So much can happen in one day. After a rough, hot and dusty exit out of central Mumbai (thanks Anjali Inn), we turned south to head towards Murud, on the Konkan coast, and eventually to Goa.
Let me (Eliot Spencer Murray) tell you, folks, I will often dilute the severity of my bad experiences for the sake of saving face and sustaining pleasantries, but by God, not today. I have absolutely no druthers about saying how hot and blankety-blank miserable I was for most of our 2nd day ride. Cycling along H-17 (good road), I was so hot that I felt like my skin was going to crinkle up and fall off like a burning marshmallow over the fire. Every hill was a battle, every valley a small but futile victory. Rarely have I been this hot while simultaneously exercising for so many miles at a time. I am from Oregon, after all. It was like having no lung power, leg power, stamina, energy, nothing, and constantly on the verge of collapse or barfing. Even a delicious fresh cut pineapple (thanks, Drew) did little to stave off the pain. In short, it totally, totally sucked.
Drew, native of south Texas (long live the mighty state), was having little difficulty, and was rather enjoying the furnace as we rode along. I now realize it was heat stroke, plain and simple. Suck-y. Also, having cotton pants on over my bike shorts, shoes and socks and a cotton shirt in 100 degree inland desert weather was, in fact stupid. My aim to not cause offense to the rural folks we rode past was in vain. We stood out so much, a little bike short action probably wouldn't make much difference to any conservative farmers (later I learned to not care, since the lack of cotton pants makes a MEGA difference).
Anyhow, we (read: I) limped like an injured duck to the town of Pen and agreed (read: I said I am going to die unless...) we should go to the coast by bus, as cycling more of the heat was a sure death race. Saints be praised, we did. Popping our bikes atop a dilapidated bus, we chunked down the road a piece to Alibad, where the coastal breeze met us once again and life resumed for my body. I could feel the heat dissipating and the panic level simmering down to normal operating levels. It was bad, man; I had that dreadful thought inside myself for just a moment - "Jesus, what have I done? I'm nearly dead on the 2nd day of cycling? Am I just a total wuss, or have I damned myself? Am I going to have to give up NOW?? And why the hell isn't Drew suffering like a rotisserie pig, like me??!"
I learned that, despite how bad things seem at the moment, if you persevere and aim for what you need, you'll probably get it. In addition, we both learned that Indian hospitality really does know no bounds, as evidenced by our most excellent and gracious experience with Mr Kunal and his family in Alibad. But that's for another post.
Showing posts with label oh the pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oh the pain. Show all posts
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Panvil to Alibad
i'm lying in a bed with a warm breeze blowing through the windows. the above is me is wobbly but provides a nice breeze as well. incense is burning to keep away mosquitos. my belly is full of water and eggs - full in a word, maybe for the first time sense arriving here. my head is warm and soft from rum. my skin is clean from a hot shower, my memory overflowing from the day. thinking it over ...
we finally cleared the city today about 10am when a worker from the hotel last night guided us to the road to goa. he asked for a tip so eliot gave him rs20. we had gathered some fruit from the hotel in our bags so we stopped to eat not long after that. on the way we braved traffic and heat. the weather really took it's toll on eliot. personally, i felt great - the hot weather, the biking the fuit - it felt just like my childhood in san antonio. i was in high spirits but eliot was having rough go.
we made it to a fruit stand 15km from pen and 40km from alibad. eliot lay down by the side of the road and i visited some of the stalls. i bought a pineapple and ate the whole thing as my lunch. we biked to a nearby hotel. eliot had some soup and i drank water and read the paper. with eliot on the verge of heatstroke, we opted to take a bus from nearby pen to alibad.
we were told that for ten rupees we could store the bikes above the bus ... but that we had less than ten minutes to unpack and get them up there. this turned out to be more like 5 minutes. i hauled my bike up single-handedly with much screaming and grunting. eliot handed his up and i hauled it up and began strapping themdown. the locals started yelling "time to go" before i had the first bungy on. hastily wrapping them, i jumped down and ran into the bus, panting and bleeding. i cannot stress how hard it was to haul the bikes up in a rush nor how satisfying to be working so hard. the experience of having one thing to do that must be done right now is clarifying, simple and good. biking 45km in 95 degree heat qualifies too.
