So now I’m back in Redmond, learning to live with someone for the first time, and trying to scrap together a part-time living so that I can write, do some game design, and teach ESL.

For consistency’s sake I thought I had better finish out the day-by-day mileage log for my trip:

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 (89.2 miles)

Mattawa
Deux Rivieres
Bissett Creek
Stonecliffe
Mackey
Rolphton
Point Alexander
Deep River
Chalk River
Petawawa (Pine Grove RV Park)

Thursday, October 1st, 2009 (93.3 miles)

Petawawa
Pembroke
Renfrew
Stewartville
Panmure
(field a few miles south of Ottawa 10 on Ottawa 3)

Friday, October 2nd, 2009 (45.0 miles)

Kemptville
Spencerville
Prescott (Bridgewater Inn)

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 (43.9 miles)

Prescott, Ontario
ENTER NEW YORK STATE, ENTER UNITED STATES (Prescott-Johnston Bridge closed to bikes and peds, boo!)
Ogdensburg, NY
Flackville
Canton
Pierrepont
Colton
South Colton
(Higley Flow State Park, Closed)

Sunday, October 4th, 2009 (78.2 miles)

Higley Flow State Park
South Colton
Tupper Lake
Sararac Lake
Lake Placid
(Wilmington Gap State Park)

Free Breakfast at Tupper Lake-Main Street Restaurant!

Monday, October 5th, 2009 (37.3 miles)

Wilmington Notch
Wilmington
Jay
Au Sable Forks
Clintonville
Keeseville
Ausable Chasm
Port Kent
cross Lake Champlain via ferry
ENTER VERMONT
Burlington, VT (Ho-Hum Motel on Route 7)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 (76.8)

Burlington
Williston
Richmond
Waterbury
Montpelier
Plainfield
Marshfield
Danville
(grassy highway interchange west of St. Johnsbury, I-91 & I-93 & US-2)

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 (31.1 miles)

outside St. Johnsbury
St. Johnsbury
ENTER NEW HAMPSHIRE
Lancaster, NH (Motor Inn)

Thursday, October 8th, 2009 (52.3 miles)

Lancaster
Gorham
ENTER MAINE
Gilead, ME
Bethel
Neary
(Stonybrook Campground)

Friday, October 9th, 2009 (44.6 miles)

Stonybrook Campground
Hanover
Rumford
Mexico
Dixfield
Wilton
Dryden
Farmington (Colonial Motor Inn)

Saturday, October 10, 2009 (74.6 miles)

Farmington
New Sharon
Mercer
Norridgewock
Skowhegan
Canaan
Palmyra
Newport
Carmel
Hermon (Wheeler Stream Campground)

Sunday, October 11, 2009 (60.7 miles)

Hermon
Bangor
Holden
Ellsworth
Bar Harbor
Acadia National Park (Blackwoods Campground)

Monday, October 12, 2009 (62.9 miles)

Acadia National Park
Bar Harbor
Ellsworth
Orland
Bucksport
Verona Island
Searsport
Belfast (Gull Motel)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 (59.9 miles)

Belfast
Camden
Rockport
Rockland
Thomaston
Warren
Waldoboro
Nobleboro
Newcastle
(Pioneer Motel)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 (52.8 miles)

Pioneer Motel
Woolwich
Bath
Brunswick
Freeport
Falmouth
Portland
Scarborough (Downeaster Motel)

Thursday, October 15, 2009 (65.3 miles)

Scarborough
Saco
Biddeford
Alfred
Sawford
ENTER NEW HAMPSHIRE
Rochester, NH
Northwoods
(Northwood Meadow State Park)

Friday, October 16, 2009 (72.6 miles)

Northwood Meadow State Park
Epsom
Concord
Henniker
Hillsborough
Keene (Best Western during Pumpkin Festival….crazy)

Saturday, October 17, 2009 (44.4 miles)

Keene
ENTER VERMONT
Brattleboro, VT
Jacksonville
West Halifax (Aunt Laura and Uncle Barry’s)

• Total Mileage:  4,453 minimum (calculation of all daily mileage minus one I forgot to record), 4,709 maximum (this includes “about town mileage”),  the real mileage directly toward the trip was probably in the 4,550 range.
• Total Days:  60

