"The northeastern part of Oregon is riven by volcanic fissures that gushed lava in giant flows and formed coastal cliffs. This complex scenery has always drawn visitors. These days, coast-hugging towns like Astoria are rebooting by transforming their townscapes."
But wait, there's more!
"Oregon's coast has another compelling characteristic: It faces what may well be the longest uninterrupted stretch of open ocean in the world. Waves originating off Japan's islands eventually break along the coastal bluffs of Oregon--something I just had to see."
Waves from Japan? In Oregon? Fire up the Diesel pusher, honey, we're going to the beach!
The above, from the current National Geographic Traveler, may explain why I failed so utterly as a travel writer.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Outings
Since I got Big Swede two weeks ago, I’ve only used an ICE (internal combustion engine) a few times. Almost all of my commuting, errands, and recreation have been on the electric bike (or my conventional bike when Mary is riding the Swede). My biggest expense so far has been sunscreen. I estimate fuel savings to be about $50 a week. I’m also counting up the saved maintenance costs associated with frequent short trips in an ICE.
(A note: Pets and sometimes vehicles tend to get new nicknames rather frequently around here. Green Bike was too cute, and the Giant Suede name kind of morphed into Big Swede.)
Despite the big money savings, the best part of Big Swede is that it’s fun. Last Sunday, Mary and I rode the bike path from our house to the small store in Olene (Olene consisting entirely of the small store in Olene), exactly ten miles from home. We took a lunch and bought soft drinks at the store, then ate at a picnic table outside in a shady, grassy spot off the highway. It was a beautiful summer day and a great outing.
Big Swede gets twenty to almost forty miles on a charge, depending on terrain and how much time I spend on cruise, which propels me along at twelve miles per hour without any pedaling. Most car trips are ten miles or less, so I can do the equivalent of two or three car trips on a single charge, which costs about a dime.
I’ve also used the bike for all our shopping over the last two weeks. I bought two folding canvas saddle bags ($70) that just drop in place over the rack and can each hold a full paper shopping bag. When I bought a new coffee maker that came in a big box last week, I strapped it on the rack with bungee cords. Even with this 20-pound grocery load, the bike pulled up our steep hill with only minimal effort.
It’s also great for running errands: downtown to the photo shop, a stop at city hall to ask about some construction a neighbor is planning, maybe a break at the Daily Bagel for a coffee and the newspaper.
Almost everywhere I stop, people ask me about the bike. Most don’t notice that it’s electric; they just say, “nice bike.” And I say, “Thanks, it’s electric,” and then they get really interested and I try not to get too over-zealousy about it but usually I can’t help myself.
One guy, a fireman, took it all in for a moment then said, “Hey, you’re beating the system!” And I thought about it for a few seconds and said, “I am beating the system.”
(A note: Pets and sometimes vehicles tend to get new nicknames rather frequently around here. Green Bike was too cute, and the Giant Suede name kind of morphed into Big Swede.)
Despite the big money savings, the best part of Big Swede is that it’s fun. Last Sunday, Mary and I rode the bike path from our house to the small store in Olene (Olene consisting entirely of the small store in Olene), exactly ten miles from home. We took a lunch and bought soft drinks at the store, then ate at a picnic table outside in a shady, grassy spot off the highway. It was a beautiful summer day and a great outing.
Big Swede gets twenty to almost forty miles on a charge, depending on terrain and how much time I spend on cruise, which propels me along at twelve miles per hour without any pedaling. Most car trips are ten miles or less, so I can do the equivalent of two or three car trips on a single charge, which costs about a dime.
I’ve also used the bike for all our shopping over the last two weeks. I bought two folding canvas saddle bags ($70) that just drop in place over the rack and can each hold a full paper shopping bag. When I bought a new coffee maker that came in a big box last week, I strapped it on the rack with bungee cords. Even with this 20-pound grocery load, the bike pulled up our steep hill with only minimal effort.
It’s also great for running errands: downtown to the photo shop, a stop at city hall to ask about some construction a neighbor is planning, maybe a break at the Daily Bagel for a coffee and the newspaper.
Almost everywhere I stop, people ask me about the bike. Most don’t notice that it’s electric; they just say, “nice bike.” And I say, “Thanks, it’s electric,” and then they get really interested and I try not to get too over-zealousy about it but usually I can’t help myself.
