Statrix Redux

Today I got to ride my new (old) bike on bike trails in Denver today!

Erich did a great job with the build and everything is tuned and ready to go. We only did about 17+ miles, but that was enough to get a feel for the bike and I think I’m really going to enjoy riding way too many miles on it.
We drove down from Evergreen and bike on the flat lands of Denver around the Platte River. We were not trying to win any records or exhaust ourselves, just test the bikes.
We ended up back at REI for a few last minute items. I needed a little chafing protection cream and sunscreen…all good now. Erich got some new gloves.

On the way back we went by a park for kids with the oddest climbing structure I’ve seen. Erich calls it an insect…and it looks a bit that way.

Imagine climbing up in to a giant bug…no, no, don’t do that.
The ride was uneventful and we’re back at Erich’s place. I’ve just done a quick meditation and we’ll be having lunch in a bit.
Next up today, a Rockies game and packing for tomorrow when we hit the road for South Dakota.

Today has been a very special day and it’s not even 2pm yet. I had the opportunity to have brunch with two very special women in my life. Kris and Lori are both friends from my days in Milwaukee and both moved here to Denver separately quite some time ago.
Oddly enough, it’s been a while since they’ve actually seen each other. Our gathering was not just a reunion for me, it was as a much a reunion for them.

Lori standing between Kris and I.
Back in the day we all lived together in big old house on Milwaukee’s east side and had some great times. The story is much, much longer than that, and much of isn’t something I’ll go into here, but it’s safe to say we had great time catching up.
I’ve been invited back to Denver for another go round of catch-up and…well…it’s something I definitely plan on doing. And it’s not something I think I want to put off for years and years. With so many friends here, it’s a place I think to visit soon and often.

After landing at the airport I realized I did not want to take the A-Line train to Union Station. My duffel bag was just too unwieldy. It’ll be easier on the way home when there’s less in it. But gosh, I’m so glad I used an app to get a car. My driver, Poppy, was great. She’s involved in fighting human trafficking here locally and we had a fascinating conversation. I’m so glad I didn’t miss meeting here.
I’m staying for one night at The Crawford, a high end hotel run in the Union Station itself. I would never consider staying here for more than a night or two given my income, but a treat once in a while is a good thing and this place is great. It’s part of the station itself and there restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and tons of things to do. When I arrived there was a farmer’s market outside and it was a goody.

I don’t need this much of a room, but I love it.
After checking in, and amazingly my room was ready at noon when I got here, I headed out to REI to replace my small duffel bag which started coming apart on the final flight, LAX to DEN. I’m not upset, it’d had lasted over a decade and had seen many, many trips. REI is close enough to walk to and it’s a lovely walk through the heart of downtown Denver. This is a happening place. And, of course, there’s always the river for fun.

That’s just blocks from my hotel and REI is just on the other side of the river. In case you were wondering, I bought a few more things as well.
I made it back to the hotel before collapsing for an hour’s nap. I really don’t sleep well on planes. Though I’d gotten a couple of hours on both flight’s, I’d been up since 4:30 am yesterday. So yeah, a nap.
Next I headed out on another car ride to meet with a group of friends I hadn’t met yet. A good time and I’m very grateful it was easy to find.
Back at the hotel, I dined at Mercantile dining and provivision. This is a restaurant recommended by a friend and I am very happy I went. I’m not going to write a review in this post, you can read it here though…
Mercantile dining and provision
I then gave some thought to the free scoop of ice cream guests at The Crawford can have at the station’s ice cream shop. I realized I don’t eat that way anymore after standing in line for a couple of minutes. Drat. I still get ice cream urges from time to time, but I no longer keep a fifth in the ice box.
More tomorrow!

The flight from Honolulu to LA was surprisingly smooth. I was blessed with a great seat mate. Joyce, a grandmother from England via Texas and many, many other places, was a great conversationalist and went to sleep early. I even managed a few hours.
For once I did not have to change terminals once at LAX, though I almost wish it was necessary. There were few options in this little Delta terminal and it’s quite crowded to boot. I won’t be here much longer though.
I just have to keep my eye on the prize. Here’s a shot of what I’m actually looking forward to a week from now. It’s not my photo, but I’ve a few more or less like it from years past.