I’m probably going to spin-off the williamgerdes.com and monkeychart.com into separate websites.  (Isn’t the best thing to do when you are struggling to keep up-to-date with one website to asexually reproduce it into two websites?)  Here are the kind of things, in no particular order, with no particular thoroughness, which I’d theoretically like to blog:

Recipes
Meals Eaten
Reviews of Boardgames Played
Political Rants
Analysis of Pick’em Strategies
Game Design
Philosophical Rants
Travelogues
Hike/Bike Ride Logs
Road Design/Trail Design Rants
Book/Movie Discussions
Sports Observations/Rants

And here’s the sort of delineation I’m imagining between sites:

So basically most of the wonky and/or ranty-stuff on one site and the pleasant stuff which might constitute a vague narrative of my life on the other site. The bottom line is that I want to be able to start using emails from my williamgerdes.com domain for business (mainly, for sending out resumes), and I don’t want to refer people back to a site which makes me appear to be more of a rogue-element, boat-rocker than I actually am.

Anyhow, when and if I make this change it should be pretty evident. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to move the underlying database for WordPress. I think. It can be done.

Owen being fed by Alexa last night at Alexa and Kelly’s place in Maplewood, New Jersey.

In a classic missed photo opportunity, I got several Owen pictures, and one Owen/Alexa picture, but completely failed to take any Kelly, or Lynn Curren pictures.

He’s a handsome and good-natured boy. Good-natured even when I inadvertently bashed his head into a low ceiling trying to lift him up and calm him. Yikes. Owen’s parting memory of Uncle “Unk” William is of a pleasant but suddenly and arbitrarily violent person.

Anyhow. He seemed to be willing to let bygones be bygones.

Danielle, George, and William at Sloan-Kettering

I’m now in NYC, not by bike. The bike was ditched in the mothballed milkroom of my uncle’s dairy in Vermont. The bulk of my gear stowed in the closet of a guest bedroom at my aunt and uncle’s house. I arrived in West Halifax (where my aunt and uncle live) on Saturday.

On Tuesday, my kindly aunt drove me to Brattleboro, so that I could catch a Greyhound to NYC, Port Authority. (A nauseating ride. Very nice bus, but after months of biking, and years before that of primarily being the driver of motor-vehicles and not the passenger, I find myself extremely sensitive to motion sickness.)

I’ll recap the end of my journey and sneak in some observations when I find myself with inclination and/or time.

In the meantime, to tide over the besieged interest of my readers, I’ve appended the above photo of my good friends George and Danielle as we met yesterday afternoon in the lobby of the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center on the way to lunch. Danielle works there as a medical concierge in the dermatology department.

You can catch Danielle and George’s radio program “Speaking to No One” here http://voterevbilly.org/radio. As of now, I don’t believe the mp3s are available for download, but my understanding is that they will be shortly. They have good radio voices and a good rapport. The show is worth listening to.

To Ahna “Kreegs” MacDonald and Roberta “Squeaky” Maize, Okanagon Level contributors to this trek.  They have kept me in bananas and carrots.  They have sustained me with their goodwill, light-hearts, and generosity.  The Okanagon  does not begin to describe the valleys through which Squeaks and Kreegs have carried me.  They are vast canyons of erosion beneath my wings.  They are the fruit orchards of my tented dreams.  They are the undocumented workers who keep my legs churning at 8 to 12 mph over any terrain.

Ladies, I apologize whole-heartedly that this here blog has not been filled with the kind of salacious debauchery which I know you wantonly desire.  The craven depravity which lurks in your dimly illuminated (but one tepid shaft of sunlight) office/den/lair knows no bounds.  Alas, the risque truths of the road are too hard for the timid ears of your peers.  And too, we must keep it clean for the kiddos.