One guy, a fireman, took it all in for a moment then said, “Hey, you’re beating the system!” And I thought about it for a few seconds and said, “I am beating the system.”
Links
I finally got around to setting up a few links in blogger, which is mostly text oriented. Milesbandit is my location name on Flikr, which is more photo oriented. You can go there to see more pictures from our Sunday ride on the Klamath bike path. I’ll be posting more from time to time about whatever.
Montlake blog belongs to my old friend Michael. He posts text and pictures from his world travels, plus interesting ruminations on his eclectic tastes.
Mike’s web log belongs to a tech writer at Microsoft. We’ve never met, but he posts interesting and amusing observations on tech writing, which I teach, though I’ve never actually tech written. (Yeah yeah yeah, “those who can. . . .” )
A nameless yeast is my friend Pat from jazz-l. He’s a fine photographer with a wry sense of humor.
Montlake blog belongs to my old friend Michael. He posts text and pictures from his world travels, plus interesting ruminations on his eclectic tastes.
Mike’s web log belongs to a tech writer at Microsoft. We’ve never met, but he posts interesting and amusing observations on tech writing, which I teach, though I’ve never actually tech written. (Yeah yeah yeah, “those who can. . . .” )
A nameless yeast is my friend Pat from jazz-l. He’s a fine photographer with a wry sense of humor.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Concluding Scenes from our Little Life (for the moment)
Since I've emailed friends and family and invited them to drop by the blog, I started uploading a few recent pictures in my earlier post today. Blogger seemed to decide I'd had enough, though, and wouldn't take any more photos in that post, so I'm adding a few more here.
(One thing I don't necessarily like about blogs is that they post most-recent messages first. I'm sure this is a reflection of modern culture--blah blah blog--where ten minutes old is a long time. We've moved on.
I'm still stuck in older notions of beginning, middle, and end. Imagine a novel written backwards. [I'm sure there must be one.]
But I won't go on about the end of culture because I've gained so much from technology. Our new computer and high-speed connection, for example, have opened up whole new avenues to music that weren't available to me here in my small town in the past. Check out Pandora, if you haven't already. And Napster, which is now legit, is a wonderful resource for finding and listening to music. There are lots of other sites).
But on with My Summer Vacation:
Mary and I took three weeks in our trailer and visited the Rockies in Montana and Wyoming. Our longest stop, and scenically most spectacular, was Grand Teton National Park. This was the view from our campground.
(One thing I don't necessarily like about blogs is that they post most-recent messages first. I'm sure this is a reflection of modern culture--blah blah blog--where ten minutes old is a long time. We've moved on.
I'm still stuck in older notions of beginning, middle, and end. Imagine a novel written backwards. [I'm sure there must be one.]
But I won't go on about the end of culture because I've gained so much from technology. Our new computer and high-speed connection, for example, have opened up whole new avenues to music that weren't available to me here in my small town in the past. Check out Pandora, if you haven't already. And Napster, which is now legit, is a wonderful resource for finding and listening to music. There are lots of other sites).
But on with My Summer Vacation:
Mary and I took three weeks in our trailer and visited the Rockies in Montana and Wyoming. Our longest stop, and scenically most spectacular, was Grand Teton National Park. This was the view from our campground.
Actually, when I took this photo, some dope a few hundred yards away was running a radio-controlled speedboat up and down the shore. If I'd had a good sniper rifle, I would have shot it out of the water. This, actually, could be a fun game and I'm surprised it hasn't caught on.
Overall, though, I was impressed with how the Park Service manages such large numbers of visitors and still preserves a magnificent experience of wildness for those who want it. It would be nice to go back in the fall some year when there are far fewer people, but until we're both retired from teaching, we'll have to settle for the on-season. (Yes, I retired three years ago but am now back part-time at the community college in town. Couldn't stay away from it. I think everybody should work part time until they don't want to work anymore. These days, though, the trend seems to be going the opposite direction)
After almost a month on the road, it was good to get back home.
I liked it so much I stayed for three whole days, then took off on a ten-day motorcycle trip to Monterey for the World Moto GP races. Now, though, I really am glad to be home and not planning any more travel until at least next month. In the meantime, I'm getting ready for classes and looking forward to school again.
