Fake Happiness?

I spent some time in the south while traveling around and the people there seem to live like shit a lot. I was hanging out at the low end of the economic scale. Lots of disabled people and the disabled tend to have less wealth. The people seemed to be content though and I had a hard time understanding it. They all complained about the place, nothing to do it was hot and muggy whatever. I wondered how these people didn't kill themselves in this day after day despair and yet most of them seemed to be happy. In a very interesting talk I listened to by Dan Gilbert I was given a bit of explanation. I have been listening to TED talks at their web site and they are fascinating. I enjoy listening to really bright people talking about interesting things. I have a very stunted perspective based on isolation and expanding my outlook is always a good thing I tend to be flexibly rigid in my thinking. Anyway back to fake happiness the brain can make you happy with what you get even when it is not what you want as long as you don't have to think about it too much. This is a simplified version of Gilbert's talk. The mind seems to be set up to keep most people from going crazy and my guess is this evolved because you can't always get what you want. The science bears out the monks, "happiness is wanting what you have". turns out that eventually you will like what you end up with. I am curious as to how this works in the third world as many of the depressed people would medicate with drugs and alcohol. If you are happy why are you stoned or are you happy because you get stoned? The bottom end threshold, at what point do the physical circumstances make a difference. This research was conducted on college students and people in a hospital so how would that translate to the truly poor. The marketing implications are interesting and it fits into the consciousness question how does you know you are happy? This always gets back to the question how did we get from a big blob of cells to a thought? Along that vein look up wether or not anyone is thinking about the communication between bacterium and between neurons.

Solstice nonsense

The rain stopped so I got in some bike time today. It was bitter cold for us and the stamina is gone. I still feel bad but the neck swelling is going down. If the weather holds I will get back to serious training but the start date will be in the spring as I just can't handle the cold. This time of year I am always in a bad mood anyway but this year I am wondering how the drop in exercise is effecting me. I was doing so well and it is hard to know how much of my feeling bummed is from not getting the buzz from the ride. the combo of that and being sick and in pain as opposed to the time of year. It just wears on me to be bombarded with Holiday bullshit. The hypocrisy of the christ hits me at every turn and just pounds the fact that your life is not normal if you don't buy in to this buying. The news is bad on the freedom front as they are pepper spraying people that are trying to save their low income housing trying to out scum bag each other. the republicans just make things up as they go along and the democrats bend over for them. the strategy to try and work with the pigs and get a bigger majority in 08 seems like a disaster as the war is only horrible right now as opposed to titanic disaster and the news has moved on to something else. the tools of the corporate scum have got everyone thinking they will loose their job to a Mexican and that might work for the repugs.

Prophet of doom sort of

The world will not end with a whimper or a bang but will simply collapse under the massive weight of bullshit that is heaped upon it. I am beginning to understand why so many people are willing to believe that they live in the end of days no matter when they were living. There have always been problems no matter when you lived. Most of the worlds history is about one strange group or another coming over the horizon and kicking ass and taking slaves. Today in north America and Europe we are pretty safe but that has only been true for a short period and it is still somewhat dependent on race and class as to how secure your fortunes truly are. All this being said I think we are boned to the scone for real this time and not because Jesus is coming.
The Internet is great for research but if you really want to blow your mind youtube cannot compete with the tube. I was watching democracy now on public access and they were showing Al Gore and the Nobel awards and IPCC scientists talking about the dire state of the climate. then the discussion turns to the Bali conference and the facts that things are far worse than we thought and the reductions that we were supposed to be making have not worked and emissions are growing faster than predicted. In the face of this evidence we have the Moron in Chief saying that we will never agree to any mandatory limit on pollution. This by now has become a buzz kill of the 9 nth order and Anna's cam show does not start for another 20 minutes and I am not ready to start work yet so I flip around the dial to cspan and what are they debating on the floor of the senate but the energy bill. Some Idiot republican is proposing an amendment to cut subsidies for renewable energy that was paltry to begin with to give the money to oil and gas companies.
It was then I knew we were living in the end of times. Not the biblical nonsense but the slow painful death of civilization. We are not going to going to solve this problem without a tremendous amount of suffering, death and misery. It has already started for the poor in Africa, The D. R. Congo, Darfur and Somalia are primarily conflicts caused by drought reducing useable land and millions are suffering horribly. We are fighting wars for oil now but soon we will be fighting for fresh water. The problem stems from the fact that by the time the proof for the green house effect becomes irrefutable to the dumbest segment of the populace it is way too late. I am of the opinion that it is already too late as by the time you get enough evidence together that all can agree on in anything you have by the nature of the thing watered down the extremes and moved to the middle predictions. As the evidence continues to come in it points to the fact that the chicken little doomsayers were actually optimists. The models now show that the melting of glaciers is ahead of predictions as is the melting of permafrost. As a result by the time we get to point that even the greediest republican can no longer deny it it is already game over and until we get to that point the system will keep change from happening. My head did not explode but the bullshit was pilling up as it is pilling up around the world

