In transition
We had to leave Jason and Kristle’s house by 8 a.m. and wouldn’t be at our host’s house until lunchtime, so we looked for a “hanging out” kind of spot where we could park the bikes and trailers, keep an eye on them, and still be out of the sun.
We found ourselves ensconced in the outdoor patio of Starbucks, right across from the Galveston wharf and cruise ship terminal, enjoying a gourmet snack of Jaimie Snoddy’s venison and chicken jerky, accompanied by melba toast and Power Bar harvest grain bars.
Taking up a full parking space, our set-up attracted quite a bit of attention. We had a number of folks stop by and talk to us, wishing us luck and wanting to hear about our adventure. One woman wanted a photo of us with her, and told us she’s submitting our photo and story to Oprah.
Another was a doctor of pathology at UTMB (University of Texas Medical Branch) who has just accepted a new position at Yale. He’s done a lot of riding (not touring) in his time, and once a cyclist at heart, always a cyclist at heart.
We also met two Dutch tourists, Nelis and Anja Albers from Rotterdam, Holland. Anja wore some of the prettiest red casual shoes we’ve seen yet – they were Ecco sandals. The four of us talked about traveling in general, and Nelis expressed their shock at the condition Galveston is in; they’d had no idea about Ike before they arrived.
Med school graduation and next couchsurfing host
We’d been in touch by phone with our next couchsurfing host, and cycled over to meet him about lunchtime. John has just finished medical school and was set for graduation on Saturday. His girlfriend Katie, who lives next door, graduates next year. They invited us in for a delicious and much appreciated tossed salad; we used the opportunity to talk over our adventure, integrative medicine, the Czech Republic (Katie’s family is Czech, and she visited there a few years ago), and whatever else came up.
Since John was expecting twenty houseguests the next day, there to celebrate his graduation, we cleaned the bathroom and kitchen for him, then settled down to our blogs and website work.
John was a perfect couchsurfing host – we had a pleasant mix of time to chat and time to be alone and get our work done. John was in and out on errands and exercise breaks, but his dog Merle Waggard kept us company. I kept wanting to call Merle (who looked like a basset hound) McGyver. That night as we fell off to sleep Merle even came in and slept with us.
The house is a huge old house, like so many in Galveston. Because of the medical school, Galveston is loaded with students, with a resulting impact on the housing market; many students share these big old houses. One thing that sets John apart is that he loves bicycles, and repairs them frequently. He either finds or is given the bikes; he then repairs them and sells or gives them away.
He also keeps a few for guests – he has a bike rack in the front room which will hold at least five bikes, and there’s a tandem parked next it, along with a few stray bikes. We simply rolled our bikes in and parked them in the rack, with our trailers settled in right behind the bikes.
John told us he often rides the tandem himself, solo, or with a skeleton in a Santa suit perched on the rear seat.
Bicycle Gang
Friday morning we were invited along with ten of his medical school friends for their final Bicycle Gang bike ride. Some time ago they’d had a wonderful time creating a human pyramid, so they decided to recreate their last one. In a big, ungainly, and disorganized group, we headed off to the beach at The Strand, a few blocks away.
The crowd of graduates was hilarious; the one-liners kept coming. We had Cameron to keep us in order – he brought a bear whistle which he blew as we crossed the first few streets, and a bear bell that kept jingling through the ride. At the beach, Chelsea and I went on photographers’ duty to record the human pyramid and other noteworthy photo ops.
We felt honored to be included in such a big transition in their lives; they’re on the cusp of such major changes – each of them is heading off to internships and residencies around the nation – Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa. They are changing their lives, responsibilities, jobs, and relationships.
Just before the ride began, John asked if I would accompany him to a house a few blocks away to pick up a couple of bikes. We walked on over, chatting along the way. When we saw the bikes, I agreed to take the cruiser, the one with the banana seat and butterfly handlebars.
I walked it out to the street, and tried to pedal the crankset backwards to get a good position to take off, but it wouldn’t go. I lifted the bike a bit, tried to get the pedals to go back, then forward. John looked back in time to see me trying to work the cranks, and he called out, “They’re back brakes!” I couldn’t figure out what he meant; “Back brakes?” I repeated to myself. “What the devil does he mean, ‘back brakes’?”
I hopped on anyway, and that was my second big shock. I aimed my rear for where it always goes on my bike, but the seat wasn’t there! I landed on the low-slung banana seat with a whump. As I pedaled away, I kept grabbing for the non-existent brakes on the handlebars, and realized what John meant by back brakes. I was supposed to pedal backwards to brake, just like on the bike I had as a kid!
It’s hard to express what it felt like riding that bike. I was instantly transported into another existence; I became another person for that short ride. So this what a low-tech bike feels like, out for a leisurely cruise! I didn’t figure out the back brakes very well, though – too much muscle memory over the years kept me grabbing the handlebars to brake. I did have enough sense to slow down when we arrived home so I could put my foot down and brake using my foot; I did NOT want to announce my arrival by crashing into the assembled bikes and graduates.
Transition again
We left our trailers at John’s house for the afternoon; he assured us that it would be no problem at all to come by at 7 p.m. to pick them up – we wouldn’t be interrupting anything.
We took off downtown to the Mod Coffee House and had a truly wonderful afternoon enjoying the people-watching and getting some really good creative work done on our articles.
As we left, we met a trio that had been in the vicinity, Christy Potts, Larry Horn, and Robert Taylor. They been looking at our bikes and wanted to meet whomever was riding them, commenting that “these were serious bikes”. Robert referred us to a local bike mechanic, Joey, of Island Cycle Repair, even going so far as to call Joey on the spot so we could arrange a time to meet.
Christy and Larry talked to us a bit; they are freelancers working in photography and web design. We always love supporting freelancers, so check out their links here. We saw two of Larry’s photos in the Art Walk on Saturday, and they were beautiful.
www.gurlfriday.com
www.oneplusonephoto.com
www.lahornart.com
We didn’t get out of there till after 7:30, and didn’t get back to John’s until nearly 8 p.m. Then I lost my bungie cords temporarily in the commotion of getting our bikes and trailers from John’s so by the time we got direction and rode the distance to our next couchsurfing host’s house, it was after 9 p.m. We were very ready to call it a day.