More below, and hope you'll drop by from time to time. I'm working on a piece about the end of life as we know it but need to stop now and go shopping for dinner.
Ross
Scenes From Our Little Life
I've invited friends and family to stop by the blog, so I thought I'd share a few photos and comments. In general, life is wonderful and not much changed. We've had an amazing summer of vacation and play. Now we're settling into the rhythms of fall, which means getting ready to go back to work. Mary starts next week and I still have a month left. Both are excited to be going back and a little sad that summer break is coming to an end.
Here are a few pictures from the last few months. Mary is still quite shy and introverted, lacking enthusiasm for life:
Here are a few pictures from the last few months. Mary is still quite shy and introverted, lacking enthusiasm for life:
I'm still an easy-going guy, though I do occasioanally wonder about the meaning of life.
Dogs have always been an important part of our life. Bandit and Nick are our Jack Russell Terriers. Most of their time is spent taking life easy and enjoying each other's company.
They are such loving companions and never give us any trouble.
And don't forget our dear friend Woody. Despite his serious demeanor, Woodrow can be playful and mischievious.
At this point, Blogger doesn't seem to want me to upload any more pictues. I assume I'll be able to correct this shortly, but for now I'll sign off. I hope to hear from friends and family from time to time. Drop me an email or a link to your own blog.
Cheers,
ross
Monday, August 21, 2006
Portland Jazz Festival
Read a preview in this morning’s Oregonian of the Portland Jazz Festival coming in February. Wow! I can’t believe the lineup: Among others, Chick Corea and Gary Burton, Charles Lloyd with Geri Allen, Don Byron, Dave Douglas Quintet, Branford, Roy Hargrove, Kurt Elling, Jacky Terrasson, and several names I’ve heard but don’t know. I think I’ve heard Polish trumpet player Tomasz Stanko but can’t place him.
Any two of these would be more live music than I usually hear in a year, and it’s all happening over nine days.
The festival is loosely a tribute to ECM, and founder Manfred Eicher will be participating in afternoon discussions and presentations, which will also feature videos of Keith Jarrett, among others. The festival is going out on a limb, booking concert halls that exceed any previous ticket sales.
It’s my job to support them. (Whee!) My first thought was I’m going to make the whole thing. I have friends who have a condo on the MAX line, which runs straight downtown in about twenty minutes. I just won’t teach this winter and will get tickets to everything. I’m not getting any younger.
Then I thought maybe I could arrange a three- or four-day weekend and get to see a large portion of the offerings. I’m not sure I could handle nine straight days of this level of music. My head might explode.
Anybody interested in being in Portland Feb 16-25? Info at www.pdxjazz.com
ross
Any two of these would be more live music than I usually hear in a year, and it’s all happening over nine days.
The festival is loosely a tribute to ECM, and founder Manfred Eicher will be participating in afternoon discussions and presentations, which will also feature videos of Keith Jarrett, among others. The festival is going out on a limb, booking concert halls that exceed any previous ticket sales.
It’s my job to support them. (Whee!) My first thought was I’m going to make the whole thing. I have friends who have a condo on the MAX line, which runs straight downtown in about twenty minutes. I just won’t teach this winter and will get tickets to everything. I’m not getting any younger.
Then I thought maybe I could arrange a three- or four-day weekend and get to see a large portion of the offerings. I’m not sure I could handle nine straight days of this level of music. My head might explode.
Anybody interested in being in Portland Feb 16-25? Info at www.pdxjazz.com
ross
Sunday, August 20, 2006
How does it work?
The Giant Suede e is powered by an electric motor in the front hub. When you pedal, the bike’s torque sensor matches your output to the rear wheel with a double-shot of juice to the front wheel. Other than an initial sense of undeserved acceleration when you push off, it feels entirely like a regular bike except your legs hurt less. In essence, then, Green Bike does two-thirds of the work and you do one-third, which seems fair to me.
That’s mode one. Mode two is cruise control. For cruise control, twist the right grip just like on a motorcycle. You have to already be moving so you don’t accidentally drive into the bottle-recycle machine they put next to the bike rack at the supermarket. Give the pedal a good push, then twist the grip, and the bike accelerates up to about twelve miles per hour on level ground, give or take some head- or tailwind. I’ve checked this with my GPS.
