We're All Doing It Right: Thoughts on Grant Petersen's Just Ride

Earlier this year, Rivendell founder Grant Petersen published a book, Just Ride - a collection of short essays serving as a "radically practical guide" to cycling. After readingJust Ride over the summer I was not sure how to review it, so I held off. But at this stage I've been asked so many times whether I've read it, or been told that I ought to read it,that I figured I should share my thoughts.




To provide some background, I am a huge fan of Grant Petersen's writing; can't get enough of it. I have been an avid follower of the Rivendell Reader and "blug" over the past 4 years. I'll even read the product descriptions on the Rivendell website just for fun. My admiration of his writing has nothing to do with whether I agree with everything he has to say; these are two separate things. But as a writer, I think he is uniquely gifted at creating engaging narratives and at establishing a sense of a shared perspective between himself and the reader. Just Ride has some of that magic, and that's what makes it stand out amidst the other bike books out there. At the same time, the book is quite short and largely reiterates what some of us have already read in Rivendell's literature over the years. I would like more! When discussing the book, Grant has mentioned that initially he had written a much longer, rambling manuscript that he and his publisher later nixed. I can't help but be curious about that earlier version. Maybe a longer, more in-depth book is in the future? I sincerely hope so. Grant Petersen is more than a bike industry guy; he is a writer.




But getting back to Just Ride: I would describe it as a friendly, engaging guide to cycling that is aimed at beginners and those getting back into riding later in life. Just Ride aims to portray riding a bicycle as a fun and uncomplicated activity, and seeks to free it from the seriousness that has been imposed on it by the racing, fitness and advocacy cultures.Each chapter offers advice on some concrete aspect of cycling. For the most part I agree with the advice, and the details I don't agree with don't really matter: You get a handful of bike people in a room and there is seldom a consensus. The important thing, as I see it, is that the advice feels accessible and appealing to beginners and makes them wantto start riding, makes them feel that cycling is for them. Once they get into it, they can form their own preferences about specifics. The main thing is to make them feel inspired and comfortable in the first place, and Just Ridedoes that.




The one thing that distracts from this, is that the book described as "the manual for the unracer" in fact focuses too much on racing, in my view. Even the term "unracer" itself suggests that racing is really the dominant type of riding, so much so that regular riding must be described in terms of what racing is not. Why not just call bike riding "bike riding," instead of turning it into a negative? It seems that the author assumes his readers have already been inundated by the racing culture and all the lycra/clipless/carbon/laterally stiff clutter that entails. But while this may have been true 5+ years ago, today I think it is far less likely. With plain-clothes bicycle commuting being covered by major US newspapers, I do not think racing is necessarily the prism through which novices perceive cycling these days. By mentioning racing constantly Just Ride makes it seem important, sending a mixed message to readers.




But my more serious critique of the book has to do with its interpretation. Namely, I notice that some readers are interpreting Just Ride to mean that there is a very specific way to "just ride," and that those not following Grant Petersen's advice to the letter are doing it wrong. Seriously: Since this book came out, every time I mention clipless pedals, a carbon fork, padded cycling shorts, riding with a club, or enjoying watching a bicycle race, sure enough someone will throw the book at me - telling me that I must read Just Ride and mend my wayward ways. I am pretty sure this is not the spirit in which the book was intended by Mr. Petersen, but nonetheless that is how some folks are seeing fit to use it. And to them I have this to say: We do not need more "you're doing it wrong" narratives in this crazy, fragmented bicycle culture. What we need is more inclusivity. As far as I am concerned, if you are enjoying riding your bike, you are doing it right - regardless of how high your handlebars are or what material your bicycle is made of. Let's all just ride our bikes in ways that make us happy, and not pass judgment on others.




Just Ride may be available at your local bike shop or book store, or it can be purchased from Rivendell direct.

Carlsbad Caverns

Well, my 6 week journey through the West is almost over... today was the last destination in my plans before heading home. That destination was Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southern New Mexico. After an awesome week spent in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge and White Sands National Monument with my friend Roger, we each went our separate ways... Roger headed for home and I headed for Carlsbad.