To Warren Gilles, an Erie Canal Level contributor.  I don’t know if I ever crossed the Erie Canal, but I did pass some sort of canals or canal-like geographical features.  I thank you for your generous gift.  I immediately blew most of the dough on new tires in Saskatoon.  (This is why people *shouldn’t* give me money.  I spend it.)  Although harried on all sides by the demands of his job, his wife, and his teenager, Warren is a great boss, a gentle human being, and an excellent poker player.  I hope he is able to use the last of these traits to extract his contribution from Joe Jones (assuming Joe has enough foolish courage to invite Warren to another poker game).  Warren, it was a pleasure working for and with you, and one way or another I’ll see you again soon.  And, hey, be assured, the secret of your and Sean’s embezzling is safe with me.








Speaking of secrets, to my secret girlfriend, Megan Sykes, a two time West Quody Head Level donor.  This is a crazy amount of generosity and it has completely tainted our relationship.  With some remorse, I opted not to head to West Quody Head.  My legs, more akin to the ivory prosthetic of the captain of the Pequod; my heart, unwilling to chase that white whale, especially with the white winter squalls threatening.  I turned back and down the coast of Maine at Acadia National Park.  And I would be thoroughly satisified with this decision had it not been for the influence of the next, and last, group of donors.  Wherever the vestiges of our relationship lead, it has been fun and I appreciate your support.

To my parents, Roger and Joan Gerdes, six time West Quody Head Level donors. It is my suspicion that you mean well. You supplied me with money when I didn’t need it; you supplied me with second-guessing when I didn’t want it. The former kept me in the warm comfort of motels on many of the cold nights at the end of the trip when I realized I would come in under my budget. The latter kept me inspired to continue when I probably shouldn’t or wouldn’t have, for no better reason than to establish that it is my life to live and my decisions and conclusions alone which give it meaning. To you both, I will undoubtedly forever be obliged.

Weather will probably be the determining factor.

Called my two Senators over the past couple days regarding healthcare. Had a productive conversation with Senator Cantwell’s aide; felt I was given a little bit of the bait-and-switch by Senator Murray’s aide. My concerns: (1) Who are the uncovered 5% or so under the Baucus plan? My sense is that part of the reason reform is now so difficult is that only a minority (15%-ish) feel the most obvious effects of our broken healthcare system. If we leave 5% behind, I suspect that we’ll never be able to go back and get them covered. (2) Where is the public option? I see a mandate to buy private insurance without the public option lever to force prices back in line with most of the rest of the world as a very undesirable upshot. Over the past six years I’ve had insurance roughly half the time on three different plans. The private insurance I’ve experienced is no great shakes. Being rushed through doctors offices, regularly being misbilled by the insurance companies and spending a considerable amount of my time arguing with insurance reps to get properly compensated. Cantwell’s aide suggested that the public option, though perhaps on its last legs, is not yet dead. Murray’s aide said that they had passed the public option out of committee. I realized after the fact that this is likely the public option available only to those who don’t have means to buy one of the private insurance plans. I’ll have to follow up on that and see what is what. Everyone should have the choice of a public option in case the private option available to them does not provide adequate quality or value. That’s competition.

I’m going with the idea that the public option is not dead and will be lobbying actively for it.  I should have just christened this trip “the bike ride for the public option”.

Though I’m sorry to not make it to Toronto, I’m really glad to be back in the States.

1. We have, on average, better roads.  (Prolly not a fair trade-off for healthcare, but you’ve got to hang your hat somewhere.)  Bike lanes, broad shoulders, bike routes, unbroken pavement.
2. It was getting really freakin’ cold in northern Ontario.

The fall colors here are spectacular, yet not over-run by tourists.  Rain has been threatening off and on, but highs running in the low 60s with some sunshine everyday, and pleasant.

Sorry I have no photos right now.  I’m in the library without my camera.

But in addition to this momentary respite of good weather I must stamp my feet in joy at a new trend:  Free breakfast!  A second group of people bought me a delicious meal.  This time in Tupper Lake, New York.

This probably means that I’m looking really sorry and piteous.  But I am not, nor have I ever been, above being pitied!

Native Guides Don and Karen Ryan in Saskatoon

These two native guides, Don and Karen Ryan, cheerfully broke from their morning coffee to guide me first to a local tourist information centre (where the employee cheerfully advised me on the lack of nearby camping options) and then to a local bike shop (where I got a new chain, cassette, and tires).

Gerald from Bike Doctor in Saskatoon

Gerald the sales guy at Bike Doctor in Saskatoon who helped me wade through their trove of tires to find something to my fickle likings.