Mode two is my favorite because it seems to confuse people. When I’m “coasting” uphill or silently accelerating without pedaling, I notice people realizing that something doesn’t add up here. If people actually scratched their head in confusion, I think I’d be seeing some people scratching their heads.
There is also mode three, which the manual has a name for, but I lost the manual already. I have another one ordered. I call mode three “turbo boost.” Again, twist the grip, but this time, continue pedaling. Green Bike can sense that your legs are about to explode and gives you a little more juice. Suddenly, you’re accelerating up steeper hills as if the Oregon Vortex were sucking you forward. If you don’t try to hurry, it takes very little effort to climb moderate hills, say up to about six percent. For more exercise, try to hurry a little.
Turbo boost is definitely how I get home up my four-block-long hill, with grades up to ten percent. I’m practicing doing hard parts of my ride totally without measurable effort because I want to be able to keep riding when I’m officially a senior citizen. (I’m still a junior citizen).
Mode four, not covered in the manual, is your battery’s dead because you’ve been using too much mode two and three. Fortunately, Green Bike is at heart still just a bike. You can ride it on home just like the Beaver did after he finished his paper route, but remember: Green Bike is a leviathan of bicycles. It weighs over fifty pounds. Even without the motor, it’s considered a cruiser, which is a bicycle built for old people to ride from their retirement cottage down to the clubhouse without the aid of an LPN. This is why most retirement communities have no hills.
Despite the ease, Green Bike asks something in return, and you will get some exercise on it. I think I might even be getting in shape. I’ve been riding ten or fifteen miles a day since I got it on Tuesday, and my legs are already slightly less rubbery when I get home. Think Gumby after a couple of shooters.
But you have to start from where you are, not from where you’d like to be. Without Green Bike, I wouldn’t be starting at all.
The Giant Suede e is powered by an electric motor in the front hub. When you pedal, the bike’s torque sensor matches your output to the rear wheel with a double-shot of juice to the front wheel. Other than an initial sense of undeserved acceleration when you push off, it feels entirely like a regular bike except your legs hurt less. In essence, then, Green Bike does two-thirds of the work and you do one-third, which seems fair to me.
That’s mode one. Mode two is cruise control. For cruise control, twist the right grip just like on a motorcycle. You have to already be moving so you don’t accidentally drive into the bottle-recycle machine they put next to the bike rack at the supermarket. Give the pedal a good push, then twist the grip, and the bike accelerates up to about twelve miles per hour on level ground, give or take some head- or tailwind. I’ve checked this with my GPS.
Mode two is my favorite because it seems to confuse people. When I’m “coasting” uphill or silently accelerating without pedaling, I notice people realizing that something doesn’t add up here. If people actually scratched their head in confusion, I think I’d be seeing some people scratching their heads.
There is also mode three, which the manual has a name for, but I lost the manual already. I have another one ordered. I call mode three “turbo boost.” Again, twist the grip, but this time, continue pedaling. Green Bike can sense that your legs are about to explode and gives you a little more juice. Suddenly, you’re accelerating up steeper hills as if the Oregon Vortex were sucking you forward. If you don’t try to hurry, it takes very little effort to climb moderate hills, say up to about six percent. For more exercise, try to hurry a little.
Turbo boost is definitely how I get home up my four-block-long hill, with grades up to ten percent. I’m practicing doing hard parts of my ride totally without measurable effort because I want to be able to keep riding when I’m officially a senior citizen. (I’m still a junior citizen).
Mode four, not covered in the manual, is your battery’s dead because you’ve been using too much mode two and three. Fortunately, Green Bike is at heart still just a bike. You can ride it on home just like the Beaver did after he finished his paper route, but remember: Green Bike is a leviathan of bicycles. It weighs over fifty pounds. Even without the motor, it’s considered a cruiser, which is a bicycle built for old people to ride from their retirement cottage down to the clubhouse without the aid of an LPN. This is why most retirement communities have no hills.
Despite the ease, Green Bike asks something in return, and you will get some exercise on it. I think I might even be getting in shape. I’ve been riding ten or fifteen miles a day since I got it on Tuesday, and my legs are already slightly less rubbery when I get home. Think Gumby after a couple of shooters.
