interim tallies
Greetings from the Siwash* prevalent conditions: sun, wind, brush fires prevalent conditions: wet, no wind, bad drivers *more on this later
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March 2, 2011
Day 1 – Daytona to Rockledge
11:15 - Daytona (photo courtesy Dumps) 2:16 PM– Scottsmoor the old boy in the gas station seemed pretty excited about the forest fire. ‘Outta control’ he said, with blue eyes glittering. ‘That’s why I’m stocking up.’ He had a 24 case of Coor’s Light under one arm and asked for a carton of cigarettes when he got to the till. "Good thing you ain't riding north! !" He chuckled as he walked out. "Be careful now!" We had both just finished listening to a rather sizable lady explain to the counter staff that her husband had been complaining that she was getting too thin. ‘He’s told me I look like a crack whore,’ she cackled. The counter staff nodded sympathetically. I couldn’t see her face throughout this exchange, so I held back on passing judgement. ‘an that just ain’t no fair.’ Despite dropping the Southern double negative, she sounded fairly well satisfied with the situation. This being my first stop, there’s already a few lessons to be learned. 1) I really am going to have to do something about my saddle. After two hours, it has started to feel like I was sawing at my perinium with a loop of barbed wire. That, or I have somehow managed to sit on the bike chain. 2) a quart-sized water bottle is inadequate. Mostly because 3) Florida is fucking huge. No matter how much you think of the place as being wall-to-wall crowded with Publix, Walgreens and the like, there are still these huge empty bits in between, containing just the odd trailer (not even trailer park), fishing hole, Church of the Nazarene or closed down marina. There seem to be a shit load of those, leading me to think that 4) the economy here is still on its ass. I have passed many desolate scenes worthy of Stephen Shore. Beautiful and empty in a sort of post-apocalyptic way. Perhaps that’s not far…
March 2, 2011
Heading Orff…
well, it seems that only road travel elicits anything like regular blog contributions, hence the plan to see a fair swathe of Florida using that most unconventional of vehicles (in the US at least): the bicycle. at 1000 miles, the proposed route could be called a tad ambitious, and i am reserving the right to tailor the course to prevailing mood and circumstance (likely to be driven by the size an insistence of the saddle sores). but let's just see how we go. i've been fiddling with the bike setup for about a week now, and am well pleased with the Batavus i spotted while in Bali and kept on hold for a rainy day. although it's fairly clear that it hasn't exactly been designed for touring -- a fact underscored by the many raised eyebrows on the part of the fine gents from Orange Cycle in orlando when they fitted the rack. my other essential bit of kit is the all-in-one hammock, which meets the weight criteria but possibly not the security or stability criteria that have been stipulated by the missus. thankfully Florida is the land of the cheap roadside motel, so i should hopefully be able to credit card my way out of any unsavoury or unlikely camping scenarios. It all sounds a bit like folly, but i guess there's only one way to find out. As ever, i'm grateful to the Missus, and to her dad Farouk, for doing the parental bit while i get to go and have 'fun'. I will be on standby, and have promised to be back within two days of any emergency. will also be travelling with the essentials: laptop and broadband stick, so, in a way, it will be like i never left. Hoping to document a fair bit of it here, but will turn off the email notifications so everyone can carry on with their lives in peace. hasta…
February 28, 2011
The Culture Mulch
It's been a tumultuous week. Thankfully the missus has documented the horrors of our transit so thoroughly that i need not go into it here -- nor hopefully think back on it ever again. Instead, we consider what it means to be washed up in Daytona Beach at the father-in-law's lovely ocean-side flat. Three days in and the midgets have neither worn out their welcome, nor the plush white carpets...although limits are being tested on both fronts. As for what else has changed, it struck me today, as I was hoovering up several small mountains of food-based debris, that this time last week i was undertaking a similar task, only I was using a broom made of bound sticks. Eating is still done waterside, but there is a lot more use of cutlery here in Florida. Transportation (for me) is still two-wheeled, but i'm having to do a lot more of the work myself now that my cycle is motorless (i am still regarded as a freak in the streets though -- in India it was for obvious reasons, but here, judging by the looks i'm getting, i'm a fool to attempt battle with SUVs and millions of farting Harleys using only the power of the human leg). But, perhaps the most telling difference is that we are back to full time childcare, as both boys bid a fond goodbye to their schools last week. So far, i think we're enjoying it (long journeys aside), thanks in large part to the ministrations of aunties and grandpa's on various continents. However, this morning, after a few successive days of chaos, i felt compelled to draw up a daily schedule and for once the Missus, who normally hates these things, didn't object.That may have something to do with my plan to cycle down the coast next week. i'm hoping to get as far as the Keys, but will be loaded up with…
February 20, 2011
December’s Contender
'Twas the month of December when it suddenly dawned, That insidious notion: another year gone. And thus to the interweb we scurried all a bumble, To post many pics (have a bit of a mumble). And yet, as years go, it treated us well. Consider: only in balmiest beauty did we dwell. We met lots of people, too many to remember, And that was just in the month of December. So here are the photos, in time-honoured dollop; Proof that life is too short to be lived as polyp.
January 18, 2011
The Quality Curse
I seem to just want to write new stuff. It’s an extension of ‘do’, and in my world, ‘do’ has always been better than ‘not-do’. I guess I just like the unbridled possibility of the next sentence far more than the harsh constraints of the last one. This bodes well for volume, but not brilliantly for quality. And, unfortunately for me, it is this last which everyone is seeking. It's rare stuff, after all; like some sort of elixir for eternal youth. Perhaps, that is why everyone is chasing it. Eternal youth speaks to you of timelessness, durability. Rarity. I’m aware that I tread close to the same quality ruminations that Robert Pirsig gave voice to in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. At least that's what I can still recall from my last reading, circa 1993. I suspect that there were good reasons for his quality fixation -- especially if you take into account the poor man's diagnosis for schizophrenia and subsequent shock therapy treatment. But quality can a worthwhile obsession, since it is a concept which cuts to the quick of humanity. We always carry with us a notion of how good something is in relation to something else, and that something else is usually aligned with an abstract ideal which has the capacity to say more about us as people than a signature or a fingerprint. Take India for example. Like me, it has little trouble with volume, but quality continues to be elusive. I’m currently on my second set of bicycle tyres, fifth pair of inner tubes (and those are patched to within an inch of their lives) and second rear axel. The handlebar tape has gone, and the headset is already notched. That's after a thousand kilometers. The cycle of purchase, fix, fix again, and replace is so short here it makes your head spin. A mania for quality in the practical world…
January 12, 2011