A Confluence

Confluence: a coming together of people or things; concourse. A number of unrelated events have conspired to make this all happen and I'm delighted with the way things have worked out.

I retired from IBM and started into this next chapter. And now that the local cycling scene is in winter mode I have downtime.

Andrea... well more on that later.

Knowing that this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity I suggested she take a break and take an extended vacation. "What would we do with all that time in January" she thought... and then said "what about going to New Zealand?". Great idea!

About the same time I discovered the youngest of the Canadian Kraiker clan (my nephew Brendan) and his partner Jenna were on a major trip that had them spending the better part of a year in New Zealand. The wonders of Facebook. Here are a couple of shots they have online...

Jenna

Brendan

Then I found out that they work at Lucky Rental, one of the many companies that rent campers in NZ!

Well... all of this came together to have me book a New Zealand Air flight to Auckland on January 1st 2012 with a "Cruiza" hightop camper booked for 27 days and a return flight on February 1st. That was my day yesterday...

The Cruiza was originally one that Jucy rented out, here's a video they put on YouTube showing the setup. Still figuring out the logistics of bringing bikes, swim gear, and all the other things that might make that month more enjoyable. Very exciting!

From First Race to Last Race

What an amazing experience this first part of my next chapter has been... from the first race in April that still had snow on the ground to a final race at Albion Hills that was a muddy cyclo-cross shortly before December began. The 2011 cycling season is now a wrap and I had a blast covering it. And now that I'm done it's like taking a little vacation.

Lots of races in different parts of Ontario, a long trip to Arkansas, Quebec twice, Illinois for a stage race and even Le Tour de France for two weeks... not bad for this wanderer. About fifty days of actual photography, around twenty days of travel to and from the various locations, something like twenty thousand miles (thirty-two thousand kilometers) of driving (not counting the flight to Europe) and probably just as many photographs taken. A couple of additional trips for fun that included Belgium, North Carolina, Vermont, and upstate New York. I did more writing that I've done in years (journalism as well as blogging), expanded my services to include videos, re-learned the art of interviewing, and a little auto mechanics too. All in all I'd say it was good. There were some challenges and disappointments and things that didn't work out along the way. While I am still digesting it all I'll stick with commenting on the positive stuff.

Now that it's done though... it's time for me to take care of all the things I didn't get around to doing since April. To get around to doing things like uploading all my photos to my website, updating this blog, taking care of finances, checking in with doctors and dentists, and such. I also need to sort out what I'll do with myself between now and when the cycling season starts up again... stay tuned. I have a few blog entries I need to finish up as well as my first documentary short.

I'll wrap this up with a video I took during the summer, I think I've linked to enough photos that I'll mix it up a little...

I finally gave in and upgraded

I've been struggling with my old iPhone for some time now and I've resisted going to a "4" for the better part of a year as it was clear a new model was coming. It's not a "5" since Apple went the same route as they did with the 3G (adding an "S" edition) but I just couldn't wait any longer... the time I was wasting waiting for the old phone to respond wasn't worth it.

So yes... this geek now has a 4S, in white. I'm looking forward to getting a few years of good service from it.

Next up... learning how to jailbreak my old one so I can use it when traveling.

Beautiful Bon Echo (plus Buses and Bikes)

This past weekend was Buses at Bon Echo which is an event I haven't been at before. Having just come back from Watkins Glen I wasn't sure if I was up to back-to-back bus events. Plus I was signed up to cover the Hillybilly Hustle cyclocross race for PedalMag.com on Sunday. Andrea had some things already lined up for the weekend so she was not going to be able to make it. Ultimately I decided that since it started on Thursday I would go up for two nights and be home on Saturday (as well as make it to the race).

