Wheels dipped...

Dave, Andrew and I rode the 10k to the beach yesterday along with Paul, and dipped our wheels into the Southern Ocean. We are packing up today and will head north to Port Wakefield tomorrow morning @ 6.45am. Its a 58 mile ( 95 km) ride, and I'm looking forward to getting that first day behind us!!

Paul has been great to hang and cycle with! Dave met him in the kitchen, and we've all enjoyed his company. As so it ocassionally happens you meet someone that seems to really have found a great way of living... Paul is the lighthouse keeper at the Cape Leewin lighthouse near Augusta in Western Australia!!
Check it out:

http://www.lighthouse.net.au/lights/wa/Cape%20Leeuwin/Cape%20Leeuwin.htm

We'll spend today making final preparations and such... Tomorrow its on!!!

Back in Adelaide!

Well after a very long but relatively trouble-free trip, we are at the Adelaide Central YHA (youth hostal) in Adelaide, South Australia. We're getting our bikes set up, buying a few last minute items and recoveing from jet lag.
I'm back to finish what I started two years ago when I set out to bicycle the Stewart Highway from Adelaide to Darwin in Australia. With me are two friends and fellow cyclists Andrew Johnson from Thief River Falls MN, and Dave Sears from Grand Forks (Thompson) ND.
Dave opted not to bring his tent at the last minute, and so we were out buying one yesterday afternoon... I was stunned that he found a $34 tent, and that it actually seems like a decent quality item!! Weather is a bit damp and rainy, and the temp is in the low 50's, actually very comfortable.
Our room last night was strategically located across the alley from a techno club so we were graced with a pounding rhythm for most of the night... not that it really mattered, we were all initially asleep by 9pm. I awoke around 3am just to make sure the music was still pounding and I was not disappointed :-)
Andrew, who managed to have one bag sent to off to god-knows-where, had his lost luggage delivered at some point during the night, and so amazingly we now have all our gear and everything is working. Dave met a local cyclist and is going out for a test ride i a bit. As for myself, I'm off to find a coffee and then I'll finish assembling my bike. At the moment we are all heathly and in great spirits... I'm praying this holds!!

Safely Back Home

My jet lag is leaving me, as I managed to actually sleep all through the night last night... but part of me is still in Australia. There is also a nagging little voice in the back of my head that is reminding me that the Stuart Highway is still unridden... fall down 7 times, get up 8!

However, another attempt is at least a year away and there is a lot of living to do between now and then! I've decided that next time I'll probably not be riding it solo. I'm considering a group ride and possibly a support vehicle for the future. I've already convinced Dan to drive any support vehicle and he has generously agreed... of course I think his motivation may be due in no small part to his desire to watch us suffer!

Back home it's a beautiful summer day outside in Thief River Falls, with the high temperature today expected to be around 81 degrees (26C), with light winds. So, of course the only thing to do is go for a bike ride!

They say bad luck comes in threes...

I've been recovering nicely in Melbourne under the gentle care of Jason, and Dan and Lisa(Leezr) Scarff. Where the antibiotics have left off, we've managed to pick up the slack with some Australian red wine, beer, and general good cheer- Very nice, thanks guys!!!

However, just as things are beginning to come around, I got another tough blow today. I've discovered that due to a mix up in payroll, I will not be receiving another paycheck until September... My god does THAT sting!
Apparently I was put into a 9-month salary distribution instead of the 12-month plan that I've been on for the past 12 years. Of course it could be worse, but the phrases "House Payment" and "Car Payment" now make me twitch involuntarily when I hear them!

As if to add a little salt into the wound, there was the notice from the school that the state had taken a balloon payment for my HEALTH INSURANCE out of my last paycheck to cover me during the months when I will not be receiving a paycheck- F***ing nice of the State of Minnesota to look after me so well!

On a more happy (or strange!) note, we watched the film "Wolf Creek" last night. Dan had given it to me as a gift when I first arrived, saying that it would "prepare me for my bike ride through the outback." Wolf Creek is the genuinely disturbing account of backpackers in the Outback that are attacked by an Aussie serial killer... just the thing I would have needed in order to sleep well in my tent alone in the desert. Ah Dan, you are a true comfort!

Farewell Adelaide

Well, my condition is definately not improving. I'm heading back to Melbourne tomorrow on the Overland to spend a couple weeks with friends, and then it's the dreadful flight back to the states. The Stuart Highway will have to wait for another year. I'm basically being philosophical about this whole ordeal, but there are still a few fleeting moments when I want to throw a temper-tantrum!

Thanks to all of you for your kind words, and moral support!!!

Until next time...

No plan of attack ever survives contact with the enemy.

I've just returned from a visit to a local doctor at Globe Medical. The complete visit including my filled prescription was $57... Yeah, that's right America a $57 doctor AND pharmacy visit, no insurance necessary! What the hell have we allowed our medical system to become?!!!

So now the bad news... I've got bronchitis and possibly walking pneumonia. This means that I'm looking at 2-4 weeks of recovery time, even with the antibiotics. Given my available time and the fact of having lost a week already, my plan to cycle to Darwin is essential finished.