But you have to start from where you are, not from where you’d like to be. Without Green Bike, I wouldn’t be starting at all.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Green Bike is here!
Green Bike is a Giant (brand name) Suede (model name) electric-assist bicycle. I call it Green Bike because it’s green (in color) and its environmental credentials are second only to those of conventional bikes. The electric motor provides about two-thirds of the juice and recharges for a few cents. I provide the rest of the juice and recharge for a buck or two, unless I’m feeling like steak or lobster. (But have you ever seen a lobster riding a bike?)
Over the coming weeks or months, I’m going to be posting now and then on my daily experience using an ebike for commuting, errands and recreation. For now, I’ll just say that the photo above is a brief history of my personal transportation over the last six months. The Diesel truck was purchased almost entirely to pull my wife’s horse trailer and our small travel trailer. It gets about ten miles per gallon around town, and I used it more than I wanted to get to my part-time job teaching a couple of classes at Klamath Community College, to go shopping, and to run errands.
When gas prices spiked late last winter, I started riding my motorcycle, a Honda VFR 800. It’s fun to ride the bike, and I admit I felt a little show-off pride when students would admire my zippy sport bike. Still, the Honda gets only about 30 mph around town, and I didn’t like riding it short distances and using the clutch so much for stop and go driving. I’ve always ridden motorcycles for recreation, not transportation.
So I was looking around for options. I thought seriously about a scooter but rejected those because they cost more than I wanted to spend. I also think they’re unsafe because they’re not fast enough to keep up even in city traffic.
As often happens these days, snooping around on the web led me to what I wanted. I’m feeling a lot like PeeWee and looking forward to my Big Adventure. At the moment, I think I might be the luckiest kid in the world. A month or two into winter, though, we'll see what happens when Green Bike tries to make it in Real World.
Stick around for more about how an ebike works and how things go. Right now, I’ve got some errands to run.
Monday, August 14, 2006
18,000 ride the bridges
Today's Oregonian reported that 18,000 bicyclists participated in the 11th annual Providence Bridge Pedal. The event opens many city bridges which are normally automobile-only for a bicycle-only day.
I was thrilled to see that the lead photo in the story featured an electric-hybrid bike. Mine's on the way and should be here this week. Can't wait!
Yesterday, my wife and I went for a beautiful ride on our conventional bikes, but we drove them down to the bike path in the back of our truck. Too many steep hills for our tired old bones to start out from our house. The hybrid will allow us to start from home and pull the long, steep hill back to the house with relative ease.
More to come.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
No, I don't ride a Harley
There are a lot of ways to die.
Motorcycle fatalities in Oregon, for example, were up 29 percent from 2004 to 2005. In Washington, fatalities were up 89 percent. The actual numbers are still relatively low. Oregon deaths rose from 37 to 48.
Still, is this a trend that should concern motorcyclists?
Not really. Every death, of course, is a tragedy for the family, but riding motorcycles for those of us who have ridden for many years is neither more nor less dangerous now than it’s always been. Accidents, fatal or otherwise, are always out there.
An article in this morning’s Oregonian tells of the death of Russ Mosier, an experienced rider and motorcycle safety instructor. Mosier made a mistake. He was following a car that slowed for no visible reason. He chose to pass, and when the car made an unexpected left turn, they collided and he went down.
If Mosier were here to teach another class, he’d say that when the car slowed, he should have hung back until he figured out why. But all of us make mistakes like that. When the juice is up and the ride is right, it’s exhilaration and not good judgment that twists the throttle grip.
The death of an experienced rider, though, is atypical. So who’s getting killed out there? Virgin Harley riders. These guys (still mostly guys) are making every mistake in the book, starting out by riding Harleys, which are heavy, handle poorly, and have bad brakes. But, of course, if it weren’t for Harleys, they wouldn’t be out there to begin with since for most of them, it’s not much about riding at all but about being seen riding. Even more, it’s about feeling cool. When you’re a 55-year-old dentist and your life is leaking away, a new Harley might feel like just the plug in the dike you’ve been looking for.
The Harley, of course, isn’t enough. You have to have the costume, which might be a set of fringy new leathers or just jeans and a tee-shirt.
