Reckless Necklace

Thanks Mark

Guinevere

"Winter is coming"
Ned Stark (Lord Of Winterfell)

Khaleesi

Got hitched to Khaleesi on the 8th month of the 4th year

But could not hold it together for very long

So I broke it down and flew Iceland air

To a Velo-land that speaks a different tongue

We set out at nite for the women of the Gite

I gave her a wrenchin and she gave me her word

I asked our objective, she said we'd be back by the 25th

Most ambiguous thing I have ever heard

Kindness in everyone seemed the norm

As we spun through the nite and into the dawn

Sadness and spasms when he died in a storm

But we made up our minds that we had to go on

Ridin for fame as there is no gold?

Or bling bling strung on a nylon necklace?

Thinkin miller time or any beer that's cold?

I was thinking Khaleesi thought I was so reckless.

Then she told me we would do this again

And things would be different the next time we would

If only I could calm down and just be a friend

Too tired to understand all the strange things she pulled.

Thanks Daenerys Targaryen and of course Steve Hampsten.

Remembering Thai Pham, we never got to meet.

Winter of My Discontent 2 (Cocoon)

Riding so many miles, so many things went to mush.
Even the legs went to mush, Vinnie's paralysis! I called it.
Fired too many cannons, Sir Robin sez?
Only a phase, I sez.
Just a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away.

Thanks Tim Foon Feldman.

The Winter of My Discontent 1(the feast of the immortals)

How does one start to write again? A story perhaps? Long long ago in a very special time...... Maybe once upon a time... How about, just the year two thousand and ten. The year when, without actually knowing when I decided on it, decided to ride either 30,000 kilometers or 20,000 miles on a bike. Being a bike polygamist, and a tinkerer with bike electronics. And at the same time a poor log keeper, I would use RUSA to keep the log. So off I rode, every Brevet I could manage in the Great Northwest including a 400k Fleche from the White House (Charlie White's Home) into British Columbia. But that is a different Country and so is Texas I gather, or is the Jury still out?

Congratulations! Gary Gottlieb, made a marker for the Long Distance Rider.
Much of a long distance ride depends on logistics, I tried to look at it as one big ride. With a full time job and children it would be tricky. It helped that RUSA sanctions a "Workers Ride", I would also learn a lot about working Brevets. The Seattle International, and Oregon Randonneurs are a tightly knit bunch, they support long distance cycling rain or shine, but Brevets would not be enough. Again RUSA sanctions a "Permanent", a Brevet that one could ride at anytime agreed on by the owner of the Permanent and the rider. I remember vaguely Kent Peterson's blogs on training to race the "Great Divide". Practicing not training I think he called it. With Coach "No Car", Coach "No Gears" and I think there was a third one. I called on Coach "Permanent". Owning no Permanents of my own and not having yet unveiled any aptitude for routing courses, I called on the SIR Permanents which are all owned by the inexorable Geoff Swarts.

The Mystic Mjolnir at Cape Flattery, it only takes a camera to make her smile, though I had carried her through rock, bramble and bush to get this shot. As long as I had my Serotta I was down for whatever.

It was also the year Professor Dan and my friend Andy from down under visited with me for the Cascade 1200. Kole joined us in a pre ride libation. I thanked them for the visit and explained the significance of libation amongst the Igbo people. A must at any significant event which we ritualized by dropping some of the contents of our goblets on the earth in which we have interred our ancestors. Sharing with them our pleasure, for if they had not copulated, it would not have been possible. Though in my self centered take on it, the only reason they existed in the first place was to make the moment possible. I further explained my gratitude, for in our philosophy a poor man is a man who prepared a big feast and no one came to share it with him. My assumption is that most of the feast would go on the ground to the ancestors, hence the "feast of the immortals".
The SIR list of Permanents is a feast of Olympian proportions. May we gather again from far an near to participate in this feast. What use is a website full of courses if no one rides it.
And that's just the beginning of my story.

Thanks Gary Gottlieb for pushing the envelope.

A Forest by the Sea

Forest, show me how to roll!

Thanks Dan Boxer

The Cauldron

I have just read Robert Higdons post "what it takes to volunteer". I realized that my last entry was a tribute to RUSA volunteers in June. Dereliction!

