Category Archives: bicycling

Money talks: can I afford this?

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2014-01-12 Home in Tampa

Home in Tampa: cozy, convenient, clean and affordable.

Trip update: Saturday night I pulled into a cheap motel in Land o Lakes, exhausted from pushing against a stiff headwind all day. The first place to stay was so far down US 41, that I only had 30 km to my hotel in Tampa the next day. I am staying at the Suburban Extended Stay Hotel Airport in Tampa all week, enjoying a cozy little efficiency that has everything I need and nothing that I don’t.

The bounce box arrived in good condition (to my surprise), so I can reuse it. I will replace it with two smaller boxes at the next mail stop.

This week marks the end of the planned part of the Southern Swing 2013. I have spent the week assessing the first four months of the trip, and laying out the next three months in broad strokes.

I have not finished closing out the financial year for my company, but I analyzed the cash flow in the last quarter. That includes the three months that I spent bicycling from Keller, Texas, to Gainesville, Florida. The data should be adequate to determine if I am making enough to keep this up indefinitely.

The short answer is yes. Continue reading →

Office support on the road

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Trip update: Last weekend, I rode from Gainesville to Ocala, Florida, through the vast horse country in Marion County. Marion is one of the largest counties in Florida and has more horses than any other county in the USA. What I found surprising was that the oldest horse farm in Marion is only 50 years old, so the equine industry made a massive impact on Central Florida in a very short time. We are talking racehorses here, and the animals staring proudly at me across the fences were some of the most beautiful horses I have ever seen.

I spent four days with my high school classmate Tom and his wife Marcia. It has been a special pleasure of this trip to connect with people whom I have not seen for decades. I felt so very much at home, that I hated to leave on Wednesday, to continue my trip. I stayed with George and Susan in Inverness, thanks to the Warm Showers organization (www.warmshowers.org). They rode the Withlacoochie Trail with me, and showed me where to shop, eat and even get my bike fixed. They ride Cat-trikes, which are high-end recumbents made of aluminum. Very cool and very lightweight (www.catrike.com).

Susan and George head out on their Cat-trikes.

Susan and George head out on their Cat-trikes.

Now I am on my way to connect with the bounce box that I mailed from Gainesville. I am also looking forward to a mail shipment at the next stop, which brings me to the subject of this week’s article.

Continue reading →

Maintenance: the wrench on the road.

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Busted bounce box

Even with reinforcement, this box did not survive a short ride from Pensacola.

Trip update: Perry, Florida was not only the end of the Forgotten Coast and the Big Bend, it marked the end of two weeks of rainy headwinds. On Saturday, I rode half-way to Cross City on a broad reach from the northeast, before a German analyst named Ute stopped her van to give me a lift to my motel. The good fortune continued with tailwinds on the Nature Coast Trail and State Road 26 to Gainesville. I have been working here all week, collecting my mail, repacking my things, and researching alternatives to the cardboard bounce box. So far, no box has lasted more than one trip. I am just lucky not to have lost anything through the holes and splits in the boxes. I am investigating alternatives to the single-wall, cardboard box that is the UPS and Postal Service standard. Continue reading →

No card, no service: insurance on the road

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Trip update: Staying with Rich and Mary in Southport allowed my blister to heal nicely. Sunday, we went to lunch in Panama City, getting there in Rich’s Grand Banks Trawler, Calypso.

Rich and his Trawler Yacht, Calypso.

Rich and his Trawler Yacht, Calypso.

On Monday, I let them give me another day off the bike by taking me to my next stop, Port St. Joe. It was one of Mary’s favorite shopping destinations, so we made it an outing.

Continue reading →

That hurt! Dealing with sickness and injury

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Trip update: The Southern Swing 2013 is swinging again. Last Saturday, I rode my loaded bicycle through the freezing rain to the bus station in Charlottesville, Virginia, and boarded a Greyhound bus for Pensacola, Florida. Pensacola is a pleasant city at the extreme western edge of Florida. To my surprise, it was colder there than it had been in Charlottesville, so I was glad that I had my winter bicycle kit on. It felt good to curl into a warm bed at the home of one of my shipmates from my Navy days. Continue reading →

What I left behind

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Trip update. Well, I didn’t really get down to a bicycle and a bounce box. Last Monday in a chilling rain, I shipped two boxes UPS to Charlottesville, Virginia. Actually, one of them would not have been there, had I shipped the ATA Conference stuff from San Antonio, but it made sense to send it to Houston, where I was not paying for a hotel, then take my time trying to organize the boxes.

