In the last twelve hours I have seen Alton Brown give a nice lecture and Q&A (which makes up for missing him in Michigan), eaten at a restaurant which uses Papyrus on its sign and does not suck, and watched the Babbage Difference Engine No.2 (Serial No.2) in action. I just finished eating one each of a Russian spinach pie and apple pie, and Danielle is flying out here now. At some point tomorrow we should be up in San Francisco, and more good food is scheduled to be eaten between now and then.
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We were ahead of schedule arriving in Salt Lake City, so I’ve had a while here with a nice 3G connection, so I thought I’d upload this photo taken as we passed through Ruby Canyon near sunset. This is from my cabin, taken with a cheap 50mm lens through the acrylic windows, and without any post-processing save for a bit of cropping.
When in the canyons today I’d wished for a wider lens than the 50mm that I brought, but narrower and without the distortion inherant in the 8mm fisheye. Not wanting to carry large lenses I didn’t bring the 24-70L, but it may have been a good idea. Still, I was able to get a few good images, and more time was spent looking at the canyon directly instead of through a viewfinder.
Tomorrow should involve the Sierra Nevada, including passing through an area right near Donner Pass.
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Here, have a low-res (due to bandwidth constraints) through-acrylic photo of the train rounding a snow-covered curve a bit west of Denver, not long before passing through the Moffat Tunnel and crossing the Continental Divide.
Thus far the trip has been rather nice. At meals people are seated four to a table, with groups less than four combined as needed. Thus far this has worked out well, and I’ve met some rather interesting people. Food eaten and meal companions have been as follows. While this list currently contains three meals, it’ll be updated with breakfast and lunch from the 17-Nov, as appropriate:
Dinner #1 / 15-Nov-2009:
Food: Bison meatloaf a chipotle sauce, salad w/ vinaigrette dressing, bread, mashed potatos, and a key lime cake covered in blueberries.
Companion(s): A woman who takes the train because of a fear of flying, a retired Air Force cargo and commercial pilot living in Salt Lake City, UT who has the time to take the train and strongly dislikes our airport security, and an oral / maxillofacial surgeon interviewing for residency and booking cheap last-minute travel from Chicago to Omaha.Breakfast #1 / 16-Nov-2009:
Food: Cheese omelet with grits, bacon, and a croissant.
Companion(s):The same retired pilot from dinner last night, eaten while sitting in the Denver station during a short layover.Lunch #1 / 16-Nov-2009:
Food: Chipotle black bean burger (Morningstar Farms) with crinkle-cut potato chips and chocolate ice cream.
Companion(s): A boyfriend/girlfriend couple taking the train from Boston to Emeryville, then to Portland and back to Chicago (from there he is then flying back to Turkey to visit his parents and she’s heading to her family’s place in Milwaukee), and with a rather quiet woman who lives near Corvallis, OR who seems to regularly the train when traveling.Dinner #2 / 16-Nov-2009:
Food: Ricotta-stuffed ravoli-esque pasta, steamed veggies, salad w/ blue cheese dressing, bread.
Companion(s): Retired couple from Sacramento area. Husband works as a process engineer, formerly making Polaris missile fuel for Bridgestone, now for the pharmaceutical company they were spun off as. Wife is a retired librarian, considering applying for director positions.
Diverant from airline food there are no vegan, vegetarian-variant (non-ovo-lacto, etc), or religion-specific (Kosher, Halal, Hindu, etc) meals. Overall the food is definitely better than airline food, but I am glad that I brought some extra snacks on board† as I find myself wanting something to munch on that’s a little more in line with my normal tastes.