It's been a long, long time since I was last at Bon Echo and I only had some vague memories of how beautiful it is. I know Steffan was born so it's less than 30 years ago however I'm not sure Kayla was around yet which would make it 25 or more years ago. The drive up was uneventful and the weather was a mix of sun and cloud with the occasional drizzle. Until I got to the park... as I was pulling in to register the skies opened up and let loose a torrential rain. The sound of a very close thunder-clap echoing off the Bon Echo rock was astonishing. Fortunately, that passed almost as quickly as it arrived. As the sun was about to set, the clouds parted and I was able to get a few nice shots. Here's one I like and I've uploaded a larger version which you can download to use as a desktop background if you like...

The rock at sunset, Mazinaw Lake

There were only Benda and John along with Frank there when I arrived. A few more volks showed up during the day and evening so a small group hung out at the campfire. It was a calm evening and early night, cool enough to appreciate a campfire yet still warm enough that everyone was comfortable.

The next morning started out overcast and wet from an overnight rain however the sun came out in the morning and stayed out for the afternoon. It was a good time to get out on the lake for a paddle and I took Frank up on an offer to head out with him and Hunter. Nice chat, nice scenery, a good workout... it's been a while since I've done much paddling so a few muscles got a workout. The wind started to pick up while we were out and the tailwind made it easier to get back. That boat really is a challenge to steer though and all that wind made it tricky. Here are a few shots I took during the day.

Morning sun, Mazinaw Lake

Misty morning, Mazinaw Lake

Rain, Mazinaw Lake

The wind continued to pick up and with it came more rain. The temperature dropped dramatically and everyone decided it would be a good time to hop into their campers and make some dinner. People were continuing to arrive during the day and evening however the turnout at the campfire was small on Friday night. This was the first time I've really had to use the Sunlite heater in Babe and I was really glad to have it!

In the morning, people were wandering around with hot beverages in hand seeing who all had arrived. It was beginning to look like a good gathering and the campsites were beginning to fill up with buses. A couple of campers were wandering around taking photos (using medium format twin-lens reflex film cameras) and had no idea what was going on. They saw a few together and thought some friends had met for the weekend however as they walked around the campground they kept seeing more and more. Kelly and her friend Sarah had never been in a westy so I invited them in to see what they're like. They were impressed and promptly began thinking about how they could get one instead of sleeping in "Astrid" the Aerostar van... who knows, we might see them in a bus for the 2012 edition :-). I also gave them the Digital Scavenger hunt list as a way for them to get a little extra park history (I think that hunt is a great idea, I had a lot for fun looking around for interesting ways to photograph the clues).

After breakfast and wandering and chatting it was time for me to pack up and hit the road. I had brought Greg's stuff along as he was going to drive Frank's new Ducati up however with the turn in the weather Frank called it off. Greg was sorry to miss out on the weekend but it was a sensible thing to do. On the drive back I must have seen at least 6 buses on the highway, all headed in the direction of Bon Echo, and from the photos I saw of the Saturday night crockpot dinner it looks like they had a great turnout despite the cold weather (lots of down vests and wool mitts in the pics).

Sunday was race day... still cold, forecast had rain likely so I took the Jetta instead of Babe for the drive up to Duntroon. I brought my rain gear and my camera rain gear and by the time the last race was on I was glad to have it all with me. Even so I still got soaked and cold and I know the racers were glad to have completed the event. Lots of numb feet and hands that couldn't shift gears on top of some very slippery sections of the course that resulted in numerous crashes. Here's a sample photo from the race to wrap up this entry, if you're on Facebook you'll find a small gallery online at
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.155847137843367.35889.101033559991392&type=1
and I have a full gallery on KraikerPhoto.com.

The Hillbilly Hustle CX race

Next up is Vermont... a four day trip with Andrea to enjoy the autumn colours and some mountain biking on the Kingdom trails. Stay tuned for that trip report.

Care to write the caption for this photo?

As I was leaving the press center I happened upon one of those moments photographers love. No-one else around taking photos, lots of happy people at the end of a long day, everyone relaxed.

So here's a shot I captured with my iPhone, I had my loaded backpacked with all my camera and computer gear and I couldn't run to get ahead of them. Still, this is an exclusive image you'll only find here...

It made my day just that much better, thanks Philippe.

