A Folk Remedy Goes Mainstream
My wife’s family is from southern West Virginia we’re summers are hot and humid. According to my wife, her granny used to administer pickle juice to remedy heat-related muscle cramps.
A few months ago I was lying in bed when I was beset by the worst muscle cramps I’ve ever had. They extended from my butt to my ankles in both legs. And they lasted for over 15 minutes.
Seeing me in agony my wife ran and got me a banana. In between excruciating spasms o managed to eat it but the cramps continued. Next she brought out the heavy artillery. She gave me a shot glass worth of pickle juice. Damned if it didn’t work like a charm.
A couple of days ago, I rode to a local bike shop in search of electrolyte tablets for my bike tour. Next to tablets in the shelf in the store was this:
I bought two bottles.
As a trial, I drank some pickle juice from a jar in our refrigerator after yesterday’s ride. It tastes wretched but I’ll do anything to avoid mega cramps like I had last year.
Mid-April Bentabout
Yesterday I spread eight bags of mulch then went for a ride on Little Nellie. I lasted 16 1/2 miles before nasty weather nearby chased me indoors. I rode the equivalent of another 16 miles on Big Nellie in the basement.
Today the weather was perfect. I spread another 8 bags of mulch, ate lunch, and decided it was time to free Big Nellie from its winter perch on the resistance trainer in the cellar.
I took the inland (away from the Potomac River) toward DC. Near the Pentagon, I discovered that a road reconstruction project was nearing completion. This included a new traffic circle and some new bike multiuse trails. After the traffic circle and the I-395 underpass there’s a second traffic circle. Here the new trail connects to a trail that goes under the GW Parkway and intersects the Mount Vernon Trail at the Humpback Bridge.
After using the underpass I looped up onto the bridge where I saw two bike tourists. They were gazing at the monuments across the river and DC and discussing something. I figured they were trying to find their way somewhere.
I rode on and crossed the Memorial Bridge. Near the Lincoln Memorial I noticed that the tourists had stopped on the trail behind me. I circled back and asked them if they needed help. They said they had just flown into Reagan (note: NOBODY in DC calls National Airport “Reagan”) and were riding to Pittsburgh. Been there. Done that. So I gave them encouragement and some directions then idiotically proceeded to go exactly the way they were going to get on the C&O Canal. (Why didn’t I just say “Follow me”? Derp.)
We rode more or less together along the river past the beach volleyball courts, under the TR Bridge, past the Kennedy Center and the Watergate when I decided to take them past the Swedish Embassy on the Georgetown waterfront. Just before the turn to the embassy we saw signs for the C&O Canal Milepost 0. I had never seen it! It was the perfect photo op.
After the photo I directed them to the Water Street cycletrack. Go thata way. Do not stop until you get to Pittsburgh. (It’s really that easy!)
As for myself, I headed up Rock Creek Park to see the trees leaving out and check out dogwoods and azaleas and wisteria and more. After about ten miles I left the park and headed into Bethesda where I picked up the Capital Crescent Trail and zoomed back down to Georgetown and, eventually, home.
The ride ended up being 53 miles. It is my longest ride since the Cider Ride in early November. Thanks to Big Nellie’s comfy ride, I arrived home not the least bit sore.
Back in the saddle
The day after returning home from the eclipse, I took my Bike Friday out for a 30-mile spin. It did not go well. For a start, it was a blustery day. I struggled mightily to maintain any speed on the bike at all. This was, after a week of rest, rather discouraging.
That evening I went to the pharmacy for my seventh (I think. I’ve lost track.) covid vaccination. I didn’t sleep well but rode The Mule in intermittent light rain to Friday Coffee Club. A strong tailwind had me cruising along at 15 miles per hour, something that doesn’t happen very often. While at Coffee Club, a front must have passed through because I was rewarded with a second tailwind on the ride home.
