June 14th, 2006
We’re back where we left off last Sunday, in Midway – it seems like a year has gone by in only a few days. We spent yesterday doing some much-needed work and making phone calls. Our planned appearances in the Panhandle were canceled because of Alberto, but we have re-scheduled them for the 29th.
We are getting back into our bike riding mode again, spending time tonight making certain we are totally prepared for tomorrow’s ride. It’s been 3 days off the bike!
I’m beginning to be able to put words to a few things we have been noticing. One is that being “unplugged” as much as we are is a serious change, and I didn’t think we would be as affected by it as we are. We go through several days at a time where we may have spotty cell phone reception and intermittent Internet access. A few nights ago the laptop was behaving really strangely, and I thought it was developing some ominous signs, but it turned out to be something with the low Internet signal. We’ve discovered that if we get a good signal, we should stay on and keep working as long as we can, immediately, as things can end rather quickly. I can always take the patient approach and keep reconnecting or trying to reconnect, but even that gets old after a while. I’ve got to be nearly desperate to get in touch with someone in order to keep going when conditions are so tedious.
All of which causes me to reflect greatly on lifestyle and lifestyle issues. What is it about being connected 24/7 that is so compelling? Why does there seem to be so much urgency about always being available and always being in touch? It almost feels like we are going through a withdrawal process, with symptoms of anxiety and stress when we can’t be connected. What would life look like not being always “plugged in”?
On a practical level, it means we need to “work” any time we have a signal, whether or not we really feel up to it. What we’re finding is that we need to create daily systems that will support the needs we have, and be flexible enough to adapt easily. That of course, means we have to clearly define our needs. It’s been a really interesting process – it’s a lot like a sculptor must feel with a big ball of clay – all those possibilities!
Chelsea and I have very tight systems for our daily rides. Food – the right food – is essential to our comfort and success on the rides. We need a good high carb meal the night before, and we need to have high-energy food with us. So far we have discovered that Greens Plus bars are the best by far. We buy them at Whole Foods but discovered on our trip that we can order them online at a great price and have them delivered to General Delivery in a town ahead of us. Snickers Bars aren’t bad – they give a good energy that doesn’t spike us, but Green Plus bars last the longest, and have a major benefit of actually providing nutrition!
We are MonaVie fans, and love drinking it when we are home. Barbara and Ron Pace just arranged for us to have a several months supply of the MonaVie gel – a new product. We just got it Sunday night, and are really looking forward to using it tomorrow. We’ll report back how it works.
Hammer Gel is pretty good – no spikes, but no nutrition either – and it tends to disappear pretty fast. It’s great for a semi-urgent time where we need an immediate, quick, easily digestible energy boost.
We’ve got a wonderful homemade recipe that we ran across in Bicycling Magazine – it’s peanut butter, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, powdered milk, and honey. It’s all mixed up together and put into small balls. We take 4 of these with us in a Ziploc bag each morning, and usually have one for “breakfast”, and another one midmorning. So far they are our second favorite, behind Greens bars, for taste and staying power.
We need to have sunscreen on before we leave our rooms, or we have to be able to put it on in the car on the way to our starting place. We have “killer” sunscreen – we are surviving, with no sunburns, 6-8 hours a day in almost exclusively sunny conditions, with heat up to 104 degrees – but it is also an absolute “grit magnet”. Picture us hot, tired, crusty and sweat soaked, with every exposed bit of skin covered in road grit. Hot showers never felt so good!
Water is the most important thing of all. We carry 100+ ounces with us in the mornings, and frequently we need to refill that near the end of our rides. We will drink that much again in the afternoon and evenings after our rides.
It’s time to hit the sack – we need to get up early for our ride. It’s been great to have the time to catch up on the writing. Stay tuned for more in-depth comments on the real estate project, and for comments on mini-van design and hotel/ motel attributes. 🙂 I think we can already write research papers on at least 4 subjects!