on the bus i napped with trepedation given the amount of jostling that occured. in alibad we saw townsfolk preparing for holi, the end of winter and festival of colors. because of the holiday there were no rooms in town. we asked around for a place to camp. at one stall there were a couple men a few women and a retarded girl. the puzzled over our hindi-english translation picture book then walked accorss the street into a darkened shop. an old woman came out of the shadows. she took a brief look at the book and, in perfectly clear english asked us if we wanted to camp, then kim beach up the road was the best place. we thanked her and she smiled waving us in the direction of the beach, then slid back into her shop. when she spoke all the men stopped and listened. she is perhaps the only person we've met who looked first and only at us and not our bikes. if there are goddesses, this is what they look like.
so there we are, on the road to some beach at sundown with the vague hope that we can camp somewhere ... maybe find a meal ... dead tired too. no food in me except some fruit, running low on water. starving, dehydrated, dirty and tired, we had no clue where we would sleep, what we could eat or where we were going.
and then we met Kunal ...
we finally cleared the city today about 10am when a worker from the hotel last night guided us to the road to goa. he asked for a tip so eliot gave him rs20. we had gathered some fruit from the hotel in our bags so we stopped to eat not long after that. on the way we braved traffic and heat. the weather really took it's toll on eliot. personally, i felt great - the hot weather, the biking the fuit - it felt just like my childhood in san antonio. i was in high spirits but eliot was having rough go.
we made it to a fruit stand 15km from pen and 40km from alibad. eliot lay down by the side of the road and i visited some of the stalls. i bought a pineapple and ate the whole thing as my lunch. we biked to a nearby hotel. eliot had some soup and i drank water and read the paper. with eliot on the verge of heatstroke, we opted to take a bus from nearby pen to alibad.
we were told that for ten rupees we could store the bikes above the bus ... but that we had less than ten minutes to unpack and get them up there. this turned out to be more like 5 minutes. i hauled my bike up single-handedly with much screaming and grunting. eliot handed his up and i hauled it up and began strapping themdown. the locals started yelling "time to go" before i had the first bungy on. hastily wrapping them, i jumped down and ran into the bus, panting and bleeding. i cannot stress how hard it was to haul the bikes up in a rush nor how satisfying to be working so hard. the experience of having one thing to do that must be done right now is clarifying, simple and good. biking 45km in 95 degree heat qualifies too.
on the bus i napped with trepedation given the amount of jostling that occured. in alibad we saw townsfolk preparing for holi, the end of winter and festival of colors. because of the holiday there were no rooms in town. we asked around for a place to camp. at one stall there were a couple men a few women and a retarded girl. the puzzled over our hindi-english translation picture book then walked accorss the street into a darkened shop. an old woman came out of the shadows. she took a brief look at the book and, in perfectly clear english asked us if we wanted to camp, then kim beach up the road was the best place. we thanked her and she smiled waving us in the direction of the beach, then slid back into her shop. when she spoke all the men stopped and listened. she is perhaps the only person we've met who looked first and only at us and not our bikes. if there are goddesses, this is what they look like.
so there we are, on the road to some beach at sundown with the vague hope that we can camp somewhere ... maybe find a meal ... dead tired too. no food in me except some fruit, running low on water. starving, dehydrated, dirty and tired, we had no clue where we would sleep, what we could eat or where we were going.
and then we met Kunal ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
One Night in Panvel and the World's your Oyster
Today marks the end of the first official day of cycling in India!
