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weekend escape report!
Sep. 1st, 2003 11:49 pmHello to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sangerin who newly friended me.
Warning: Lots of bike stuff ahead. Although I am wondering if the Wizarding World would have any sort of equivalent of this...
Saturday:
We could have stayed in Milwaukee for the Harley-Davidson 100th bash, or we could attend the Midwest Tandem Rally, which this year is in Dayton, Ohio.
[sarcasm mode on] So, seeing how much we like noise ...[sarcasm mode off]
Midwest Tandem Rally 2003: ~84 miles, averaged ~14 miles/hour, 41.9 miles/hour max. according to the cycle computer. My husband thinks the computer is inaccurately set and is running 10% too high. I don’t care, as anything over a metric century after the first week of classes means that I am sore. Even with my nifty new cycling shorts.
And there is only one Earthlink dial-up number for Dayton, Ohio, which is perpetually busy. And even running the Earthlink setup program is not working. Oh, well, I didn't really need to check my email tonight, anyway, did I?
Checked the phone line, and we do not seem to be able to dial out, even to the front desk. So the connection is most likely the problem, not the phone line. Ah well, time to work on antitrust law or Vector’s Challenge, one of the two. Called the front desk, they opened up the phone lines. So now I’m trying to dial, and I checked that I got a modem tone when I dialed it as a local number. Blah. No success. Updates on Monday when I’m back home and don’t have to put up with hotel phones.
The rally has been very interesting so far. The way these are run is that there is a mass start to the rides on Saturday and Sunday, with all the bicycles (teams) leaving the host location at once. Generally, the police are out directing traffic as the teams leave, as having several hundred bicycles going down the road, through intersections, etc. means that traffic can get fairly snarly. There are about 550 +/- 10 teams at this rally. A team can be anywhere from 2-4 people depending on the size of the bicycle.
We saw a five-seater (a quint) bicycle today, and a couple of four-seaters (quads). Lots of three-seaters (triples) and tandem trail-a-bikes, with one couple with a three-seater (custom) child trailer. Various interesting stats for the oldest team, youngest team, number of riders from each state, etc. The quint converted into a triple, so that two of the riders stayed at the rest stop, and then got picked up after lunch by the rest of the family.
The routes the organizers picked were fairly good for the most part, but they did put us onto a bikeway by one of the rivers. And of course, this bike path was in the flood plain, and of course it got flooded out...my husband wound up hauling the bike up a fairly steep embankment, and I had to follow crawling on my hands and knees, because I was in cleats trying to go up a steep grassy hill.
Vector’s Challenge: I looked at Chapter 34, concluded it needed something more, and added Snape and Vector up grading in her quarters...not sure how far they’re going to go, and the two of them will tell me it’s none of my damned business anyway.
Sunday
Today we wimped out, or I should say that I exercised my inherent veto authority as stoker and rear admiral, and we only did ~54 miles according to the cycle computer, averaging 13 miles/hour. Since the cycle computer is telling me that we maxed out at 118 miles/hour, I do not trust it that much. According to the cue sheets, we did about 45 miles today.
It rained and we had a steep hill going out today, so several teams turned back early. We got a flat, and had to double back to our hotel to pick up the good pump, which added about 4-5 miles on to our mileage. We took more pictures today. Most particularly of quads, people riding with their dogs in trailers, people with infants with them on the bike somehow, etc.
Apparently, from the information at dinner tonight, the bike path by the river we took on Saturday was clear in the morning, started flooding by 2 pm, and was totally flooded by 4 pm.
The lunch stop was at Carillon Memorial Park, which has a 1905 Wright Flyer, a very old airplane. The museum also had a copy of the patent, No. 821,393 for a Flying Machine, issued to Orville and Wilbur Wright. It took them three years to get the patent from the USPTO, from 1903-1906. That might be another interesting thing to write a Comment on, or at least to pull the file wrapper (the patent prosecution history) for that patent. Apparently they had some trouble getting the patent, according to the information at the museum...The Wright brothers were truly amazing. No college degrees, just a love and a knowledge of machines in motion, and good observation skills. And they beat out all the authorities of the day.
Notes for next big tandem ride:
1) bring the best shorts I have
2) make sure I do some riding earlier in the week to condition my backside
3) bring Bag Balm or equivalent thereof, to try to prevent saddle sores
4) if I have a Brooks saddle by then, make sure it is on the tandem and broken in so that I will not get saddle sores.
