monkeychart.com » Aunt Laura

Loose ends continue being themselves.

Gianwilliamo Crispi — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:43:09 +0000

It should be fairly evident (even from my limited posts, not to mention to anyone who has talked to me on the phone or seen me in person, or taken a look at my Flickr account) that I completed my transcontinental bike-trip and visited my friends in both NYC and Boston. What should be less obvious, but still attainable, is that I returned to Redmond. (My dad left a car in Vermont at my Aunt and Uncle’s place and flew back for my cousin’s wedding. I drove this car, with my and my dad’s gear back in five days on the fumes of my trip budget.) I missed Megan and felt a little bit uninspired by the prospect of starting out in NYC (expensive, too many Yankees fans).

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

Non-linear blog narrative.

Gianwilliamo Crispi — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:18:08 +0000

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.

Farmington, Maine westwards…

Gianwilliamo Crispi — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:39:58 +0000

Have been dodging rainstorms of various sizes for the past few days…from great big menacing storms to wee pocket-sized storms. Allegedly this rain is receding and sunny, colder weather is in store through Monday. I hope this is true as I make the push from here, through Bangor, and out to the coast of Maine. When, if, I get there, I’ll make a decision as to whether to continue north to Quody Head or just directly circle back to my Aunt and Uncles’ place in southern Vermont.

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”.