we began the day in ghotkopar near the airport and bicycled with our hotel friend aneel to a major intersection on the outskirts of town. this is a very VERY tame version of what we did today. not our video there, but we don't have wifi tonight and can't upload our videos yet. look - i've biked in texas, i've biked in LA ... i have never in my life, at the very worst traffic conditions, biked in anything like this. i can't count the times i was nearly crushed, maimed, squished or run off the road. suprisingly, the whole thing worked really well. people just let you go wherever you want, you just have to afford them the same priveledge. while it seemed scary before, while it was happening i was remarkably calm. if you give yourself over the traffic and you're not in a hurry, it kind of moves you where you need to go without much effort on your part.
i don't have any pictures from today, and you wouldn't be impressed if i did. spent the day riding down the highway following buses and trucks and avoiding being runover. it was a pretty easy day of biking but the heat here is killer. eliot took it alot harder than i did, but both of us were suffering. we pulled it over about 2:30 and rested until 4 in a little town, under some trees near a cafe. we sipped lemonade and rested up until the sun moved a little then went down the road a ways to panvel. we're decided to splurge on a nice room at a good inn since the area is a little shady and we're both zapped. tomorrow is another day and should see us moving to the coast a bit (if we can). we may be out of touch, since there is no telling what accomodations or services will look like once we're away from a major highway. on the other hand, it should be much safer biking which is nice. we'll stay hydrated and pack it in again about 1-2 to avoid the worst of the heat.
all our love to you folks back home. expect a big push of updates sometime in the next week - we've got a backlog of half-articles we need to post. lots of travel tips and fun side adventures. alright, stay tuned!
we began the day in ghotkopar near the airport and bicycled with our hotel friend aneel to a major intersection on the outskirts of town. this is a very VERY tame version of what we did today. not our video there, but we don't have wifi tonight and can't upload our videos yet. look - i've biked in texas, i've biked in LA ... i have never in my life, at the very worst traffic conditions, biked in anything like this. i can't count the times i was nearly crushed, maimed, squished or run off the road. suprisingly, the whole thing worked really well. people just let you go wherever you want, you just have to afford them the same priveledge. while it seemed scary before, while it was happening i was remarkably calm. if you give yourself over the traffic and you're not in a hurry, it kind of moves you where you need to go without much effort on your part.
i don't have any pictures from today, and you wouldn't be impressed if i did. spent the day riding down the highway following buses and trucks and avoiding being runover. it was a pretty easy day of biking but the heat here is killer. eliot took it alot harder than i did, but both of us were suffering. we pulled it over about 2:30 and rested until 4 in a little town, under some trees near a cafe. we sipped lemonade and rested up until the sun moved a little then went down the road a ways to panvel. we're decided to splurge on a nice room at a good inn since the area is a little shady and we're both zapped. tomorrow is another day and should see us moving to the coast a bit (if we can). we may be out of touch, since there is no telling what accomodations or services will look like once we're away from a major highway. on the other hand, it should be much safer biking which is nice. we'll stay hydrated and pack it in again about 1-2 to avoid the worst of the heat.
all our love to you folks back home. expect a big push of updates sometime in the next week - we've got a backlog of half-articles we need to post. lots of travel tips and fun side adventures. alright, stay tuned!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
countdown : 4
skipped the countdown yesterday since i spent the whole day packing (again). tensions are running high, still. i seemed to be on pins and needles all the time these days. jumping at everything, emotions swinging. and after the bombing yesterday in pune, there are some serious fears. the state department sent us an e-mail asking us to take extra caution. thankfully, we're avoiding serious tourist spots in favor of rural regions and should be able to avoid any major attacks, bombings or kidnappings. your prayers and well-wishes are appreciated. we're smart and we're careful and we're watching out for one another.
biked up eliot's bike tonight and got the bags more or less ready to ship. tomorrow will be my last real day at the house - i'll still be living there but everything i own will be in storage. just my bed will remain.
oooooohhh the anxiety. flight-or-fight is kicking in BAD.
biked up eliot's bike tonight and got the bags more or less ready to ship. tomorrow will be my last real day at the house - i'll still be living there but everything i own will be in storage. just my bed will remain.
oooooohhh the anxiety. flight-or-fight is kicking in BAD.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
knocked-up, part 2
Dear Mom,
Today at the Passport Health Clinic I thought of you when, against my better judgement, I gave the nice Rhodesian lady more money to give me a tetanus shot. Yes, it was costly, and yes, I thought it was totally superfluous. but now your baby will be protected from dirt-born bacteria that causes (in the words of my physician) "a really awful disease." I also got the last of my hepatitis B shots so I'm all up to speed.
