you sure do like fugly cars

so the choice is between a piece of luggage and an 80s Transformer?

I’d love to get a new car, but first I need to get a real job. Here’s my wish list:

1) Scion xB (Toyota). This car is fresh, plus it starts at $14K– which isn’t too nasty.

2) Element (Honda). Start’s around $16K. Katie’s parents just got one of these (in the color pictured, Sunset Orange). I got a ride in one a week ago, and the interior is huge. That is a precious commodity for a tall dude. As much as I like driving Katie’s Civic, I get a little tired of having my dome rub against the ceiling all the time… I do have one complaing with this car, though. Why put the sun roof in the back over the trunk? The best part of a sun roof is looking up, seeing the sky, and sticking your head/hand up there…

OK, here it is: Schrag, pass the salt. I need to eat my words about the Sox. So maybe they aren’t really losers, and maybe- just maybe, they’ll continue to put it on the Yankees like they did last night. You watching this weekend? Maybe I’ll come down…

PS. What’s the sales tax down there in RI? I gotta do a little shopping this weekend…

I just finished a book called “Moneyball” called Michael Lewis. It’s a book about baseball. It is, in particular, about a small group of people who have begun thinking about the game in a revolutionary new way. These people have been around since the 1970’s, but were not the people who made the decisions … until a few years ago, when a former ballplayer named Billy Beane became the general manager of the Oakland A’s.

Baseball is a game of tradition and has been long dominated by certain ideas about how to win, and about what is valuable in a player. These ideas have been around for so long and are so widely accepted that they have been completely unchallenged for decades. For example, almost every major league scout has an idea about what type of frame constitutes a “major league body” and about what skills are important in defining major league talent. In the mid-1970’s a tiny group of students of the game began using the emerging technology of personal computing to analyze the minutiae of the game: batting averages, on-base percentages, fielding statistics, and all the endless data which is generated by each passing season.

What these people came to realize was that many of the most treasured ideas of the baseball establishment were wrong. Among other things, this small group of enthusiasts realized that the most important thing in a hitter was not defense or baserunning, or even batting average, but the ability to NOT make an out. Because the length of each inning is defined by the timing of the third out, it is paramount that a hitter puts the ball in play or walks as often as possible. All other skills, which are still thought by most baseball insiders to be of roughly equal importance, are far less important than this trait. Armed with this insight, and several related ones, the A’s have gone about scouting talent and assembling a team in a whole new way.

I won’t go more into the nuts and bolts of the statistics involved. I think this part of the book was particularily interesting to me because I’ve often had fragmentary thoughts along the lines of those discussed in this book: if a walk is as good as a hit, why is batting average the most valued statistic? It’s always thrilling for someone who’s interested in numbers to see that the results of some basic statistical analyses can have such a momentous effect on some aspect of everyday life. Lewis does a good job outlining the new ways of thinking without getting bogged down in mathematics. He instead chooses to focus on the consequences of the first implementation of this way of thinking in the Oakland A’s organization. Most obviously, this new way of evaluating talent has led to a phenomenal string of successful seasons for the A’s, who have consistently had one of the lowest payrolls in the major leagues for a decade. Even as richer teams buy the best A’s players, the management of the A’s manages to re-build a team which challenges teams with triple their financial resources.

The thought that good ideas and careful analysis can overwhelm the sheer force of money is a tantalizing one, and it appeals to me for many reasons. It’s a classic David-vs.-Goliath story which has created some of the most riveting drama, both on and off the field, in baseball for the last few years. It also leads to a number of sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious sub-plots in the book. One of these is the fact that the rest of the baseball establishment is beginning to take notice of the new baseball wisdom, making it paramount for Beane and the A’s to use all variety of deception, coercion, and misdirection to stay a step ahead of other organizations who would attempt to copy their way of doing things. Other memorable portions of the book center on the reactions of players when first being asked by the A’s to do things (switch defensive positions) they would never have anticipated with other teams.

Ultimately, the most powerful parts of this story are those which center on the players, regarded as second-tier talent by baseball purists due to some perceived flaw, who have finally had their true value recognized by Beane and the A’s. These players would have had little chance to make a significant impact in baseball just five years ago, because their skills and make-up did not fit baseball’s traditional profiles. One by one, the rise of these players to success in the major leagues are detailed, and these stories are used to illustrate the central ideas of Beane and his number-crunchers. There’s Scott Hatteberg, a journeyman catcher who does not excel in any of baseball’s five traditional tools (hit, hit with power, run, field, and throw), but has an uncanny ability to pick his pitch and control the strike zone. There’s Chad Bradford, a pitcher whose low velocity and unusual delivery had relegated him to minor league ball with another team before the A’s acquired him and turned him into one of the premier relievers in the game.