Now it's time for me to pack up and relocate to Montreal for tomorrow's race.

A next step in the next chapter

For the upcoming Grand Prix Cycliste events in Quebec and Montreal I will be doing some video work as well. Previously I've used my little point-and-shoot cameras for this as it was convenient (at the cost of quality). This year I expect to be doing more significant video coverage and so I've expanded my toolkit a little... three items in particular:
a Rode VideoMic Pro, a viewfinder and a shoulder rig to support it while filming.

I'm looking forward to testing it out over the weekend at the Shelter Valley Folk Festival. Here's a shot of what my video setup looks like. This is the 7D, it also fits the 5D MkII so I have options.

T = Today

I'm still packing, still wrapping my mind around leaving for Europe today, arriving Monday. Wim has already given me the "bad news" that my hours are filling without me having a say (of course I would say yes, Wim knows that).

Still a little left in the bottle from last year, until later today!

Today is wheels up a little after 7pm.
Tomorrow is wheels down around 8:30am.
The trip starts when I get off the train to Lille (Flandres) around 13h00 and we head off to Belgium.

Care to guess what I'll forget to pack and bring along? There is always something...

Thanks to a volcano... otherwise I wouldn't have been there

Happy Canada Day!

I saw a lot of Canadian flags out on the road today as I made my way to Quebec for the World Cup MTB races at Mt Ste Anne this weekend. Including ones on cars pulled over for speeding violations... there were a lot of police out today!

My last post was part one of the Elite Nationals, I have wrapped up that event on the web and am part way through uploading full galleries to my website. And I will write a second part to that if I have time.

This week it's the Masters and Para National championships, and while I'm not there to take photos Andrea is there to race. She signed up for the ITT and the crit. So far, a 4th in the ITT (missed the podium by about 30 seconds!) and I have high hopes for even better results from the criterium since she's been provincial champion in her category twice before. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Speed Machine

Camped at Lac Louise

For me, it was about 10 hours of driving, I'm camped at "Lac Louise" (I loved the irony on a personal level so I pulled in to see if they had room... this being a holiday weekend they are booked all weekend, still room tonight though). I will be at MSA in the morning, and I should have time to ride for a few hours (not on "Beatrice" though, my hand throbs at the thought of that!). And then it will be a busy few days with XC, 4X and DH events to cover. Stay tuned for updates...

Two Down, Two to Go

The Canadian National Road Championships are underway with the Individual Time Trials and Elite women's road race done and the Elite men and Criterium races still to come.

David Veilleux

The ITT was held June 23rd in the area around Belfountain, ON which has lots of rolling countryside. It was a fast 21.6KM course with seven corners that the women did once and the men rode twice. With only one lap for the women, it's a challenge to get good photos... a little easier for the men with two laps. Clara Hughes (racing for Equipe du Quebec) was still smarting from a crash she took earlier in the week, and the photos I have show a few bandaged spots. Still, she had what it took to win. There was an error in the early results that must have been frustrating for Erinne Willock (TIBCO) as she was unofficially announced as the winner only to have it corrected a few minutes later. On the men's side, everyone knew that Svein Tuft (Spidertech) was the man to beat. No-one could.

Clara Hughes

Svein Tuft

MoJo MacGregor

The elite women's race was 8 laps of the 12.8KM Rattlesnake Point circuit which features the toughest climb in the area. There were a couple of early breaks attempts and it was only Moirah Jo MacGregor (Juvederm-Specialized) who managed to stay away. She got up to almost 4 minutes on the pack and wasn't caught until just before the last lap, people were starting to think she had it in the bag (what a story that would have been!) however there were some powerful cyclists who had a different view. A very select group formed on the final lap, including Clara Hughes, Tara Whitten, Veronique Fortin, Susan Palmer-Komar, Lex Albrecht, Julie Beveridge, Joelle Numainville, Karol-Anne Canuel, Erinne Willock and Denise Ramsden.

The riders watched each other for the entire lap, letting Fortin save her energy for the final climb where she sprang free and took the solo victory.