I have carefully considered my options, including perhaps just a partial ride to Alice. Considering the gravity of the traveling unsupported through this environment, I've decided that it just isn't worth it. I need to be at 100% physically in order to have the confidence to this alone.

So after all the training, planning, expense, etc., it only took some one's uncovered cough to throw my plans to wind. To say that I'm disappointed really doesn't cover it- but I suppose it is far better to have this happen now as opposed to becoming ill out in the middle of nowhere.

Tentatively my plan now is to finish out the week in Adelaide, then head back to Melbourne. Depending on how quickly I'm recovering I may do some small trips around the region before heading back to the States. I'm gonna play it by ear...

...and today held so much promise.

I had a strange start to my day when as I left my room to go to the toilet I surprised a large, tattoo-covered kid rummaging through the contents of back pack that were spread out over the floor. He was clearly startled, and I eyed him up based on his reaction. I thought he might have simply spilled his pack... but it just felt wrong. He was gone when I returned from the toilet, so I went to have a cup of tea and breakfast. The communal cafeteria was empty save for a lone kid hammering away furiously at the keyboard to a laptop. As I went to sit down, there tucked against the wall was the back pack- sans large, illustrated thug of course. I turned the pack into the desk, described the kid an we located the pack's owner from the registry... a disabled student from Costa Rica. Crime is so classy.

After that things went fairly well. I was up, fed, and packed and out the door just before 7am.

I rode out into essentially empty streets in Adelaide, although they did fill quickly enough after that! My only setback initially was a very low back tire, which of course was remedied easily enough.


About 3km into the ride I had to pull over and give in to a full-on coughing, phlegm-spewing spasm... another followed in about 15 minutes. After that I thought I'd hit my stride and the coughing stopped... for a while. But after about 20km it came on again and with a vengeance... this time including a bit of blood, just for aesthetics.

I had to stop and have a serious gut-check moment with myself... and I didn't like what I was finding. Against my own better advice I pushed on. As I later learned my cyclo-computer was way off, probably reading MPH instead of km PH, but I was only averaging 10-12 km according to my computer. I suspected something was amiss, due to the good cadence and higher gears that I was trying to maintain. Over time, I just steadily slowed and worse yet began to cough more regularly, and with increasing ferocity.

At what my computer indicated as 30.28 km, I was done. I thought perhaps I'd "hit the wall" and needed to eat, especially since I'd been ill. I stopped at the Liberty Service station, and had a bit to eat and a coke. I felt measurably worse instead of better after eating!



The woman working the counter asked if I was alright, to which I simply replied "No." I went outside and sat in the sunlight (it was actually cold), and thought about my options with my knees drawn-up and my head in my hands. I must have been the most pathetic-looking creature in the region at that moment, as "Karla" the sheep dog came up unbidden and just put her head in my lap. I nearly broke down.



For the first time in my adult life I was unable to go on just on guts alone. It was an awful revelation for me, and I even hesitate to write it.

I made a few phone calls on my mobile, and then owned up to the fact that not only couldn't I go on, I couldn't ride back either! Well, I thought I'd just call a taxi, and have them deposit me back at the YHA- WRONG. First off, I couldn't ring them on my mobile phone, and then had to ask the VERY kind counter women Janet, who of course turned out to be one of the owners no less, to help me find a taxi company. Then I had to ask her to show me how to use the phone- I must have looked like an imbecile! After an age of arguing on the phone, I learned that no taxi company would come out that far to get me!!! "That far" I protested on the phone, "Its only 30km!" I was told that it was 48km, but of course I knew better... in either case, no yellow cavalry was coming.

So I thought I'd rely on human kindness, and started to ask anyone stopping for gas for a lift. I offered to pay for their tank fill, and give them $50.00... no takers. I even went next door to the pub and offered $100... still not the slightest interest! Bin Laden would have had better luck securing a ride back to Adelaide!!

Two hours into my humble-pie eating world record attempt, I was still unable to find a ride. Janet had been joined at the counter by Nikki, and they were both becoming genuinely concerned- and you know that was very nice.



I took stock of things, considered trying to bicycle back, and then rang one of the taxi companies again. Through dogged persistance I managed to convince the dispatcher to send someone, and I didn't mind waiting. This turned out to be good, because I still had well over an hour to wait!

The cab ride itself was actually delightful. The cabby, whose name I will not even try to re-create out of respect, turned out to be an engineering grad student from India working on alternative energy solutions. He was fascinating, and speaking with him gave me another glimmer of hope for humanity!
I carefully checked the mileage on his odometer, and sure enough it was 48 km...

So, it's been a day of being WRONG.

I was initially WRONG about an obvious criminal. WRONG about the state of my health. WRONG about my abilities. VERY WRONG to assume that road train drivers would at least try to give you a bit of room, or alert you to their presence. But most of all, WRONG to assume that the day was a total loss! Once I got over my self pity, the other challenges were actually rewarding, and of course as always I met some very nice people!

Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor.

As for everything else, it can wait. It is such a privilege to be here, at this place, at this time, and in this form, that I'm actually a bit awe-struck.