The torture question

Today we are watching the mainstream media talking about the CIA destroying some tapes that were taken during some torture sessions. The debate is not about when we are going to bring these men into a court of law and prosecute them for crimes against humanity but about whom they told before they destroyed the evidence. In the weekend news cycle there was a story about a large cash award to settle a case in which 4 men were tortured to confess to a crime in Ohio. The reason these stories bother me so much is the lack of outrage. Bush stands up and says “we don’t torture” and all the while he has videotapes of us torturing. The lie is bad the cover up will be worse and the consequences will be disaster and the saddest thing of all was that it was apparently unnecessary. We feel bad when the wrong guy goes to prison and we ring our hands and give them a few dollars but the cops are coercing confessions everyday playing one poor man against another in a rigged system that allows the police to abuse people at their whim. We don’t like to admit that we are scared little sheep but would we allow such atrocities if we were not. We find out that members of congress were aware that we were roughing people up in questionable ways and they were pretty much ok with it. The Spin factory is trying to make this the story that Nancy Pelosi new and so that made it ok for the Whitehouse to lie about this. They have used this we briefed the gang of four so what we did was cool bull in the past and the moron democrats have let it go by. This time they may get out and point out what a bunch of crap it is but do not count on it.
In the end the coup has worked because of the war on terror. Once they got the long war freedom had lost and the truth could no longer win. We are never going to impeach with troops in the field. No matter how criminal they get we will not have the trial until the war is over and that is why the war will never end. Again I posit that the need is not there for all this subterfuge. It is in our nature to turn on the week when we get authority over them Millgram and Stanford prison showed that so you don’t even have to give the specific order. All you have to do is set up the situation and let nature do the dirty work presto changeo Abu Graib. In the end the problem is that we don’t care that a bad guy gets screwed even if it turns out he was not a bad guy. We hear all the right wing nutbags talk about 24 and how that shows America approves of torture and unfortunately they are right.

No politics today

I have been ranting about politics a lot rather than the ride as I have been sick since the ride to Camel Rock. This has concerned me a lot as I honestly believed I had gotten myself into a better state of health. I am still unable to get out and ride any distance and if a little bug can whip me this hard inside with heat and plumbing I am for the first time questioning the wisdom of the project for real. I always knew it was a long odds kind of thing but was confident I was up to the start. Anyway I have not punked out yet and hope to be back on the road soon. I am giving serious thought to pushing back the departure to spring though.

When they are out to get you its hard to know when your just being paranoid.