But the most important thing, even before you take delivery, you have to get rid of the stock muffler and put a Screaming Eagle pipe on it. A Screaming Eagle is just loud enough to be illegal and annoy the neighbors. If you really have no sense of who you are and where you fit in the universe, you’ll go with straight pipes. “Rolling thunder!” Rolling Thunder annoys the whole neighborhood and is probably bearable only by riders who are already partially deaf. In fact, these riders are screaming “PERSONALITY DISORDER!” to as much of the world as they can piss off per mile, and a full-on straight pipe can piss off a lot of citizens in a single mile.
Everybody I ride with hates Harleys. What we really hate about them is that non-riders think we’re all just like them. When I mention to somebody that I ride motorcycles, the two most common responses are “Aren’t they so dangerous?” and, “Do you ride a Harley?”
No, I don’t ride a Harley!
The question isn’t about what kind of motorcycle I ride. It’s about how desperately I need an off-the-shelf identity. I don’t want to tell them that Harleys are stupid bikes, I want to tell them that I’m a little further along the path of personal evolution than that. (Okay, not much, but still.)
In the meantime, this beautiful Sunday morning, thousands of new Harley riders are looking in the mirror at themselves in their fringy new leathers, tying on their do-rags, and firing up their Hogs. Tonight, a few of them will be dead.
Motorcycle fatalities in Oregon, for example, were up 29 percent from 2004 to 2005. In Washington, fatalities were up 89 percent. The actual numbers are still relatively low. Oregon deaths rose from 37 to 48.
Still, is this a trend that should concern motorcyclists?
Not really. Every death, of course, is a tragedy for the family, but riding motorcycles for those of us who have ridden for many years is neither more nor less dangerous now than it’s always been. Accidents, fatal or otherwise, are always out there.
An article in this morning’s Oregonian tells of the death of Russ Mosier, an experienced rider and motorcycle safety instructor. Mosier made a mistake. He was following a car that slowed for no visible reason. He chose to pass, and when the car made an unexpected left turn, they collided and he went down.
If Mosier were here to teach another class, he’d say that when the car slowed, he should have hung back until he figured out why. But all of us make mistakes like that. When the juice is up and the ride is right, it’s exhilaration and not good judgment that twists the throttle grip.
The death of an experienced rider, though, is atypical. So who’s getting killed out there? Virgin Harley riders. These guys (still mostly guys) are making every mistake in the book, starting out by riding Harleys, which are heavy, handle poorly, and have bad brakes. But, of course, if it weren’t for Harleys, they wouldn’t be out there to begin with since for most of them, it’s not much about riding at all but about being seen riding. Even more, it’s about feeling cool. When you’re a 55-year-old dentist and your life is leaking away, a new Harley might feel like just the plug in the dike you’ve been looking for.
The Harley, of course, isn’t enough. You have to have the costume, which might be a set of fringy new leathers or just jeans and a tee-shirt.
But the most important thing, even before you take delivery, you have to get rid of the stock muffler and put a Screaming Eagle pipe on it. A Screaming Eagle is just loud enough to be illegal and annoy the neighbors. If you really have no sense of who you are and where you fit in the universe, you’ll go with straight pipes. “Rolling thunder!” Rolling Thunder annoys the whole neighborhood and is probably bearable only by riders who are already partially deaf. In fact, these riders are screaming “PERSONALITY DISORDER!” to as much of the world as they can piss off per mile, and a full-on straight pipe can piss off a lot of citizens in a single mile.
Everybody I ride with hates Harleys. What we really hate about them is that non-riders think we’re all just like them. When I mention to somebody that I ride motorcycles, the two most common responses are “Aren’t they so dangerous?” and, “Do you ride a Harley?”
No, I don’t ride a Harley!
The question isn’t about what kind of motorcycle I ride. It’s about how desperately I need an off-the-shelf identity. I don’t want to tell them that Harleys are stupid bikes, I want to tell them that I’m a little further along the path of personal evolution than that. (Okay, not much, but still.)
In the meantime, this beautiful Sunday morning, thousands of new Harley riders are looking in the mirror at themselves in their fringy new leathers, tying on their do-rags, and firing up their Hogs. Tonight, a few of them will be dead.
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