The official online Fjord
Archive for June, 2005
June 26, 2005 at 10:51 pm · Filed under Life
Right before I left for Biking Across Kansas, I applied to Google’s Summer of Code. For those of you unfamiliar with the program, the basic idea is Google will be sponsoring 410 students to work on various open source projects over the summer, and, if they complete their project, they will be paid $4500. Sounded like a good deal to me, and I felt that I was well matched to one of the projects that Gaim had listed.
The results were to be announced on the 24th, and as could be seen in the forum, there were many of us eagerly awaiting the results. A post from Chris DiBona (one of two people at Google in charge of the project) confirmed our worst fears: the results would not be sent out until late that day, probably not until midnight. Since Google is based in California, that put the deadline at 2am my time. I figured, hey, to find out if I’m getting $4500, sure I can stay up till 2am! 2am came and went with no emails. The anticipation on the forum reached a fever pitch. 45 minutes later, Chris posted a note reminding us that Google was in fact a global company and there was still plenty of time before midnight was reached at their Hawaii offices. That’s cheating! I was starting to get tired, but I figured I’d feel really silly if I went to sleep now and they emailed them 5 minutes later. One hour of continual page refreshing later, Chris posted the mysterious message “The 3rd prime over 400,” which one of the members on the forum quickly discovered to be 419. A few minutes later, Chris hinted that the number referred to the number of applicants accepted. Then, a half hour later, Greg Stein (the other guy at Google) posted that Chris had gone to sleep and he was the only one left working on it. I figured this meant the results had to be sent out soon, so I continued to wait.
I should mention that during this time, I wasn’t just sitting around doing nothing, I was also coding on TOME and helping one of my friends with a Perl-related project of his own. It was funny to watch my coding abilities quickly degrade as the night wore on. What started as a productive evening ended up in hour long frustrations caused by my inability to read the documentation of some modules I was using correctly.
Anyway, at 5am I decided that enough was enough and went to bed. Turned out to be a good decision because when I woke up around 10am (couldn’t sleep in when I knew I probably had email waiting for me!), I found that the notices had not been sent until around 9:30am my time. And the result? ::Drumroll:: Not accepted. Somewhat disappointing. There were something like 8700 total applications, 859 of which were for Gaim. Gaim was only allocated 15 students to sponsor, and for whatever reason, I did not make the list. It would have been a lot of fun to do, and getting $4500 certainly would have been great, but I’m not too upset. Not being accepted will give me more time to work on Phoenix, TOME, and Freya, things I worried I would not be able to focus on enough if I had been accepted.
I mention working on Freya. Not surprisingly, it has come to our attention that Freya has a number of defects that need to be corrected over the summer. The first one we’re going to tackle is replacing the water pump because it’s leaking coolant (no coolant = melted engine = bad). As you can tell from the linked site, this is not a trivial operation, but Abu (who started work at Mid-Western Aircraft Systems in Wichita on Friday) came up and gave us a hand on Saturday. We’ve got it down to where we can pull the old pump off and are waiting on the new one to arrive in the mail. While it’s in the shop, I also plan to replace some dash cluster capacitors, install a new stereo, take a look at the problem with the electric locking system, and maybe a few other minor things.
June 21, 2005 at 8:13 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Hiawatha to White Cloud
30 miles
7:00am-9:41pm
11.2mph Average
I can’t believe it’s actually over. This morning at 9:41am (really, it was 9:41am, purely coincidental. I looked at my watch as we were walking away from the river and decided there was no way I was rounding this time to the nearest 5 minutes like the rest of the days!), I dipped the wheels of my bike (and my shoes too, just to be sure!) in the Missouri River. I have now accomplished everything I set out to do: I biked all the way across Kansas, never walked my bike up a hill, never SAGed in, rode a century, and am still alive to talk about it.
The ride this morning was still difficult even though it was relatively short. The hills were quite brutal again, but there wasn’t a headwind, so they were manageable. We missed the second turn we were supposed to make and ended up going about 10 miles out of our way, but probably avoided some of the nastier hills because we took a road (Highway 7) that followed the river, so it was almost completely flat. It also decided to rain starting about halfway through the trip. I’m tired of riding in rain. I have discovered that one of the things I hate most in the world is soggy shoes. And I got them again this morning. Bleh. Unfortunately this made the grand finale less of a joyous celebration and more of a quick rush to get the picture taken and get to somewhere warm and dry. Oh well, I made it and that’s what matters.
I’m still looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, in a climate controlled house, and not having to constantly take ibuprofen just to keep going (took 1 whole gram yesterday morning!). Surprisingly, I haven’t really missed computers this week, and purposefully avoided them even when they were available on the trip. What I did miss was being in contact with my friends. Not so sure I want to go back to being a full time computer monkey right away…
Speaking of being in contact with friends, much thanks to Courtney, MrPilot, my mom, Ludwhig, and Fargo for sending me emails on the trip. It really meant a lot to hear from y’all.