Veronique Fortin

A big part of the story so far is Denise Ramsen of Juvederm-Specialized who took the double gold of the U23 ITT and Road Race. She'll be someone to keep an eye on.

And now, it's time for me to get my gear and head off for the elite men's event. They get to do 14 laps, 14 times up the climb!


Note: These are a few of my photos that were published on PedalMag.com

A weekend of Buses, Bikes and a birthday

What a great weekend! (warning, this is a long post).
Well, to be fair it was a great long weekend since we set off a little after noon on Thursday with the camper packed and bikes on the back. The weather was not the best, although not as bad as the day before. There had been some serious storms throughout Southern Ontario and a lot of places were still without power a day later. We learned this when we stopped in for lunch in Omemee (as we had planned). One thing that didn't occur to us was that the gas stations would not be able to pump fuel without it... we were lucky to have filled up earlier (@ $1.17.9/L) however some volks commented on it being a challenge on their way to BusFusion.

 

Base camp for the weekend

We drove through some heavy rain on the way, otherwise it was an uneventful drive and we arrived in Almonte around 6. We did our grocery shopping at the Independent there (supporting the local economy) and then drove down to the fairgrounds where BusFusion was happening. We were bus #30 to arrive (the official count for the weekend was 171) and got a nice spot near the Potts clan. Gord and Marg were already there and had set bikes and a boat out to reserve room for Greg's bus. Chatting with a few people over the course of the evening, set up the BBQ, opened a bottle of red wine and set up the awning and chairs. We were officially at our 2nd BusFusion, the first actually in our Westy.

Beachfront property

As we sat enjoying the evening, there was a steady stream of buses arriving and many of the choice spots filled up. Sites in the big field near the entrance were flat while the riverside spots were scenic. The last to fill was the large field  by the bleachers... that was going to be home for all the late arrivals.

Friday was the first day with planned festivities, so we made a point of getting a good sleep Thursday night and woke to a beautiful sunny day. We had some coffee and breakfast, and chatted with a lot of folks about their campers, mine, the event and life in general. Folks we had met at BusFusion last year were interested in seeing Babe first hand (many had read about her in the various mailing lists we all belong to or on this blog). And I was surprised at how many people remembered the "couple in the Jetta and tent". The fact that Babe is a diesel was also of interest, particularly to the handful of other diesel bus owners. I learned a lot about the workings of the TD vs TDI conversions and some little (and not so little) things I could do to improve performance. High on that list is an inter-cooler, something I will need to research.

We also chatted with AJ and admired his new trailer set-up, Paul who was the first Splitty to arrive, Charles who had camped beside us in 2010, Mike and his tale of bringing a Bay back from out west, Frank and Rita of course, Jim and Nancy in their green high-top Adventurewagon, and our neighbours nearby.

Charles and his two-tone brown camper "Ouesty" took the same spot he had last year

Then we got ourselves ready for a bike ride with no particular destination in mind and set off looking for small back roads and trails. We made our way north and east then decided to loop back and see what trails there were by the river. That took us through Blakeney and then across the Mississippi River. A small park there described how the town had come about and the importance of the river. For us it also meant a little cross-country riding on the trails. A very pretty spot.

Andrea and the Mighty Mississippi

Perhaps the only photo of me on this side of the lens! @ the Mississippi River

We continued along a variety of roads for a while longer and then finally made our way back. Total riding time was a little over 2 hours and we were hungry by the time we got back. Someone had mentioned how good the fries were at the chip truck up by the beer store so guess were we went next! (Yes, they are very good... try them next time you're in Almonte).

After lunch Andrea and I wandered around admiring people's buses, chatting with them, and just enjoying the day in general. Here are a few random photos (and if you're really interested in the photos then I have more of them up on a BusFusion 2011 Picasa Gallery).

The Potts Residence

The mugs were very popular

So much love... a beautiful Splitty shining from the care it gets

Traded in their camper for a Boler (towed by a new beetle)... give them some time to decide which is better

A cat... and a different layout, Andrea was interested in seeing what a Bay Westy interior looked like

High-tops... two generations parked next to each other.

