THIS BLOG IS DEAD.

NOTE 23 January 2014: New posts are no longer posted to this blog. New stuff at my new blog, http://urbanadventureleague.wordpress.com/ Please go there! All old and new posts are there, and you can also comment, too!

Monday, August 26, 2013

Maintaining

Hello friends. Yep, it's been a little while since the last blog post. Long enough that a few people emailed to ask me if I'm okay.

Well, yep, I am. It's been not the easiest month around here due to the break-up, but I'm surviving. April and I are still on decent terms, but it wasn't until I moved into my new digs last weekend when it really hit me: it's over. As for where I'm living, I moved in with my friend Marina, who is subletting Casa Crow off Hawthorne through January. The owner of Casa Crow is my friend Ken. Ken and his partner Heidi have been travelling around the world this year, hence the sublet.

It's a bit ironic, actually. I've known Ken for about as long as I've lived in Portland (he moved here a year after I got here). And there's been a couple of times that I almost moved in with him over the years (and I actually did stay at Casa Crow for awhile several years ago, but it was very temporary) but now I'm living at his house when he's not here. Yep, I have a weird life.

The move wasn't too bad. It consisted of several trips with bike and trailer between the two houses over the span of a couple days. (The two places are a little under a mile from each other.) But I can't say it was a fun move, as it wasn't done under the best of circumstances. And it was pretty weird for the first few days, getting used to Not Living With Someone. (Yes, I have roommates, but it's not the same as co-habitation with a partner.)

Anyways, there is more I should have written about over the span of the last month, but the break-up had sapped a lot of my creativity, creativity that I just find starting to flow again. The trip to Vancouver a few weeks back was good, and in hindsight it was good to get out of town for a bit. I don't know if I'll write about it in more detail soon, but in the meantime you should go check out the photos on flickr.

What's to come in the future?

  • I have three days off in a row starting Thursday, so my friend Ed and I are taking the train up to Tacoma in the morning, then riding about 50 miles to the northwest corner of Rainier National Park. Here is the Carbon River Valley, a nice glacial river passing through a temperate rainforest. This part of the park is very quiet, as the four-mile road up to the Ipsuit Creek campground got partially washed out a few years back. Now it's only open to cyclists and hikers. We'll spend two nights camping there, then ride back to Tacoma on Saturday and catch Amtrak back to Portland.
  • Ed is on the left.
  • I'm getting a bit of time off around the second weekend of September, so I will be taking Amtrak northbound again, but this time to tour around the San Juan Islands. No details have been hammered out yet but it shall be fun! While I've taken the ferry through the San Juans to get to Vancouver Island, I've never actually been on the islands.
  • And I've got some local rides in store soon. Keep posted for details!
Overall, it's been a meh month, but things are getting better. Hope everyone out there is doing well.

4 comments:

  1. Wonderful to have another post to read! Shawn, thanks for your contributions. I find them enlightening (in the bike world sense) and entertaining.

    I'm the one of the ones who has been checking your Urban Adventure League realm each day for the past month. Your return brought a smile to my face. As ever, looking forward to more of what you share with us.

    Would love to be traveling with you and Ed. Stay on two wheels!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man I've been wanting to hit the Carbon River Valley for ages - looking forward to hearing about it! tempted to ride up there myself over the Labor Day Weekend.

    keep on exploring,
    Robert

    ReplyDelete
  3. Enjoy the San Juans, I have been going to Orcas just about every year since 1985. Love that island but its not the most bike friendly, fairly hilly, narrow roads and a lot of blind corners. That said it should be pretty quiet in Sept. Although I have not ridden it myself Lopez is rumored to be the bike friendliest of all the islands and they host a Tour De Lopez ride in late April. Finally San Juan is probably the most historic of the islands. Any way you slice it they islands are gorgeous and worth the trip and you are picking about the perfect time to go - the kids are back in school, the weather is still nice the days are fairly long and the road traffic should be low. Have fun!

    ReplyDelete

I'm no longer allowing new comments on this blog. You can comment on the exact same post on the new blog. Go find it over at http://urbanadventureleague.wordpress.com/

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.