MTR 2004 will be in Columbus, Indiana. MTR 2005 may be in Iowa, and it is really time and past for Iowa or Wisconsin to have it again. My husband and I were arguing about whether Kentucky is part of the Midwest. As a Southerner, he says it is, and cites the 1978 MTR to prove his case. As a Midwesterner, I say it is not, and it is part of the South. He defines the South by “who fought with the Confederacy.” I define the South by “which states allowed slavery, and which ones were south of the Mason-Dixon Line.” So we will never run out of things to discuss as long as we have the weather and That Damned War to talk about.
Monday
Packing up getting ready to go back home. Hopefully the traffic in Chicago will not be too insane today. It was quite insane on Friday, and it took us over two hours to get through Chicago. We will be travelling with the flow coming into Chicago, until we hit downtown, and then we will be going against traffic. I wonder how many motorcycles we will see leaving Milwaukee today.
We might go to Wright-Patterson AFB today, to see the museum there. Edited to add: Spent several hours at the Air Force Museum. Lots of planes and other artifacts to look at...we spent so long that we went to lunch very late.
I suppose I should start giving my bicycling statistics in metric units as well, to come into agreement with the rest of the world. Not corrected for the possible 10% factor...
Saturday: 135.5 km, 22.5 km/hr average speed, 67.5 km/hr max. speed.
Sunday: 87 km, 20.96 km/hr average speed.
We have been driving through a lot of rain in Ohio and Indiana so far. Sometimes the rain has been so heavy that visibility is a hundred-some yards or so. And it really seems like they don’t need any more rain in this part of the country. Minnesota and Wisconsin could use it a lot more. There was flooding by Indianapolis. We’re going to get home very, very late, I fear. Ah well, at least I don’t have classes until 11 am tomorrrow. But I should attempt to start reading antitrust, at least if I can get any reading done in the car at all....
Rain all through Indiana and Ohio, pretty much. It might be done with by the time we hit Chicago...it was done by the time we got to Merrillville, and I drove from the north suburbs of Chicago back to Milwaukee. No Harleys on the road -- they must have all gone home.
sangerin who newly friended me. Warning: Lots of bike stuff ahead. Although I am wondering if the Wizarding World would have any sort of equivalent of this...
Saturday:
We could have stayed in Milwaukee for the Harley-Davidson 100th bash, or we could attend the Midwest Tandem Rally, which this year is in Dayton, Ohio.
[sarcasm mode on] So, seeing how much we like noise ...[sarcasm mode off]
Midwest Tandem Rally 2003: ~84 miles, averaged ~14 miles/hour, 41.9 miles/hour max. according to the cycle computer. My husband thinks the computer is inaccurately set and is running 10% too high. I don’t care, as anything over a metric century after the first week of classes means that I am sore. Even with my nifty new cycling shorts.
And there is only one Earthlink dial-up number for Dayton, Ohio, which is perpetually busy. And even running the Earthlink setup program is not working. Oh, well, I didn't really need to check my email tonight, anyway, did I?
Checked the phone line, and we do not seem to be able to dial out, even to the front desk. So the connection is most likely the problem, not the phone line. Ah well, time to work on antitrust law or Vector’s Challenge, one of the two. Called the front desk, they opened up the phone lines. So now I’m trying to dial, and I checked that I got a modem tone when I dialed it as a local number. Blah. No success. Updates on Monday when I’m back home and don’t have to put up with hotel phones.
The rally has been very interesting so far. The way these are run is that there is a mass start to the rides on Saturday and Sunday, with all the bicycles (teams) leaving the host location at once. Generally, the police are out directing traffic as the teams leave, as having several hundred bicycles going down the road, through intersections, etc. means that traffic can get fairly snarly. There are about 550 +/- 10 teams at this rally. A team can be anywhere from 2-4 people depending on the size of the bicycle.
We saw a five-seater (a quint) bicycle today, and a couple of four-seaters (quads). Lots of three-seaters (triples) and tandem trail-a-bikes, with one couple with a three-seater (custom) child trailer. Various interesting stats for the oldest team, youngest team, number of riders from each state, etc. The quint converted into a triple, so that two of the riders stayed at the rest stop, and then got picked up after lunch by the rest of the family.