And, most memorably, there is the tale of Jeremy Brown. Brown is a catcher who graduated college a year ago, and who no other pro team even bothered to scout because of his large frame (5′-8″ and 215 pounds). Upon seeing a trend in Brown’s numbers which indicated that he was an extraordinarily tough out, the A’s draft him in the first round, several hundred players above the expectations of anyone, including Brown himself. True to the A’s expectations, and despite the continual name-calling and taunting of his teammates and the media, Brown begins tearing up the minor leagues almost immediately, eventually proving himself to his teammates and to the writers, who put him among the top three hitters in the entire 2002 draft. The final paragraphs of the book are testament to Lewis’ genius, as he ties the main themes of the book together in as moving a passage as I’ve read this year:

“The fourth pitch is the mistake: the pitcher goes back to his change-up. Jeremy sees his arm coming through slowly again, and this time he knows to wait on it. The change-up arrives waist-high over the middle of the plate. The line drive Jeremy hits screams over the pitcher’s right ear and into the gap in left center field.

As he leaves the batter’s box, Jeremy sees the left and center fielders converging fast. The left fielder, thinking he might make the catch, is running himself out of position to play the ball off the wall. Jeremy knows he hit it hard, and so he knows what’s going to happen next — or imagines he does. The ball is going to hit the wall and ricochet back into the field. The left fielder, having overrun it, will have to turn around and chase after it. Halfway down the first-base line, Jeremy Brown has one thought in his mind: I’m gonna get a triple.

It’s a new thought for him. He isn’t built for triples. He hasn’t hit a triple in years. He thrills to the idea: Jeremy Brown, hitter of triples. A funny thing has happened since he became, by some miracle, the most upwardly mobile hitter in the Oakland A’s minor league system. Surrounded by people who keep telling him he’s capable of almost anything, he’s coming to believe it himself.

He races around first (“I’m haulin’ ass now”) and picks up the left fielder, running with his back to him, but not the ball. He’s running as hard as he’s ever run — and then he’s not. Between first and second base his feet go out from under him and he backflops into the dirt, like Charlie Brown. He notices, first, a shooting pain in his hand: he’s jammed his finger. He picks himself up, to scramble back to the safety of first base, when he sees his teammates in the dugout. The guys are falling all over each other, laughing. Swish. Stanley. Teahen. Kiger. Everybody’s laughing at him again. But their laughter has a different tone; it’s not the sniggering laughter of the people who made fun of his body. It’s something else. He looks out into the gap in left center field. The outfielders are just standing there: they’ve stopped chasing the ball. The ball’s gone. The triple of Jeremy Brown’s imagination, in reality, is a home run.”

It’s great stuff, even for people who don’t follow baseball. In fact, especially for people who don’t follow it. Pick it up if you get a chance.

1. HEAVY ROTATION (more than a few days)

• sonna “smile and the world smiles with you”
• him “many in high places”
• “The Neptunes present Clones”
• Prefuse 73 “Extinguished: Outtakes”

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2. Light Rotation (A day or two)

• Karate “UnsolveD”
• Kool Keith “The Lost Masters”
• Vermont “Living Together”
• Tracker “Polk”
• Brad “Interiors”
• The Sea and Cake “Oui”
• Rufus Wainwright “Poses”

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3. Recent Heavy Rotation

• Grandaddy “Sumday”
• Radiohead “Hail to the Theif”

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Hi guys,

Had a good trip up to Seattle! Mark and Robin live in a real nice area…Hawthorne/NW PDX type. Real convenient with that bike store so close by..haha! Here are a couple of pics that I thought were kinda amusing. So who’s the ‘Tannery Brook Kid’..i’m confused. I’ve been downloading songs from radiohead’s hail to the theif album. mind you i’m a fan but just haven’t had a chance to pick up the cd.

if you guys haven’t seen ‘bowling for columbine’ you should check it out. i thought it was pretty powerful and funny at the same time. i can’t really remember the last time i had a serious discussion about a movie after seeing it.

anyway, i’ll be taking my GREs on the 20th…after that it’s UC Davis or bust..i guess it won’t be the end of the world if i don’t get in. Ben, you think you can call up some buddies back home and pull some strings?…haha..

