as usual....

As usual, I have taken my sweet time updating the blog now that i'm back.  I cant imagine that there is anyone out there who still checks this thing at all regularily, but here goes anyway.  

I am back.  I had a splendid time.  many adventures.  Many mis-adventures.  Everything in-between.  

This computer will not accept my camera for some reason, so no pictures. Je suis desolee.

I am in Bourges. Later today I will be heading south to Provence via train. I have been having a great time, although the last few days have been rainy and cold. My picnic lunches have ben excellent; goat cheese from the region, wine from the region, and fresh bread from the gazzilion bakeries. All that, supplemented by ocasional additions, like duck patte, marinated mushrooms from a deli, and of course, fresh pastries. I should get to the train station, bu tnext time I can get on acomputer I'll get some pictures up! Thanks for reading!

Okay, so now that I am on a computer that doesn't cost 2€ every half hour for me to use, I have time to upload more and actually write a bit. The cityscape in the previous post was Venice, It's a picture from a couple weeks ago. On to these pictures. the top one is just a beautiful tree lined two lane highway that I biked down today. The trees are much bigger than they look; think taller than the really big elms in Minneapolis. The second picture is my beater bicycle one a bridge over the Loire, in front of some Little town whose name I can't recall. The Loire is a beautiful river, and the surrounding land is fantastic in it's diversity. There are pastures with cows and sheep, fields of vegetables, vineyards of course, and then there are the caves. The caves are from when they quarried the limestone for all the castles in the region. Peasants then lived in them, and most of them now are used for maturing wine or growing mushrooms. they might also be used for cheese making, but I'm not sure. One top of all this, there is also plenty of woods. The whole Loire Valley is a great patchwork of fields and towns and hamlets and woods and marshlands.

The Third and fourth pictures are from Mont St. Michel, in Normandy. I was in Normandy from the 12th to the 18th, biking from Caen to the D-Day beaches, to Mont St Michel. It's a wonderful area, just rather rainy. That last picture is from Point Du Hoc in Normandy, a famous site in the D-Day history. The picture is of a German gun emplacement bunker.

I am in Saumur, on the Loire River! My hundred euro replacement bike has been holding up great, although it looks and often sounds like it should have stopped working miles ago. I cannot put pictures onto the blog from this computer, but they are coming soon. It is much harder to get acces to the interent here than in rural minnesota. I have ben living of great cheese, excellent bread, and abundant pastries(the staple of my touring diet). Even though I have been on the Loire River for a fez days, I am about to enter the "LoireValley" which is the area famous for castles. The freelance camping is easy as pie here, now that I've gotten a feel for it. Anybody know anything About custums at the airport? What is allowed abd what is not? What happens if I get caught twith a piece of prohibited cheese or a bottle of wine? Do they even check? I should get back on the road, but within the next few days I'll get some pictures up. Thanks for reading.

well, I don't have long to post, because I am paying for every minute I spend on the internet, and the interent place I am in is closing soon.

My bike was stolen. Off a train, just outside Florence. It wasn't my touring bike, luckily, but it was still a bik eI hac put a lot of work into.

I am lookin gfor ideas. I am thinking that i will just buy a cheep clunker in a used bike shop in paris or another city. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Part of travelling is problems that arise. This is only a small obstacle. Thanks for reading.

Went to the Vatican yesterday, and took a few pictures. Most of it was indoors though, so there aren't a lot of pics. I also took a nice little bike bike ride in the big park in Rome, and there are a few pics from that as well.

Pictures!

We went on a tour of some of the old stuff today. I didn't end up taking all that many pictures, but here are a few. Thanks for reading.

I'm in Rome! Italy! I'm not going to write too much tonight, as I'm osrta running on not very much sleep. It's 8:30 here, and I just got back with the fam from dinner. I hadn't had areal meal since Tuesday, so a real meal, (in this case an excellent real meal) was much appreciated by mind and body. Explored the city a bit today on foot, intend to do more tomorrow, perhaps a bit by bicycle. The bike, by the way, made it just fine (i brought my trusty folding bike in a box). The fender took a prety big hit somewhere along the way, but better that than a wheel (or somethiung else important) getting wacked. Anyway, the bike will be a sort of secondary thing for a while, at least while we're in Rome. I'm so tired. Good night yall. spread the word; the blog is back. Thanks for reading.

You know what would be reeeaaally nice? Spring.

For whoever still checks the blog every once in a while, here's an update followed with a proposition. OOOYA!

Not a whole lot is happening here in Minneapolis. That's not a bad thing though. While I sorta kill time until late march(when the next big adventure starts), I get to slowly pick away at a few projects that have been stewing in my cranium for a while now.

I'm completely revamping the Motobecane folding bike, building a rear wheel with a three speed hub like the original bike had, getting tires that aren't riping at the seams, and getting the frame repainted by a pro. It should be a reliable bike now (for a change!), a nice semi-collapsible ride that will most likely be my steel steed in Europe.

A bike trailer is another project. I think it will a single wheel type, like the B.O.B Yak trailer(there's a link), except mine will be a little longer, wider, less pretty, and if all goes well, will cost about 10 bucks.

The proposition:
I am hoping to go on several short, 2-3 day bike camping trip this summer. Bike out to a campground, spend the night or maybe two, then return to the cities. I would love for people, anybody really, to join me on these little sojourns. Part of the idea of the short trip length would be to enable friends of different cycling experience to come along. These will be short enough distances that even your ancient single speed, coaster-brake cruiser will get you there. Here's where the trailer comes in. Most people don't have the saddle bags/panniers for touring, and biking with a backpack is not really that great. So . . . throw all your junk on the trailer! Food, drink, clothes, sleeping bags, whatever! I think it will be fun folks. People interested?

I participated in a little ice race last weekend, and had a blast. I may have gotten third in my heat. I say 'may' because I thought I was, like, fifth, but the website, like, totally says I was, like, third. Who knows? Anyhoo, it was a whole big bundle of fun. My folks took a couple pictures, and I threw um up for ya.

Okay, so I've been back in Minneapolis for a while now. Since December 15, actually. I have been a bad friend to a few important folks, as I've been terrible at getting back in touch with some people very close o my heart. So although I've been literally back in Minneapolis, I am now back. Whatever that means.

I found it pretty difficult to update the blog towards the end of the bike trip, and at this point I'm not sure I feel up to playing catch up. I'll summarize the end for anyone who wants to know. I got on a Greyhound bus in St. George Utah, and rode the dirty dog back to Minneapolis through three days of ridiculous snowstorms. Ended the trip just in time, I guess. Total mileage was something like 2000 miles of cycling.

I am not currently on the road, but I plan on keeping the blog reasonably current from now on.