I often see things in media that make me think somebody had to have made that up. The proposition is simply unsupported by fact. I am well aware that large portions of what are presented as news is created by companies to promote one product or another. If the media companies own the movie and the news than promoting the movie becomes news. The new discovery in science that will lead to something and that something is a drug and so we drive up the speculation on this or that stock. The TV reason d’etre is to sell us crap we don’t need to fill up a hole we do not have so I expect that but at some point the news began trying to shape the political debate with the same style of fraud and that is scary.
It scares me because it is almost impossible to know as it is happening. I am thinking like Bill Mahr in that the crazies can drive out the reasoned. When you make everything a conspiracy the real ones get by while you sort out the nonsense. If you spend all your time trying to make people believe that the neoclowns blew up the buildings you miss them taking away the right of privacy and assembly in the aftermath. But I digest; Naomi Wolff has a great book Disaster Capitalism that makes the point much better than I.
I am asking a different question when the media spends so much time talking about nonsense how do we know when they just made the whole thing up. I have an example and I would love to get some help from the blogosphere on how to proceed.
The constant Dobbs anti immigrant harangue and the Republican effort to try to turn brown into the new gay to win elections got me to question this and the more I looked the more it sent my bullshit detector into the brown. A couple of days ago the media both mainstream TV and the internet were awash in stories about a new reality TV show that was going to get a citizen to date a bunch of noncitizens and see if they could spark a romance. I admit that what they call reality TV does not appeal tome for the most part but that is taste and it is a large nation in that respect. I don’t get off on humiliation but that is a huge fetish out there so I won’t go there. People like to watch people being berated by chefs with accents and CEOs with bad combovers I don’t get it but entertainment is the only thing I think the free market can effectively not destroy so I have revealed my bias lets move on.
On its face “Who wants to marry a citizen”, is no dumber than a shot at love with the myspace bi or the bachelor so you sort of accept the story at face value and go straight to the reaction they seem to be trying to evoke distaste for immigrants. I said above that I look at what are they selling with all news but especially entertainment so who is the audience for this show Is it likely to court the 18 to 34 cool money spending demo? I don’t think so and this is why. The people that watch these identify with the participants. They want to see self-degradation not other. If you think maybe you are expanding the brand again I don’t see that working as it is my experience that people that are given real shit in their lives to deal with seek out different styles of entertainment. I may be wrong on this one as having spent time in the south I am familiar with the spread the misery around mentality of the blues and country music. So now I have reason to wonder what kind of company pitches this and so I do what everyone tries first I Google the production company and see what happens. The only things I find are hits about this crappy TV show. For an alterative media the net is obsessed with the mainstream so many were sites reporting canned press release news. Then there were the issue blogs about what this would mean for western civilization. These are people like fox news that stirs up a nonexistent war on Christmas each year by taking an incident and distorting the facts to create a news story about something completely different. This is the type of story they live for and they had indeed gone batshit for the story and generated a huge volume of stories. Eventually I found a link to a record company that was in fact an internet radio station with very little else they did have a story about a free internet pope tribute song and a benefit concert they were involved with promoting. The company also has a relationship to Mandalay entertainment the Las Vegas casino group but I will come back to that. I am not a TV industry worker so I don’t know maybe companies that have no history pop up and sell shows, everyone starts from somewhere and the fact that I see this as total crap doesn’t prove they were not genuinely try to make this into a program. It just raises some questions that no one in any of the stories being written about it was asking. Then I found a link to a short promo for the show and after watching it I am convinced that this is a propaganda piece created for the sole purpose of giving media a story to reinforce their anti immigration agenda. It is of course possible that these people are just really bad at making media those of you that have seen my youtube channel know that I have a lot of nerve mentioning quality but I am a malcontent not a professional in media of any type and this was overwhelmingly bad. It had that fake feel of the bad infomercial.
Now what to do? This is a question I need the web help with. If they are just bad at what they do and not malicious then they will loose their investment when the idea flames out and the market will speak. But if they are just generating propaganda how do you get that message out and how does one individual find the proof? I will be revisiting this when I find out a bit more. This is a link that you can view the video I refer to. www.hookacitizen.com look closely at the disclaimers.

swollen joint blues

I have been trying to maintain the training but I have been feeling like crap since the Camel rock trip. The glands in my neck have swollen as have my knees and the painfull burning in my finers has returned from a few hour long rides. I shaved my beard to get a look at my glands so I have an odd look for me sort of Fester with freckles. LOL I hve been monitoring my bp and it has remained high so I am not sure what is going on. The glands do not feel hard or encapsulated so I may have picked up a virus somewhere. I will wait a few days but if I don't improve I may have to go back to the doctor.

The freedom to fly though the windshield

Libertarianism doesn’t work for me in the complex modern society. In the early days of human existence we were a bunch of tribes making a living as hunter-gatherers. As populations increased we eventually developed a more complex society thanks primarily to the development of agriculture and writing. The domestication of plants and animals gave us some control over food supplies, as we are a poorly adapted predator. We are not strong, fast and we don’t have much in the way of fangs. As much as we don’t like the idea we were probably more scavenger than great hunter until we began to develop technology. First language then writing magnified the effects of that technology until today we have the capacity to willfully destroy the world and unwittingly destroy life on a mass extinction level. We have adapted to live in a new social order also. The history of man as political animal is primarily one of rule by the strongest much like other animal groups. Again as we developed we acquired more complex structures to govern our interactions but we are still for the most part ruled by strongmen. Democracy is an ideal that does not exist anywhere although varying amounts of democratic principles are exercised by different nations. This has led us to the various isms of which libertarianism is on my mind. The libertarians claim to be the champions of individual freedom but to me they are just selfish to the extreme. This seems to be a creation of the privileged to justify their behavior. I was reading a critique of Aynn Rand earlier and that is what stimulated this entry. Atlas Shrugged is 50 years old. I just can’t justify extolling the individual to the detriment of the larger society the way she and the libertarians advocate. If we as a species are going to survive we are going to have to arrive at an accommodation with socialism. The capitalist system is a tyranny especially as practiced by the libertarians. They want to be free to use land as they see fit without regulation of any kind. In practice this destroys the environment that we all must live in. They somehow have adapted natural selection to society in such a way that land holders are the fittest and the rule of law exist to preserve their status and nothing else. They are unwilling to deal with the concept that in a society as complex as ours no one can prosper without cooperation. If you are free to ignore the recommended vaccinations for your children than eventually the diseases like measles and mumps that used to kill huge numbers would return. We see this at college campuses on occasion today. We set up free trade agreements to get around environmental and labor protections in the mane of economic development and we get poison products and poison air. I would like to see the libertarians like Ron Paul that extol freedom for them but want restrictions on abortion and isolation as a foreign policy challenged on the face of their arguments. Seatbelt laws save lives and they reduce the burden on the rest of us to care for the victims of accidents. You are not free to poison my air I don’t care how many brown people you are willing to kill to keep your private property