Okay, i just had to include this pick of mark and i next to the fellowship. i think between the both of us we could take them all out but i guess gandalf might be a handful. mark and i could body slam those hobbits though.

It’s been sweet weather; I’m told there’s some sort of record breaking consecutive sunny days going on right now. The elections for a bunch of offices will take place soon and we got our voter’s ballots but have no idea who to vote for… IKEA really is something amazing. We spent 5.5 hours there when we went and we plan on going again in a week or so since a couple of the things we wanted weren’t in. I’m eating some of their Swedish meatballs right now.

Played the Warlords IV demo (good–coming out soon), the XIII demo (prob better on a console–coming out soon), the Neighbors from Hell demo (quite amusing–out now), the Divine Divinity demo (got good reviews when it came out a while ago, but I think it’s already outdated), and the Lionheart demo (despite using the Fallout rule system, this game is a Diablo clone and not a deep RPG–out now) among others. But basically can’t wait until Half-Life 2 and UFO: Aftermath.

When we got here our friends Geoff and Ann brought everyone who helped out Thai food from an unknown restaurant. We’ve also been to MiYi (the great Australian bite–pasties and such), Hattie’s Hat (since 1904–burgers and such), and the Firehouse Wingmasters (Buffalo wings and burgers–can’t find the Wingmasters part online, just their music info). We went to Pike’s Place with Colin and Diana (they came up Labor Day weekend) and had some Russian peroshkis and fresh mini-donuts. There’s also this amazing grocery store called Central Market; they have like 4 different types of locally made crab cakes in their freezer section, just to give an idea. Surprisingly, however, sushi is better from the Fred Meyer near us than from Central Market; they both have chefs make them right in front of you.

And finally, check out Achie McPhee… We live 3 blocks from their store.

Din din was at American Dream, a pizza place that Erik claimed was the best pizza in Corvallis. We walked past the daVinci Days happenings (a concert in a park by that time) and found a place that offered free sno-cones as a promotional thing. Don was extremely skeptical, but George insisted we cross a couple of streets to check it out. Yes, they were free, no strings attached.

American Dream’s sign from far away looks like the gay/lesbian pink upside-down triangle except it’s yellow. At the time I told G that Jews in Nazi Germany had to wear arm-bands with the triangle and that gays and lesbians reappropriated the symbol, turned it upside-down and colored it pink. I was close. Actually, the Jews wore a Star of David while gays and lesbians had to wear that pink upside-down triangle. So the gay and lesbian community just reclaimed the symbol they were given by the Nazis. Kinda like how blacks reclaimed the word “nigger”.

We passed by a Chinese restaurant on the way to American Dream which G and I really wanted to go to, but we couldn’t since Don couldn’t afford it. So, we arrived at American Dream right around 8:30 which is lucky since they have a late-night special for a 1-topping large pizza and one soda for $10. The sauce, cheese, and pepperoni were good but the crust was tough and bland. Don liked it, but George and I thought it was overall mediocre. Don’s quote: “The pizza is good; just don’t eat the crust.” To which George and I replied: “The pizza *is* the crust!” In hindsight, I think maybe Don thinks of the outer crust as crust while George and I thought of the whole bread part, including the middle with toppings, as the crust. Given G and my definition, you can’t have good pizza without good crust. But G grew up in New York and I live with a pizza gourmand, so our standards are higher. Try, for example, Escape from New York or Pizza Roma.

Anyway, I got the soda that came with the meal, G got water, and Don got a beer, making his share of the meal the highest cost. Admittedly, I felt kind of cheated since I think Don spent as much as we would have if we had gone Chinese. I guess he needs his beer.

We got back to Erik’s place and went to sleep. The place is a duplex, 2 floors of a house that’ve been converted to 2 flats, with an additional small place out in the back yard. The landlords just got the place like 2 months ago and so were still fixing up the back place which is the place they said we could stay in. We were also offered the lawn and Erik’s floor. Since we got back before Erik, we figured his floor wasn’t a good idea since he might wake us up or something when he got back. The house out back was extremely hot and stuffy; only 2 windows opened and it had been a hot day. So we all opted to sleep in the backyard.