Geoff, Kole, Mark and I Volunteered to Pre ride the Crater Lake 1000K Unsupported. We left the Seattle ferry terminal last Wednesday, a cloudy drizzly evening. At Bremerton it was raining and would rain for most of the 70 plus hours that it took to complete the ride. Problem from the start, I had lost the backlight to my GPS unit temporally. So I stayed behind the Guys who all have units to avoid the first navigational pitfall, the somewhat tricky turn from the 304 into Belfair Hwy. Much too early for bonus miles. We took temporary shelter at the Matlock store from the rain. A man inside the long closed store wondered, we made reassuring signs, wrote in our zip-locked Brevet cards and disappeared into the cold wet night. I suffered my circadian 0500 disorientation just before Raymond and hoped coffee at the gas station would help. Daylight was much more of a supplicant. Respite came with the Naselle Diner, by that I mean breakfast and friendly faces, as Mark looked out of the window and noted it was pouring. We dripped out leaving puddles in the previously dry establishment and crossed over the mouth of the Columbia into Astoria. We stopped to eat again at Cannon Beach before tackling some high rollers of the 101, the rain lightened a bit, but the wind picked up, a headwind that caused a few touring bikes with heavy looking panniers to dismount, go figure. Pacific City finally, felt great to be indoors, made good use of our time and left early just after midnite, there is no bonus time until after Reedsport. Weighed down with extra food and drink we faced a sub 1000ft climb and more rollers. Here I lost both my Edelux and GPS. At Reedsport I make a tactical decision to try and sprint ahead to Roseburg before all the Bike stores close. Mark uses his Smart phone to locate the stores, while Kole (who has volunteered to run with me) and I, wolf down a sub. No time to pack more supplies we leave, the stores we called closed at 1730 giving us over 6 hours to cover close to 80 miles including a 2000ft forest road climb. What goes up will fly down, but I know from the Permanent (pre-ride of the pre-ride) that it is not an easy descent. We enjoy the Idyllic Camp Creek road with increasing confidence and then Kole gets a front wheel flat. Fixed, we push a little harder till we hit the stiff grades. Kole darts ahead, to find the information control at the summit and I summit to his declaration that it is all fresh gravel on the descent. Without a second glance at him I plunge into the gravel at a high grade, alternating between the front and back brakes to avoid a heat blow-out. I find 17mph very unnerving. As the grade eases bringing some relief to my cramped brake hands, it starts to pour. Kole appears as I put on more clothes and I realize that my legs have nothing to work with. Kole volunteers a baggie of Pistachios and some liqorice, I am so grateful. We find the Lighthouse Bakery before Roseburg, and to hell with it, we treat ourselves. We drag to Waldrens still open at 1800, which sells me a planet bike front light. And we soft shoe it to the overnight. Out on foot (no more sitting) to find dinner we run into Geoff and Mark. We decide to re-route to cut out that descent on the Tyee access road, sad that the camp creek road will go with it. We buy lots of food and drink and depart after sleep, just after 0100. Now for the featured climb from Roseburg to the Rim Village in Crater Lake, well over 7000ft but also 92 miles away. Geoff and Kole ride ahead and Mark and I take our time. I enjoy the climb better than the last time during the Permanent, mostly because it is cooler and there are no mosquito attacks. Mark seems unabashed by my constant Yakkity-Yak. Then we get to the rim. We are in a rain cloud at near 8000ft, I dare to peer at the lake close to the edge of the rim.

It is a witches cauldron. Visibility is appalling and all blinkies are on for safety reasons, we ride close together to increase our visibility. After a much needed rest stop at the Village where Kole and Geoff were kindly waiting for us, we descend to Fort Klamath. We run along the west side of Lake Klamath and then turn towards Klamath Falls. Barring some sections with poor to no shoulder, this is a pleasant end stretch. We make our Objective of catching Sizzlers still open. Straight for the Salad Bar!

The Ride starting tomorrow will be largely unsupported, though there will be drop bags. Geoff and I will carry these and help in any other way that we can. I find Volunteering the most stressful and challenging aspect of our sport. It is very rewarding.

My friend Ward Beebe took this shot of a volunteer at Mckenzie Bridge, during the Willamette Headwaters 600K, underneath are his accompanying remarks.

Vinny,

Good to see you Saturday night. Too bad we didn't get to say good bye Sunday morning.

Ward.

Thank you Buddy

Weather looks promising, it is my hope that We have taken it for you.