Frank and Gary

There are always lots of little stories from events like this and Gary (from Mississippi) was part of two of them. He'd left a message in the Vanagon list about having engine trouble as he was crossing the border and wondered if anyone would be able to help him in Almonte. Home to Frank Condelli (and a whole lot of other Vanagon owners this weekend), help was close at hand.  Also in Gary's bus was Mark and I'm told he made a well received guest appearance at the Barley Mow Friday evening, getting up and performing a few songs. I heard that Greg also got his daughter Lisa up to play her new guitar and I heard nothing but praise for her performance too. Andrea and I missed the "Mow" as we ended up chatting with a bunch of folks who decided our camper was a good place to get together for a drink and chat.

Evening @ the campground

Another fun story is the "attack pig" that Robin and David had at their camper. Lots of folks bring their pets, enough that there is even a puppy parade and contest as part of BusFusion (and other VW events). They had a stuffed pig on a leash.. and a great sense of humour about it. The pig would routinely "attack" dogs if they came too close, and always lose.

David was really helpful and a source of lots of great info as he's a real tinkerer and loves to do his own mods. He also has a diesel and is also really into figuring out how to store and use auxiliary power for camping.
He and I both went down to look at Jim's TDI setup... very impressive.

David examining Diesel Jim's TDI

Saturday morning was the swap meet and I had only brought a bead seat cover and compact propane stove so I put those with all of Gord's assorted parts. Putting them down I noticed he had a bug screen for the kitchen side window, something Babe has been missing since I've had her. "For you, it's free" sounded like a great price so now I have one screen. At the end of the day, Marg had one bead seat cover too, same price : )

Last year, there were folks selling really nice mats made of recycled plastic and we both thought there were cool even though we didn't buy one. This year they were back and Andrea bought me one as a birthday present. It will show up in future photos! I also scored some wind visors for the doors and to close the deal Ian offered some nice bug screens he no longer used... that was the best deal of the weekend for me!

Campsite 138

Then it was time for saying farewells as Andrea had a bike race Sunday morning. It meant we would miss the big campfire however there just wouldn't be enough time to drive back in the morning so we headed to a campsite at Albion Hills Conservation Area where the race was going to be held. We ended up in the same spot we had last year, the first place we ever camped in Babe.

It was a relaxing evening and an early night. And a good choice... Andrea had a great race finishing 2nd on the day (just barely holding off a late charge by Julie). All in all, a great weekend.

Julie, Mo & Andrea

Oh... and yes, it was my birthday. I've now celebrated as many birthdays as my father did, this one means a lot on a personal level.

Bike to Work Month...

Not yet June, so very close though. And the weather has turned at last with a blast of heat and sunshine. Wonderful! Monday (May 30th) was bike to work day and from what I've read there were a lot of people out riding, getting their free pancake breakfast. I remember back in the late 80's and early 90's helping to organize some of these events as part of the Toronto City Cycling Committee... working with folks like Dan, Sue and Barb to try to get Toronto more bike friendly. Creating BUGs, chairing the Bike Commuter program, even getting IBM to fund a breakfast. All good.

Monday was a perfect day for it too with the dramatic improvement in weather. Summer knocking on the door, perhaps busting the door down it was so eager to arrive! My "bike to work" was a ride to get some new headlights for my camper, one of them was out so I thought I'd replace them both. As it turns out, the bulbs were fine... I had a fuse I needed to replace. I'll look over the wiring and contacts over the next couple of weeks to make sure things are as good as can be.

Duvel, at the home of Duvel in Moortgat

Today was another day of riding for me, felt great to be on the bike and just cruising around. I had a meeting with a friend to talk photography and web sites which was a long and pleasant lunch at Allen's. Treated myself to a Duvel, even poured it myself the way I learned when we visited the one place in Belgium that beer is made.