Four funny/cool things…

1. Don’s new ride was both a blessing and a curse and it started to manifest itself fully this night. He could’ve stuck it in the garage where Erik keeps some of his bikes, but I guess Don didn’t think it was secure enough since Erik and his landlords don’t lock it. He could’ve stuck it in the house, but again, it wasn’t locked. So instead he bungie corded it to his sleeping bag so that if anyone tried to make off with it, he’d wake up. Later he told us that he had another measure of security which he didn’t tell us about, cuz I guess he was afraid we’d make off with it… ? Anyway, George and I were starting to think Don was a little paranoid.

2. While we were lying there and looking up, we counted many, many satellites. That was cool. I told them about the time in college when my roommate and I were walking very late at night… around 2 AM.. to the pool hall when we saw a very bright shooting start type of thing, only much slower than a shooting star and much faster than a plane. It was maybe an inch long if you hold an inch out an arm’s length and basically going across the Western sky from North to South. Some drugged out hippies nearby were freaking out like it was a missile, but it just didn’t seem right. I found out a few weeks later that it was the space shuttle making an emergency landing!

3. So a few hours pass, and I think all of us are sleeping horribly. I keep waking up and alternating between hot and cold by covering and uncovering myself with my really well insulated sleeping bag. George starts laughing so I look over. Funny thing about George is that he is often woefully unprepared. For this trip, he deliberated didn’t bring a sleeping bag because he thought it would be warm enough outside to just sleep on the ground! Anyway, he got cold since it was kinda windy, so he put on pretty much all of his clothing. He had like 3 T-shirts on regularly and another around his arms. He had 3 pairs of shorts on, one regular, one pulled up to just his knees, and one just around his ankles. To top it off, he had a pair of blue-green plaid boxers around his head! So I started laughing too and told him I was definitely going to take a photo of him in the morning. After about 20 minutes he finally went inside to the house out back, but about 20 minutes after that the wind died down and the rest of the night was actually quite nice.

4. I guess it must have been around 2 or 3 AM… Don and I woke up but didn’t do anything when we heard 2 or 3 guys crash into the backyard from hopping a fence into it and then try to find their way out on the other side, all the while laughing and saying stuff like, “Holy crap, there’s people sleeping here!”

Day 2: 46 miles, 3 hours 20 minutes actual riding, 14 mph average.

We woke up early, around 7 or so. I went inside the little house and took a photo of George! 🙂 We ate breakfast at the same cafe that my brother and I met Brian on his house-bike 3 years ago! Breakfast was with Erik and we chatted about Portland places to live since he and his wife are moving up in August. We then said good-bye and headed to Eugene. We took Peoria Road down and then from Junction City we took River Road. I think this is the exact same way my brother and I did it the first time, so in the end, we followed the same route we did 3 years ago!

The ride down was really nice. At Junction City we called Barbara Gleason, graphic designer for Burley, who would be our hostess for our stay in Eugene. She rode out on River Road to meet us and escort us into town. Actually, another Burley employee, Russell, who was still recovering from a minivan hitting him in February, lived closer to downtown and we were able to crash at his place. He wasn’t home yet when we arrived, but his cat Hunter was home. We freshened up and made plans for Barbara to give us a tour of the city (in her nice A/Ced car). The heat was more oppressive than the previous days; I’m glad we left and finished our riding relatively early compared to our other days. While waiting for Barbara, Russell came back with his girlfriend, Tina, I think. Russell then showed us the cool beaded tapestry that he had/has been working on for the last 4.5 years.

The tour of the city was cool…:) and we saw a lot of Eugene from a butte in the center of town. After our tour, we met up with Dan, Barbara’s husband, who is a prof at U of O, specializing in birds, and went to Tasty Thai. Oh man, I love Thai food and this place was no disappointment. We were very hungry by this time since we had skipped lunch. George ate much rice.

After dinner we just chatted for a while back at their place. Hummingbirds really like Don’s bright red hair! We then went back to Russell’s and crashed. George and Don slept outside since the house’ ventilation wasn’t the greatest; it retained heat pretty well. But I slept inside since I didn’t want mosquitoes bugging me the whole night.

Day 3: 48 miles, about 3 hours 30 minutes, about 14mph ave.