Turkey day at Camel rock

I decided to embrace global warming and ride up the coast for the holiday. The weather was dry and the wind cold but high fifties at the end of November is a little weird. I thought I had been getting in shape but towing a loaded trailer on a bike is different than just riding evidently as I was whipped by the ride up and ended camping at clam beach. The next day I went up the hill to Westhaven and Camel rock to watch the surfers. A great day all in all even though today I am one sore puppy. 25 miles out and then 35 on day two with the hills between the Little River and Trinidad it was exhausting. The condensation problem was reduced by seam sealing the tent fly but not completely eliminated even though I used the extra stakes and guyed the fly to avoid any contact. The poles still touch but it was very minor.
The road kill was odd this trip, along with the usual skunks and crows I was distraught to see one of my favorite birds dead in McKinleyville, a Peregrine falcon. I also saw the body of a red fox, I did not even know there were any foxes left around here so that was a bit of a drag.
The wind driven surf was up to 4 or 5 feet and there were a lot of surfers out. A bit of a surprise although winter surfing is the norm in northern California.The film I shot was overwhelmed by the sunshine so it is too washed out to post I think.

Happy Genocide Day

The cold clear blue sky will be my blanket tonight as I am taking to the road once again. No rain in the forecast so I am off to Patrick's Point state park. I am a little ambivalent about this holiday as it is about many things I find abhorrent. There is no god so who or is it whom? Am I am giving thanks to? Also it was the beginning of the greatest genocide in the history of the world. I include the slave trade in this but some call that a separate slaughter. Either way I don't see it as cause for celebration. And then we have Black Friday the most obscene day in our modern culture when we drag our bloated bellies off to box mart and buy the fruits of child labor to stick under our dead trees to celebrate a fantasy that is the root of much of Americas bigotry. How can you not love it?

Why the writers deserve to loose?

The training is progressing as inexorably as the change of seasons. 20 miles in a bitter cold wind is a major buzz kill but the clear blue of the sky will help to clear your mind. I have been reading about cultural evolution and memes as part of my exploration of philosophy and that brings me to my title for today's blather.

The writers of television for better or worse are the driving force in cultural evolution in the modern world. TV is the primary shared experience in American culture and the viral memes that it spreads permeate our public opinion. I will confess that I have stopped watching episodic TV for the most part as I am outside the target demographic and it just doesn't have the entertainment value for me that it once did. I still tune in to the new Simpson episodes and watch PBS but I get my news from I.N.N. and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. When ABC put their programs up on the web in HD I was at first eager to check it out as living at the ass end of the technology pipeline we have not been participants in the Hd revolution. Until last year we did not even have the high speed Internet due to a dispute over 20 miles of fiber optics. Then I went to the web page and found that there was not a single show that I would waste a half hour watching but that is about taste and my point is about culture. The writers of Hollywood have consistently ridiculed the protest movement and organized labor in their programs for decades. Union leaders are portrayed as no better than mafia dons and the protesters of social injustice on the picket lines are pot smoking hippies or communist dopes. Now the seeds of this despicable duplicity have come home to roost and the average person thinks these overpaid writers are trying to get paid for nothing. They have denigrated the teamsters as lazy union protected slobs and are now surprised when others are not flocking to their cause in union solidarity. They have repeatedly proclaimed the teachers union as the reason our children are not educated rather than the feeble funding of schools. Now that you have created a culture that hates unions and decries the dignity of labor you expect other workers to line up for you to get paid. I am afraid I must say reap what you sow.