Dave from Bike Doctor in Saskatoon

Dave, a mechanic at bike doctor, who changed my cassette, installed the new chain, and did the rear tire (but didn’t line up the tire’s label with the valve stem, tsk, tsk). It was definitely worth the money to pay some pros to put the bike in their stand and make these changes. I appreciate them squeezing me in on a busy weekend day. However, lost my 34 tooth rear cog in the process. Saskatchewan is flat so the largest cassette they stock has 32 teeth. Made it through the hills of north Lake Superior with that diminished gearing okay…..so I’m probably fine. Right? Right?

Fraser of Bike Doctor in Saskatoon

O

The very Canadianly-named, Fraser, installed my front tire. He has some sort of mystery power. This is the least blurry photo I could get of him.

Maureen, Seeton, and Tom in Foam Lake

Maureen, Seeton, and Tom from Calgary. We shared a couple of bottles of wine at camp in Foam Lake. (Seeton drank all of under the table. Although we had to keep pre-warming his in a plastic bottle with a rubber nipple.) Great company. Maureen and Tom are both avid cyclists (but not the jerky kind). Maureen works in oil contracts and Tom in physical therapy (in a private medical business…they have that too up here).

They were on their way to Mexico after visiting Maureen’s birthplace in Saskatchewan. Really nice couple. We had a wide-ranging conversation about biking, world politics, things to see, the differences between the US and Canada. Toughest question they posed me, “why isn’t Jimmy Carter more highly thought of in the U.S?” Feel free to take a stab.

Adam from Edmonton riding from Alaska to Argentina to raise money for autism awareness.

Adam is riding to raise money and awareness for autism. His website is www.adventureforautism.com. He’s on a very ambitious trip. Started in Anchorage, and unlike me, is trying to hit every major city he can. He’s headed to the States and ultimately to the far tip of Argentina. That’s a long haul, and he’s already lost his riding partner due to injury.

He rolled up behind me as I was entering Winnipeg. I said, “hey, are you Adam?” He was. I was tipped off. A father and daughter had flagged me down the day before in Portage La Prairie because they were aware of Adam’s quest and thought I might be him.

Rennie, Manitoba

If Rennie, Manitoba knew about Rennie Grossman, I’d think they pull this sign down and put up a bronze statue.

Three days and three hundred miles without a shower.

This is what I look like after three days and three hundred miles without a shower. I’m beginning to get that been out in the sun too long hobo-skin.

Dad and I outside the hotel near Heyden

Dad and I parting outside the motel in Heyden. This was one of about five times over three days when we said goodbye not knowing if we’d be saying goodbye for an extended period or just a couple hours. As it turns out, we did see each other later that day. (The library fiasco in Sault Ste. Marie.) And later that night. (Dad came upon me as I was fixing my seventh, and hopefully final, flat just east of Sault Ste. Marie.) And the next day. (I slept off the road in the woods that night and dad circled back in the car to see if I wanted to use the shower in his motel room in Bruce Mines. Was he trying to tell me something?)

Luella and Diana, generous purchasers of breakfast, in Walford, Ontario

These adorable women, Luella and Diana, unexpectedly bought me a most delicious breakfast in Walford, Ontario.

I guess I had made quite an impression on Luella’s grandson with the bicycling all the way from Seattle, so while I was eating they snuck over and paid for my food. It was undeserved, overly generous, and much appreciated.

The kindness alone was great. But, I’ve had some form of this breakfast a dozen times on this trip (if not twice that)…coffee, eggs, some meat, toast, potatoes, and this one was the best so far. Not only because it was paid for by someone else, but because the cook did a really good job on it. Sausage, bacon, ham, two eggs, rye toast, potatoes. Yummy. I can’t remember the name of the cafe, but i do remember that the kitchen belonged to Bil. (There was some sort of sign indicating not to mess with Bil.) Anyhow, it was THE cafe in Walford. And I recommend it. Yum!

Anyhow, Luella says she doesn’t normally let her picture be taken, so I really appreciate her allowing me to take it. I don’t know why she wouldn’t want her picture taken…these two ladies look great. Thank you, thank you!