Today, I mowed the lawn for the first time in three, very rainy weeks. The mower kept bogging down in the thick grass. It took about 30 minutes longer than normal. Between the covid shot, my lack of sleep, an extremely high pollen count, and the hard mowing effort, I was wiped out when the work was finished. After a lunch break, I decided to go for a short, easy ride.
The Mule made it about a half mile before it broke into a full on gallop. What the heck? Gusty winds were blasting me through the neighborhood. When I turned into the wind, I completely surprised myself by barely losing any speed. What the heck?
The entire ride went like that. Before the ride, I was expecting to be totally exhausted when I got home, but I was invigorated instead. Dang.
On top of this surprising result, my neck seemed to be nearly better. I still lack my full range of motion but the shooting pains up into my head and the muscle spasms that keep my head from turning from side to side seem to be gone. Dang again.
I honestly don’t know what the cause of my neck problems is or are. It could be a whiplash injury from being rear ended while sitting on my recumbent at a stop light last fall. Or maybe something about the transfer of road shock on my CrossCheck was irritating my cervical spine. I stopped riding this bike a few weeks ago. A third possibility is the Big Three back exercises I’ve been doing for the last several months. One of the big three is a side plank that puts stress on my shoulders and neck. Another is a shoulder lift that, when done improperly, can strain the neck. I stopped doing them during my eclipse week off.
After my post-ride shower, I sat down to do some tour shopping. I bought three things from REI: bicycling shorts (I noticed the pair I have been wearing everyday for weeks is starting to fall apart), a very loud air horn (for my canine friends in Kentucky and Missouri), and a first aid kit (something I should have taken on my previous trips).
Next up was maps. Since I haven’t quite figured out where I am going I ordered the following maps from the Adventure Cycling Association: the sections of the TransAmerica Trail that go from Richmond, Virginia to western Missouri, the sections of the Great Rivers South route between Kentucky and New Orleans, and a section of US Bike Route 66 in Oklahoma.
I also printed out updates for each map set. These give information of changes to the routes and services along the way that post-date the production of the maps themselves. From these I learned that one section of the TransAmerica Trail in Kentucky is unusable. The updates provide a work around. I also learned that my destination in Ash Grove, Missouri is no longer viable. The City Park had a building set aside for bike tourists. The city also allowed bicycle tourists to use the adjacent swimming pool. I might just bypass this bit of the TransAm (as I did in 2019) and head directly to Arkansas. (It only shaves 12 miles off the trip.)
The Great Rivers maps are to be used if I call an audible and ride from Kentucky to New Orleans. I am also bringing a map that would guide me from Missouri to Omaha, in case I decide to head a different way once I get to the end of my TransAmerica jaunt.
I still have a couple of things to buy. I need to buy some electrolyte tablets for my water bottles. My hope is that this will stave off cramps. I also need a power pack for my phone.
Next, I will sit down with my itineraries and the map updates and see if I need to adjust my plans.
Totality Rocks
If memory serves, today was my third solar eclipse. Previously I’ve only seen partial eclipses but this time I went to the max.
A few days ago I drove to my in-laws’ house in northern Indiana. We had been planning to drive 2 1/2 hours to Muncie which is in the path of totality. We were dreading a traffic nightmare.
This morning we called an audible and switched our destination to Portland, Indiana. Portland is northeast of Muncie but is a much smaller town.
Using secondary highways and backroads, my daughter expertly navigated us to Portland in a bit over two hours. We stopped at a gas station convenience store and asked some locals if there was a park in town that would be good for viewing. Sure enough, the town park was one-half mile away.
The park was a bit crowded but we found a parking spot and set up. My mother-in-law had organized drinks, snacks and seating. My wife brought a fistful of eclipse glasses.
After a two-hour wait. We started to see some exciting eclipse action. To be honest watching the moon creep across the face of the solar disc over the course of 90 minutes is a bit boring. We could feel the temperature drop. The amount of ambient light was fading.
Then the big moment.
The last bits of the disc were covered as a tiny dot of red on the edge of the sun vanished. We could hear applause and hoots all through the park and across town. A cannon boomed. We sat in awe for some 3 1/2 minutes until the process reversed. We had expected the birds and spring peepers to become silent at totality. They quieted but we could still hear them.