Meals are served with plastic plates and cups, stainless steel utensils, and disposable table cloths and napkins. Meal choice is made at the table and preparation takes ten to fifteen minutes, implying that non-breakfast foods are semi-prepared. As my breakfast contained eggs it was pretty easy to tell that they were freshly cooked, although they may have been from boxed eggs. The menus are half standard items, and half chef’s special / specials of the day. Breakfast and lunch are first come, first serve, with the queue being assigned numbers which are then called out across the train as available. For dinner someone comes around and asks which of a predetermined set of times one wishes to eat at (one of four), then the reserved time is written on a slip of paper and used as one’s dinner reservation. My dinner reservations for both yesterday and today were at 7:15pm, which allow for eating to take place sometime after sunset. After eating one typically returns to their room to find the seats transformed into beds, ready for sleepytime.
Traveling this late in the year with the sun setting so early makes it a bit dull later in the evenings, but drawing the curtains to block light from the car’s hallway and turning out the in-cabin lights makes things outside, including stars, plenty visible. Towns, and their typically rail-side industrial areas are particularly visible and interesting at night. Last night I also used this time to watch a mountain biking historical film called Klunkerz, and today I’m writing this post. I wish I’d brought along one more movie for tonight, but books or the provided-daily newspaper will defintely suffice.
After spending the whole of the day sitting in various comfortable chairs and looking out large windows (floor to ceiling, wrapping around to the roof when in the observation / lounge car) looking at beautiful mountains and canyons I feel certain that this is a wonderful way to travel. If one can afford the extra time and doesn’t mind being with minimum facilities for a few days, this is an ideal way to cross the country. There is generally no security theater††, comfortable seating, decent food, self-service coffee/water/juice, the ability to move around, time to walk outside during smoke breaks / extended stops, and the ability to isolate one’s self in a comfortable private cabin. If I wish to talk to others the observation / lounge car is easily accessible, but while sitting here I’ve felt completely detached from the other passengers, free to simply sit and look out the window, relaxing and watching the country roll by.
† Brought along in a Trader Joe’s paper grocery bag were Trader Joe’s Oh My! Omega trail mix, TJ’s Tom Yum Cashews, TJ’s “This apple walks into a bar…”, Meiji Almond, Cisco’s Coconut Sable Biscuits, Suntory’s Black Boss Coffee, a 10oz bag of caramel corn from “Nuts On Clark” in Chicago’s Union Station, and two bottles of Goats Do Roam-brand wine; one eponymous and one bottle of Goats In Villages. Note that a personal stock of alcohol is permitted to be consumed in one’s private cabin, but it may not be brought to common areas such as the dining car, observation car, or coach seating.
†† Unexpectedly there were fifteen or so low-visibility (non-uniformed but with badges and firearms strapped to arms or legs, wearing logo’d jackets) DHS folks all armed with handguns, with two dogs, waiting for us at the normally-lengthy stop in Grand Junction, CO. The cabin attendant indicated that normally they visit the train in Reno, NV looking for drugs, but these dogs were bomb sniffing. I tend to believe the explosive dog claim, as when I walked past one and the dog started to sniff me, the officer holding it pulled it back. I’ve never had a drug sniffing dog not be allowed to sniff me all it wanted. While lingering around the outside of the train during this extended break I overheard the DHS individuals repeatedly refering to a female and boarding the train via the dining car’s non-public ground-level entrance. Despite this, I never saw anyone actually being removed from the train, and all the identifiable DHS individuals seemed to depart the area at the same time, in unmarked vehicles, before the train left the station.
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I’m now sitting in an Amtrak Superliner Roomette much like this one beginning a multi-day trip across the country. Per the timetable we should be in Denver at about 8am tomorrow, meaning that most of the night will be spent transiting Nebraska. The next morning should find us in Reno, and the following evening in Emeryville.
Thanks to the miracle of modern tech I’ve been able to secure a data connection, but I’m not sure how long it’ll last. I’d be very surprised if data connections are available along the whole of the route.
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The iMac has arrived, and its 27″, 2560×1440 display is simply absurd. While perspective in the the image above doesn’t make it look that large, the Apple flying-esque intro video almost made me feel motion sick. The 15″ Dell Latitude D620 (which I’m using while data migrates from the Mac Pro) feels netbook-esque, and the older 20″ Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW feels dimunitive. It is also very quiet, which is wonderful.