We got up and met Barbara for breakfast. She then went off to work while we just hung out chatting for a couple hours at the market waiting for the big meeting at the Mayor’s Office a few blocks down. At one point we watched people getting newspapers out of one of those metal stand things. It got stuck but then one guy came and tugged on it hard and then left it slightly ajar for other people. We took the opportunity to borrow one which we replaced after we had finished reading the day’s news. 🙂

When the time came, we headed on over to the Mayor’s Office. It’s the corner office in a building housing other city offices including the police department. Even so, Don didn’t feel comfortable locking and leaving the bike out in the courtyard. At one point, I mentioned that it was funny how Don was being very protective of this bike because it cost so much while at the same time George and I were being relatively lax about our bikes even though our bikes weren’t cheap either. Don’s reasoning was that I could afford to get them replaced while he couldn’t. I don’t think that was it, actually. I mean I *could* get them replaced if they were stolen, but it’s not like I want that to happen, and I don’t think I actually would get them replaced since I am not exactly flowing in cash right now. In other words, it would still be a big blow to me if I had my bikes stolen. The difference is that I don’t let fear run my life or hold me back. With proper precaution, I feel that I should be able to do what I want to do. It’s not like I was suggesting we leave the bike unlocked out on the street.

Anyway, we met up with someone at the Mayor’s Office who let us know the mayor wasn’t in quite yet (we were early) and that Don could stick his bike inside the office. We then waited around and met Barbara. Then Diana Bishop showed up with her granddaughter and the whole office swarmed around for the baby. 🙂 Finally Mayor Jim Torrey showed up and we all shook hands and chatted. We got some photos of him handing the proclomation over and we were given some really good chocolate and pins of the city as gifts. It was very nice and low-key. No speeches or anything fancy-schmantzy this time around. Afterwords, Jim left the way he came, just walking down the street! By way of comparison, I think Portland’s mayor, Vera Katz, would have had a police escort or an entourage of some sort as security.

After we said good-bye to everyone we headed off to McMenamin’s on High Street and called Robin who was meeting her mom for lunch in Eugene to come pick us up for Portland. Turns out that she didn’t have lunch with her mom so we all ate at the McMenamin’s.

The car ride home was hot; no A/C in our little Honda Civic. The bike rack worked great! We dropped Don off who presumably returned the Trek the next day… George ended up staying until like Thursday or something; we kept going over to Scott’s to play Gran Turismo 3. Fun. All in all a great bike ride, limited only by my poor athleticism, Don’s poor money resources, and George’s poor packing foresight.

Addendum: In a weird twist of irony, my bike was stolen about a week later… 🙁 Maybe Don has cause to be cautious?

We said good-bye to Dat while riding out of town. We finally left Portland around 3pm. The ride itself was relatively uneventful. I hate hills. There was one time when this guy was turning right onto 99W, the street we were riding, and I guess he didn’t even see us until the last minute and had to hit his brakes. People just don’t expect bicycles sometimes, which is why this ride and all bicycle advocacy is so important. A friend of mine once asked me why I complained about biking in Portland since it is so much nicer than some other cities. My answer is that bicycle advocacy will always have a place until bikes are treated as equally as cars. When everyone who drives looks for bikes as well as cars before turning that’s when we are equal.

We stayed at McMinnville Friday night, July 18, at the Paragon Motel which had an outdoor swimming pool. The Best Western right next door had an in-door one *and* a hot tub, but it would’ve been way more expensive… Check in time: 7:30. Turns out Don is flat-out broke, but we discussed this before the trip and I offered to pay for the motel room the first night. I assumed since I was paying for the lodging, it would free up Don to be able to spend a little more on food, but we found out that day that Don is really, really, flat-out broke. This was a little disappointing since George and I wanted to go to this diner next to our motel, but after a quick dip, we ended up going to Taco Bell Express.

Day 1: 48 miles from Bike Gallery, 3 hours 40 minutes in the saddle, about 4 hours 30 minutes from start to finish, 13 mph ave, 35 mph max. George snores.