Free market myths

Being a native Californian I have had the opportunity to see firsthand the bullshit that happens when the free market morons get to deregulate a functioning system and steal billions of dollars. The republican policy of privatization has failed every time it is allowed to be implemented. We have seen what happens when you let the industry write the regulations, unbreathable air, fish so poluted with heavy metals that it negates the benefits of omega threes to eat them and real living standards falling like a rock for the middle class. My question for republicans is can you show me one example where your free market policies have solved a problem just one? I have a list as long as my arem of its failures just show me one instance that you can back up with facts where the free market has solved any social problem.

Cold, wet soreand disgusted

Winter seems to have arrived with a vengeance or maybe I have become a major pussy in my sleep. The rain and fog cut into my joints like rusty nails when I rode yesterday and I am groaning mightily this AM. The cold weather is not the only thing getting me down these days but it is enough. The politics of this nation have again become a major buzz kill. I watched the dancing monkeys of the Democratic Party shuck and jive to the moronic questions at the CNN debate from Nevada. I don’t know why the folks that own that network hate immigrants so much, it could be they are just the most convenient scapegoat or maybe they just don’t like the sound of Spanish? Does it really matter to that many people I don’t know? I am not worried that the guy that picks the grapes or the motel maid is sneaking a bomb over the border in a backpack. As a human being I am offended that we let American corporations go to the Latin American nations and destroy their economies pollute their farm lands and ensure that they can no longer grow their own food, (Monsanto and others actually produce crops that cannot be used as seed to control foreign economies) and then we want to build a fence and say starve. With the coming changes in climate the day may come that our Canadian neighbors to the north may build their own fence and tell us to go fuck ourselves when it gets to be 120 in the shade in Texas in December. Wtf at least my arthritis won’t be aching

Has anyone seen my sense of humor?

Spent the day on another long ride and for some reason instead of the usual calm i got a bit pissed. if I were a better writer maybe I could convey my feeling to you in print but instead I decided a little video rage was in order.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k83TkJJ4Gyw

Wasted day

The web site for the secretary of state has rules for recalling a us senator but they are apparently bullshit as I went to the election commission to get the specific state codes and there aren't any. Turns out you have to impeach them so I wasted a lot of time and the war criminal Feinstein is beyond the reach of the law. One can only hope that in the future when the war crimes trials are held she can stand in the dock with Bush and the other torturers.
For science fans out there tonight's Nova on PBS is about the Intelligent design Vs science argument in the courts of Kansas hope you can catch it. Got in a short ride today as the weather was clear but anger ate my energy so I will get back to training tomorrow.

Unnatural selection or Why do smart people believe such ridiculous ideas

The weather has turned cold and wet so the training has gotten a bit miserable. I am racking up the miles and trying to do as many hills as I can find but I am doing laps instead of long trips as I like to be close to home if it starts to pour. I am hoping for a break in the weather next week so I can test the sealed seams of the tent.

I was listening to a podcast from point of inquiry while I rode yesterday that got me thinking about ideas and how some highly educated people can buy into some very fallacious concepts. The discussion was on intelligent design, a concept that has no chance of being correct in a scientific sense. the proponent was arguing that Darwinism or evolution could not explain the complexity of certain systems so there must be a designer. This is idiotic on its face as the designer had to come from somewhere and is by necessity much more complex than anything they try to explain with it. more god in the gaps of our knowledge and untestable. I don't wish to rehash the debate but to ponder why anyone with a science education would argue for it. the speaker a man named Behe is a college professor at an accredited institution so he has a PhD from somewhere in biology yet he argues that because Darwin's theory and subsequent studies do not have the exact explanation for every possible protein in living organisms there has to be a designer. He puts forth no evidence to support his claim other than the appearance of design is evidence for a designer. this is the type of nonsense one gets from the Panda's Thumb and other texts that try to justify the religious point of view. There is no logic that can make this circular argument so my question is how can an educated man think it is plausible? What is it about the human animal that it will accept utter nonsense rather than abandon religion?