Will I ever do it again? I dunno, it’s too early to say, but I’d lean towards not. It’s just too much time and constant extreme physical effort. But hey, maybe I’ll change my mind come January when it’s time to register again (and maybe I’ll pull some of you along with me…).
573.5 miles
55.35 hours on the road
10.2mph overall average speed
2 Bikes
1 State
1 Fjord
Done.
Day 8 in pictures.
Best Community: Spearville
Best Accommodations: Sublette High School
Best Breakfast: Chris Cakes Pancake Breakfast in Hiawatha
Best Lunch Stop: Baked potato bar in Hugoton
Best Dinner: Cattleman’s Cafe in Sublette
June 20, 2005 at 8:22 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Onaga to Hiawatha
66 miles (approx)
7:50am-2:30pm
9.9mph Average
Today was a difficult day, mostly because we were still trying to recover from yesterday. My dad was so tired he had to SAG for the day (meaning he rode in the SAG wagon instead of on his bike). The hills were at it again, one after another, and the headwind was there again too. At least the headwind kept the temperature down some. I also managed to miss all of the rain today, which was nice. By tomorow, my shoes might actually by dry!
I’m really starting to wear thin, just haven’t had much recovery time. This is probably the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done. When you get in from the ride, it’s time to set up the tent, then you have to eat, then it’s time for the meeting, then it’s time to sleep. Wake up at 5am and start all over again. Eight days in a row.
Tomorrow is the last day, it’s short, but apparently the hills are bad.
20 more miles to go…
(Sung to the tune of Johnny Cash’s “25 Minutes To Go”)
Day 7 in pictures.
June 19, 2005 at 9:05 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Chapman to Onaga
100 miles
7:00am-7:15pm
8.2mph Average
Wow, what a day! This day had just about everything in it. In the morning, it started raining and didn’t stop until about 3pm, stupid clouds followed us most of the way to Onaga. So, the conditions were cloudy, cold, windy, light to driving rain, lightning, and, in case that wasn’t enough, it even hailed for a while! Of course, BAK participants never let sanity get in the way of completing a day’s ride, so on we went. The rain and wind did have have the nice effect that it never got terribly hot at all today. The most annoying thing about the rain: my shoes were sopping wet all day long. I hate soggy shoes with a passion.
The lunch stop was a little tricky because we had to go off the route for about half a mile, eat, then back on the route. So, when we came to the turn, I pulled into a gas station with the bunch of bikers I was with to figure out which way to go. Just as we got it all straightened out, I saw my dad turning the wrong way. ::sigh:: So, rather than have us miss out on lunch, I got on my bike and chased him down, which wasn’t easy. He had already made it up the hill leading to the Tuttle Creek Dam and was halfway across the dam itself before I caught up with him and got us pointed in the right direction.
After lunch, my dad noticed that his rear tire was about to go out. There were no replacement tires to be found at the lunch place, but luckily there was a really nice guy that drove us into Manhattan where we got a new tire. By the time we got that all figured out, we were near the tail end of the group, but we still continued on.
Finally, the rain stopped. But it was soon replaced by a really nasty headwind. Must have been 20mph (gusting to who knows how much) and it was coming straight at us. And hills. Crazy hills like you wouldn’t believe. They had us routed through some back roads where instead of smoothing the road like they normally do, they just slapped some asphalt down and called it good. Going up, I had to shift down to my lowest gear and give it absolutely everything I had. Then, on the way down, coast, right? Nope, the wind took care of that. Even though the hills were steep, I had to peddle just to go down!
And this went on and on. Today was supposed to be the longest distance of the trip and we had just about every bad condition you could think of to make it worse. By the time we got in, we had done a little over 93 miles. Well, tired as I was, I wasn’t about to let a chance like that to get a century slip away. In biker jargon, a “century” is when you ride 100 miles in one day. It’s considered a significant accomplishment. So, off I went, again. Finally, at 7:15pm, I was done. 100 miles, 12 hours and 15 minutes on the road, and very, very tired.
I’m going to bed. Now.
Today I also saw my second cool bike jersey. There was a guy that had one with an AC/DC logo on it and the words “For Those About To Rock” across the bottom. Those of you that have sat next to me during a difficult test at LETU know those lyrics have special meaning to me. :-) Starting to think my plain old white t-shirt is a little too boring…
Day 6 in pictures.
