circenses or bread and circuses (actually bread and games) is a reference to the handouts and amusements that the Roman emperors doled out to pacify their populace. In modern times, in America, football has replaced the ancient Roman form of the circus and chips and dip has replaced the bread. The epitome of modern circuses is of course the Super Bowl. Instead of bread, Anne and I had Alice and Chris’ chili fixings Christmas gift, which we found to be very tasty and a wee bit spicy.

Sunday’s Super Bowl was one of the best. The underdog New Orléans Saints overcame the favored Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts and won 31-17. The game opened with Manning and the Colts driving machine like down the field and scoring twice in the first quarter for a 10-0 lead. One of the announcers said at this point that a ten point spread was the largest deficit ever overcome in a Super Bowl. I’m sure that some nervous CBS executive hushed anymore of that kind of talk.

Then something strange started to occur. The Saints’ offense sparked to life. They ground out a field goal, held the Colts to a three and out and moved the ball again. They stalled out on the two-yard line, went for it on fourth down but failed. The Saints held the Colts again and ran out the half with another field goal. Peyton Manning sat out most of the second quarter. It was 10-6 Colts at the half.

The Who did the halftime show, old rich geezers singing songs of protest. I thought that their light show was nice. The commercials weren’t all that awe-inspiring either. The controversial commercial that was aired, it was a Pro-Life commercial, was so tame that if you did not know about it beforehand you could have missed the point of it. I think that CBS did a little bit of sleight-of-hand with it though. The commercial starts off with the football player son doing a football hit on his mom. It was preceded by another commercial that involved a similar series of football hits. If you just happened to be reaching for dip at that moment or weren’t paying careful attention you might have missed the point.

The second half started off with a surprise move by the Saints. They made an on-side kick. They went on to score a touchdown and took the lead 13-10. Looking back, I think that the call to do an on-side kick won the game for the Saints, at the time though it was not so clear. The Colts came roaring back and scored another touchdown and regained the lead 17-13. The Saints edged closer with a field goal, 17-16. Then in the fourth quarter, the dam started to break. The Saints scored a touchdown and decided to go for the two-point conversion. After some controversy, they made it and the score was 24-17 Saints. The game was sealed when Peyton Manning threw an interception, the single turnover of the game. The Saints ran it back for their last touchdown.

The pictures with this post are from our 1982 bicycle trip, our great adventure. Today’s header shows Manresa House an antebellum Louisiana plantation that is now a Christian retreat. The picture of Anne was taken with the Saint Louis Cathedral in the background in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The picture of me is from somewhere along the gulf coast. The tank crossing sign was from Fort Polk, Louisiana. You haven’t know fear while being passed by a vehicle while riding a bike until you’ve been passed by a tank. Eighteen year olds driving a tank don’t believe in sharing the road. I biked fifteen miles on Sunday.

221B

Posted on January 23, 2010 by RegenAxe

221B Baker Street is the fictional home of Doctor Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Friday night is date night. When will we see sunshine and blue sky again in Saint Louis? Friday night, Anne and I went out for dinner and a movie. For dinner we went to Little Saigon in the Central West-End. Afterwards we went to go see the movie Sherlock Holmes at the Chase.

Little Saigon, is my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in Saint Louis. Dan discovered Lemon Grass for us and Barbara at work loves it to, but I like the elegance of Little Saigon. I’m also willing to pay the higher prices. With a seven o’clock show time, we got seated before six. In fact we were the first table seated. During lulls in our own dinner table conversation, I overheard the following conversation: I teach at Washington University, at their west campus, in the old Famous Barr department store building. I’m on the second floor, you know, Literature, History and Lingerie. By the time that we left for the movie, almost half of the tables were occupied. Hopefully, we were just ahead of the curve.

The Chase is a grand old dame. Originally, just a hotel, President Ronald Reagan stayed there, the last time he came to town. Nowadays, it is half hotel, half condos. The movie theater that we visited adjoins ballrooms. Friday night coincided with the Regional Council Growth Association’s annual Father-Daughter Dance. Plenty of young teen girls dressed to the nines with their Dads, but nary a young stud muffin to be found.

Sherlock Holmes was more action movie than date movie. The trailers were the first sign, Iron Man II, etc. We both liked the movie, but I think that we would both would agree that it was more DVD worthy than theater worthy. I think that we will go see the new George Clooney movie, Up in the Air. It is suppose to be a comedy and parts of it were shot in Saint Louis. Besides it is at the Moolah Temple, now a movie theater, featured as Saint Louis’ largest living room. It sports couches and Lazy-Boys for seating.

The picture with this post is of hollyhocks, from Williamsburg, Virginia. Anne took this picture during The Great Bicycle Adventure of 1982. The yellow flower and a bee header is from that era too.

Moose Droppings

Posted on June 4, 2009 by RegenAxe

Yum! Yum!

I imagine real life moose droppings are like deer droppings, only larger. Somewhere between golf ball diameter and in this beast’s case near bike wheel diameter. Today’s post is brought to you from sometime in 1982 and somewhere in Wisconsin. In fact after checking the old Great Adventure Diary, this picture is from August fourth, near Tomahawk, WI. Yup, that’s me, seemingly enjoying mana from heaven.

Again from the log, we left the Eau Claire Dells that morning. We stopped to take pictures and pick raspberries, before leaving the dells. We apparently passed through the metropolis of Glandon, with hardly noticing it. The surrounding countryside made for good riding. We continued down the road to Merrill. It was getting hot by then.

Apparently we got the slows about then because our normal lunch stop was extended into a “nice, long, multi-stop lunch”. Merrill must have been the county seat, because we ate in front of the courthouse. Anne comments on its nice mosaic floors, woodwork and dome.