Saturday, July 19, we woke up late (I think we slept 11 hours!) and didn’t leave McMinnville until 11 or so after some quick continental breakfast and some nasty fake Dole orange juice from the Texaco mini-mart. Don educated us about fruit juice. If the first two ingredients are water and high fructose corn syrup, it sucks. The ride down today was really nice. Not *too* much traffic, mostly wide shoulders. George and Don stopped a lot for berries which grow everywhere in Oregon. I tend to stay away from car-exhaust berries, so I kept riding saying I’d meet them at the next shaded area. Little did I know the next shaded area would be a couple miles away! The shade was provided by a nice tall oak tree or something (Robin can tell you that I suck at identifying flora) which was the prominent object in someone’s front yard. Most houses along 99W are farm houses and are quite a ways from the road, but not this one. So, I stopped, and noticed that I was out of water. I walked over to the front door and rang the doorbell. While I was waiting for an answer, I noticed the faucet out of the front of the house just 10 feet away, but I thought it might look really, really bad if I just used it willy-nilly without permission. Since no one answered, I turned around and headed back for my bike when I saw a Jeep pull into the driveway. I walked over to the Jeep as the driver rolled down the window and slowed to talk. Ron turned out to be a really nice guy and we talked a bit… the usual questions: “Where are you from? Where are you going?” with the added “You’re gonna need, a lot of water!”

I was feeling good, so I got back on my bike and took off without waiting for the guys. I biked really slowly though, taking in all the views and sounds. You know “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” where the author describes how cool it is to be so close to nature and the road? Well, I’ve always thought that we bicyclists have an even greater experience in that we get a myriad aural sensations while motorcyclists just get engine noise. So, I listened to the birds chirping, the rustling of grass as some lizard, or whatever I imagine, runs away from me, and the lovely sound of me belting out a great rendition of “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Anyway, by the time I get to Rickreal, I figure the guys must surely have caught up to me by now and that they must have passed me while I was talking to Ron, getting water. There is a really nice bike path from Rickreal to Monmouth (funny link) and I followed that going pretty fast. By the way, I quickly shot the evil eye at the RV campground in Rickreal which wouldn’t let my brother and I camp there 3 years ago during our ride to DC for NBG because we were on bikes and not in an RV!

So while riding to Monmouth I pass two teenage girls who are also enjoying the bike path. This NBG idea is a really good idea; have I mentioned that? I tell them that I’m looking for two other guys and ask if they’ve seen them. They say no, so I tell them they are probably behind me and ask if they see them to let them know that I’m just up ahead. Nice girls said yes.

When I get into Monmouth, and the bike path ended, I see a Burgerville. Good a stopping point as any. I sip on a strawberry-banana smoothie as I wait for the guys. And they did show up! It turns out they stopped like 3 or 4 times for berries! We headed on down to A&W and had some lunch. A nice worker there told us how her dad does weekend rides a bit and how it’s incredible that we could go three days. Don and I didn’t tell her that he’s biked to SF and I’ve biked to DC. Honestly, I have to say that biking for days on end is not *that* hard, so long as you pace yourself and you take the time to enjoy life. If you can do a week, you can do a whole summer. But don’t let anyone know I told you that, cuz like I said, I need to milk this thing for all it’s worth. My problem is that I’m lazy by nature, but once I’m out there, meeting new people, almost all of them friendly, man, it’s awe-inspiring.

So after lunch, we realize we only have about 20 miles to Corvallis, maybe one and a half hours. So we book it on down, get tired after 30 min, rest, and then take off again. We rest a lot. I think it’s good for us; keeps us hydrated and sane, and is the key to lasting a long time on the road for people who are out of shape like me.

When we get into Corvallis, we stop at a Rite-Aid, call Erik Haluzak to get directions, and have some nasty but not so nasty as this morning orange juice. It turns out that the annual daVinci Days festival in Corvallis is happening this weekend, so we biked through the festivities to get to Erik’s place. Actually, we stopped and took a bunch of photos and met up with one of Don’s friends by happenstance. Sam is a journalist and took a bunch of photos of us and we all chatted and whatnot.

When we finally made it to Erik’s place, he introduced us to his uncle, Charles, and his dad who’s visiting from CA. And yes, Erik is the guy whose dad makes recumbent frames! Small world. George and Don left to check out daVinci Days some more and Erik and relatives went for a bike ride. I’m done typing, for now anyway, and think I’ll take a little nap before George and Don get back and we go eat some din din.

George, Don, and I rode for the National Bicycle Greenway’s National Mayors’ Ride this year. This is the same organization that my brother and I rode for 3 years ago when we went across the country. Martin Krieg, the guy in charge of NBG, changed the format of the ride a couple years back to a relay ride instead of a trans-am ride to get more people involved and to get more cities involved. I was actually around last year, but didn’t even hear about the ride! Ah well…

So the leg that we participated in was just for 4 days, Portland to Eugene. This being a relay ride, someone named Rocky Brown rode from Boise to meet us in Portland, and we in turn were to “hand off the baton” to a guy named Skot in Eugene who would then go to Arcata, Chico, and Sacramento. The ride originated in DC in May or so and will end in Santa Cruz in August for some huge party which I think my brother will be attending since he’s doing SF to Santa Cruz.

