Monday, June 25, 2007

California Dreamin'

Am I completely nuts?? Who decides that for their longest vacation in over 2 years they're going to fly to California and spend the whole time on a bike? I'm sure there are quite a few others like that out there, but they're crazy. I must be too.

I'm leaving on Tuesday for the great state of California to bike the coast with my uncle Joe. Joe's a great guy, pastor at a church in Valencia, CA. We're starting just north of the Golden Gate Bridge and biking to just north of Santa Barbara. We're biking 6 days in total, and camping 5 nights. We're living it up in Monterey, however, we're staying in luxurious 2-star accommodations!

Side note, typing "accommodations" with 2 pairs of repeating letters reminded me of Cartalk's weekly puzzler. Which word has 3 pairs of consecutive letters that are all in a row. For example, 2 pairs of repeated consecutive letters would be "commiTTEE". If not for the "i" then it would be 3 pairs in a row. There is one word that I know of, and I remember reading about that riddle in an Encyclopedia Brown book back in the day. Remember those books? I was totally into them, heck, I wanted to BE Encyclopedia Brown. And Alex P Keaton. And Frank Hardy (not Joe Hardy however) Man was I dork. In any case, if you know that word, email Cartalk, or better yet, post it on my comments. If no one gets it I'll post the answer in a couple days.


I was the coolest kid in elementary school.

Back to the biking trip. So I'm riding my newish bike, a Surly Crosscheck. It's a locally made bike that is perfect for commuting and touring. My friend Tom and I put it together (really, he did all the work, but I supplied the Surly beer - while both companies are local, they are not related that I know of. Surly bikes is in the south metro, Surly beer is in the north). Here are some photos from the bike building experience. I don't have a finished photo, but I'll have some photos of it from California I'm sure.

Me with the pieces in Tom's basement

It's starting to look like a bike! Thanks Tom!

Hopefully I will be uploading photos and blogging about my trip occasionally from Cali. Big Sur here I come!!


This will be me in a couple days!!!!

3 comments:

Tyler said...

you were a dork, or you ARE a dork?

LOL Have fun in CA.

Beth said...

bOOKKEEper. I read that Encyclopedia Brown book too - I knew exactly what you were referring to. Can't wait to hear about your trip. What do you think of Surly beer, by the way?

Nathan said...

Wow, that's awesome Beth, great job! For answering correctly, I owe you a Surly beer (which are all delicious, although I'm partial to Furious Ale).

See you soon, perhaps at a Twins-related event or the next time Team Whitney gets together.