My New Bike and Other Developments

Lyon is back! After almost a month on the road, he came rolling into New England from West Virginia in a van full of haggard musicians. In fact, the night he got in, I was driving back from NYC after a last visit with Julia, Brad and Adam. And wouldn't you know, on I- 91, about an hour from Northampton, I noticed a van coming up beside me, and then slowing down to match my speed. I don't really know the people Lyon was on tour with this last time. I've never seen them play, and I'd only ever briefly met Squash, the man behind JP Harris and the Tough Choices.

So I didn't recognize the pretty girl with the tattoos and shaved head waving wildly at me through the front window, and all the back windows were tinted, but I knew Lyon was in there somewhere. I waved with caution at first, but smiling and growing more certain that this was the Tough Choices band van. Then Lyon must have crawled up to the front seat because out popped his head, hat and hair blowing in the wind, all teeth and smiles. They pointed to the nearest exit, pulling ahead of me, and I followed them. After coming to a stop, I climbed out of my car and Lyon came running down the road to hug me, while the band clapped and yelled.

So we're back in the same space again, and we may not have our own home to go to anymore, but we certainly have loving, caring friends who are making sure we are far from homeless (we are actually closer to spoiled than homeless).

But, let's talk about bikes. Guess who got her new blue touring bike! It's the Jamis Aurora, and it looks like this:




I got it last Thursday and have been riding it some, but am still getting used to it. It's much bigger than my other bike, and I notice the difference, but the longer I go without my old bike, the less I compare this new one to it. I feel safer on it, and it handles roots, rocks, gravel and pot holes much better. We've been staying with Levin and Dawn out in Leverett, and the other morning I took off in the early morning to work. It was so cool to roll out of the drive onto a gravel/dirt road (even though it turns to paved road in a matter of yards) and bike through the woods, past farm land and vegetable stands. I have to admit I was getting a little sick of the bike path from Northampton to Amherst.

When I went to buy the bike, this girl, who I'd spoken to before, was working. First of all, her "cool" points already go through the roof because she works at a bike shop and rocks the greasy black fingers and cute Euro racing cap like a pro. Secondly, she's biking from Seattle to San Francisco in September! Of course it crossed my mind to ask her if she wanted to maybe meet up on the West Coast, but I didn't want to cramp her style, so I bit my tongue. But she actually brought it up herself! And we exchanged numbers. Sweet. I feel so much more comfortable asking her questions about what I need to buy and do for this trip than I do asking anyone else. Oh, and she's building and customizing her own bike. Cool points just went to the moon.

Thought: Lots of people say to get clips for our pedals. I don't want to spend the money on the clips or the shoes. And I'm secretly (or not so secretly), afraid to have my feet clipped in like that. I'm just getting used to the pedal straps on my current bike. Maybe next tour we can get clips.

And lastly, yesterday we went to a free bike clinic at REI. It was nothing fancy, but I learned to change a tire, and how to maintain a bike. We wandered around the store getting ideas of what we might want to buy, mostly taking mental notes. We did, however, get a durable coffee cup to share, and two camping sporks. We'll have to write our names on them so that when Lyon looses his he doesn't try to steal mine (wink!).

We eyed the multi-tools (like a swiss army knife but instead of toothpicks and tweezers, it's wrenches and levers and other bicycle tools), but we didn't buy one. Maybe we can find one cheap on online.

Full speed ahead at this point. At Rao's now, feeling sentimental. I wrote so many papers and did so much procrastinating at this coffee shop over the years. I passed a piece of paper with the Coasting blog to one of the guys that's been working here since I can recall. He's always been so nice and always remembered my face as one of the many frequent visitors to his coffee shop. Once, when I was walking to town, I passed him on the sidewalk and we waved. "I know where you're going!" he teased. I don't remember anymore where I was going, but we was probably right. I was probably going to Raos.

Here we go!