David Ernst Chats with the World

Got home from work today and there was another box on my porch. This was my new (used) turntable! Sadly, my old turntable, which was awfully cool when my brother Allen bought it ~1980, started having serious trouble. I eventually took it apart and discovered a [broken piece of plastic](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/broken-turntable.jpg). Dang. I didn’t want to mess with it, I have enough projects going on. So, I found [one on eBay](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5805930634) and bought it. The seller was fast, it was here surprisingly quickly!

I opened it up, the whole thing was wrapped in bubble wrap. It was hard to get through it all, but I did it! But what I found was that the [needle was totally broken off](http://www.bloomington.in.us/~drernst/dscf0012.jpg)!! Ugh. I wrote to the seller, and he wrote back *amazingly* quickly and took responsibility and said he’d send me a new needle. Kudos to him. So, I’ll be waiting on that.

Meanwhile, though, still playing with the last shipment, I found a [list of stuff to take bike touring](http://gorp.away.com/gorp/gear/packlst_bik.htm) online, written by the same guy that wrote the book I liked! I put that onto my Palm (using a [nifty little palm app that converts memos to todo lists](http://rickyspears.com/articles/convert_palm_memos_2_todos.html), via a [nifty little basic implementation for PalmOS](http://www.hotpaw.com/rhn/hotpaw/)), and packed up my panniers with just about everything I’ll need for an overnight. It’s a bit heavier that the simple test from Tuesday, I think I’ll still be under 30 pounds, doing pretty well, I think. I then put some directions onto my palm… I’m pretty much all set for that adventure!!

Now I have to convince myself to go to bed. I’ve sure been staying up late this week…

Well, as I was hoping, my order from Campmor arrived today, featuring a variety of stuff, but mostly bike related gear… most notably [panniers](http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?partNumber=59239RED) and a new [sleeping bag](http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?partNumber=41986). I’m quite pleased with the sleeping bag, lightweight, compresses well, and seems comfortable. The panniers are smaller than I expected, which is disappointing. Still, I was able to stuff the sleeping bag into one of them, strap my new tent (a very generous gift from Sue, who had a very lightweight tent she wasn’t using) and a thermarest onto the rack, and still have one whole pannier free. I threw some stuff into it: a liter of water, a “double” sized can of beans, a bunch of random camping/biking/other stuff, mostly just looking to add some weight. There was still plenty of room available.

I went for a ride around town with what I believe to be fair simulation of a reasonable load for an overnight (ie, one night) biking/camping trip. I went about 4 miles, and was quite pleased. Although I wish those panniers were bigger, they still hold quite a bit and they are safely out of the way of my feet, and they hold their weight well, apparently.

Of the three bicycle touring books that I picked up at the public library (all about 15 years old and all relatively randomly selected (thanks to Kynthia for prompting me with the search!)) my [favorite](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0941130797/qid=1126662205/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-6763038-5052764?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) said that in the author’s experience, everyone who ever mounted a loaded touring bike for the first time said “I can’t believe how *different* it is!” I was afraid of that experience as I lifted my bike out of my back yard, because it felt heavy! But, once I got on it and started pedaling, I was surprised by how *similar* it was! Basically, I could tell I was pushing more weight… I don’t think there’s any getting around that. But I was expected to have some concerns about staying steady on the bike or something, but… nope. It rode just great. Woohoo! I weighed it and I had just about 20 pounds loaded on there… I think I’ve read that people suggest sticking to under 40 pounds. I’d have to pack a lot more stuff to go on a long tour, but still, the heaviest and most essential items are all there, I felt the excitement of possibility!

When I got home from my ride, I started thinking about where I might go camping this weekend. I had already thought some about this, considering the Martin State Forest (East of Bedford) and McCormick’s Creek State park (near Spencer). When I was back home, I started looking at maps, and pretty well decided that if I go I should try Brown County State Park, near Nashville. A very nice place that’s a bit touristy, but definitely deserving of more attention than I’ve given it. I plotted out [an adventurous, ~35 mile route there](http://tinyurl.com/cfeaj) and a 20 mile, [much more direct route back](http://tinyurl.com/9t5tu). I’m not settled on this plan by any means. So far the weather prediction is good, but I’m not going to go if the weather is bad. And regardless, I might just change my mind. But, that’s where my mind is about it right now. I’ll probably try to reserve a campsite there if I do it, because I don’t want to go there just to find out that I have to bike back. We’ll see….

Jeff G and I, both planning on doing the [hilly hundred](http://www.hillyhundred.org/) in five weeks, decided to go on a bike ride today. I failed him on picking out a ride of “20-30 miles” as he requested. We went around Lake Lemon, which totaled 38.5 miles. It’s a nice ride, and features one of the steepest hills I am aware of (someone at the Hilly Hundred two years ago claimed that his bike computer said it was 23.5% grade at its steepest point. He pointed out that this was very slightly steeper than anything on the *Tour de France* of the same year. Impressive. Of course, they probably rode for miles at that slant in France, here’s it’s not even a quarter mile, I bet.) I **almost** made it up the hill, but hit a patch of gravel near the top, and since I was going about 2mph, I couldn’t keep the bike moving. Once I’d stopped, I walked the rest of the way. One day I’ll lick that hill…

I gotta get serious about food when I bike for that long… 20 miles without any substantial food is ok, but… yeah, woah, by the end I was really beat. Once back, we went to Dagwood’s where I quickly downed a whole vegetarian sub, and didn’t feel full (I’ve eaten enough of those to know that that’s weird). Jeff agreed, so we got some ice cream on top of that. that was two hours ago, and I feel just about ready to eat again. I’ve heard that strenuous biking burns about 500 calories per hour, in which case I should be due for an extra 1800 calories today, above my normally [recommended](http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/calories.shtml) 2800 calories. So, I should get eating! :) Some people see exercising as a good way to lose weight, and I suppose I think about that. But maybe I should just think about it as a license to eat more! :)

Being one who likes to offer up opinions and stories, I figured I’d enjoy having a *blog*. I figured I’d just sign up for and easy thing like blogger (don’t I get enough practice installing unix software?), but Kynthia was also interested in starting a blog and she wanted to install the software for one. Ok… we did some web research on packages (we found [an amazing resource](http://www.asymptomatic.net/blogbreakdown.htm) on blog software) and selected one (wordpress, because that’s what the guy who made the amazing resource in the last paren chose…). Installed beautifully, easy to use but still with some choice unix attitude shining through. :) In any event, Hello, Blog World! (more…)