Category Archives: bicycling

Trip Update III: Cape Breton Island to the Atlantic (2014)

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Cape Breton mapThe next morning, I cleared my email, while Cheryl studied the instructions for her SLR camera. The cable from the power supply for my computer had been fraying at the hard, sharp plastic nipple where it entered the power supply, and I was unable to reconnect the wires when it finally broke. I packed up my tablet after it ran down. Cheryl did not have cell coverage, so I resigned myself to being without a computer until we returned to civilization and found a Wifi spot, where I could order a new charger. Continue reading →

Trip Update II: into the Maritimes (2014)

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New Brunswick was so different from Québec that I almost went into culture shock the first night. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant, and I had to keep cutting myself off to keep from speaking French.  Continue reading →

Trip update I: Québec and the Gaspé Peninsula (2014)

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It has been a month since my last post, and more than six weeks since the charger on my computer failed. A lot has happened in that time, enough to fill a good-sized book, which someday it may.

MaritimesOver the next four weeks, I will bring you up-to-date on what has happened since Montréal, and draw lessons from the 10 weeks I spent accompanying Cheryl Sinclaire on a bicycle tour through Eastern Canada. I am still living and working on my bicycle, but much has changed about the way I travel. I am also traveling lighter than I ever expected possible.  Continue reading →

Haute-couture for the freewheeling freelancer

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Trip update. This week tested a very important aspect of living on the road: leaving my bicycle to take a short-term assignment at a distant location, then returning to my bicycle. I have written about this in past blogs in the context of an interpreting assignment, but this opportunity was different. JPD systems of Fredericksburg Virginia, hired me to facilitate an all-day seminar on revision. Revision is often called editing or proofreading, but in the translation industry, it is a special service performed by a second translator, namely, reviewing the translation for errors. Obviously, the reviser needs to be bilingual, and as competent in the subject matter as the translator. Thus, high-quality human translations actually require two professional translators, in addition to the other professionals on the project team. Continue reading →

Ferries: why aren’t there more of them?

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Trip update. Last Sunday, I rode out to St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Old Lyme to sing with the choir for the last time. We celebrated my brother William’s birthday that day with steak and cake. 2014-06-23 detailed bikeMonday, I rode to Niantic, where Shawn at Niantic Bay Bicycles detailed my bicycle, and cleaned the chain. It looked like new!

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Backups: cloudy and cloudless.

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Trip update: I am still in Old Lyme, Connecticut, visiting some cousins whom I have not seen in years, my aunt whom I have missed seeing for what seems like forever, and training in the hills by riding metric half-centuries, so that the riding will be more manageable when I resume the Northern Trek 2014. I have also been translating, writing and revising. I have even been fielding a request to present a class in July, which would test my responsiveness on the road.

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My work on the road.

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This blog is about living and working on the road. So far, I have spent a lot of time describing roads past and present, and more than a little bit describing my life on the road. However, I have said very little about my work on the road. The “About” web page of this blog notes that I am a “freelance writer, translator, reviser, and editor.” It is the translator that pays for this crazy lifestyle that I have chosen. This week, I would like to explain a little about what that means and try to describe what the work looks and feels like. As my family used to complain, it looks like I am just “sitting at the computer all day,” so I need to invite you inside my mind. Enter at your own risk! Continue reading →

Sea story: East meets West in Karachi (1982)

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Dust. Great clouds of dust. It rises above the clumps of traffic like a column, to be blown sideways after it clears the walls of the homes lining the avenue that leads away from the Port. Then it falls into my face, my clothes, and my hair.

Sun. Blinding sunshine. Not as hot as the desert to which I was accustomed, but too bright not to wear sunglasses. Continue reading →

What to leave and what to take: testing a new paradigm.

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Trip update. The Northern Trek 2014 started on Monday with a 110-km ride to Richmond. 2014-05-12 departingI enjoyed the hospitality of Couchsurfing host Jessica on Monday and Tuesday nights, allowing me to recover from my first century ride in more than two months. Wednesday, I rode to Williamsburg (85 km), and Thursday to Norfolk (42 km), where I stayed with my niece Clara and her husband Ben for two nights. Today, I am attending a mini-reunion of friends from the US Naval Academy Class of 1969, and enjoying the hospitality of Dennis and Emily until I catch the shuttle over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel next week. Continue reading →

Looking ahead: the Northern Trek 2014

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This week, instead of a sea story, I lay out the Northern Trek 2014 in broad strokes. If I will be passing through your neighborhood, I invite you to contact me off-line (freewheeling@scriptorservices.com).  Continue reading →