Your Son,
Drew
Today at the Passport Health Clinic I thought of you when, against my better judgement, I gave the nice Rhodesian lady more money to give me a tetanus shot. Yes, it was costly, and yes, I thought it was totally superfluous. but now your baby will be protected from dirt-born bacteria that causes (in the words of my physician) "a really awful disease." I also got the last of my hepatitis B shots so I'm all up to speed.
Your Son,
Drew
Monday, February 1, 2010
spicy safari, episode 1
EPISODE 1 - Snakes on a Sub-Continent
OR
Coma closer, where I can see you!
As Salaam & Namaste, viewers and welcome to the Spicy Safari Zamboni A Go-Go! Our first installment on the flora & fauna of india will examine the deadly snakes of the Indian sub-continent. In addition to elephants, vampire bats and crazy bugs, there are an at least 270 species of snakes in india with 60 of these being VENOMOUS! Species in india include the asp, the king cobra and many other snakes appearing in the India Jones franchise.
Let's start with the King - the KING COBRA that is! The longest venomous snake in the world (reaching up to 18 feet in length!), the king cobra is not, in fact, a true cobra, belonging instead to it's own genus. King Cobra venom is actually less venomous than common cobra venom and they have smaller fangs. the king cobra makes up for this by pumping it's victims full of venom - up to 7ml, enough to KILL AN ELEPHANT! Crap!
WHY AM I TAKING THIS TRIP?!
The common cobra, while much smaller is a very common sight in southern india - double crap! it's responsible for a "high number of fatal bites" and, like other cobras, is an excellent swimmer and climber. their venom is a powerful nuerotoxin which attacks the nervous system: it stops your heart, paralyzes your body and puts you into a coma before you die about 30 minutes later. WE'RE DOOMED!
Kraits are another snake that is common, deadly and OH MY GOD WHY AM I TAKING THIS TRIP?? Their bites are even better than most because they have no initial symptoms - until your lungs stop working! not only are they super deadly, they're nocturnal, love human habitations and are regularly confused with the harmless wolf snake. Jerks!
In addition to neurotoxins which paralyze and attack the nervous system, some snakes use hemotoxins that attack blood causing the bite area to die off, turn into gangrene and get super-duper gross before falling off entirely. excuse me while i curl up into a ball to cry and cry and cry for a little while ...
NEW PANTS HERE, PLEASE!
Finally, the Indian rock python - one of the world's largest snakes - kills by constricting, like the boa. additionally, both the boa and the python are the only two snakes not to completely lose their little legs. they continue to have "spurs" - tiny little nubbins they use to scoot along. cool? NO YOU FOOL, THAT'S TERRIFYING!
Snakes have great eye-sight but are generally very near-sighted. Many, like vipers, can "see" your heat with their tongues and the tiny Jacobson (or Slow Painful Death) gland. snakes typically like to chow down on little rodents and eggs. they don't want to kill humans for food because we're basically giant monkeys to them and that's gross. still, if you step on one, go poking on with a stick or accidentally sit near one it might become threatened and bite you. most bites come on the extremities since that's probably what you were dumb enough put near the snake, but bites on the haunches and flanks happen too.