Hot and sunny riding, I enjoyed working up a sweat. I tried to take a few photos during the day, I'll end with a couple I thought were worth sharing. Happy Bike to Work Month everyone! And welcome to June.

Riding and taking pictures... this is what I get

Hot, sweaty, blue skies, life is good (new glasses too : )

Trip 3: Bourget, Gatineau and Mississippi Mills

I left Toronto on a very wet Wednesday morning, keeping my fingers crossed that the new hydraulic configuration for the clutch was going to behave as it should. For the first part of the drive it was just a mess and the wipers were going full time. By the time I got to 115 and headed up toward Peterborough things were looking up and Babe and settled into a smooth groove with her purring along at around 62mph (100 km/h) and me enjoy the tunes coming through the stereo. She does have a good sound system! Then it was onto highway 7 all the way east with only one stop for fuel along the way. I rolled into Bourget around 6pm and finally found Jackie's place... she lives on the edge of town and is between a forest and a farmers field (well almost, there are a few other houses around : ). I met her two sons (Alexander and Connor) as well as her pooch Drako. And got a tour of her house which is a nice bungalow on a good sized plot. Here's a shot of her jeep and Babe at the side of her place.

Babe meets the pirate Jeep

Longo-Ciprelli and Hughes

A little socializing, a nice dinner and before long it was time to call it a night. It was wet out and the forecast was for rain overnight so I didn't pop the top, just made me bed and crawled into it. And sure enough it was grey and wet in the morning. Jackie was already up (of course) and coffee appeared in front of my eyes as if by magic. Then it was time to get on the road and make my way to Gatineau for the "Crono Gatineau" which is the first of the two races I'm covering. I got there around 9:30, lots of time to get my media credentials and check out the course and warm up area. The field was limited to 36 racers and they were sent of in waves of a dozen each at 11, 12 and 1pm. Shooting an ITT is not really all that exciting and it's a challenge to get distinctive shots. Here's one I like, it's of Jeanne Longo-Ciprelli almost at the finish with Clara Hughes in the background almost catching up to her (Jeanne started a minute before Clara).

Frank's shop

Another fine dinner with wine back at Chateau Bourget, another quiet sleep in the camper (with the top up this time). I was booked in to see Frank Condelli (a great guy who also happens to be a mechanic who specializes in Vanagons) around 8am so I just got up and hit the road around 6:30. Coffee in Almonte and there I was. I had wanted Frank to give Babe as thorough a check-up as he could in a short day however the first thing we started in on was the clutch. It was just working in the morning when I started up, and all of the action was at the bottom of the pedal stroke. It took most of the morning to nail it down, and included replacing the master cylinder and adjusting the push rod.

His wife Rita made a delicious quiche for lunch with asparagus fresh from their garden, and even made part of it vegetarian for me when she learned I didn't eat meat.

Frank, putting the horn back on Babe

After lunch Frank got down to looking at all the twiddly bits, finding a few things to improve on as he went along and finding a couple of things I will want to look into sometime this summer. Overall he liked what he saw and I was happy with his overall view of my camper. He did recommend getting a Krown treatment to keep the body as solid as it is and even recommend the folks he uses down in Carlton Place. I was headed that way anyhow so I dropped in on the way and they were able to fit me in with only a 1/2 hour wait. I was on the road with a freshly treated Babe by 4:30.

One Trip, part of One Month

Back.
Back to Toronto, back to the cool temps of early spring up here, back after a nice trip.
Back, and already planning the next trip.

It was a nice long week away, and the change on the way down was very noticeable! Warmer, greener, more spring-like. A day's drive took us through Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania and into West Virginia. A night in a rest stop there was less than relaxing, however the price was right (can't argue with free). Not a bad start to the trip, and for a first trip south I do have an appreciation of why people head south for late winter or early spring! And day one was just such a taste.

