Five hours before sunset, Intercity 13032 pulled into the station at Caen. The dark clouds made it feel like dusk as I made my way north on the bike route to the coast. I had picked a hotel a few kilometres out of town, so that I could get well along the coast the next day. It was Wednesday, the 26th of July, 2017. Continue reading
Saturday, the 14th of August greeted us with a sunny sky and pleasant temperatures. After the rain of the past two weeks, it felt like paradise. T
he engineering that went into the locks of the Erie Canal amazed me. In Lockport, for example, the Flight of Five Locks carried the water over the Niagara Escarpment, a drop of sixty feet in about two city blocks. Originally built in 1824, the locks have been restored and now carry traffic up and down the cliffs that, not far away, run under Niagara Falls. Continue reading
LA Times (John Brenner)
On Sunday, the 1st of August, we rode the Southwest Chief out of Flagstaff, Arizona. We made good time through Albuquerque, but then slowed to a bicycle pace in northeastern New Mexico. The heavy rains over the weekend required that the tracks be inspected ahead of our passage. I slept reasonably on the big seats. Continue reading
On Friday, the 23rd of July, we rose early. I drove back to Torrey for ice. We noticed that the gas station at the intersection of US-12 and US-24 had block ice, which lasts much longer in the cooler we bought in Salt Lake City. Continue reading
As we broke camp on Saturday, the 3rd of July, the air around Mammoth Camp in Yellowstone National Park was cool, though the cloudless sky promised severe sunburn to those who forgot their sunscreen. We rode to the commercial center around the Visitor Center. There, we saw the homeless guy we met last night hitchhiking home to Santa Barbara. Continue reading
Welcome back to the present. This week, I suspend my ride through Europe to publish my school essay “What I did during the summer.” Remember those assignments? This will be the third and final installment of Breaking Out 2021, my life on a bicycle as we emerged from lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. We may return to River Run 2017 next year, but you can always follow it by selecting the category “River Run 2017” from the list to the right of this post. Enjoy! Continue reading
On Wednesday the 19th of July, I lay in my tent at 05:00, ready to go back to sleep, when I heard thunder. The storm front predicted for 13:00 must be early, I thought. With little more than four hours of sleep, I decided to break camp to avoid packing a wet tent. While I struggled to wake up and get moving, the storm rumbled over the fields well to the south. It never did rain on me. Continue reading
This week, I invite you to enjoy a new short story from the world of Emily & Hilda on my author’s blog.
Next week, I will bring you another installment of my ride along the great rivers of Europe in 2017. Do come back for it!
Smooth roads and tailwinds,
JT
Monday, the 8th of May, a heavy overcast made sunglasses unnecessary as I hauled my bicycle from the basement and my five bags from the room. By shuffling things around on Sunday evening, I managed to get more weight moved aft on the bike. OsmAnd software led me easily up the left bank of the Danube and over the great river into Buda. The sky cleared as I crossed the bridge. Continue reading
The BP-17 Translation Conference main program opened on Friday morning, 5 May, at the belle époque Urania Theatre. A series of 18-minute TED-X style talks filled the day from 09:40 to 21:00 that night. Talks, coffee breaks, lunch and supper all took place at the theatre. By the way, BP stands for “business + practice,” although we had fun making up all sorts of other expansions of those two letters (http://bpconf.com/story-bp-translation-conferences/). Continue reading
The Freewheeling Freelancer 