Washington D.C. to Bridgton

Date: November 1st, 2010
Song of the Day: Drive - R.E.M

Left the capitol and drove straight on up to Maine. Nothing too exciting about the drive. I guess I have just gotten used to drive 12 hours or more at a stretch.

Got to the family home up in Bridgton, Maine. My aunt and uncle live up here. Their son Adam put me up in Indiana, and I stayed with their other son Allen way back in Morocco.

I plan on sticking up here for a few weeks. Hopefully I will get some writing done. I have far too many ideas kicking around in my head. I want them out and on paper. Of course I thought of two more ideas on the way out. So it doesn't bode well for actually having less ideas floating around my mind than when I started. Oh well.

The Lakes Region of Maine is a good place for writing though. I guess Steven King has a house about 12 miles away. It is quiet and calm. Frankly, not a lot of night life or distractions around here. So with any luck I will get a few things written.

-Dravis

West Lafayette to Washington D.C.

Date: October 28th-31st, 2010
Song of the Day: Woke up in a Car - Something Corporate

Left Indiana this morning. Went through Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and back to West Virginia. Spent the night in Maryland. Drove into D.C. in the morning.

When I got to the city, my friend Sarah wasn't off work yet. So I rode around through the city. I really love the capitol mall. The monuments. The Smithsonian. With all the people though, it makes it a bit hard to bike through. Getting out onto the Potomac and some of the other places was less crowded and a lot more fun for real biking.

The next day I went to the Rally to Restore Sanity. That was a lot of fun. For some idiotic reason though I decided to take the metro instead of walk. That was a dumb idea. I couldn't get on in the right direction, so I had to head all the way to the end of the line in Virginia and wait until the train turned around to come back. The crowds were just crazy. It took me a good 30 minutes of walking through to get to a place I could even hear anything. I only saw a little bit of the performance on one of the screens when the person in front of me would move a little bit. Still, it was a lot of fun. Really I went to be there and see people. The signs were great. I will post a few of my favorites below.

Spent Halloween quietly with my Sarah and some of her friends. Had "lunch" with them, which lasted all afternoon. Played some games and generally had a good time. Thanks Sarah for letting me stay at you place. See you at Christmas.

-Dravis

Denver to West Lafayette

Date: October 25th-28th, 2010
Song of the Day: MFC - Pearl Jam

Left Denver this morning. Drove straight through to Iowa, two miles from the Illinois border, before stopping to rest for the night. The next day it was crazy windy driving into Indiana.

In West Lafayette I met up with my cousin Adam and his wife Sarah. They are great. Plus they have two big dogs (boxers) Rusty and Daisy. Sweet dogs, but a little slobbery. Adam is working on his P.h.D. So that was a lot of fun to talk with him about what he was working on. Adam also took me around Purdue, and told me all the news that was going on there. Sarah worked until fairly late, but would be by for dinner. So we would have a good dinner together. It was great to catch up with them. Thanks guys.

-Dravis

Portland to Denver

Date: October 22nd-25th, 2010
Song of the Day: A Life of Arctic Sounds - Modest Mouse

The trip from Portland to Denver was a hell of a drive. I did about sixteen hours from Oregon into Wyoming before crashing at a rest stop there. Woke up the next morning and continued on. I got a bit of snow through Wyoming over Medicine Bow, but nothing too bad. The drivers actually seemed to be pretty good. Slowed down to keep it safe.

Colorodo was a different story. The drivers had a wicked habit of speeding up to 75 then slamming on the breaks! The first time that happened I was just a couple of feet from hitting the car in front of me. Not something nice to do to a guy who had just driven a thousand miles. I was just saved by the space that I normally keep between me and the car ahead. But idiots kept using that space to cut in front of me and then slam on their breaks. So annoying.

I did get into Denver without serious bodily harm. I met up with my friend Ryan who was with me on the last road trip. He is now living with his brother in Denver and showed me around downtown a bit. We had a pretty good time. There was also a Zombie Walk going on.

The next day I went for a bike ride. Denver has a great system of intra city trails. I did 30 miles through the city. It was quite a bit of fun. I like my new bike a lot. Though I did have one clip out fail. It feels pretty stupid to just fall over sideways. I will try to avoid that in the future.

That evening Ryan' brother Sean and his wife Thanvee came back. We had a good evening hanging out. Ryan cooked a great dinner. Thanks to all of them for letting me stay.

-Dravis

Seattle to Portland

Date: October 21st, 2010
Song of the Day: 405 - Death Cab for Cutie

The first stop on my trip is just a short jump away to Portland, Oregon. I went down to see my cousins, James and Erika, in Portland and their kids. Plus I got to see their menagerie, 2 dogs and three cats. I also got to see their new place. Thanks guys for a hearty meal. I will try to stop by again on my way back through in December.

-Dravis

Road Trip - 2010

Yep, that is right, I am off on another road trip. This time I am heading out alone. I am using my old '96 Plymouth Voyager. Oh yeah. With 183,000 miles on it, well, I hope it doesn't strand me, but so far, so well. The other good things about this particular car, I can fit a mattress in the back to crash at rest stops along the way. I can also put my new bike in there. So I can get some riding in while I am on the road. With a rack of Mt. Dew, I am all set.

More updates to come.

-Dravis

New Bike

Since I have been back I haven't done much biking. I did steal my younger brother's bike for a bit. It didn't really fit well as he is half a foot taller than I am. (Really, the kid is huge. Towering over the rest of the family.) My Africa bike "Molly" was in pretty bad shape with the frame crack and all. So I decided to get myself something new.

I decided to go with a cyclocross/commuter bike. I got a Jake the Snake frame from Kona as the base. From there it was all a custom build. First, I only wanted a rear derailer. In my normal style of biking I almost never shift out of the largest chainring. Having the extra gears and derailer is just more weight and more to maintain. I am also not one of those guys who is trying to get perfect cadence and crap. Instead, I went with a mountain cassette that had a big gear ratio (11-34). Also, I never liked the drop handlebars on road bikes. I went with the pursuit bars, which I think look better. I thought the bar end shifter would fit into the time trial levers I got though. Nope. I had to grind out some of the shifter mount to make it work. Remember my motto: "Anything worth owning is worth modifying."
Now that it is all together, it is beautiful. Everything works and it is a dream to ride. Plus, coming in under 20 pounds it feels like a feather compared to any other bike I have ever ridden.

So here are the specs:

• Frameset: Kona - Jake the Snake 2010 frame and fork (49cm).
• Wheels: Mavic Ksyriam Equipe
• Crank: Sram S100 1.1 crank and chaninring
• Shifter: Shimano Dura-Ace SL BS77 9 speed bar end shifter. (Rear only.)
  
• Rear Derailer: Shimano RD-M772-GS
  
• Rear Cassette: Shimano Deore XT-M770 9 speed cassette (11-34)
• Brakes: Cane Creek 200TT levers and Cane Creek SCX-5 cantilever brakes

-Dravis

Rock'n Horse 2.0 - Fail

So, this didn't actually happen. Everyone who said they were going to come ended up ditching out on me at the last minute. I must give Jonn-E and Erin the Leaky Bucket award for bailing last. They also picked me up later in the afternoon to ride some of the trails on Tiger Mountain. Not quite what I had planned, but still fun.

This won't be the end of the Rock'n Horse though. I don't know when, but I am sure to come service pack 1 at some point. So stay tuned for more details.

-Dravis