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As expected, the Nokian Hakka WXC300 tires acquired last week are not fun to ride on pavement. They are very noisy (read: difficult to talk over) and knobby enough that the vibration makes one’s ass sore pretty quickly. However, the package recommends that they be ridden for 30 miles on pavement before use off road, so today’s group ride out to Metro Beach and back worked well for this. With roughly 18-19 miles on the tires I’ll attempt another ride tomorrow to finish off the break-in; possibly a quick 12 mile-ish ride up to River Bends and back.
I can’t get the noise out of my head. An hour and twenty minutes of 300 metal spikes hitting pavement with every tire rotation. With a circumference of 2099mm and tonight’s ride being 18.79 miles, that’s roughly 3,034,070 discreet metal-on-stone click sounds in rapid succession, not dissimilar from similar to riding over a sheet of bubble wrap. An endless sheet of bubble wrap. For an hour and twenty minutes.
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Tuesday evening Danielle and I headed out to Novi, in response to this post on the MMBA forum (PNG mirror). The seller was offering a Motobecane USA 29er mountain bike with a 15″ frame size for $250, and this sounded like a really good deal and an ideal first mountain bike for Danielle. After trying the bike out to see that it fit, we took it home. While there were a few obvious problems with it, everything appeared easy to remedy.
After picking up a new tube I spent a few hours this afternoon working on the bike, adjusting things a bit and fitting a rear light. Having 29″ wheels drilled for Schrader valves made finding tubes a bit complicated, but I was able to locate one at REI. As the rear wheel had a slow leak (emptying once daily) I wanted to get a known-good tube in there. Beyond the slow leak, the bike also had the following problems, all of which were (or should be) easily remedied:
· Bent Saddle: This will be replaced with something more comfortable for Danielle.
· Too-Short Seatpost
· Brake Adjustment Needed
· Wheels Slightly Out Of True
· Rear Wheel Dished Incorrectly
· Brakes Not Bedded In Yet
· Uncomfortable / Small Pedals
· Fork Lockout Non-functional
· Handlebar May Be Bent / Weird
All of these should be easy to fix with just a bit of time, making the bike quite nice; especially for a first mountain bike. Here’s some more photos of the bike:
Leave a Comment· Danielle’s new 29er bike, a used Motobecane Fantom 29 that was purchased for $250.
· The rear wheel is not properly dished. I’ll have to fix this.
· Mismatched brake levers because one was broken. They are still good levers, though.
· The seat is a bit bent, which is just fine, as it’s going to be replaced.
· The 350mm seatpost that came with the bike is much too short for Danielle. A longer one will be acquired later.
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Soft Spoken Change Is Nothing; A View So Cruel
Rather last minute I decided to head out to the Royal Oak Music Theater to see Skinny Puppy perform. Despite Ogre having a 103°F (39.4°C) fever thus cutting the encore a bit short, and the backing video and costumes lacking the religious and political imagery which marked previous shows, I’m glad I went. Unlike years past I also brought earplugs, which were wonderful as I could hear properly both during and after the show.
As expected, the show was almost like a small reunion of Detroit-area industrial folks. While (obviously) not inclusive, I saw a good number of people whom I hadn’t seen for a few years and managed to say hello to most of them. I also ran into a coworker there, which wasn’t wholly unexpected as I’d previously seen him at an Apoptygma Berzerk show, and known his like for VNV Nation.
Due to life being fairly busy recently I made a last minute decision to go to the show, but it worked out well. As I was about to purchase my ticket someone was asking the queue if anyone needed a ticket, as he had a spare. While he was asking $15, I only had $20 bills, but I gladly handed one over in exchange for the ticket, as the result was still $10 less than door price, and no one in the process technically being shortchanged.
Here’s one more image, taken just after the show illustrating most of the stage setup, including the blood sprayed acrylic and metal box where Ogre spent much of the show.