June 18, 2005 at 9:25 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Lindsborg to Chapman
71 miles
7:15am-2:20pm
10.0mph Average
Hills. Hills?! Since when does Kansas have lots of hills? It is not flatter than a pancake. I know, I had four delicious pancakes for breakfast from the Lindsborg Kiwanis Club and they would have been much easier to ride over than the roads I was on. Even though I live here, I really had not realized what kinds of hills Kansas has out east. Coasting down after you get to the top is nice, though. Can’t do much coasting when it’s mostly flat. Supposedly there will be even more hills tomorrow, and tomorrow is also the longest distance of the trip: 88 miles. Hope it’s good weather…
Pain. Ibuprofen rocks! For the first two days (three if you count Day 0), I had my seat adjusted incorrectly and was overextending my leg. So, that’s ~160 miles of attempted knee murder. My knee pain was really starting to become an issue, but luckily we talked to several people who were able to tell us how to get the seat properly adjusted, and suggested taking ibuprofen. It’s made a world of difference.
Time. Title of a really great Pink Floyd song. Speaking of Pink Floyd, there’s a guy on the trip that has a Dark Side of The Moon bike jersey. So cool! Wish I would have seen it first… But, what this paragraph is actually about is how long BAK is. I hadn’t really thought about it beforehand, but 8 consecutive days consisting almost entirely of biking, sleeping, and eating is a long time. I’m still enjoying the trip, but wow, it’s a lot of biking.
Day 5 in pictures.
June 17, 2005 at 8:07 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Ellinwood to Lindsborg
64 miles
6:30am-12:25am
10.8mph Average
Good day of riding today. Started off with some rain, but it wasn’t too bad and let up pretty quick. There was a strong crosswind most of the day. It was the same wind that helped us so much yesterday, but we started going east instead of North. Towards the end of the day, we started to get into some big hills. There was one that was really great, the road turned to line us up with the wind and the downhill stretch was really long. We didn’t do any peddling and still ended up coasting at about 28mph!
Random Observation #1: It’s funny when there’s a long string of bikers and no oncoming traffic. We’ll convince entire caravans of cars to drive on the wrong side of the road. It’s like we’ve converted a tiny part of Kansas into Europe!
Random Observation #2: I keep getting excited when I see someone wearing something Kansas related. That doesn’t happen very often when I’m at LETU, so it’s neat when it happens there. I have to keep reminding myself that not only am I in Kansas, but I’m also on a bike ride specifically for Kansas, so it really isn’t that unusual to see something Kansas related.
Random Observation #3: All these logos with big bicycle wheels on them keep reminding me of The Prisoner. Who is number 1?
Day 4 in pictures.
June 16, 2005 at 7:56 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Spearville to Ellinwood
83 miles
6:55am-2:40pm
10.7mph Average
Didn’t wake up until 5:30am today, and for BAK that’s pretty late. The reason? Moldex Softies 6600 ear plugs rock! I highly recommend them. Speaking of things that are good, I didn’t mention it in my entry yesterday, but the people of Spearville really treated us well. Great little town.
Today was the longest we’ve ever ridden. We had an awesome tailwind, but 83 miles is a long way no matter how you slice it. The tailwind really helped though, I was able to get my bike up to around 22mph (on flat land, even) and sustain that pace for hours on end, which was exhilarating! Only bad part was the last 10 miles. We had about a mile of straight into the wind followed by 8ish miles of crosswind turning against us. It was really bad because we were already tired and the heat of the day was in full swing (~95 degrees, and not a dry heat either). But we made it through.
Tomorrow is only 63 miles, so I’m not too worried about it. Amazing that I can think 63 miles isn’t too bad…
Day 3 in pictures.
June 15, 2005 at 7:45 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Sublette to Spearville
70 miles
6:50am-1:30pm
10.5mph Average
Today was a great day for biking! Especially at the beginning of the day, conditions were perfect. The temperature was nice, we had a good tailwind, and traffic was very light (because it’s Sunday). There really weren’t that many semis at all today, and the ones that did go by were nice about it. Towards the end of the day, the winds turned a little, it was fairly warm, and there were some substantial hills around Dodge City, but still not bad at all. I feel much better today than I did yesterday, and feel like I should be able to survive tomorrow.
There were several cool things we got to see today. When we were passing a feedlot, I told my dad that I wanted to get some pictures because I’m sure many of you don’t know where your beef comes from. We got a lot more than just pictures! We decided to pull into the place to find a good shot and ended up being taken on a tour by a real nice guy that worked there. Got to crawl up on some catwalks and everything. Meet the meat.
We also stopped to take a look at the wind energy farm outside of Montezuma. 170 turbines on 12,000 acres of land is impressive. Behold the awesomeness.
Final cool thing that happened today: I got my first flat tire. Doesn’t sound like much fun? Well, I got it just as we were pulling into Spearville, and right outside a homemade ice cream stand. The probably 20 year old tube had just split at the valve stem. Couldn’t have had a better place to do it!
