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Catching Up On...

...responses to people's posts.

> are you recording while riding your bike?
rob: didn't try to record on bike. thought that could best be done at home, w/ better equipment. times i have recorded on bikes i've gotten good results by holding mic behind my back while pedaling -- using my body as windblock. another thing i noticed but haven't tried, is: when there's a strong tailwind, it can sometimes, at a certain speed range, create a pocket of no wind in front of you -- the tailwind counteracts the wind you create going forward. it's very calm w/in that pocket and you can clearly hear the sound of the bike; might make for excellent recording.

> When you finish do you think you will go to D.C. and blow your brains out?
charley: that's priceless. he refers to Lewis being a suicide. why? I say he was a manic-depressive prone to self-loathing. he felt a failue for not satisfying either of Jefferson's hopes: of finding a navigable passage thru the Rockies, and of completing a publication of the explorer's journals. his subsequent mediocre performance as a territorial Governor confirmed his feeling of worthlessness.

I, on the other hand, am so relentlessly cheerful; I seem not to notice my constantly expanding list of failures. which brings us to:

> we decided a good way to tape the sound of the wind would be to attach the mike and tape recorder to a long piece of rope and throw them over the top of a high telephone wire
larry: I forgot all about that. maybe that's how I stay cheerful: by striking such obvious evidence of incompetence from my mind. wtf were we thinking?

> It is so sparsely populated and infrequented as a tourist destination.
jon: we're in a Miles City cafe on our car-drive home. a young guy on his way out asks: "you guys on bikes?" we say "yeh, how'd ya know?" he says "you don't look like you're from here." he was also passing thru, kaying the Missouri, then down the Mississippi to the delta. and i suddenly got an impression of all these small towns being nothing more than way stations for we "outdoor enthusiasts" (a phrase neither too demeaning nor too congratulatory describing us bike/hike/canoe/climb/cave/kayak -ers.).

> Katy Trail... What kind of mileage can we expect to make per day?
ben barry: the surface is a crushed limestone and sand mixture, packed real well. it has a bit more friction than a well-paved road, but much less than a dirt road. expect to make about 10% less mph than on asphalt. 50-70miles in a 4-6hours-on-bike/day was normal and comfortable for us. the Katy Trail takes rain real well, but when wet it'll will slow you a bit more.

> 107 degrees at 7 p.m.
nannette: yeh, that's what it read. nice of it to cool down to 107, cuz earlier that afternoon it was really hot.

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