Truth be told our eclipse glasses made it impossible to see the ring of fire of the total eclipse. Stupidly we peaked at the sun and the ring was evident. Wearing the eclipse glasses caused my pupils to be dilated making the ring look thicker than the one I’ve seen in photos.
Still, it was well worth over 1,000 miles of driving to see the big moment. Check another box off the bucket list.
Tour Options for 2024
It’s starting to warm up and my thoughts are turning to a spring/summer bike tour. I have pared my ideas down to two tours, all originating from home and involving parts of the Atlantic Coast, Trans America, and Great Rivers South routes designed by the Adventure Cycling Association.
Pre-tour Jitters
I have some trepidation about this tour. Of course, pre-tour worry and anxiety is nothing new. It is tempting to let these feelings snowball, what Buddhists call papañca. There is some usefulness to anticipating problems, of course, but, left unchecked, this sort of mental proliferation can ruin your tour. About 50 miles into my 760-mile DC-to-Indiana tour, I was making myself miserable with pointless worrying. I stopped and gave myself a mental dressing down: “You’re on vacation. Relax. If bad things happen, you’ll figure them out.” It worked.
My list of worries is short. For a start, I am not a kid anymore. I was a youngster when I rode across the US alone in 2018 at the age of 62. I’m now 68 and don’t I know it. I have nagging physical issues with my lumbar and cervical spine. Also, I have the usual age-related reduction in muscle strength. The only cure for these things is to walk when I need to and to shorten my riding days to the extent practicable.
A second concern is dogs. The route I am taking is notorious for aggressive dogs. In the past I brought a small can of pepper spray. I never once used it gave me peace of mind. It occurs to me that on a windy day or on a downhill I am likely to spray myself. Yeah, let’s do 25 miles per hour downhill on a bumpy road with a snarling junk yard dog at my heels and get a load of pepper spray in my face. Nope. I am going to find a small horn of some sort and hope for the best.
Weather is always a concern. Since I am heading south, I am sure to encounter much more heat and humidity than last year. I’ll need to stay hydrated and take breaks. Depending on which route I take I’ll could be dealing with serious headwinds.
The topography is a bit intimidating. Like last summer, I’ll be crossing the Appalachian Mountains for a good chunk of the tour. In my mind’s eye this means steep climbs straight up one mountain after the next. That’s not how it works, of course, and I never seem to remember that those climbs are followed by descents.
Now, let’s consider the options.
Option 1: Finish the Trans Am
I have about left over 1,000 miles of the TransAmerica route unfinished: from Ashland, Virginia (just north of Richmond) to Ash Grove, Missouri (just east of the Kansas border). I’d ride south about 110 miles to Ashland then bang a right on the TransAm. And follow it over 1,400 miles to Ash Grove.
A big advantage of this part of the route is the lodging situation. There are something like 21 inexpensive places to stay including campgrounds, town parks, fire houses, hostels, churches, and such. Another advantage is the fact that I will encounter bike tourists along the way thanks to the popularity of the TransAm.
After Ash Grove it makes sense to me, at least, to ride south to Bentonville, Arkansas. This would take about two days and add 110 miles. There’s all kinds of flights to DC from this city thanks to the fact that it is the home of Wal-Mart.
Beyond Bentonville is the possibility of picking off Oklahoma. Tulsa is three days and 130 miles west. Add another 150 miles on old Route 66 and I’d be in Oklahoma City, another city with several flights to DC. All told, DC to Oklahoma City would make for a tour of about 2,000 miles. Tulsa and Oklahoma City have the added benefit of being on Southwest Airlines’ network, meaning I’d probably fly home for free.
