A lot has happened in the past few
weeks. After arriving at my great uncle Robert and great aunt
Meredy's house in Red Bluff, my legs swelled up and were stiffer than
they've ever been in my life. Resting for a few days was wonderful,
but with every step I was expecting my thighs to cramp up or for my
legs to fail my completely. After about three days of waddling,
stretching, and downing ibuprofen, I got ready for the two-day ride
to my cousin Sean and his wife Marci's house in Grass Valley. The
night before leaving my uncle offered to drive me over 100 miles
across the state to save me the trip and to visit his son and son's
family in the process. Once again, admitting that I am in no way a
biking purist, a ride sounded excellent and would most definitely
prevent my legs from instantly swelling up again.
Once at Sean and Marci's house I got to
meet my new nine-month-old second cousin and visit with my
four-year-old second cousin who I hadn't seen in two years. He's
certainly grown! Sean and his neighbor Chris took me on an excellent
mountain bike ride not far from their houses. It felt great to be
back on a bike and especially great to not be carrying my 50+ lbs of
gear. I'm still working on cutting down the weight, but I'm at the
point where trimming back may risk dumping equipment that is
potentially essential. ie. tools, clothing, spare gas. I suppose a
few extra pounds of equipment can't be all that terrible to cart
around.
Being an avid biker and sports masseur,
Chris offered me a sports massage which I did not have to think twice
about. By that time the swelling in my legs was almost completely
gone, but a small, painful twinge in my left elbow was still there.
Chris helped iron out kinks and cramps and my next days on the road
were especially smooth. Thanks Chris!
My jaunt to California's interior was
purposed around visiting all my family in the area. Conveniently,
they all lived fairly close to each other so it has been a very fun
couple weeks of visitation and biking. While I Grass Valley I was
contacted by my great aunt June, who was driving from her home in
Salinas to her soon-to-be permanent residence at Lake Tahoe. Since
she'd be driving past Grass Valley she invited me up to Tahoe to
visit, help unload boxes, and open the house after its winter with no
dwellers. I stayed in Tahoe for a few days, enjoying the sun, lake,
and an abundance of spiders and their webs. I jumped in the lake
exactly once. It was a bit colder than the Bering Sea, so even with a
wet suit I could barely get myself to go more than waist deep. I
dunked twice then ran for tea and a hot shower.
Marci picked me up from Tahoe on a
Friday so I could do a few minor bike and equipment repairs before
continuing onto to visit Tara, my next cousin in Folsom. Sean joined
me on the ~50 mile day-ride and filmed parts of the ride with his
helmet-mounted camera. Afterward Sean put together a pretty cool
video with film clips of the ride. The video is posted on the Nomadic
Gnome facebook page at www.facebook.com/nomadicgnome.
Visiting with Tara and her family was
also a lot of fun. The new family pet, a very small, orange kitten
who had a habit of being underfoot and overactive provided days of
entertainment. After Folsom, I headed towards the coast. A two day
ride put me in Vallejo. One ferry ride later and I was in down town
San Francisco! I immediately biked up to the Golden Gate bridge, did
a u-turn and decided that the Bay bridge was much cooler.
While in the city I met two of the
coolest people ever! Matthew and Amanda were introduced to me through
a mutual friend and they invited me in to stay on their couch for a
couple nights while I explored the city in the day. Matt and I talked
about my communication and navigation strategies and in the end he
set me up with a cell phone with internet and a web cam for Google
and Skype chat. I'm a bit technology-slow, but I am learning how the
phone works and I had a successful Skype chat with my sister and
another friend last night, so there is hope for me yet! When it came
time to leave the city, Matt drove me 25+ miles to Half Moon Bay to
avoid a few hills and highways. From there I continued biking south.
That night I nearly maced a herd of
deer. I have spent quite a bit of time around undulates, but never
realized how creepy they sound in the dark. Grinding teeth and
gurgling stomachs make them sound like monsters in the night. With
bear spray and flash light in hand I ventured out of the tent, but
never actually saw them. Sneaky, little creatures.
On my way to Salinas, I got a bit
turned around, (but with the help of Matt's phone I knew where I
was!) My detour took me through a town called Watsonville. While
biking through the main part of town I crossed the path of a man on a
road bike named Dino (pronounced Dee-no). Dino gave me a tour of his
home town and rode with me several miles back to the highway. While
riding we talked about biking, technology, and the main street of
Watsonville, which had been recently plastered with several blocks of
fast-food franchise restaurants. I told Dino about my own
technological deficiencies and he called me a “New Dinosaur.”
-Not old enough to be completely foreign to computers and cell
phones, but not young enough have it as part of my public education.
Because of geographical location and age, I slipped through the
younger years of life in the wave immediately preceding the rage of
cell phones and laptops.
I made it to Salinas where I once
again, met up with my great aunt June. We went for a drive down the
coast yesterday and ate at the Vantana restaurant. Today we went to
the Monterey Bay aquarium. It's definitely worth seeing if anyone
gets the opportunity!