I've taken Babe out on some trips before... Elk Grove and Mt Ste Anne being the two big ones before. This was her first trip with a new engine though and it's the first trip to test how ready she is (we are) for this next chapter. In many ways... ready. Not totally there though, and so she's back in Dave's shop to deal with the final details. The new engine runs well, is very solid and strong (until we hit big hills, that's no surprise though) and she ran between 25 and 27 MPG (around 7L/100KM if my math is close). I'm ok with that, she's sipping a reasonable mixture. So this trip (2060 miles, 68 gallons of fuel) was a good test. The next one will be longer (down to Arkansas) followed by a trip up to the Gatineau hills.

Back to this trip...
One night, around 700 miles over those 2 days, and poof... in the middle of spring. Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia on day one followed by West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina on day two. Nice weather, which got better and better. And when we finally arrived at Davidson River Campground it was around 7PM, not bad. Andrea was surprised to learn that rest stops in the U.S. work the way they do, pity it's not the same in Canada! What better way to encourage drivers to take a break than to offer a free and safe place to pull over and rest. Up here, police will show up at some point to chase you out of your rest and get you back on the road.

Learned a lot about the new GPS and how to tell it where to go (and how it can get you lost when it thinks something different!), and how it feels to fight the wind in a toaster without power steering... while we weren't in any tornadoes the winds certainly were high and a few spots (high bridges in particular) were a real challenge. The first taste of that was in Ontario as we went over the Skyway... very white knuckle. There was another high bridge down on the the trip that I didn't even want to look at, just focused on keeping Babe moving ahead. Amazing. Past that... life got better and better. Here's a shot looking at some of the roads.

Camping... I think this is the first trip I've taken with Babe that I spent every night in her. No motels or hotels, just her cozy space. I really liked that and I feel like I learned a lot about the space that she occupies in my life. Driving and living... inside and out. Definitely felt good and I look forward to more. The first night at DRCG did remind me that I need to learn more about how the inverter works, I had no luck getting it to power up 120V things (including my computer). I will get a 12V inverter to help out while I learn more, and at DRCG I opted to pay an extra $5 per day to have a site with 120V external power. Otherwise, everything worked as it should. The fridge, in particular, amazes me. On both propane and 120V it kept things very cold. I will look for some way to enhance the lighting for "working" at night, the one main interior light isn't enough.

As for the Blue Ridge / Asheville area... wow. I love it. Beautiful, inspiring and so very much to explore. I knew we were on a short trip, I'm glad to have gone even for that short time. And I look forward to going back to explore more.

Simple things... like the "Pisgah Tavern", established long ago and now still very much alive in The Hub (a bike shop on the same location). A nice place to have a pint of Fat Tire Amber, while chatting with other cyclists. In my case, it was a table full of Canadians :) And all of them visiting in VW campers, one being another '82 Vanagon... a sister to Babe.

Then there was the cycling... it was one of the main reasons for the trip. I didn't fully appreciate the "hills" there, now i do. My second ride was about 5 hours long, of which the first three were almost all climbing! I'm not sure if this link will work for everyone, however it's the map from my Garmin...
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/80245038

If that doesn't work, here's a couple of photos from along the way. The first is looking back at the route up to Mt Pisgah. The second is from the valley roads.

Some days were spent watching the big races in Europe and then being tourists in America, some were just relaxing. It was very much about the bike, though not exclusively. There were a few trips that were exploring this land of waterfalls, and I like some of the photos I was able to take... here are a couple:

And then, eventually it had to come around to the return trip... which included a stop at one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous creations... Fallingwater.

The return trip was 3 days (2 nights), included L-B-L, crossed 4 states and one province, and was very enjoyable. We went through every sort of springs you can imagine... and camped in Blowing Springs. A nice spot, down the road from Hot springs and Warm Springs... don't ask me, they named them!

Andrea wanted to see Fallingwater and I agreed it was worth the detour, so we planned a route to get us there and still allow us to be in a place to watch Liege-Bastogne-Liege Sunday morning. I'm glad we did, what an amazing place. I'll end with this photo of the classic view of Fallingwater (taken from where the original thinking had the home placed... well!)



These and more photos are on my picasa site, feel free to explore...