There will be more mountains to come, and some will probably seem harder than this one. Zippy is making strange noises from the drive-train, and we fear we have put him under too much strain this time.
We are sometimes tired, but feeling stronger every day. We’ve reached that magical three-week point in a long challenging bicycle tour, when we are in the zone, when we feel pretty much ready for anything.
people think of the Tibetan people and the Tibetan Plateau as being only within the lines drawn by the Chinese government, the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Both the Plateau and the Tibetan people are spread over several other provinces. The government encourages Hans to move into Tibetan lands with various incentives, and by building new cities deep in formerly exclusive Tibetan lands. But the fingers of Himalayas we crossed to climb the Plateau, and the difficulty in building and maintaining roads, have kept this part of Tibetan land Tibetan.
When we awoke it was still raining, spattering the mud puddles of the courtyard with discouraging regularity. We couldn’t imagine another day of near hypothermia, and more hills and bad roads. But, we didn’t want to stay another day with the road workers, nice as they were, so we packed up our filthy gear and steeled ourselves for the day. By the time we were ready to go, the rain had stopped, and there was even a hint of blue over the first hill. The road workers were spot on with their description of the road ahead, a first on this trip.
We used Bob’s jacket printed with a map of the world on it to try to convey where we were from, where we’d been and where we planned to go. I have no idea if they’d ever seen a map before. It doesn’t really matter to them, their world is an isolated village along a road between two passes and 50 kilometers from the nearest town. It sounds romantic: going to sleep to the sounds of chanting and waking to the sounds of milking. But these women’s lives are a gritty existence that our culture hasn’t known for generations. Hauling wood, water, and food up the ladder to the living space, making butter and curds, grinding grain, hand washing clothes, keeping the fire going, cooking… Mundane, routine, weather-dependent, smoke-filled and layered with years of grime.
we’re eating pork now, or any kind of protein for that matter, and we eat whatever vegetables they bring us. At the grocery stores, we study and poke the packages and hope they’ll sustain us through a night of camping. Yogurt and cookies (a whole roll) is a before bed tradition of carbohydrate loading. …push a pedal stroke for us, we’ll need it; tomorrow; (tonight for you) we climb 7,000 feet to well over 15,000 feet and hope to get down in elevation to find a camping spot low enough to allow for sleep, before dark.
After a good hard bike ride up East End Road out of Homer, we decided to celebrate the rare sunshine with ice cream for a late lunch. We bought a carton at Fred Meyer’s and took it outside to their …
Just a quick touch of the salmon crazed Alaskans (legal residents) fishing with nets at the mouth of the Kenai River. It’s how they fill their freezers for the year and have a lot of fun it seems. The gulls are happy too!
t becomes almost difficult to sleep as we near the Yukon, the days are so long, the nights so short. We close all the blinds in Turtle, and it still is late before we can sleep. Light usually wakes me at 3:30am, but I’m a good sleeper, and Claire’s warmth makes it easy to wait for full sun to warm us through the windshield sometime around 6:30. At that 3:30 awakening, I open the blinds and curtain between our living area and the cab to welcome the sun. A warm house makes it easier to get out of bed at a reasonable hour.
This is the second covered bridge we have found in Oregon on back road bike rides. It is in Polk county in the foothills of the Coast Range. We have had difficulty riding in Oregon this May; the weather is atrocious, and completely unpredictable. No, make that too predictable, rain likely but just enough sun breaks to make you wish you’d gone for a ride; but it’s hard to start a ride in the rain. I guess you have just go anyway in Oregon, and hope for the best.
Claire shot this from her Big Wheel during the Urban Assault Ride in Tucson. This was my VERY FIRST ride on a Big Wheel! I was born too early. I loved it! We rode it as a team and didn’t win. Ha!
This is not the Buddha. The complexity of religious imagery in Southeast Asia is staggering to the Western mind. As we meandered the region at twelve miles per hour on our tandem bicycle, we saw so many depictions of religious beings that we will be years sorting them all out, if we ever manage the task.
Life is measured best not by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away..
This is one of my favorite times of the year in the desert, flowing water, many colored blossoms, green foliage, cactus looking fat and happy, beginning to bud, and the Arizona sycamores and cottonwoods Shadow and boots, seven fallsbursting with green.
Preparation: Claire bakes her no kneed many grained bread; I can’t be more specific because she makes it differently each time, which is part of the adventure! Steam the asparagus while frying the salmon in olive oil, sprinkled with tarragon and fresh pressed garlic. Make dipping oil/vinegar mix adding Trader Joe’s 21 Salute and pepper. Arrange on an 8″ plate, sprinkle asparagus with sea salt and serve with wine.
Preparation: Pour the cook a glass of wine.
Chop onion and stems of greens, saute in LOTS of extra virgin olive oil, add chopped leafy collards, red peppers, curry paste and chicken broth, summer until done to taste.
Microwave yam, turning often until done. Let sit in microwave covered. Remove collard mixture to bowl, cover and add to microwave to stay warm and finish.
Cook and main squeeze have a glass of wine together. This is, after all Valentine’s Day. You should have done two other healthy activities with your main squeeze this day: exercise and sex. Dinner is the fianalle.
Coat fish with seasoning and fry in LOTS of extra virgin olive oil. Put on plate with greens, yam and serve with another glass of wine.
Leave the dishes for tomorrow and go to bed early.
European study explains why I lost 20 pounds riding to nearly 16,000 feet in Tibet, was unable to regain after descending to sea level. I was worried about the loss of weight, probably a combination of poor quality and quantity of protein, and why it took so long for me to begin regaining it when better food was available in SE Asia.
Claire’s fresh from the oven multi-grain (no knead recipe) bread, Gorgonzola, avocado, tomato, a salad with raspberry vinaigrette and pecans.