Just like eliot & drew, if you are planning on traveling to india or any other place in the world with horrible death serpents hell-bent on destroying you're body through trickery, lightning strikes and a mind of pure evil, please take a snake bite kit.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
hallucinate or cook in the sun, your choice.
eliot and i both decided to go with doxycycline for our malaria medication. the decision basically came down to cost and side effects. Chloroquine used to be the thing to do, but it has some pretty serious side effects that can happen. while uncommon, many malaria-carrying mosquitoes are resistant to chloroquine now. oh, and only the females carry malaria (of course, the harlots). some quick notes on malaria meds, taken from http://www.travelindependent.info which, as i've said before, is the real deal. i highly recommend it to anyone traveling anywhere, as it's filled with no-nonsense, rational advice that really cuts through the chaff. anyway:
"Since compliance is always an issue, Mefloquine is easier because it is only taken once a week and has a long half life. They should be taken with a full glass of water and with food. Additionally, Doxycycline is irritating so after taking it, one should maintain an upright position (don't go to sleep) for an hour to decrease the chance that it will reflux back up. Just to mention, Doxycycline is one of the drugs used to treat traveller's diarrhoea, so using it daily to protect against malaria will also help to prevent traveller's diarrhoea or so the theory goes. This is because it is an anti-biotic ...
"The most common side effect of Mefloquine is vivid dreams. These tend to occur the night the tablet is taken, and are not necessarily nightmares, just vivid dreams. For Doxycycline it is photosensitivity (increased sensitivity of skin to sunlight) and an upset stomach. Make sure you are taking the right medication for the region you are travelling in. Again... you may not need either Mefloquine or Doxycycline - it is quite possible to visit a country with a malarial risk and never get anywhere near an that risk area (Cambodia, Bolivia, Thailand, South Africa, Iran, Namibia, China, Burma, Nepal - there are loads of them!).
"As a footnote, many feel the focus on Malaria is misdirected, Dengue fever is common in regions such as SE Asia (its geographic spread is similar to that of malaria). The carrying mosquitoes of Dengue live indoors and bite during the day, when most are least vigilant. Dengue can be every bit as dangerous as malaria. However there's no need for paranoia - a quick squirt of repellent on the ankles or covering up is a simple, easy and effective measure. In contrast to malaria, which is more common in rural areas, it is larger cities that present the greater risk from Dengue fever."
Monday, January 25, 2010
never give up
hot on the heels of my last post (re: being a commando), i went paintballing with some friends on saturday for my buddy chris's bachelor party. there were seven of us: mike, chris, jeremy, jeff, me, daniel (former army weapons trainer - sheesh), and nate (former tank engineer). the games were really fun and while i probably looked like this:
i felt like i looked like this:
now, in order to appreciate the rest of this story, you need to know that the place were playing was a large dry creek bed of solid rock. on either side of the ravine was shrubs, brush and woods, and the whole place was nestled in a steep ravine with a railroad track cutting across it, supported by tall columns. now, towards the end of the fourth game, i shot jeff in the mask and he called "i'm out" and started walking out. i turned my attention back to the rest of the game when i heard jeff screaming.
i ran over to find jeff - never a small guy, or one to complain - grabbing his leg and screaming. he had fallen down a small mudslide and into a little pool of water that was collecting around the base of one of the columns. it was the strangest thing - i was totally calm. i threw off my mask and gun, jumped in the water and patted his leg down - no protuberances, that's good. i grabbed him under his arms and hauled him out of the water. chris and jeremy showed up.
he was screaming about his ankle but he could move it just fine. that made me think it was the ankle. jeremy (his brother) stayed with him while chris, mike, nate and i gathered up gear and quickly moved the quarter mile back to the trucks. i left some water with jeff, told him to stay calm. when we got back he was trying to move with some walking sticks but it was slow going. i took off my belt and using some sticks made a field-splint, effectively setting the bone and isolating his ankle. when he felt comfortable, we picked him up and carried him up the steep scree to the top of the ravine. it took four of us working in tandem with jeff. it was brutal.