To be honest, Carlsbad was a spur of the moment decision for me. Since I still had some flexibility before heading home and Carlsbad was not that far away, I decided to head down and check it out. Boy, am I glad that I did! Hiking through Carlsbad Caverns was REALLY cool! I was a little disappointed when I arrived at the park, as the HUGE parking lot was almost filled to capacity. But, I drove all that way to see the cavern so I wasn't going to let the crowd deter me. I arrived at the park in the early afternoon and as it turns out its a good thing I didn't arrive any later than I did. While inquiring about the cave at the information desk the ranger told me they were closing the natural entrance in 5 minutes. So, I had to hustle to get to the entrance in time! I was part of the last group allowed to enter the cave and after our brief 3-minute orientation talk we were sent on our way.



The first section of the hike is VERY steep... the trail switchbacks down through the entrance of the cavern and from the top to the bottom there is an 850 foot elevation loss. "Weak knees are common" the ranger had told us, and he wasn't kidding! By the time I was halfway down my knees were already getting tired. After the first dozen or so switchbacks you are already deep enough down into the cavern that there is very little natural light, and you start to see the first of the artificial light sources that park service staff have installed along the trail. The trail, by the way, is superb. Park service staff have really done an incredible job of constructing the trail through this most forbidding of environments. The trail surface is very smooth and there are nice, sturdy railings lining both sides of the path.



After passing the first few artificial light sources a sign informed visitors that beyond this point, without artificial light, it would be totally dark in the cave and you'd be unable to see. The trail then continued down, down and further down. Switchback after switchback passed, and I soon began to question whether or not the 850 foot elevation number was accurate. It felt like I had descended 1,000 feet or more. Soon, though, the trail leveled out and I was at the "bottom". The hiking became much easier... with some gentle "rolling" terrain and a few short sets of stairs here and there.



Not long after reaching the bottom, the natural formations along the trail began to get a lot more interesting. During the descent into the cavern, the trail passed through some pretty cool and sometimes quite large "rooms", but the walls and ceilings were rather smooth and devoid of any interesting geologic formations. That all changed the closer I got to the bottom, however. Now there were stalagmites and stalactites interspersed along the trail. Walking along this path nearly 1,000 feet below the surface, I felt like I was in my own version of "Journey to the Center of the Earth"!



After walking for about a mile and a half, I arrived in the "Big Room", which is the showcase of Carlsbad Caverns. The "Big Room" is loaded with out-of-this-world geologic formations, and the trail does a large loop throughout the Big Room, passing within a few feet of many of these formations.



Above: Look closely at this image and you can see some people standing near the lower right corner of the image... this gives you an idea as to how big the cavern is!

The "Big Room" is the 3rd largest cave chamber in the Americas, and the 7th largest in the world. It is a natural limestone chamber which is almost 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide and 350 feet high at the highest point. When you are in one of these larger areas of the room and you see the tiny silhouettes of other hikers in the distance, you really get a sense of how immense this cavern is.



After walking the loop around the Big Room and taking several pictures, it was time to head to the surface. Thankfully, there is an elevator that provides quick and convenient access back to the surface. After all the hiking I did around White Sands, and the hike down into and throughout the cavern, I'm not sure I could have climbed 850 feet back to the surface :-) Hiking Carlsbad Caverns was an awesome experience, one that I would highly recommend!



And so comes the end of my journey throughout the West. This is my last entry from the trip... all I have left to do is make the drive from southern New Mexico back to northeast Minnesota. My plan is to stay in Roswell, New Mexico tonight then tomorrow hit the road for home. I don't have any photo stops planned along the route home, so my next blog entry will probably be from the shores of Lake Superior once again. If you've been following along on my journey these past 6 weeks, I hope you've enjoyed the journey (and the images!) and I thank you for following along. Bye for now!

-Travis

It Sounded Too Good to Pass By

Last week, driving along Alabama Highway 72, on the way to Springfield, Missouri we noticed the signs announcing “Coon Dog Cemetery” but didn't have time to stop just then. However, on the way back to Huntsville we made time for a little excursion. Of course, we took the long way around and thought we'd never find it, but eventually it appeared alongside the back-country road.



To be honest, we were laughing and joking about going to a dog cemetery. Now, don't get me wrong, I love dogs and several years ago had to put old Bootsie to rest. It was one of the most emotional things I'd had to do up to that time. So I know how deep the affection can be.