In the meantime, there’s much to do….once I get to Denver, not so much here.
I should note one thing of interest, at least of interest to me. I’ve now managed to meditate in two different airports, HNL and LAX. Maybe I should see how many other airports I can add the collection. But, wouldn’t that sort of be against the whole grain of meditative practice? Hmmm….something to contemplate.
Next stop, Denver!

Once again I’m off to RAGBRAI. This will be my fourth trip across Iowa in the summer heat. That is now, by any means, a record. I’m sure somewhere there’s a woman or man who’s ridden all forty-seven previous editions. That being said, I think four is pretty good considering the distance from Honolulu to Council Bluffs.
It’s a lovely afternoon in Honolulu and I’m flying off. Go figure. Here’s a shot of the garden area at Honolulu International.

It’s really quite lovely and I plan on a few minutes of meditation before I have to board. There’s no hurry though, I’m here hours ahead of my flight. That’s my usual practice, I’m down with people watching and airports are pretty good places for that.
RAGBRAI is the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. You can read about it on their website. Given that it started as a Des Moines Register newspaper story you bet they’ll do a much better job writing about than I could, so I’ll just mention a few bits and pieces. Indeed, RAGBRAI is only one part of this trip, admittedly the biggest part, but there’s more.
First I’m off to Denver, arriving late tomorrow morning. I’ll be staying at The Crawford for an evening, a bit of a treat. It’s rated a five star hotel and would usually be out of my price range. But it’s for one night, so why not.
Downtown Denver is lovely and has a ton of things to do. I once found mannequin parts stuffed into a park garbage can. Never a dull moment. The Crawford is in the old Union Station and is quite an historic location I’m told. Tomorrow evening I even have a docent tour of the place scheduled. Might as well play tourist.
If there’s time, I’ll probably ride the bike share system across the river and hit up REI for a few last minute goodies for the ride. But I may just do nothing much as well.
Sunday should be a blast. I’m having brunch with two old friends from my Milwaukee days. They both ended up in Denver and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen either, though we’ve kept in touch infrequently over the years.
After that, I’ll be off to Erich’s place in Evergreen up in the mountains outside of Denver. He and I met on RAGBRAI back in 2011 and have been tight friends ever since. He’s building my a bike for this trip, so my trusty Bike Friday isn’t along for this one. She’s done three already and while I’ve no doubt she’d be fine, I’m riding an “Erich Special.” It’s a bike from cast off parts, as well as a few new bits and pieces; new tires come to mind. This one is build from an old Bianchi touring frame and I can’t wait to give her a spin.

She’s set up for hills with a wide 1×10 gearing system. We’ll see how well she does in Iowa as her work isn’t done when that’s finished. I’ll also be riding her from Brookings, Oregon to San Francisco a bit later this year.
Monday will be a full day with some riding around Denver to make sure the bike is riding smoothly and topped by a Rockies game.
Then the journey really begins. On Tuesday Erich and I will be driving to Hill City, South Dakato in the Black Hills near Mt. Rushmore. On Wednesday we have plans to spend the day riding parts of the Mickelson Trail. I don’t know much. about it, but it looks lovely as this shot from the SD Tourist Bureau attests.

Then on Thursday we’re off to Council Bluffs, Iowa, the start town for the 48th RAGBRAI. Erich and I have been here before several times over the years, though mostly we hang on the other side of the river in Omaha.
Our itinerary there includes a stop at some bicycle shops, breakfast, dinner at a fun steak house out of 1960’s mob movie, and more baseball. Having seen Major League Baseball in Denver, we’ll be seeing the Triple A Omaha Stormchasers. I’ve seen ’em before and they have great ballpark.
Saturday is the orientation day for RAGBRAI and includes a big bike expo where we can spend money on things we’ll later realize we don’t want to carry across Iowa.
And then, on Sunday, RAGBRAI begins. I’ll be blogging my journey as time and energy allows. I probably won’t have as many images as in past rides, I’m using film this year. I’ll take a few with my phone, but the bulk of the imagery will have to wait till I get back! Hopefully, my words will convey my experience and you can ride along with me as the miles of Southern Iowa roll by.

Nope, not putting them up today, but the good news is, they are all digitized. Now it’s time to write the Borneo Research Council and find out where to send the slides, a USB stick, and make sure they have them all. Then…
…comes the hard part…but also the fun part…
…writing about them.
It’s something I think I need to do, more or less have agreed to do, and yes, even started on a bit as evidenced by the stuff I’ve already put up on this blog. But yeah, it’s going to take some systematic work, blocking out some time, and sitting down to actually do the deed.
Luckily, for me as a writer, perhaps not for you dear reader, is that I don’t find writing particularly daunting. I find starting particularly daunting, but once having started…
…well you get the idea.
Enough for now though…time to ride by bicycle.

I’ve been chatting with Erich, my cycling partner and good friend, about our next cycling campaign. This year we did Northern Portugal and had a blast, but we’ve not really nailed down next year’s plans. 

We’d discussed a number of things, but the one that keeps rolling to the top is the Northern California coast from the Oregon border to the Bay Area. We rode the Oregon Coast a few years back and this would be a continuation of that ride. I hope we have better weather though!

Rain along the Oregon Coast 2012

You can read more about this in my 2012 post, Back from Oregon, where that image was featured.

 We don’t want that again…but honestly, given the history of recent fires in California it might be better if we had those rains. But, given the recent history of flooding in California it might be better if we didn’t. Well…pretty much anywhere we go we’re going to have problems with global warming which is a thing…a big thing.

I’ve been busy…that’s my excuse. And in truth, I have been busy and it’s going to continue for another month…then I get my life back.
Recently I’ve been on the mainland visiting some great friends and doing some really fun things. That’s kind of put a hold on my Borneo project. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to do it, just that I’ve had to put it on hold through August and September…and…October.
But I haven’t been idle. I attended a conference in San Jose and gave a presentation there that went over rather well if I do say so myself. Other people said it too…so…
I also got to visit Mammoth and Yosemite. I had my Bike Friday pakiT with me, so I got to do a bit of cycling as well.

I also go to visit Mono Lake and see the tufas!!!
 

All in all, it was whole bunches of fun. But now I’m off to Hawaii Island, then Maui, the home, but off to Molokai shortly after that.
So, if you are waiting for my Borneo stuff…it’s still in the works…it’ll just have to wait for my life to catch up to it.
Aloha!

I’m not quite sure what my friend and I were watching…it looks important and more than a bit astonishing. No clue after fifty-five years I’m afraid.
I’d love to go back and see if the young gentleman with me in this shot from sometime in 1963 is still around. I’m not sure I’ll get a chance to do that, but…well…it was possible to get there in 1962, it’s possible today. We’ll see.
It’s kind of hard to believe that the kid in that photo is sitting at a keyboard in Honolulu all these years later. Wow.
The only thing that hasn’t changed is that I still wear those sorts of shirts. These days they’d probably have hula dancers on them instead of oriental dancers, but really…not much has changed. I still look out at the world and wonder…what the heck?

This will end up as part of another set of slides I’m digitizing, but I’d been remiss this weekend in getting anything done and when I saw this I knew I had to say something about it.
Here’s the thing. For me, living in Borneo was not, at the time, something special. When you are four, five, and six years old, the world is just the world. Yes it was different from where I’d been before (New York City – 110th and Amsterdam in fact), but I was with my parents and I didn’t really have a sense that other kids didn’t get to do this. I certainly got that sense when I got back, but at the time, it was just my life.
Perhaps I’ll have more stories to tell as memories come back to me, it’s hard to know. I will continue to write them down here as I recall them though. I’ve sort of made an agreement to do that.
You might recall I said I would contact the Borneo Research Council and offer the slides to them. Well I’ve heard back and…you know…I’m going to save that for another story. Suffice it to say they were as happy to hear from me as I from them. It does mean, however, I keep doing this.
Till next time!

Much of the farming in our area of Borneo was swidden agriculture; slash and burn. It sounds terrible, but careful rotation made it a viable lifestyle. There’s been much written about this kind of farming and I’m not going to rehash it here. It was simply a fact of life back in the day.
My father took a lot of pictures over our time in Borneo, and sure enough many of them were of this sort of farming, clearing the land, and more. Here’s a selection from a set of slide processed in November 1962. They had no other marking, but I’ve grouped them by their process date and the style of the font on the slide. Neat, eh?