Also apparently, our mid-day sloth (read as Anne’s) was replaced my afternoon sloth. According to the log, against my objections, we press on, regardless. “The ride from there is gorgeous! There were a couple of long hills, where the road left the river, but otherwise easy, and now we’re in the north woods!” I was eventually mollified with a motel for the night in Tomahawk. Also, probably the moose droppings helped. The room only cost us a total of $18.90. However, it did not have TV (neither broadcast nor cable) and not even the Internet. Back then the north woods implied a lack of modern amenities, read flush toilets. Motels were still civilized.

After all folks, this was the dark ages. Our bicycles still had analog down-tube shifters. You actually had to take a hand off the handlebars in order to shift. A tricky maneuver when you were traveling downhill at speed. Now a days we have integrated STI or Rapid-Fire shifting, that never requires you to lose your grip. And you all know about Wi-Fi, Twitter and the rest of that lot, after all, you’re reading this.

Today’s header shows just a small segment of a much larger mosaic. This tiled mural is on the outside of the Saint Louis flood wall, at the southern end of the Riverfront trail. I don’t know if it is a testament to its beauty as an art work or simply a testament to its durability, but so far (knock on wood) it has avoided vandalisn.

UPDATE: Thanks to Mr. Bill aka the Grumpy Growler, I give you the following picture of real moose droppings, instead of me posing as a figurative one:

moose droppings

Someplace in 1982

Posted on March 10, 2009 by RegenAxe

anne-on-a-park-bench

Today’s post and today’s pictures are from our Great Adventure, our bicycle tour of 1982. I don’t know exactly where the photos are from. The header looks to be from out west, probably British Columbia. The photo of Anne on the park bench could be anywhere, but it looks east of the Mississippi.

Looking at the two pictures, I am surprised at our seeming youth and the seeming antiquity of our cycling equipment. The bikes and most of our equipment were brand new when we set out. The bikes we disposed of just a few years ago. I set them out the night before trash day and they were gone within an hour. The helmets have been donated to the high school for spelunking purposes. We still have the panniers.

We biked, with occasional pauses, for over five months, starting in April and ending in September. We were on the road for a total of 160 days, 105 of those day were actually spent biking. We biked about 5,000 miles or about fifty miles a day. The states and providences that we biked in include, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Alberta, British Columbia and Washington state.

We mainly camped and mainly in campgrounds. Occasionally we would stay in a motel. In addition to clothes and personal items, we carried a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, stove, cook kit and some bike tools. We had budgeted $10,000 for the trip, but only spent about half of that. Anne kept a detailed log that includes notes on the sights seen, money spent and miles ridden.

The trip was brought to an abrupt conclusion when after calling in to Harry one day; he informed us that my boss wanted me to come back to work. We had planned to take the train from Seattle to Dallas, but only got as far as Portland. We flew back to Texas from there. Our bikes and stuff continued on by train and despite a railway strike we were eventually able to recover them, without having to pay for the shipping.

A Marl Bog

Posted on January 29, 2009 by RegenAxe

marl-bog

Marl is common in post glacial lake bed sediments often found underlying peat bogs. Marls are calcium carbonate or lime rich mud which contain variable amounts of clays and calcite or aragonite. The term is most often used to describe lake sediments, but is also used for marine deposits. The term marl is widely used in North American geology, while the term seekreide is used in European references.

This is a remembrance post from Anne’s and mine Great Adventure. The day was July 15, 1982, a Thursday. We are on just our second day from out from the Cabin. We are headed down state to the planet, which was not called that then. We had camped the night before at the Foley Creek National Forest Service campground, just north of St. Ignace. Yesterday we had gotten 44 miles, are first serious ride in over two weeks. Here is the story:

Today is a tourist day. We take the ferry from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island and play on the island all day. First we shop and Mark discovers why tourists are called “Fudgies”. Then we ride over the island, by Skull Cave, the battlefield, etc. We ride back around the east half of the island and then do the fort. We ride to the Grand Hotel, but the admission fee deters us. Pizza before the ferry ride to Mackinac City fills us. This is a good thing since we end up having to backtrack five miles from our planed destination at the Wilderness State Park (home of the marl bogs) to a KOA campground.

Anne always hated KOA campgrounds, but I secretively like them. I’ve always enjoyed that rustic experience of setting your tent up on freshly mowed grass. The back story was that before we set out from the Cabin, Anne told me that she had always assumed that I would want to end the bike trip there. Frankly, this surprised me. I always intended to go on. Maybe it was the Michener novels?

I always set the pace. Wait, I was the accelerator and Anne was the brake. I always tried to wait for her at the top of the hill. Sometimes I would launch down the hill just before she could catch her breath. That trick worked maybe once. Usually, I pulled out the current Michener novel and read as she approached and then rested. I read more than a few of his books. Most times when Anne was ready to go so was I, but sometimes James A. had me in a headlock and Anne would just set off ahead. I liked having a lot of reading material in one volume.

When we left the Cabin we had only ridden 60% of the mileage that we eventually obtain, some 5,000 miles in total. We only got 24 miles that day. In the week to come, as we eventually cranked up to speed, we obtained our adventures one and only century, a hundred miles in one day. We did this on our arrival into Ann Arbor. There we partied with the honeymooners, Anne and Bill and our friends Alice and Chris, bumming rides or just biking around town.

My spovely louse has just researched the Great Adventure, i.e. the diary she kept and determined that these photos are from a marl bog at Macgregor Point Provincial Park, in Ontario, on the Bruce Peninsula, taken on June 22, 1982 and not of the marl bogs at Wilderness State Park, Michigan. I say a marl bog is a marl bog and a marred blog is a marred blog.