"In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.
On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, but so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness."
--from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
In today's diary I'm doing the final preparations, to take Rucio the Recumbent on a 1,000-1,500 mile experiment in 2 weeks.
Let's look at the map......
"Bicycling is a healthy and manly pursuit with much to recommend it, and, unlike other foolish crazes, it has not died out." -- The Daily Telegraph(1877)
When I started this series, a Kind Kossack changed my tags to include "teaching", but thanks to folks like Stranded Wind and his hammock suggestion, there is a "learning" going on simultaneously.
This is in direct contradiction to intratubz programmers, who want one to constantly re-learn the procedures. For instance, I wish GoogleMaps and MapQuest would QUIT tinkering with the technology, neither will let me "print the map" to a file folder, and Google caused my computer to lock down twice making the attempt.
Once I hit the road, it is LOW tech !! No watch, no compass or cell phone, I'll be GPS and twitter free. (Of course, I'll always be twitter free, hate those small buttons).
WANTED-POINTS OF INTEREST (and Black Bear alerts)
Maps are really irrelevant once I hit the road, but they give a general route. Funny that, this first leg calculated 457 miles by car, but when you click on the "walking" feature, showed 422 miles.
What is the name of that German-Alpine village in northern Georgia? Or is it just a tourist trap?
EDIT: TAKING OUT THE DURN MAP, THAT MAY BE THE THING KEEPING THIS FROM PUBLISHING ! (&)&@#$
DOUBLE EDIT: here is the link to the map, what am I doing wrong?
http://maps.google.com/...
Some towns in Georgia I'll be touching look to be Rome, Canton, and Clarksville. In South Carolina I'll try to get a little further north of Greenville and Spartanburg, this route has Westminster, Seneca, Clemson and Greer as mileposts. The North Carolina part of the route (Shelby, Cherryville, Lincolnton, Mooresville) seems fine.
I like to aim for scenic or historic locations each day, but my knowledge of anything off Interstate 85 is limited. I know Abbeville is a blooming place this time of year, and Belmont Abbey is in reach.
If you can recommend sites NORTH of my blue line, please tell me...rural lanes are highly sought !
The return leg will most likely be in a general loop via Greenwood, SC, possibly Augusta or Athens, GA, then cutting 60 miles south of Atlanta, so suggestions there are also invited. (Conyers Abbey might be another place to use my Benedictine references for a free lunch, but that is a little too close to the high traffic area).
WHAT MAKES THIS EXPERIMENTALLY CRAFTY
On the 2006 trips to Florida, Denver, climbing Mt. Cheaha, and joining the Kossacks at the anti-Iraq war demonstration in Mobile back in 2007, all used the smallest 25cc 2-cycle engine on a cruiser style bike. That beautifully running Zenoah Red Max engine has been discontinued, (though I still own two).
Rocinante, the red cruiser, could cover 250 or more wide open miles per day with the 2 cycles. I'm thinking Rucio, the blue recumbent, equipped with a 4 stoke Robin/Subaru, may be able to do 225 per day comfortably, but run a lot quieter and cleaner.
Nobody has tried it yet. I've been inquiring on both MB forums, and can't find any looooooong distance tests on a 4 stroke. Plus, the other cross country MB riders, like Uncle Punk in Washington and LocoWelder in California, used a variation of the heavy cruiser style bike or trike.
Outfitting Rucio has been an square peg in round hole type enterprise. The seat back precludes wearing a backpack, and that handy red Marlboro travel bag is too bulky.
Yesterday I sprayed a can of silicone on my new pup tent, which tucks in nicely above the saddlebags. My bikeshop, Werner's, is pretty much "all things outdoors". They sell the hammock Stranded Wind uses, made of parachute material which fits in a really small bag. That may be a real space and labor saver.
In my earliest tours, I carried along those cheapest and lightest $2 air mattresses, which lasted maybe 2 nights before springing a leak. I broke down and got a decent one for a bluegrass festival campout, but half the hassle is finding a place to store it on Rucio.
Saturday I took a small basket off a Schwinn on the carport, and rigged it up to the front, under the windshield. The mighty air mattress finally has it's niche.
I also fashioned some black shelving, to fit onto the handlebars. It seems to be a handy place to stash my basketball warm-ups and fleece hoodie, as the temperature rises through the day.
Now I can concentrate on some final pieces to the puzzle, getting enough storage to replace the backpack and Marlboro bag. I'm leaning toward two coffee cans tied under the seat, and another painted can just barely fits up in front of the pedals.
Playing around with the coffee cans yesterday, I realized 2 more could be dangled behind the seat. When you store clothes in zip-lock bags, squish out the air, you would be amazed how many spare socks you could carry !
WHAT'S THAT LINE FROM "WALTZING MATILDA"?
As I was dangling the cans on the seat back, the words "tucker bag" arose in my brain. All day long, that tune kept popping to mind as I rig up the "kit and kaboodle".
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled
"You'll come a-Waltzing Matilda, with me"
So things are firming up, my Grateful Greensboro Easter Dead ticket sits in my friends billfold, and another ticket for the Charlottesville show is supposedly reserved. That would be the excuse for turning this into a 1,500 mile test ride, but climbing over Galax might be more than the doctor ordered.
Besides, when I go up to Virginia, possibly next October, I'd like to spend some time on that stretch of Bluegrass venues along it's southern border, and there doesn't seem to be enough days in April to fit everything in it.
Dawn approaches, chores await.
HEY, have a GREAT TUESDAY !!