Option 2: Laissez Les Bon Tons Roulez
This town is identical to the tour above until Marion, Kentucky just south of Cave-in-Rock. At Marion, I would pick up Adventure Cycling’s Great Rivers South Route, taking that to the start of the Natchez Trace near Nashville. With the exception of a detour to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to take in a bit of music history, I’d ride to Natchez, Mississippi. After that, it’s a few days of riding to New Orleans. The total mileage is about 2,100. Theoretically, I could take a train home from New Orleans but it would take at least 26 hours.
I once had a business trip to Louisiana in April and could not believe how humid it was. Add ten or 15 degrees and you get pure misery. It probably would make more sense to just fly to Nashville, do the ride to New Orleans, and fly home. That would be about 900 miles and would take me about a month.
March Recap
Riding
I’m finally making a bit of progress on my riding. In January I averaged a little less than 20.5 miles per day. That creeped up to 25.7 miles in February. In March I averaged nearly 31.9 miles per day. I did six rides of 40 miles or more. Two of these long rides were to the Kenwood neighborhood in Bethesda, Maryland. The streets are lined with old cherry trees; on the second ride they were at peak blossom and it was a riot of eye candy.
For the month I logged 892 miles, over half of that was on The Mule. I did 70 miles indoors on cold, rainy days with Big Nellie doing the honors. The remaining 340 miles was evenly split between Little Nellie and The Tank.
I hit a couple of cool milestones this month. The Mule passed 74,000 miles on March 22. The next day I passed 2,000 miles for the year. As of March 31, I’ve ridden 2,273.5 miles. I’m on a pace for 9,144 miles for the year.
I continued to do physical therapy exercises six times per week for my lumbar stenosis and my neck problem. I have determined that the source of my neck problems is The Tank. Something about the bike is tweaking my cervical spine and causing nerve pain up into my head. It sure is strange that after 29,000 miles the bike and I are no longer compatible.
Watching
True Detective – Season Two. This eight episode show did not get good reviews when it first aired. Rachel McAdams, Vince Vaughn, Taylor Kitsch, and Colin Farrell are the stars. That’s a lot of acting firepower. It’s hard to say where the series goes wrong. The plot (like all True Detective plots I’ve seen) is a mangled mess. Or it could be the casting. I really didn’t buy McAdams as a hard nosed cop or Vaughn as a small time criminal wheeler dealer until the last couple of episodes.
True Detective – Season Three. In for a nickel, right? Mahershala Ali crushes it as a cop who investigates the case of two missing kids in small town Arkansas. His character is young when the crime happens, middle aged when he is deposed by some attorneys, and elderly and dealing with dementia when interviewed by a TV reporter. Stephen Dorff as his partner and Carmen Ejogo as his wife are also excellent.
My Cousin Vinnie – Another old movie that I had never seen before. Marisa Tomei won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing the fiancee of Joe Pesci’s Vinnie. Very funny courtroom, fish-out-of-water comedy. (Tomei is one of several great actresses who attended my Alma Mater, Boston University. Others are Geena Davis, Julianne Moore, Alfre Woodard, and Faye Dunaway.)
The Academy Awards – Robert Downey Jr. finally won an Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor in Oppenheimer after being stiffed for his Leading Actor performance in Chaplin. Al Pacino won that year for playing a blind man in Scent of a Woman, a movie that bored me senseless. How ironic that the awards show ended with an aged Pacino mumbling the Best Picture winner, Oppenheimer.
The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version). Impressive, even for someone like me who isn’t exactly a Swiftie. It’s always fun to see a performer at the top of her game. How the heck they made this film as quickly as they did is a mystery to me.
Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan’s account of the evacuation of the British Expedition Forces from the beach at Dunkirk during World War II. Expertly made with a cast of dozens of British and Irish actors. Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, Ton Hardy, Barry Keoghan, Cillian Murphy, and on and on.
Day 1 of Baseball – I spent the day flicking back and forth between the Washington Nationals game against the Reds in Cincinnati and the Los Angeles Angels game against the Orioles in Baltimore. Both the Nationals and the Angels demonstrated their key weakness: bad starting pitching. It’s going to be a long summer on Half Street in DC.