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Today Erik, Kristi, and I set out with the intention of riding to Imlay City, MI. Starting at the Clarkston Road crossing of the Paint Creek Trail (Map) this would have been a 45-ish mile ride. Unfortunately, poor trail conditions, culminating in a washed out bridge one mile south of I-69 slowed our progress enough that we decided to turn back. It’s good that we did, as we arrived back at the cars just as darkness was setting in; a particularly dangerous time for us as we were all without lights.
Along the trail we saw a number of interesting things, including a deer, cows, horses (on trail and off), turkeys, cats, squirrels, chipmunks (live and squished), grain being harvested, numerous dogs, and a discarded helmet shell. The surface also ranged from crushed limestone to pavement, single track through grassy areas to railbed ballast, to simple dirt.
At one point we happened across a what appeared to be some in-progress construction to replace an old drainage line under the trail. At the bottom of this 6′ deep ditch was a recently dead deer, looking as if it’d fallen in one night, been too injured to get out, and died. Traversing the ditch involved Erik climbing up the far side first, me passing the bikes to Erik, then Kristi and I climbing up. Unfortunately, for the first go Kristi didn’t want to climb up near the deer, and ended up scraping her leg a bit. The return trip worked a bit more efficiently.
Once past the first major obstacle we had to walk an expansive section of washed out rail bed, as it had become uneven and with leaf cover finding a safe path to ride through it was nearly impossible. One couldn’t tell if a depression in the ground is just a low spot, or something really dangerous. A bit beyond this was much more washed out area, a whole bridge! This article from Google’s cache talks a bit about the storms which washed out the area at the end of August.
Being only about a mile from I-69 we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t reach our goal of Imlay City, but the bridge made a nice place to stop and eat. It looks like only a few thousand dollars and a weekend of trail building crew would be needed to make the bridge passable again, so hopefully that’ll happen soon. We were also able to see the trail surface and know what will be required to do this ride again. Taking Sutton Rd. to Summers Rd., as seen here should easily bypass the washed out bridge and connect us nicely to Imlay City.
Per my bike computer, today’s ride was 38.29 miles, with a moving time of 3:25:55, 11.1 MPH average, and 30.9 MPH maximum speed. We started around 12:30 PM and returned to the parking lot around 5:00 PM.
Here’s today’s photos. Unfortunately I didn’t get any of the actually washed out parts of the bridge, nor the unsafe bits that I climbed across:
3 Comments· Dead deer in a culvert crossing the Polly Ann Trail.
· My attempt at climbing the ditch. I failed, as this was not the easiest point to climb.
· Erik found a much better way to climb the new ditch in the Polly Ann Trail.
· I then handed the bikes to Erik, who pulled them up.
· Erik helping Kristi climb up, as she didn’t want to climb near the dead deer.
· This helmet shell, with a blob of foam on it, was found on the Polly Ann Trail.
· One part of the trail, about 3 miles before I-69, was washed out and uneven enough (particularly with leaf cover) that we walked it.
· Home-made sign warning that a bridge is out somewhere down the Polly Ann Trail, just south of I-69.
· First sign of the washed out bridge, one mile south of I-69.
· I climbed out on to the bridge. While the approaches were damaged, the main part of the bridge was solid.
· Kristi and Erik disappointed at the washed out bridge.
· Erik and Kristi looking at the washed out bridge on the Polly Ann Trail, showing the loose / unsupported part that I walked across.
· The body of the bridge itself is solid, but the approaches are gone.
· The point where the Polly Ann Trail crosses from Oakland County into Lapeer County is where its surface becomes much less maintained.
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This morning’s breakfast is eggs from the CSA, a Bays English Muffin, Trader Joe’s Cheddar Cheese, Niman Ranch bacon, and harissa. Along side I’m drinking some low cost (but surprisingly good) IKEA espresso, made in a moka and served with heavy cream.
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