Dan's Blog

  going to be a rainy day.   going to attach this pic to show the filth on my bike as this blogs thumbnail photo   slept well last night.   my single ear muff over earbuds/earplugs worked flawlessly i wore a thin buffwear hat under my sun hoodie shirt.   the hood on the sun shirt is long enough to help block the light in the morning too.   there were some nearby houses that had their backyard security lights on all night. the sun hoody is long sleeved too, makes a good sleep shirt.  warm enough for upper 40's/low 50's but still cool enough to have the quilt on top.   I just slept with socks and underwear only under the quilt, I was plenty warm.   woke up to rain around 3:30, but i was dry inside.  sorry the orientation is all wrong.   the phone app kind of sucks sometimes when attaching photos. when i pitched the tent last night, there was a young black man at the camping ar...

Long day riding.   I did lots of saddle adjustments today, i hope i had a breakthough.   i had the saddle too far back, and tilted rear side down too much, or nose up. towards the end of the day, i found nose down, and saddle an inch forward, or in the middle of the seat rails was far, far better.   I wasn't putting all the weight on just my sit bones anymore.  Still some on the sit bones but some to my taint area, more surface area to spread the contact area out. (taint=  between the dood dad and pooper, or the hoo hah and pooper for the ladies...). Anyhoo, started the ride officially at about 10a.m.   jacqui took photos of me loading up the bike.   we left the hotel around 9a.m., then  20-30 minutes of traffic and it took me 30 minutes to load up all the gear after putting the front tire back on the bike.   I'll add a bunch more photos below. i started riding.   I confused Jacqui with my a...

Tuesday So the plan is Tuesday (tomorrow as I write this), Jacqui and I drive separate to her folks place just south of Albany.      Jacqui's folks will be busy, so we'll just be dropping off Jacqui's car and she'll ride with me in the truck as we continue the drive to Buffalo.    It'll probably be about 6-6.5 hours of driving Tuesday.   Anyhoo, I booked a nice hotel (homewood suites by Hilton) that's closer to the airport than downtown.    We'll be a 20 minute drive from the Erie Canal starting point.    I would have booked something downtown, but I didn't want to worry about parking my truck in a downtown parking garage.    The room has a little built-in kitchen so I'm bringing a thawed bag of my meatballs and sauce so I can carbo load some spaghetti Tuesday night.     I have all my cooking stuff in the back of the truck in case the room's kitchen is poorly stocked, and I have the truck's electric cooler to bri...

  I've joined the sourdough bandwagon, and I'm getting halfway decent at it.   I make one loaf at a time, usually twice a week.   And I also make my pizza dough this way now.   Homemade sourdough does not taste sour.    Sourdough is a weird misnomer  IMHO.   Hands on kitchen time is probably < 30 minutes, but there are lots of 2 minute tasks spread throughout a few days, so I can see why people don't have the patience for it, especially if you're working full time.   This is more a retirement lifestyle thing.   The photos are from a 20% whole wheat recipe loaf I made today using this recipe  https://www.theclevercarrot.com/2020/06/whole-wheat-sourdough-bread/   Main things I've learned.    Feed your starter 1 day before you start baking if you keep it in the fridge.   let it be around 70-75F for a day before you use it.    I tuck my starter jar behind my small beverage fri...

So I think I need to make a few tweaks before I ride the Erie Canal trail from Buffalo to Albany.  But I'm going to shoot for doing it during early September.  eriecanalway.org/explore/cycling/cycling-resources   https://www.ptny.org/cycle-the-erie-canal/camping  Jacqui's been helping her folks go to some appts (relatively minor stuff, no worries), so I think I'll time things to drive out while she's already near Albany helping her folks.   So instead of driving home to Mass, she'll ride with me in the truck to Buffalo, we'll stay overnight, then she'll drive the truck back to her folks or her sister's place, she'll leave the truck and drive her car home to Mass, and I'll bike back to the truck just south of Albany.    There's a Hudson River Greenway I can ride to get down to her folks/sister's place from where the Erie trail ends, and it only adds 14 miles and 450ft of climbing, easy peasy (relative to the 360 miles I'll have just do...

  My kingdom for a pair of scissors!   More on that later.   Actually I'm ordering these fiskar ones to keep in my tool bag.     I trust myself with scissors but not a small knife in the middle of nowhere out in the woods.      https://a.co/d/6AycWwH       The trip was fun and a success.   i didn't forget anything (see previous blog packing list); i've just realized having a small pair of scissors would be very useful for trimming tire plugs and opening stubborn dehydrated meal bags. Sunday night I camped in the truck's GFC camper at one of my favorite spots near where my bike trip was going to start.   I wanted to get an early start Monday morning which is easier when you're just a 15 minute drive away vs 3 hours.    And no I'm not posting online where my preferred camping spot is because it's mine, ALL MINE!!!!.    jk, but yeah, on principle it's silly to list your favorite sp...