Time to head off to a tasty buffet dinner. Mmmm.
Day 2 in pictures.
June 14, 2005 at 7:39 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Elkhart to Sublette
72 miles
7:00am-2:00pm
10.3mph Average
We made it, one day finished! Had a good ride and it was a lot of fun. However, the interesting stories are the negative ones, so here we go:
I discovered a new type of bird native to the Elkhart Middle School front lawn. I have decided to call it the “Devil Bird” because I discovered their uniquely annoying traits at about 5am. Most birds have a nice soothing song they sing, or at least something that can fade into the background. Not so with the Devil Bird. Sure, their song starts off innocently enough: “chirp, diddle-chirp, chir–,” but at that point they all pull out miniature cattle prods and jab each other with them, “–DEE-DOO-DA-irp.” So you get: “chirp, diddle-chirp, chir-DEE-DOO-DA-irp. chirp, diddle-chirp, chir-DEE-DOO-DA-irp.” And so on, again and again and again. I was not pleased at 5am…
Some drivers are courteous to bikers, some are not. What’ s really bad (and scary) is when semi drivers are not courteous. If they don’t pull into the other lane, it feels like you’re going to get sucked under the second set of wheels. It’s worst on the recumbent bike, because it’s not as stable.
At one point, I heard a train whistle in the distance and thought, “oh good, we might get to stop and watch a train go by.” But, I kept on going and never saw the tracks and stopped hearing the whistle, so I was a little confused. Then, I heard the whistle again, but this time it was blasting louder, continuously, and RIGHT BEHIND ME. And getting closer every second. A train chasing me down the highway?! I felt like Harrison Ford in The Fugitive. Then, I figured it out, a semi had been equipped with a train whistle and the driver was none too happy with the bikers. He didn’t move over, he didn’t stop the whistle, and he was pulling half a house! The whistle was incredibly, painfully loud. Probably one of the loudest things I’ve ever heard. So, pretty good list of scary things: semi that’s not being nice, oversize load, I’m on the recumbent, and there’s a horrifying noise that doesn’t match what’s going on at all. Thank God, I made it through okay.
Final scary thing, also involving a semi. I’ll just list the aspects of the situation: Cattle truck (one of the worst kind to be passed by), traffic in the other lane (so he can’t pull over), at the bottom of a hill (so he’s going fast), on a bridge (yipes!), with NO SHOULDER (gah, mere inches away from the truck!), and just to add to the fun, I’m still on the recumbent. I got pretty wobbly and close to falling over (tried to wobble towards the railing instead of towards the truck), but made it through that one too. That was probably the most dangerous it got today.
If you’re ever on the road with a biker, give them as much room as possible!
And with that, I’m going to do devos and get some sleep. It’s only 9pm, but I’m dead tired and we hope to start tomorrow at about 6am. 67 miles to go tomorrow, but the wind is supposed to help a little (didn’t much today). It’ll be warmer, into the 80’s instead of just the 70’s like today.
This really was the worst day of the trip, in both traffic and exhaustion. I was really worried that night that I might not be able to make it through the trip. Doing a full day of cycling was a major shock to my system, but apparently I was able to make a decent recovery overnight.
Day 1 in pictures.
June 13, 2005 at 7:48 pm · Filed under Biking Across Kansas
Colorado Border to Elkhart
17.5 miles
We left Hutchinson at about 9am and headed down to Elkhart. Rex, a teacher that works at the same school as my mom, and his twelve year old son came with us. We got to Elkhart at about 3:30pm (I slept most of the trip), unpacked our baggage, and set up the tent. Then we left for the Colorado border, about 20 miles away. It was raining and cold when we got there, but luckily I had packed a jacket. After the required border picture, we were off. After we got going and warmed up, the temperature wasn’t an issue, and the rain really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Even though they had a head start, we were riding fast enough that we were able to catch up with Rex and his son. Then, my chain came off the front gear. While we were fixing that, they passed us. After we got going again, we came to a really great hill and got all the way up to 30mph, the fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike. In the process, we passed Rex and his son (hooray, in the lead again!). But, then the rain stopped and it started to get warm, so we stopped to take off our jackets and drink some water. They passed us again. By this time, we were pretty close to Elkhart, but we managed to get a little bit ahead of them before we got to the end. It wasn’t at all a race, but it’s still fun to be first. :-)
Not much happened in the evening, mostly just a meeting.
Tomorrow is when it really gets interesting, 71 miles. MrPilot suggested that I end these entries leaving y’all in suspense, so here’s the cliff-hanger: will I make it all the way tomorrow and still be alive? I can’t wait to find out either!
Day 0 in pictures.
Hi there. My name is Curtis Hawthorne, but most of my friends call me Fjord.