Most of this post is copied from an email I sent Martin, but I’m embellishing it a little and adding photos as I go…

George and I left my place Friday morning, July 18, and met Don at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry since it is pretty close to the Hawthorne Bridge. We then biked across the bridge and when we got to the plaza where we were meeting everyone else, we noticed people protesting Ashcroft and the war. There were even a couple of topless women holding signs up (no photos, sorry). But we didn’t have time to dally, so we looked around and saw Dat, from Shift, Don’s friend, and a city transportation worker of some type, come running up to greet us. He told us where everyone was, so we headed over. At this point, my chain fell off; I fixed it later, but something to keep in mind if it happened again…

“Everyone” was us three (Mark, Don, and George), Dat, Kristine and a coworker, two parking enforcement officers, Andrew and Lisa Heckman, and Pat from TerraCycle. Kristine is also a transportations city person or something like that. The funny thing is this whole thing was slightly disorganized, so I’m not sure who all the city people represented… mayor’s office, transporation, what have you… Andrew Heckman is the guy who was riding last year for the Mayors’ Ride from Chicago to Des Moines when he was struck by an inattentive motorist and is now physically handicapped. Crazy story; the woman apparently still claims to this day that she didn’t hit him even tho there are visible dents in her car. Pat is a guy who builds bikes; I’m not sure how he was involved with the ride.

We were all wondering where Rocky was. Across the block, across the street, were some people setting up a podium at the steps of city hall. Basically we just spent the time (about 25 min) meeting each other and checking out each others’ rides. Andrew Morton, the guy who did the ride from PDX to Eugene last year, showed up around then, too, and fun was had by all. It was at this time when Pat noticed the completely broken chain-stay on Don’s bike. Uh-oh. But we didn’t have time to do anything about it since Rocky and his sister showed up at City Hall and biked over. We then made a little train, led by the bike parking people, over to the steps where some 20 people were crowded around waiting to see what happened.

When we reached the steps, we met Cynthia and Eileen, two more workers for the city, and Eileen told us what was happening. When everyone was gathered, she made a speech, and read the proclamation, followed by speeches by Andrew H and Rocky. Andrew is an amazing guy and his speech was well put, IMHO, lauding Portland for being bike friendly and stressing the idea of a Willamette Valley bike path to bring tourists and money into Oregon. He also talked about his accident and how he can cope with it thru positive thinking. Rocky is also amazing–not complaining about 108 degrees because last year he had to endure 118. Bejeezus, if I were them, I’d milk it for all it’s worth. Dirt Bag, Rocky’s pet rubber lizard that he found on the side of the road, is well, too. More info about this event has been written by Andrew and there’s even some photos! Dat also took lots of photos!

So after the speeches and the clapping and all that, Kristine shows us the box lunches they had prepared for the cyclists. The day before she called me and asked if there should be food, saying something like, “I don’t know if you guys want food or if we should provide food for something like this. I mean, I don’t know if you are on some type of training regimen or diet or something…” To which I replied, “Well, *I’ll* eat at least! Actually, the ride we are doing is really easy, so any kind of food should be fine.” And the food was indeed fine. Very nice actually: Paradise Bakery and whatnot. Don, George, and I had planned on leaving right then and there and to take our food with us before we found out about Don’s bike. So instead, we ate on the lawn of city hall, while Cynthia made some phone calls. This woman has some bicycling clout! Or should I say “grease”? She got a hold of Bike Gallery and they offered to lend Don a bike for the weekend. After we finished eating we all said good-bye to both Andrews, Lisa, Rocky, and his sis, and we rode with Dat to the Bike Gallery located on the other side of the city (the one on Sandy Blvd–Too bad they couldn’t find a bike at their downtown location!). I guess due to Don’s height, they didn’t have many bikes that would fit, so he got stuck with some carbon fibre USPS racing team Trek. Such is our luck. 🙂

Well, i’m assuming that mark and gwu are somewhere between pdx and eugene now on their silly mountain bikes (although gwu is riding my bike)! I hope you guys make it home safe.

