I leave in less than a month...24 days to be exact, and I am grinding my way through each one of them. I have made copious lists of things I need to do before I leave: transplant hostas, clean deck railing, weed eat a path down to the creek (my grandkids like to catch craw dads) and a hundred other things.
My "chain" is almost gone...I have just 6 more days of substitute teaching left, and the break will be most welcome. The other day I had a class of students with behavioral issues...how many ways can you say, "That is not appropriate." ? Most are coming to classes with a suitcase full of hurts and choices gone awry. One young fellow's dad died last summer. So...empathy is the folder that holds the curriculum.
Last weekend I rode up the Columbia Gorge with about 50 other cycling tourers. It was a great training ride for me...distances of 60 miles a day with elevation gains of 2000'-3000'. It is not unusual for us to get rain, rain, and more rain on this annual 4-day ride, but this year, the weather was stellar. The wind, on the other hand, nearly ate us alive. Between Biggs and Viento State Park, sustained winds were blowing 25 m.p.h. with gusts up to 39 m.p.h. I saw stand-up paddle boarders between Cascade Locks and Hood River...going UPriver because of the wind. Crazy...but great training.
I had put a new set of tires on the Rodriguez...a pair of Continental Top Tourers with a width of 1.75". These tires should be able to handle any kind of road surface I run into on my trip. They are the same kind of tires that I used on my cross-country trip back in 2005 and I was happy with their performance. I did have two flats the first day of the Gorge trip and though I found small pinholes in the same place in the tube, I never did find anything in the tire. Sometimes, flats are a mystery. I have purchased a new set of STI shifters to replace the ones that got clogged with Arizona dust on my 50/50/50 ride in 2012, but I don't know if I will take the time to change them out or not. Right now, in order to get the chain to come back down the cassette, I have to reach across the handlebars with my left hand and apply a little pressure to the shifter while I shift with my right hand. It's a hassle, but I have been using that shifter that way for three years now...I'm not sure I'd know how to act with a fully functioning set.