Reading
Blowout by Rachel Maddow. Everything you’d ever want to know about the intersection of the oil and gas industry and geopolitics. Sleazy executives. Corrupt dictators and oligarchs. Environmental disasters.
Drift by Rachel Maddow. The founding fathers wanted it to be hard for presidents to wage war and gave the authority to do so to Congress. After Vietnam, presidential war powers were hamstrung. Reagan, Cheney, and others (Meese is a pig) found workarounds, not all of them legal. Defense spending has ballooned since Reagan and, combined with three tax cuts, has undermined spending on non-defense government programs. (Hope you trust that bridge you’re about to drive over.) Maddow’s snarky Drift dovetails nicely with Michael Beschloss’s Presidents at War.
Over the Hills by David Lamb. In 1994 with no bicycle touring experience whatsoever, 50-something foreign correspondent David Lamb, a whiskey drinking smoker, rolled away from his home in Old Town Alexandria and headed for Los Angeles. His route took him through Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. He had eight flats. He stayed all but a few nights in the kind of fleabag motels that I dread on tours. His account of the trip is one of the best I’ve read. It absolutely nails the mental aspect of solo bike touring. I read this 29 years ago. It aged like a good single malt scotch.
How I Became Red Bike Guy by Joe Flood. This is a memoir consisting mostly of contemporaneous accounts of living in DC during and after the Trump presidency. The author is a bicyclist, writer, photographer, and communications professional (and personal friend) who lived in downtown DC through years of insanity. Fed up, he started to use his expertise to fight back. In one such episode, he rode a red bikeshare bike around an assembly of white supremacists on the National Mall, mocking their clothing and ineptitude. This bit of counterprotesting went viral on the internet. The book expertly chronicles how Trump and his enablers traumatized the people of DC, the particulars of which I had put out of my mind.
Blossoms and bikes and yard work
We’ve been really weather lucky lately here in the DC area. We had five days in a row with high temperatures in the 70s. That means SHORTS! Yes, baby. And shorts mean longer rides. Yay.
I have switched to The Mule in the hopes that it will help my neck problems. So far it seems to be working. My range of motion is better and the pain is less. Fingers crossed.
The week of riding started with a two-wheeled recon ride to DC to check out the status of the famous cherry blossoms. Alas, I was a few days early but at least the trees on the way to Hains Point in East Potomac Park were putting on a show.
The next day I rode mostly trails to the Kenwood neighborhood of Bethesda, Maryland. Conveniently located a block from the Capital Crescent Trail, Kenwood is lined with decades-old cherry trees. Alas again, the trees were still in winter mode. After a stop for an everything bagel in the downtown Bethesda, I rode home clocking my first 50 mile ride of the year.
Next up was a family auto tour of the DC tree scene. Once again we were disappointed. As a consolation, we drove to Great Falls Park in Maryland to check out the raging waters of the Potomac River where it passes through Mather Gorge. We followed a path out to Olmsted Island in the middle of the river and saw and, even better, heard the deluge as it passed all around us. After the drive, I did a 30-mile jaunt on The Mule in the area near home. During the ride I spotted the head of a bald eagle peaking above its nest in a tall pine tree in the backyard of a McMansion.
Next was my Friday morning trek to Coffee Club. My route conveniently passes the Tidal Basin on the awesome new cycletrack. The trees were starting their bloom.
On Saturday, I rode to the Lincoln Memorial then back along the Potomac on Ohio Drive in DC. Once again I skirted the Tidal Basin. Now the trees were starting to put on a show in earnest. I managed 31 miles before spending the rest of the day weeding the garden.
Sunday brought what I call my perimeter ride. I ride on neighborhood streets around Mount Vernon. I stay off the bike trail and do mostly right turns on local streets. No tourists. No root bumps. No cold breezes off the river. Just beaucoup spring colors from southern magnolias, forsythia, yoshino cherry trees, weeping cherry trees, bartlett pear trees, daffodils, and tulips. This 30-miler was also followed by a stint working in the yard, doing maintenance on my drainage ditches.