Ben, that’s cool that you saw some pro players up close… did you get to see kobe in that hotel room?! hah..i’m sorry, i think that whole situation is kinda sad. don’t they teach you about things like that in nba boot camp?

Some of the things i’m going to write about are kinda ‘out dated’ but i have photos..so at least look at them and ignore my lack of writing skills.

So this first pic here shows how much pain i was in on that last lap around mt. tabor. i think at this point i was sucking in air so hard i thought my lungs were going to explode! our first lap was at that blistering 23mph which thankfully slowed down to around 20mph. so much for ‘climbing’ up hills…the pace was so fast it didn’t matter. Anyway, i don’t think i’ll be racing any time soon, unless of course some one pays me to do it..hah. i did appreciate having ben, gwu and of course diana there cheering me on.

Moving right along, i have some selected pics from mark and robin’s reception. this first one on the left shows how gwu was so anxious to play ball, he was willing to steal one from a poor unsuspecting toddler. The next one is of the cake cutting. unfortunately i don’t have a good pic of mark shoving cake in robin’s face. i thought that both did a great job on the reception and i hope mark will post more pics soon.

You know, i didn’t realized writing and adding images on this blog can be difficult at times. the formatting is kinda screwed up at times.

So moving right along, the next big thing for me was STP or seattle to portland. my brother and i had talked about doing this sometime last fall. in fact, i had convinced him to spend lots of money to build a new bike.

to keep a long story short, about 4000 miles later, we were both ready to finally take on STP. after months and months of riding, we felt that the ride should go well. actually in retrospect, i probably didn’t need to train that hard but i guess it was a good thing.

on friday (july 11th), we had a friend drive us up to seattle in our rented chevy trailblazer. i actually think brandon’s durango was bigger. but we basically needed a vehicle to take up two bikes. my brother and i spent the night at a UofW dorm room which was about the size of a closet. we were lucking at reed…let me tell you that. after having our last real meal at denny’s (lots of carbs in those pancakes)…the 5hrs of sleep we got were great.

the next morning ,we managed to start with the first wave of one day riders at 4:45am and headed out through the suburbs of seattle. about 5hrs later, we were already in centralia…our 100mile mark. not bad, we rode and impressive 20mph ave! this is something that we probably wouldn’t have been able to do if we were riding alone but the fact that there were hundreds of riders to draft with..it made things a lot easier..but dangerous at the same time…20 man pacelines are not fun!

i think the pic on the right was taken at around mile 120. yes, we are still smiling because we weren’t aware that we were going to get some headwind back into portland and also some rain. ya, my parents also managed to score some team malaysia jerseys not available to the public back home…cool!

the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful except for the flat tire my brother had along the way and the second one he noticed 2 miles into portland that he refused to fix! he was riding rim all the way to the finish line baby!

the second half did take a little longer due to the headwinds but we were feeling really good at the end and in fact dropped the group that we were riding with. at the last rest stop about 30miles from pdx, a lady noticed my brother’s jersey and told us that she lived in malaysia in 1976. turned out that she went to the same school we did, where my parents work and she even remembered them. i called my dad on the cellphone and he was amazed that we had met up with her. he did remember her and it turns out that she’s debbie armstrong who was a gold medalist in the winter olympics in the mid 80s! truly a small world.

we finally cruised into the finish line around 7pm for a total time of 14hrs with 11hrs of actual saddle time. our average was a good 18.1mph. my brother was pleased since he was planning for 12hrs of ride time but i think i was convinced that we could have done it in 10hrs. we did spend way too much time at the rest stops because of the group we were riding with. but that’s okay because i think that’s one of the reasons why we were strong the last 30miles to pdx. (i think i’m trying to wipe mud off my face from the rain)

in retrospect, i didn’t think the ride was extremely difficult since it was pretty flat. the temperature was bearable but the headwinds did slow us down a bit. i don’t know if i’d do it again because i’m realizing that i would rather ride faster for shorter distances than to hammer for 11hrs. if anyone wants to do it…mark (since you’re going to be up there next year), it would be fun to maybe do it in two days and have a party at the midway point. but again, if i feel like i’m riding stronger next year, i’d want to ride it in one day and try and break my record. you’d also have to ditch your mt. bike and get a real bike, mark!

yes, finally some confirmation. the ride route was suppose to be 206miles though.

after riding in 40 degree weather during the winter, doing a 10wk(6 days a week) training program for my century in May, and later doing 100miles for saturday rides…it was finally over! or was it…