Orioles

Donald Trump never had it so good. Somehow or other, Dora and Tim obtained tickets to the Orioles/Yankees game on Sunday. I had been saying I wanted to go, and what could be a better reward at the end of a long trip than going to a baseball game with your son. The unusual part of the deal was the luxury suite we had tickets to. After looking for the entrance and seeing the gatekeeper turning people away, Dora approached with our tickets. "Of course you can come in" she said. We walked through the restricted gate into an elevator with our own operator. Fourth floor please. The floor where no one else can go, please. We get off, walk down a hallway to the luxury boxes. Finding the one we're looking for, we enter and see about 15 other lucky or rich folks milling around. A high def tv is on the wall next to the media guides for all the baseball teams. In the corners are two private bathrooms, along the glass walls in front there are doors opening to the 15 or so soft leather chairs facing the field. The really special part was the beer tub full of beer, and the food counter full of gourmet chow. Crab cakes, pizza, brats, wings, filets, a fruit platter, with all kinds of nuts and desserts. If you wanted wine it was there also. We probably could have asked for caviar if we would have wanted. All of it was replenished time after time as we gorged. We walked around in and out of the box to see the game or eat, or watch the replays as we desired. Now I know how the other half lives. The only problem is that when I go to another game tomorrow I will be a regular Joe looking up at the boxes instead of being in one.

The next part of this post is part of the summary of the trip I came up with, somewhat for my memory but also for anyone wanting to read. I have also posted the left out days. Tim showed me the error of my ways and I pulled it out of the computer.

After two days of post ride celebration at Tim and Dora's house, the ride across the country is already starting to feel like past history. I figured that I had better write a summary of the trip now or I might forget half of it. All the opinions are mine, and Laura may have other impressions about any of it. It took two of us to ride but we haven't figured out how to write as a team yet, She may write something later or even better you all can speak to her in person and hear all the stories she has to tell.

When we started back in May, we had some issues with the tandem, and some of them never went away. I wasn't real good at driving, and when someone asked me halfway through the trip if I had bonded with the bike yet, I honestly had to say”not really”. I'm not sure I ever did. It's big, heavy, and hard to handle. In an urban setting it's fairly difficult to find a place to stop and get started easily again. Decisions about stop lights and changing lanes have to be made by me but communicated to her, and she has to blindly follow what I decide. Any input she has will cause confusion, yet if she feels it's important to safety, how can she not say it? We felt much more comfortable by the end, but it's nowhere as easy as being on your own bike. I have to think about shifting gears at every change in grade, yet I'm never really sure if it's the gradient of the road or the change in effort of the pedaling from the back. When she wiggles to take a picture or get something out of the pouch, I feel it and wonder what is going on. Generally there is just much more to think about for me, and it's not as simple as if I was riding by myself. On the other hand, the recumbent tandem is so comfortable that you can ride over a hundred miles per day and get off feeling no sore spots or aches. We can talk to each other, change the music or look at a map, all while riding along. There are no problems with waiting for anyone or feeling like you are getting behind. I know Laura had complaints about not being able to see anything ahead of her. There were many times she wanted a picture but the subject was behind before she saw it. The bike box we carried our stuff in worked like a charm, and although it seemed very heavy to me, balance was good with it on and we didn't notice it at all except for the weight. Hills caused us major problems, maybe because we are wimps, but more probably it's the geometry and weight of the tandem. On a big hill we could only keep about 4mph, and I was very concerned about weaving or wobbling into traffic. With the weight of the bike, which we estimated at about 60lbs, it is very unstable at 4mph. We only had to walk the bike about 5 times. Those hills were about 10-12% grade by my estimation, all in the Appalachians. But riding along on a heavy bike at 4mph is not fun when there are coal trucks around every curve or cars with four teenagers roaring up behind you and honking. Changing tires on the tandem is not easy, because it is big and heavy. Usually there is nothing to lean the bike on, so we had to team up. Normally it's the back tire that flats. I suppose that is because of the weight, causing pinches by rocks. We changed tires in Iowa and had no flats for the last 2000 miles, so I believe in this new brand. For Laura and I or two people like us, overall I would recommend this bike as the only way to make this ride. We make it as a team, I'm not sure it would have worked any other way.

This is enough to read at one sitting, more tomorrow.