Monday was officially the start of peak bloom in DC. I rode into a headwind to the Tidal Basin and reconnoitered with my wife and daughter who had driven into town after a dental appointment. They were just about done with their clockwise walk around the basin. I continued on, walking my bike counterclockwise around the basin. After passing the Jefferson Memorial I saw a group of people in business attire walking toward me. A few of them were rather large humans. In the middle of them was Merrick Garland, the US Attorney General. He had surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis about six weeks ago so I was happy to see him walking perfectly upright without a cane. The rather large humans were likely with the Secret Service. (Why is it called the Secret Service? A better name would be the Obvious Service.) This was my first DC celebrity sighting in quite some time. The ride home made for another 30-mile day.
Sadly over 100 cherry trees are scheduled for imminent removal as the National Park Service rebuilds the area around much of the Tidal Basin and West Potomac Park. Stumpy is doomed but most of the trees near the MLK and the FDR Memorials will be spared. Eventually, the perimeter of East Potomac Park will be restored as well. Depending on who you ask, either the water level is rising or the parkland is sinking. Either way, it’s going to be quite a mess for the next couple of years. I do hope that in the process the jersey barrier farm near the Jefferson Memorial will be removed. It’s been there for over 20 years. Other DC monuments had their security barriers upgraded years ago.
Today was cold and blustery. My daughter was headed back to law school so I decided to take the day off from riding to see her off and get more yard work done. I managed to spend about four hours edging the rest of the gardens and clearing and widening the drainage ditch across the back yard. It is safe to say that I used muscles I forgot I had. It’s going to be an ibuprofen night.
I have started to think some about my summer bike trip. I need a few things. A simple water filter, a bigger pillow, a power pack for my phone, and some sort of noise maker (for warding off dogs). I might take The Mule in for a tune up and buy a new tire or two. The front tire still has plenty of tread after over 5,000 miles of touring. My rear tire has been going strong since my flat near Sisters, Oregon in 2022. They may ride like rocks but Schwalbe tires last a very long time.
I still haven’t decided on a route. Three possibilities would involve the eastern most section of the TransAmerica Trail. The fourth possibility is a ride out west in bike over country. Stay tuned.
After driving to DC to see the blossoms with my family,
Mysteries
I know from my running days that wearing long pants and extra layers slows me down. It holds true for bicycling too. I ride about 10 percent faster in shorts. Go figure. Today’s temperatures were in the 60s here in North Carolina. I don’t actual live in North Carolina but the climate here in the DC area is about the same a North Carolina’s ten years ago. I put the snow shovels away a week ago. It’s spring. Climate change is real, y’all.
I went for a long ride today. The 41 1/2 miles was my longest of the year and I could have easily tacked on another ten. All while riding 1 mile per hour faster than usual and while riding some nasty hills. My route took me from Mount Vernon across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge into Maryland. Once there I had a 0.8 mile climb to Oxon Hill Road. A couple of miles of level ground was followed by a steep plunge, with my max speed being something like 36 miles per hour by the not-advisable look-down-while-in-flight method. Eek.
I was headed to Fort Washington, a bona fide old timey 19th century fort. In addition to that fun descent I had a nice tailwind for most of the way. This helped as I made the two steep climbs to the fort. Dang, it’s hilly.
While on route, I came upon something you don’t see every day around these parts: a sheep farm with a llama. Yep, just 15 miles from the White House there’s a shaggy llama standing guard over some shaggy sheep (and a goat or two for good measure).
The return trip involved retracing my route down the hills from the fort and past the llama sighting location (my llama buddy and his wooly pals were nowhere to be seen). Of course, this was all into a strong headwind but I was in shorts and kept cruising along. Shorts!
I came to the big climb back up Oxon Hill. I had chosen The Tank for this adventure and it’s sheer mass and unforgiving gearing made the climbs into slogs, none more sloggy than Oxon Hill’s steep beast into a headwind.
I huffed and I puffed and I made it. Asthma, smasthma.
