Introductory Matters
Mankind has invested more than four million years of evolution in the attempt to avoid physical exertion. Now a group of backward-thinking atavists mounted on foot-powered pairs of Hula-Hoops would have us pumping our legs, gritting our teeth, and searing our lungs as though we were being chased across the Pleistocene savanna by saber-toothed tigers. Think of the hopes, the dreams, the effort, the brilliance, the pure force of will that, over the eons, has gone into the creation of the Cadillac Coupe de Ville. Bicycle riders would have us throw all this on the ash heap of history. ~P.J. O'Rourke
This summer will mark the three months between the end of my PhD coursework and the beginning of the research for my dissertation. I'm feeling the need for a break from school, and what better way to do that than by heading on a three month camping trip WITHOUT school books!
East to West, as far as I feel like going, and if it's not fun, I'll head home and pick it up again another day. I initially thought of doing the Great Lakes route, convenient since I currently live in Indiana and could hook up with the route easily, but if you're going to ride 1200 miles, why not do 4000+.
I should confess that part of this trip will probably be about work. My research interest is in the rhetoric of cartography, how maps get made and used and why and by whom and theoretical questions like that. So I won't be totally escaping my research (what PhD student ever does), but I'm going to try very hard to ignore it!
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I'll have two mascots along for the ride. Ricky has been a faithful cycling companion for over a decade, since the day I bought my purple Schwinn with detassling money (13 or 14 years ago, I think). I thought about leaving his 4 ounces behind, but I just can't do it. He'll be holding my spare tubes and tire-changing materials on this trip.
I rescued Alli from the gutter on a street between Goodwill and the local police station a year or two ago. I figured that either direction he was going, he was headed for a tough life, so he became my handlebar ornament. My aero bars have now displaced him to the top tube, but he's not complaining.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 3 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |