Relative Something

I’m struggling with myself on what to write about this year’s “Jaunt With Jim” bike trip. Part of my sense of storytelling is strongly attached to chronology of events, and that has me inclined to want to go back to the very first day and describe events in the order they occurred. At the same time, the most recent events are fresh in memory and seem to hold increased value over something further removed in time.

Jim presented a cake for the newlyweds at breakfast the first day.

The moment that Gary and I pulled into the school parking lot in Chatfield on Friday the 11^th, the first people we see include my very good friends with whom I have shared the most continued interaction over the years. What story could be more worthy of telling than the amazing news that Curt and Suzanne immediately share? That very morning they went to a little church in Iowa and got married! They are sporting matching shirts that declare their new status and will spend the week, which newlyweds traditionally reserve for a honeymoon, riding bicycle with us. The “Jaunt With Jim” ride is just the kind of adventure that attracts this kind of behavior.

But regardless my inclination toward chronological storytelling, I am interested in entertaining a move away from my pattern of excessive orderliness in processing. I didn’t consciously plan for this trip to involve a theme, but one did seem to materialize. Steve noticed that I didn’t write about my prolonged pre-trip planning and packing phase like the previous year. That is because it wasn’t the same this year. I performed a last-minute review of the lists I have been keeping and reusing since the early years, and then I just stuffed it all in my duffel. I would refine the organization in Chatfield.

I think part of me was trying to knock me out of my old patterns; to try practicing being more in the moment. Personally, I find this trip to be a VERY hard place to take on such a task. I’ll expand on that later. Then my sister, Mary, made a comment about deciding not to put my tent up for me one day because she wasn’t sure I would be satisfied with the way she did it. I was “anal.”

That was good for me to hear. I have no interest in creating that impression about myself to others. There are definitely times I have made fun of my tendency to exhibit behaviors that remind me of the USA Network television detective, Monk. How many times must I have uttered the phrase, “a place for everything, and everything in its place?” In reality, for any sense of order I am able to achieve, there are equal parts of disarray that I live with that certainly help offer some balance. I wonder how often the disarray part of my life appears as the impression others perceive?

Chaos in the duffel

With so many people to greet and visit that first night, I end up giving less attention to my ‘system’ of managing the various details involved with comfortably navigating a week-long group bicycle camping adventure. The first thing I discover to be missing this year is my travel watch for checking the time when I awake in the middle of the night in the tent. I rally to solve the problem with a perfectly functional, though less convenient solution. I can use my iPod. I will just suffer the brightness the display beams into my night vision.

I have always found this trip to require a lot of thinking ahead. If you want to be comfortable, make sure you drink enough water in advance. If you drink enough water, make sure you visit the restroom before you leave any rest stop! When you pack your duffel in the morning, make sure you leave out anything that must be with you on the bike during the day. If you are going to walk all the way to the shower, make sure you think ahead about what you plan to wear after you dry off. Did you even remember your towel? Did you bring your money with you for the walk to dinner?

For all the freedom from planning that this trip offers, with the route assigned in advance, food menu selections determined, place to sleep set and wake-up whistle automatic, I see now that I still make an awful lot of mini-decisions all week long. Stories about some of our adventures will follow in the days ahead, as time allows.

I’m home! First things, first… Before I am able to compose some of the wild stories that played out over the previous week of this year’s “Jaunt with Jim” bicycle trip adventure, I will be saddled with chores of drying out and cleaning my tent and various other camping items, as well as trying to catch up with chores around the house. One thing that does happen without delay: I get to sleep in a bed again!

I will provide a sneak preview of bike trip images for you, in the mean time…

Bike camping on the campus of Winona State University

Rollin' down the road

By the last day, we are pretty prepared to finish. Many of our parting salutations begin at breakfast, on the chance our paths don’t cross again for the remainder of the day. There is a bittersweet feeling of the sorrow of parting and the interest in sleeping in a bed again and returning to all the comforts of home. There is a bit less meandering in our pedaling on Friday, as we have a strong pull in the form of a car waiting for us at the destination. The sooner we reach the car, the sooner we hit the road back home and the sooner we see our family again. I don’t know that I can convey how difficult it is to keep your eyes open during that car ride home. When you stop pedaling, sit in the soft seat of a car and just recline while listening to the drone of the engine lullaby your senses dull, the eyelids become too heavy to defy. As tired as I feel, I don’t dare give in and leave the driver, who is under similar pressure to stay alert, on his own to fend off the same pressure.

I dread the chore of putting up the tent at home to clean it out and sorting all my gear to put things away. I just want to collapse and enjoy living indoors again and having all my normal conveniences. The trickiest part is turning off the urge to continue to eat like we have been while riding all week. It has often been said of our group that we are an eating group with a biking disorder. It would be wonderful if I would be able to continue to burn as many calories a day as in the previous week, but it’s not going to happen. No more ice cream treats for a while, for me.

Thursday of the bike week seems to be the pinnacle of the whole adventure. The second to last day of riding, we are high on the rush of the friendships that have bonded over shared accomplishments as well as frivolous play and belly laughs we’ve enjoyed, yet as we are just a day away from the end, we know our moments together are numbered. We are scheduled to be riding mostly south from Winona to the last night of tenting in Rushford.

Thursday night often blossoms into a gala event with riders assembling a variety of silly things to wear or accumulated fake tattoos and then buying up whatever they can carry for appetizers and cocktails to celebrate together our accomplishments and good fortune of the adventures that Jim provides. One of the amazing things about this week is that there are very few decisions we need to make. It is all laid out for us to just enjoy doing. I like not needing to think about where to ride. The route is already determined. The food choices are made. The camping spots established. We just show up and ride. Jim does a lot of behind the scenes work to provide us with a fantastic adventure. That, combined with the friendships the experience give rise to, has everyone in a festive mood.

With just one day left to ride, a few in the group might just stay up a little later than normal. The rest of us hardly hear them and find sleep comes easy when you’ve spent days riding a bike.

We are back on our bikes again for a ride along the river to Winona and a stop at Winona State University. If it hasn’t been apparent, these posts chronicling the bike trip are all pre-written and programmed to automatically post each day. At the time of this writing, I have no idea whether we’ve been enjoying ourselves in sunshine and light winds or slugging along through gray and wet, or even lightning and thunder. It’s all part of the adventure. Something we will be able to talk about later, which I intend to do. Just like I did during the past trips, I intend to journal details as they happen using the archaic technology of pencil and diary. Upon my return, as time allows, I hope to be able to post actual details and support them with photos. That is, if my camera doesn’t get wet and stop functioning.

I wonder if we will be fed by the campus cafeteria while we are at Winona State?

If we have held true to the initial itinerary, last night we celebrated on the river with a pizza party on a boat cruise. I’m thinking the timing of this is good, because it is advertised as an all-you-want pizza party and it just so happens that today is an off day where we don’t have to pack up our tents and ride away. We can gorge ourselves and then sleep in this morning in vacation-worthy slothfulness. The rest day allows for time to do whatever suits our fancy. I like to stretch my legs with a lot of walking, but sometimes get talked into joining friends in a little bike exploration. Others look forward to the opportunity to shop. Jim often serves up options for a tour of local attractions. We have explored mines and paper mills, state parks, and dramatic geographic landmarks. Sometimes, we are in a community large enough to support a movie theater and plenty of us enjoy the chance to just sit for a couple of hours indoors and be entertained.

By this point in the week we find ourselves becoming picky about the options for public toilet facilities. As much fun as we are having, part of us begins to miss home.

It has only been one day off, but tonight, as we settle in our tents, it is a small mental hassle to get reorganized for the early morning, and the pack-up and move on it will bring. The mind is well into vacation mode.

By day 3, we begin to lose our sense of which day of the week it is. The start back in Chatfield on Saturday will feel like a week ago already. With luck, we will have discovered some sunshine by now. You will know if my wish comes true. The world around us is back into the work week and it truly feels like being on vacation to us. In the morning on this day, there is often a line waiting at the Penn Cycle support van, looking to top off the tire pressure and assure the least rolling resistance possible. I seem to recall this day often being one where I’m considering skipping breakfast because it feels like all I’ve done so far is eat! At first, there is concern about not having enough fuel to ride all day long, so we eat and eat. In addition to that, every time we stop for a break, Jim has arranged for a local service organization to raise some money by selling us snack treats, so we feel it an obligation to eat. Maybe I should consider riding harder to try and burn off the massive count of calories ingested.

Tonight’s destination is LaCrescent on the Mississippi River. Hopefully, Jim has devised a long roundabout route to get there, because it is just a stone’s throw away from our start. As the average age of participants continues to climb with each year we ride, shorter distance days are welcomed by those who find equal pleasure in the post-ride time each day to socialize. I wonder how many calories I can burn socializing?

Our plan is to ride south from Chatfield to Harmony, down close to the Iowa border. For the week prior to this trip, I had been watching the weather for these parts and all I ever seemed to see were large masses of rain on the radar. I wonder if we are getting a break. If you are reading this on the morning it is posted, you have the advantage of being able to check. Don’t bother. It will be beautiful and sunny for us all week, I’m sure.

Hopping onto the bike seat on day two is a bit of a test. Did I sit too much yesterday? Even if a tad uncomfortable, the body adjusts quickly and soon the rhythm of a long ride is established and we take in the scenery and enjoy the company of so many like-minded friends in the adventure for which we all signed on.

We are headed for Houston by the end of the day, just a short hop to the northeast.

This morning is the first day of this year’s bike trip, the 36th annual Jaunt With Jim –a product of Jim Kobuchar’s Adventures– and my 12th or 13th with the group. Even though the riding starts today, the overall adventure really starts the night before. On the afternoon of the Friday before each Jaunt, the participants begin to arrive in whatever small town Jim has selected, to camp together and park cars for the week. It is an interesting combination of excitement and anxiety that we experience, for a number of reasons. As folks begin arriving en masse, we discover each other again –for many, this is the only time we see each other all year– and learn who has come back and who won’t make it. Our numbers tend to approach 150 of late, a little under half as many as made it in the peak years, well over a decade ago. The energy builds as we reconnect and feed off each other’s excitement to be together in this shared adventure. At the same time, this is the point where we make final decisions about what we take with for the week and lock up the sanctuary of our cars to be left with only a tent for shelter for the next 7 days.

We’ll rise in the pre-dawn hours to pack our tents. Then determine what we will carry with us on the bike and what we stuff in the duffel to be shuttled by truck to the coming evening’s destination. Breakfast is served around 6 a.m. and then we receive advice on route details from the conductor himself. Rain or shine, it will be time to hop on the saddle and off we’ll ride into the first leg of whatever is awaiting to surprise us.

This year we will be in Chatfield to start, just south of Rochester in the southeast corner of Minnesota. The whole week is ahead of us. Excitement, and anxiety. Sounds like an adventure to me!

If ever weather, and its incongruity with what forecasters predicted, could impact a day, yesterday was a classic example. Our gang of cyclists were all prepared for a sunny day in the 80-85° F range, yet the day dawned with a hard-to-read white overcast. A glance at the satellite image had me thinking we were just on the edge of clearing and sunny blue skies would be appearing any moment.

Not long after we set off in the morning, the color of the sky began to take on a darker hue. It was hard to read, though. It didn’t appear defined enough to discern whether it was coming or going. We rode on. Then a few raindrops painted the pavement. It still wasn’t clear if we were going to dodge getting a soaking, or not. We were approaching a town near a logical time for a break and a glimpse of a flash in the sky affirmed our plan to head for cover.

We leaned our bikes on the side of a McDonald’s restaurant and stepped inside, just as the now inevitable deluge let loose. A lightning and thunder downpour became the center of attention for about an hour and a half of our biking adventure. Luckily, we had Sarah along who was a wonderful second, in terms of center of attention. We made good use of the shelter provided in the area of the McDonald’s play room.

Eventually, the rain moved on and we emerged from the shelter to resume our trek. We were entirely successful at avoiding riding in the rain, but we were at the mercy of riding in the wet that immediately follows a good downpour. The wet means more debris sticks to the tires which, in our case, led to 2 flats, surprisingly, to the same wheel of the same bike. Finally, the ultimate insult to having successfully dodged riding in the rain, the wetness of the road and the dirt and debris on the otherwise wonderful trail sprayed up, painting everything with grime.

Those relatively minor inconveniences were tempered by the eventual clearing blue sky, warm sunshine, the ease of rinsing legs, bikes, and trailer with a garden hose, followed by a fantastic homemade feast amid laughter and fellowship at the home of our lovely host, Laura. This cycle adventure goes down as another one to be measured as ‘priceless’ in our collection of many similar trips this group of amazing friends have enjoyed together.