The other day I took The Mule out for a 30-mile spin. Afterwards my neck and back felt terrific. My neck is a medical mystery. Go figure. Oddly, I find that while I’m on the brake hoods on The Mule, my hands bear more weight than when I’m doing the same on The Tank. It seems to me that this should bother my neck and shoulders but it doesn’t. The Mule feels like and extension of my body.
So before leaving home today I took measurements of The Tank and The Mule. Based on this, I decided to slide the saddle back on The Tank and see what happens. As it turned out, it’s still not as comfortable as The Mule but I can’t say that my neck bothered me during the ride. The real test will come when I wake up in the morning. Will my neck feel stiff and sore?
February 2024 – Leapin’
Watching
Chinatown – One of those great movies I managed not to see when it came out (in 1974). Nominated for a truckload of Academy Awards but won only for Best Original Screenplay (Robert Towne). (Godfather Part II won for best picture.) This is peak Jack Nicholson. John Huston at his finest as well. And a dozen character actors that I’ve seen a million times including James Hong who today is 94 and still working.
The Conversation – Another gem from 1974 that I missed. Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola it contains a who’s who of early 70s actors led by Gene Hackman in the lead. Cindy Williams, Frederick Forrest, Alan Garfield, Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, Teri Garr. A creepy story about a professional eavesdropper who gets in too deep.
Old Boy – A 1994 Korean film. A man seeks revenge for being imprisoned for 15 years. Very violent and grisly. Intense. And just plain weird. Surprisingly it shares a plot twist with Chinatown.
The Greatest Night in Pop – A documentary about the making of the charity song We Are the World. Way better than expected. Just one great vocal performance after another from exhausted singers, recorded in one night after an awards show. Somehow Quincy Jones and his recording crew blended it all together seamlessly using analog methods.
True Detective, Night Country – Season four of the anthology series. This season’s version is set during the dark days of winter in a coal mining town on the North Shore of Alaska. Great acting with Jodie Foster in the lead. Very creepy. Reminded me a bit of Twin Peaks.
The Marvels – Another confusing mess from Marvel. The story is inane but, at times, humorous. I am a huge Bree Larson fan and she was very good when she wasn’t superheroing. Also, Iman Vellani as the teenaged, Pakistani-American Kamala Khan a.k.a. Ms. Marvel is quite good.
The Two Popes – Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce in the kind of movie they just don’t make anymore. A two-hour conversation. Quite a bit better than My Dinner with Andre. Excellent.
True Detective Season One. Had to re-watch it. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey at their best. Weird. Violent. Set along the southern coast of Louisiana. Time is a flat circle.
Reading
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Peak Dickens. Life was a bitch if you were poor in mid-19th Century England. So many characters and plot twists. I was surprised at how much I liked it. Like so many of his books, it was originally published in serial form in a magazine. I could imagine readers eager to read the next episode.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. David Copperfield re-imagined for the 1990s and 2000s in Appalachia. The poverty and dead end aspects of Dickens’s novel are augmented by the opioid crisis. Brilliant but super depressing.
200 Hard New York Times Crosswords – I solved 97 of the first 100 and then they became much harder. I probably batted .500 for the second 100.
Riding
Another month of riding 30 miles per day, mostly on The Tank, my Surly Crosscheck Thankfully, the rear tire is finally losing its tread so I can justify buying new rubber. Two new Panaracer tires arrived on leap day. Let’s see if they improve the ride.
As far as mileage is concerned, I rode 747 miles. (I rode 730 miles last February with one fewer day.) BIg Nellie did 80 miles in the basement. Little Nellie chipped in 91. The Mule took the month off. The Tank did the rest, hitting 29,000 miles along the way. I also breached the 178,000 mile mark on my four bikes.
I’ve started thinking about my summer tour. I can’t say I am feeling enthusiastic. Hopefully, warmer weather will get my head in the game. For now it looks like I’ll be doing a DC to New Orleans (Or Little Rock) ride. This would be a combination of the Trans American and Great Rivers South routes from Adventure Cycling.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 