"To study philosophy is to learn to die"

The search for meaning goes on, as does the training. After the ride back from the beach I was whipped and had to rest up on Sunday. Today has been errand running and work on a few bits of equipment. Replaced the broken water bottle cage and rode some hills. Then I set up the tent and sealed the seams. The salesperson told me that it was factory waterproofed but I got a little damp from condensation so a quick perusal of the instructions pointed out that it was the floor that was sealed but the other seams were not so that is now taken care of. I am planning to go out again Wednesday if there is not too much rain in the forecast.
I have been reading more on consciousness and free will but the more I read the less satisfied I become with the answers. Are we nothing but bags of parasites and random electrical discharges? Can we make our own decisions? It would appear not. I find nothing in my readings that gives any evidence for us being able to control outcomes and so I find no path to responsibility. Why do I do what I do? It would seem I have no ability to do otherwise. I don’t care for this answer but the universe doesn’t give a flying fuck if I like it or not so what’s a Radmul to do?
The title is from the roman thinker Cicero.

Clam beach clam bake

Spent the weekend on the first real long ride of the training. Rode up to Moonstone and camped at clam beach. Lots of hills and a great ride. here is some video from the road.

a fast dozen

Decided to try something a little different today rode as far as I could as fast as I could for as long as I could pulling hills. did 12 miles in 54 min. and that whipped my butt. I am not sure that it is much help for overall stamina but I needed to break things up as long slow rides in the rain are a drag and I want to keep motivated.
I put up a new photo album with some pictures along some of my rides. also the video from the camping trip to the Samoa Dunes is up on the website myvirtualmidlifecrisis.freewebspace.com so drop by and check it out

a night at the beach

The trip to Samoa went pretty well. The trailer arrived and I had picked up a stove on Friday so off to the beach it was on Saturday. The Burley is a dream. I loaded it up as full as I think I will need for even a long trip. Extra clothes, maps, the full electronics and spare parts made for 60 lbs. On the trailer and another 5 lbs. on the bike. The extra weight was noticeable but I was still able to maintain a good pace. I will need to put in some more time building my legs up before I hit any real hill climbs though. The new equipment worked ok on the whole. The stove and cook set worked perfect as did the trailer. I added a safety cord today and a light but I want to get one of those flags that stick up and look dorkey as hell but I want to be seen. The new sleeping pad has a few bugs but I think I worked them out, as the valves are tricky as is the pump stuff sack deal. This should work out with a little more practice. I am going to get a new bag also as the mummy bag is just too confining. I have never liked them. There is a video from the trip that I am trying to put up on you tube but it is screwing with me today for some reason.
The weather sucked cold and foggy but I was pretty comfortable so it was a good test. I plan to go out again on Halloween if the weather breaks right. This time I want to try Moonstone but that will be an all day ride each way. I got up early to try to catch the kickoff this morning, what a waste.

A day for deliveries.

Spent the day on the road going to Arcata. Went to get a stove that was on sale. It is a brunton raptor
canister, super small and light weight. it came with a lantern also for about the same price as the stove itself in Eureka When I got back Dan from Sportcycle had left a message that the Burley was in so I took a break for some lunch then picked it up. The trailer is sweet here is a picture of it loaded for the trail.http://www.flickr.com/photos/radmul/1767592364/
Did the ride, 24 miles in all in 2 and 1/2 hours with about 30 minutes at the square in Arcata to shop and pack.

dipping my toe into the Pacific

Rode out to the beach and took some pictures out on the sand. Did about 22 miles today and the toughest part was pushing the bike back up the sand. The weather turned cold but no rain just fog and gloom. Stopped at one point to take a photo of some particularly desolate looking trees that fit my mood and got a shot of a falcon taking wing hope it turns out. The Dunes recreation area is much quieter so I will be taking that route again. There is a park that allows camping so I will probably go spend a night out there as it is quiet and close enough that I can go without the trailer.

southern hill climb

The Revolution will not be Televised
However you can watch my midlife crisis as it transpires on the net. I am planning a trip across America by bicycle for my 50th year on the planet. I plan to share my experience with the world by blog and video from its' conception. The vanity of this is not lost on me but self indulgence is a core principle of this endeavor. It grew out of a sense of frustration with the current way of life in America and despair that as a society we will ever change our values. I have decided to stop swimming up stream and go crazy at 10 miles per hour. If reality is preventing you from doing something completely ridiculous feel free to come along. Sign the guest book and tell me what location you want to visit (limited to the lower 48 states U.S. for now) and I will try to put it on the route.
Went south today out to king Salmon and the mouth of Humboldt bay. took some pics from the vista point. Had to laugh at the state historical marker talking about sailing into the harbor for the first time back in 1806. Of course there were about 20,000 natives living in the area at the time but what the hell. Came back along Herrick road and the hill climbs were a real butt kicker. Did about 20 miles total and much of it up hill. The weather was great but still way too much traffic.

a video update