The routes the organizers picked were fairly good for the most part, but they did put us onto a bikeway by one of the rivers. And of course, this bike path was in the flood plain, and of course it got flooded out...my husband wound up hauling the bike up a fairly steep embankment, and I had to follow crawling on my hands and knees, because I was in cleats trying to go up a steep grassy hill.
Vector’s Challenge: I looked at Chapter 34, concluded it needed something more, and added Snape and Vector up grading in her quarters...not sure how far they’re going to go, and the two of them will tell me it’s none of my damned business anyway.
Sunday
Today we wimped out, or I should say that I exercised my inherent veto authority as stoker and rear admiral, and we only did ~54 miles according to the cycle computer, averaging 13 miles/hour. Since the cycle computer is telling me that we maxed out at 118 miles/hour, I do not trust it that much. According to the cue sheets, we did about 45 miles today.
It rained and we had a steep hill going out today, so several teams turned back early. We got a flat, and had to double back to our hotel to pick up the good pump, which added about 4-5 miles on to our mileage. We took more pictures today. Most particularly of quads, people riding with their dogs in trailers, people with infants with them on the bike somehow, etc.
Apparently, from the information at dinner tonight, the bike path by the river we took on Saturday was clear in the morning, started flooding by 2 pm, and was totally flooded by 4 pm.
The lunch stop was at Carillon Memorial Park, which has a 1905 Wright Flyer, a very old airplane. The museum also had a copy of the patent, No. 821,393 for a Flying Machine, issued to Orville and Wilbur Wright. It took them three years to get the patent from the USPTO, from 1903-1906. That might be another interesting thing to write a Comment on, or at least to pull the file wrapper (the patent prosecution history) for that patent. Apparently they had some trouble getting the patent, according to the information at the museum...The Wright brothers were truly amazing. No college degrees, just a love and a knowledge of machines in motion, and good observation skills. And they beat out all the authorities of the day.
Notes for next big tandem ride:
1) bring the best shorts I have
2) make sure I do some riding earlier in the week to condition my backside
3) bring Bag Balm or equivalent thereof, to try to prevent saddle sores
4) if I have a Brooks saddle by then, make sure it is on the tandem and broken in so that I will not get saddle sores.
MTR 2004 will be in Columbus, Indiana. MTR 2005 may be in Iowa, and it is really time and past for Iowa or Wisconsin to have it again. My husband and I were arguing about whether Kentucky is part of the Midwest. As a Southerner, he says it is, and cites the 1978 MTR to prove his case. As a Midwesterner, I say it is not, and it is part of the South. He defines the South by “who fought with the Confederacy.” I define the South by “which states allowed slavery, and which ones were south of the Mason-Dixon Line.” So we will never run out of things to discuss as long as we have the weather and That Damned War to talk about.
Monday
Packing up getting ready to go back home. Hopefully the traffic in Chicago will not be too insane today. It was quite insane on Friday, and it took us over two hours to get through Chicago. We will be travelling with the flow coming into Chicago, until we hit downtown, and then we will be going against traffic. I wonder how many motorcycles we will see leaving Milwaukee today.
We might go to Wright-Patterson AFB today, to see the museum there. Edited to add: Spent several hours at the Air Force Museum. Lots of planes and other artifacts to look at...we spent so long that we went to lunch very late.
I suppose I should start giving my bicycling statistics in metric units as well, to come into agreement with the rest of the world. Not corrected for the possible 10% factor...
Saturday: 135.5 km, 22.5 km/hr average speed, 67.5 km/hr max. speed.
Sunday: 87 km, 20.96 km/hr average speed.
We have been driving through a lot of rain in Ohio and Indiana so far. Sometimes the rain has been so heavy that visibility is a hundred-some yards or so. And it really seems like they don’t need any more rain in this part of the country. Minnesota and Wisconsin could use it a lot more. There was flooding by Indianapolis. We’re going to get home very, very late, I fear. Ah well, at least I don’t have classes until 11 am tomorrrow. But I should attempt to start reading antitrust, at least if I can get any reading done in the car at all....
Rain all through Indiana and Ohio, pretty much. It might be done with by the time we hit Chicago...it was done by the time we got to Merrillville, and I drove from the north suburbs of Chicago back to Milwaukee. No Harleys on the road -- they must have all gone home.