Monday night, I boarded a bus for Charlottesville, Virginia. This represents something of an interruption in the Southern Swing, but it makes sense: Continue reading →

Resting: it’s as important as riding.

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Trip update: I am writing to you from Houston Texas, where I arrived yesterday after riding from San Antonio.To my surprise, only the Priority Mail box had arrived; the UPS boxes were still in the hotel in San Antonio. That is how I learned that UPS does not pick up just because the brown truck stops by every day. Unlike the Postal Service, if one cannot take the box to a UPS location, there is a small pickup charge. I learned quickly how to schedule a pickup, and the hotel staff is ready to turn over my bounce boxes on Monday. Fortunately, I have some street clothing on the bike for a meeting on Monday evening, and I can keep washing my bicycle kits while I wait for the UPS boxes to arrive.  Continue reading →

The Repair Kit

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Trip update: I spent last weekend and Monday riding down the Old Chisolm Trail from Georgetown, Texas, to San Antonio. The famous site of the pre-railroad cattle drives snakes north-south along the Balcones Fault, where sharp hills look out over the plains to East Texas. Springs in the Fault and centuries of flash floods have cut rivers and arroyos across the path of the Trail. You can see them running below the bridges of Interstate Highway 35 and the railroad to Mexico.

In Austin, I relearned the lesson that roaming with a cellphone puts a serious drain on the battery. I had not been in airplane mode as much as I thought, but with the help of the technicians at Best Buy and Battery Giant, I determined that my phone was not dying yet. I bought a spare battery. It is in a waterproof bag with 50% charge, the best for long-term storage. The next day, I was more attentive about staying in airplane mode except to check messages every hour. The battery lasted just fine.

When I rolled into Austin, I could immediately appreciate why the League of American Bicyclists designated the city as a Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community. It was more than the infrastructure (lanes, signs, etc.). There was an attitude in the traffic. With so many bicycles and pedicabs, the drivers just seemed to flow naturally with the non-motorized road users. Police in pairs on bicycles did not hurt, and reportedly, they are even-handed about ticketing bicyclists as well as motorists.

From loose cleats and clickety pedals to flat tires, I have already had to reach into my repair kit several times each week. Let’s see what’s in there. Continue reading →

The Bounce Box. Options and alternatives.

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Trip update: I spent this week in Georgetown, Texas, still with my cousins. I am happy to report that I was able to complete and deliver the book translation in time to be able to run errands and prepare to leave. This morning, I hit the road again, riding to San Antonio for the ATA Conference (http://www.atanet.org/conf/2013/).

2013-10-28 15.04.38

Working on a book translation in Georgetown, Texas.

This week I would like to discuss bounce boxes. The bounce box is a sturdy box that can be relabeled and reused.

Let me first say that I am indebted to my friend Heather Warren for introducing me to the Bounce Box. Heather has hiked the Appalachian Trail (http://www.appalachiantrail.org/), which I consider a remarkable feat. The “AT” hikers make extensive use of the bounce box, because backpackers can only haul about five to ten days of stuff, and the AT takes much longer than that. They mail ahead the rest of their supplies to “General Delivery” at the next Post Office along the Trail, where they will restock and reorganize.  Continue reading →

Getting ready for the Southern Swing 2013

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Now that I am on the road and actually doing this, let’s discuss what I did to get ready.

But first a trip update: This week I have been visiting my cousins in Georgetown, Texas. I am using the desk that my cousin uses when she is not commuting to her office in Round Rock. I have been working on a book that turned out to have 40% more material to translate than the publisher contracted for. Without the riding every day, I can put in extra hours and catch up, so that by next week when I leave, the book will be delivered. Had I been on the road, I would have been forced to stop for a while to put in these hours. My budget includes staying in a hotel room when this sort of crisis happens, but being able to fix a meal in the kitchen and do my laundry in a washing machine while I am working is much better.

As for getting ready for the Southern Swing, I had two major areas of preparation:

  1. Preparing myself and the bicycle.
  2. Organizing the office and its support systems. Continue reading →