The truth is, we were totally blown away by what we saw when we finally arrived at the cemetery. Nearly 200 coon dogs have been laid to rest in that small plot of ground. Most have markers of some kind – from rustic wooden crosses to fancy stones. And nearly all have flowers, albeit artificial, decorating their resting place. I think my friend Lorene would have enjoyed a stop here...





Only Cemetery of Its Kind In The World.Only Coon Hounds are allowed to be buried.Troop First Dog Laid to Rest here Sept. 4, 1937Please Be Careful With Fire!



Nearly all of the graves are lovingly decorated.



Coon Dog Cemetery came into existence on Labor Day of 1937, when Key Underwood sadly buried his faithful companion “Troop, who was half redbone coonhound and half birdsong, and who was known through out the region as the best. He was "cold nosed," meaning he could follow cold coon tracks until they grew fresh, and he never left the trail until he had treed the coon.”





Track “wasn't the best but he was the best I ever had.”



Ruff Redbone.



Black Ranger “was good as the best and better than the rest.



The variety of styles of markers was fascinating.



Train's grave was originally marked with a brick wrapped in butcher paper.



A traditional marker now marks the spot where Train was laid to rest.



Easy Going Sam was the “Last One on the Wood.”

That's his collar wrapped around the cross.



Looks like the Coon won out over Loud.



There were several markers like this – with the information punched out of metal.

For more information about Coon Dog Cemetery see the “official” website. Also, Travels With Ace has a nice writeup about their visit.

It's About Time...

For those of you who have been wondering where I've wandered off to... let's see... I left Maine on the 28th of September and spent a few days in New Hampshire.







One of many lakes in northern New Hampshire, this one near Milan on Route 16.





As it had been for much of the previous week, it was a foggy, cloudy, rainy day.





But the fall colors were gorgeous.


Then it was a quick drive through Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania to spend the first weekend of October with my Aunt and Cousin and her family in Rockville, Maryland. It was great getting caught up on all the family happenings of the past 3 years! The kids, Connor and Melanie have gotten so big! Thank you to Carol and Eric and Aunt Shirley for their hospitality.



After leaving Rockville, I returned to Berks County, Pennsylvania for two days then headed west to Ohio. Not wanting to return exactly the same way I came into the state in early September (on US 30) and not wanting to take the Toll Road, I took US 22 from Harrisburg all the way through Pittsburg. It is a mostly 4-lane highway through some beautiful countryside. It wasn't quite as "challenging" as driving US 30 but it still had plenty of hills to get over and curves to go around.



After spending one last night in Pennsylvania (at Keystone State Park, east of Pittsburg) I made my way next morning (October 11th) to Lisbon, Ohio and stopped in at the Columbiana County Archives and Research Center. This is a wonderful resource for anyone with Columbiana County ancestors. One of the ladies that works there (both are unpaid volunteers who devote a huge amount of time organizing and indexing their material - a huge Thank You to both of them and the other volunteers) happens to have the "other" John Hoffman in her husband's lineage so we compared notes trying to figure out if or how they might be related.



The next morning, I returned to the Columbiana Archives for a few hours before heading westward once again. It was about then that I realized that I could probably make it to Fort Wayne for the Midwest Geneabloggers .. Fall Meetup! It was about noon on Saturday when I got to the Allen County Public Library where everyone else was already hard at work. After the library closed we all converged at the home of Tina Lyons for a Pizza Party.



I'm so glad that I was able to make it to the meetup and see "old" genealogy-friends again and meet a few new ones too. I had a great time - thanks to everyone there and thanks especially to Tina for organizing it and to her and her husband for hosting the after-research party.



So, here it is, October 23rd, and where am I? Still in Indiana, where I'll be for a little while longer until I get a few "things" resolved. And then? I'll be heading out to somewhere a bit warmer, at least for a little while...



And, because my grand-nephew, Zachariah, was born 18 years ago on this date, I want to wish him a very special birthday...






Ah, yes! We were both much younger back then! Happy Birthday, Zach.

Heliconia Success

A few months ago, I collected about twenty seeds of a low-growing tropical heliconia that was, despite frost, thriving outdoors in the open. I brought the seeds home and scattered them in a trough of soil, and now they have germinated. I read that they can take up to ten months to germinate, so it seems to be a miracle that the seeds have grown in the dead of winter. The species is Heliconia psittacorum. The picture on the right shows a flower on the plant from which I collected seed.

