June 2006 Archives

Hi! This is Nathan.

I promised Rachael I'd post some pictures for her. These are the pictures from when she was bicycling through Pennsylvania.

We watched Shaun of the Dead. I know you're wondering why the little girl who got nightmares from Who Framed Roger Rabbit would think as an adult that she could handle a spoof of Dawn of the Dead. Well I got lured in by the love interest. The first 1/2 hour lead me to believe that the movie was more of a social commentary- as in people are living their lives like zombies...but no. The real zombies came along with blood and gore. Oh- it was hilarious. I actually fell asleep laughing...

but in the back of my brain lurked the images of goulish zombies.

I am also reading a historical novel about the 1893 World'sFair- which is when Americans were first introduced to those Cracker Jacks my father remembers so fondly. Devil in the White City also tells the story of the killer who designed his own building to lure female workers and residents. He built in what I believe will be gas chambers and a chute for permenant waste storage. The last thing I read before sleeping was about a famous Jack the Ripper killing that was in the news at the time (gross!)

Now, dear readers, imagine the dreams I might be having. They were in fact rather peaceful. A sudden though expected storm came in around 11:30. At the first sound of thunder and sight of lightening I awoke to my own voice screaming bloody murder. I was on Eric's side of the bed clinging to his arm. Luckily he has a good sense of humor and was VERY kind and underestanding.

"I think perhaps, that we should stay away from the fake scary movies," I said as I tried to calm my ferocious beating heart.

On day three I was anticipating many terrible hills because we were returning to Elizabethtown and basically we would have to go over much of the same hilly terain as we did on our way out of Elizabethtown, PA. Let me tell you just a little about these hills. I'm sure you're all well aware of the fact that PA is mountainous- but I will attach a photo that has a hill in the background(my pic is too big, ou'll have to request by e-mail). It is THE conquered hill. We went up and up and up. Eric's bike has a computer. He said the we were goin up hill for two full miles. This trip- and that hill specifically- has become the acomplishment in my life thus far. That may sound absurd- but it's true!

So, I'm anticipating a rough day- but what happened was unbelievable. I was riding when I noticed the sensation that the right pedal was pushing back against my foot. I thought I was imagining things until I could see that not only was my pedal out of sync, it was coming out. The boys had fun trying to fix it. We went back 1/3 mile to an antique/junk shop. THe guy said we could have a biuke for $10. But the problem with the bpedal was that the inside threads were completely worn. SO that didn't work out. Jason rigged a piece of wood with a washer and screw on the other side. THat lasted about 20 feet. In the end we tried many things- but the most successful was tying the wooden peg on with some string. Eric hauled ass to the Car and Jason and I went on to the next town. WIth Jason riding my bike (w/ only one pedal) and me riding Jason's loaded bike we only waited about two hours for Eric to meet up with us. To our great disappoinment everything was closed early for memorial day. We ordered a big as pizza with extra dough. I usually can't stand pizza after biking but this pizza hit the spot.

My bike is still in the shop which is too bad cause the weather is perfect for riding. On the up side our house is much cleaner than it has been in months because I haven't been sick or biking on the weekend.

So... I figure I'll start with this one since it has a racy title. As we travelled on our three day tour we were bathing impaired. Imagine a full day of biking with no major bathroom access followed by a night being one of two people in a cozy two person tent. All of the camping places along the way were RV camping places that cost $30 a night and required a three day stay because of the holiday. So- we decided that our strategy would be to roll into town and talk to the local police. Rumor has it this has been sucessful for other bikers. In Ephrata, however - we had no such luck. Fortunately we ran into some other bikers who let us stay in their backyard. Point is- by the end of the second day we were all pretty disgusting. We washed our clothes as we went but our laundry was still pretty rank when we returned on Monday. Genorous applications od sunscreen added to our general feeling of stickiness.

In addition to the stickiness was a pain that is difficult to ignore- and that is the literal pain in the ass! Ouch. The first day my poor bum was in sad shape. Every time we stopped I immediately massaged my rear end. Yikes. By the second and third day I was a bit more used to the sensation and also found some good strategies for alleviating the pain while coasting downhill.