Date Night and Day

We have tried to keep up on our date night since arriving here. What we have not enjoyed in many months is a day off together. I work every weekend and Nathan works during the week. Patti that I work with worked for Donna today. So she told me to take the day off and she covered for me too. We were so tickled pink to have a date night and a date day.



Last night we went to Abuelo's in Lakeland. We then went to the movie, The Vow, which was very touching.



We spent time in a bookstore after that where Nathan and I ventured off to different sections. When I went to find him, I found him in this section:



We arrived home very late to a frantic girl that is not used to being home alone that long. She paid us back by waking us up bright and early this morning.



That's ok because we had more fun scheduled for today. We ate a great breakfast in bed, hung out trying to figure out how to get audio books from Box.net to our phones. Then we headed out to Lake Wales. We stopped at a BBQ place for lunch.



They were really busy and told us they only had a half booth available. We said no problem and they said we would get dessert for free if we ate there. I was very excited to hear that. This is a half booth, and this is our free dessert.



Nathan ate his share of the huge 1/4 of a pie dessert and then ventured over into my territory and helped himself until I threatened to stab him with my fork. Everything we ate here was excellent.



After that we were off to Bok Towers. Diana and I took the kids to visit this neat place before, but Nathan had never visited before today. He really enjoyed it. All of the pictures here are from my phone, but I'll try to edit and add more pictures from the big camera this week.







When we arrived home, we saw Rich outside so we went over to see how their pickleball tournament went. We ended up sitting and having a nice time chatting with he and Donna and trying something I really enjoyed. I told Nathan to put it on the grocery list and I'll share more about that later.



It was a great day and it was so nice to have a whole day together!



Living the life in Florida!

Parisian morning: A stroll on the River Seine and a quick encounter with a Parisian stranger

It’s just been 2 weeks since I was in Paris and now it felt like forever. My life is fast-paced, mostly because of my work, so I try to squeeze in a lot of ‘me’ and ‘doing nothing much’ time into my schedule to recover, keep my sanity and put my feet firmly on the ground. Work can sometimes be overwhelming so a short or long trip in between to unwind and forget about corporate slavery is always welcome. I should not complain because this slavery has rewarded me the €€€.

So on our second day in Paris, we will be taking the free boat trip from the hotel but before doing so Bru and I would like to do a typical Parisian stroll along the River Seine, from Bastille to the Notre Dame Church area where we will have coffee.

Here’s some of the pictures we took during the stroll:

Bru and I. Bru does not like the sun. She avoids it more than I do =)

Playing the tourist here.

At the café around the corner of Notre Dame we had coffee. Our table was tactically located for people watching, which I never take any less anyway. We were sitting right on the corner street with a view to the Notre Dame Church.

While Bru was at the toilet freshening herself up, I briefly and awkwardly met a Parisian stranger.

French men by the way are generally not my type. I don’t know why. But they are a charming lot, and romantic and often tell a woman that she is beautiful. Something that the Dutch totally lack. A French man can woo a woman and sweep her off her feet, while the Dutch will never get the hint even if she says, ‘It would be nice if you surprise me tonight with some flowers, or a dinner perhaps.’ But the smooth talker French man has higher chances of taking a mistress on the side than the boring, loyal and reliable Dutch man.

Alright, there goes your stereotypes =). Haha.

Anyway, I was totally embarrassed, red-faced. In front of everyone, this Parisian man just came up to me and declared his admiration. I felt the ground swallowing me up. He even wanted to sit down but I told him that I am with someone. He got the hint and left me with quixotic phrases to mull over about. And I was puzzled like--Huh, what was that all about? These kinds of encounters rarely happen in the Netherlands you know. But I do not go out a lot as well sitting on cafe teracces...

Situations like these always reminds me the risks of a female travelling alone. I’ve had worse encounters with men in Spain and in Italy. But the French remains the ones with finesse. They know the complex art called ‘woman’.

I am a sucker for strategic cafe seating and people watching. Best spot near Notre Dame.

Bru and moi having morning coffee around the corner of Notre Dame Church.

More Paris stories soon! BISOUS.