mike found a bed-liner for a pick-up truck in the brush and we hauled it out. jeff lay down in it and the remaining six of us hauled him maybe 200 yards through brush, cactus, dead trees and thorns to chris' truck, and then on to the med clinic. the funniest thing is that afterwards, mike asked me if i was an EMT. i laughed and said no, but he pointed out i seemed to know what i was doing. and people were looking to me for queues. it was strange but all this nonsense about survival and self-reliance i've been on about in preparation for this trip totally kicked in. it's amazing that my last post was about just that kind of feeling: your friend's leg is broken and you have to get him to safety. work with what you have. NEVER GIVE UP.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
dagger-faced little buggers
went and got my arm shot up with chemicals today at the travel clinic. picked up Hep B (unlike e-man) in additional to typhoid, H1N1 and my malaria pills. unfortunately i don't have enough time (or, cough, money) to get japanese encephalitis which killed (cough) 578 people in Uttar Pradesh province. so, it's time to look into ways to prevent mosquito bites!
apparently, catnip oil works up to 10 times better than DEET:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=634&i=…
http://www.essentialoil.com/catalog/defa…
http://www.essentialoil.com/catalog/adva…
Also, 80% of bites happen on the ankles so we gotta wear socks. And apparently 80% of bites happen the hour before dusk and the hour after dawn. So turn in early and sleep late. but if even ONE of those little buggers gets you, you can get all kinds of degenerative, horrible diseases that leave you bleeding and shooting fluids from every orifice before you keel over and die in gooey shame.
I don't want to die from japanese encephalitis.
apparently, catnip oil works up to 10 times better than DEET:
http://curezone.com/blogs/m.asp?f=634&i=…
http://www.essentialoil.com/catalog/defa…
http://www.essentialoil.com/catalog/adva…
Also, 80% of bites happen on the ankles so we gotta wear socks. And apparently 80% of bites happen the hour before dusk and the hour after dawn. So turn in early and sleep late. but if even ONE of those little buggers gets you, you can get all kinds of degenerative, horrible diseases that leave you bleeding and shooting fluids from every orifice before you keel over and die in gooey shame.
I don't want to die from japanese encephalitis.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Shot In The Arm
Just got my (eliot) inoculations for India - Hepatitis A and Swine Flu, plus a prescription for Doxycycline. Still current on Typhoid, Tetanus and Polio (probably....maybe......I hope so......I think so).
Hep A - for turbid and untrustworthy water and food sources that'll give ya' the nasties. Bad wrong nastyness. Serious nastyness.
Swine Flu - I don't really know, but the nice former-Rhodesian travel clinic doctor told me infections are up in my age group, and being exposed to so many people in planes, trains and rickshaws are going to up my chances of infection. So into my arm it went.
Doxycycline - For Malaria - among other things - like reduced acne (not a problem, I, uhm, assure you) and a golden brown hue on the old epidermis. Apparently, Doxy is good for not just blocking Malaria from F-ing with your system, but it's also prescribed to pizza-faced dorks like Eliot circa 1997! Also, it makes you "photo-sensitive", which means I can leave my cocoa butter at home and simply expect to get toasted by the sun on a regular basis. Nice! One pill per day.
Declined Japanese Encephalitis, Hep B and Rabies. Crossing the fingers I don't get bitten by a Japanese-mosquito-junkie out there on the trail. We're camping in a sweet tent (thanks Alexis) that is essentially like a giant mosquito net, and we'll be treating it with Pemrethin to keep the little dudes from penetrating our defenses, and subsequently, our precious skin.
Many thanks to Passport Health San Antonio for injections and advice - oh, one more thing: I asked what to do in case of snake bite. My doc mulled it over for a few moments and deduced that I should see a doctor. No EpiPen or emergency steroid injection, I asked? Not really good to do out in the bush, she said...hmm. SO, one of the goals will to NOT get chomped on by any asps or pythons. Just in case, I will be picking up a poison pump, that apparently is better than having your buddy suck the poison out or slicing off a big chunk of your leg. Also, we're going to carry another preventative measure: a big stick.
Amen to that.
Monday, December 28, 2009
sorry
been feeling a little under the weather and bogged down with holiday stuff. updates coming at you soon. i promise, just as soon as i can stand up long enough to get on my bike.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
bags and blizzards
finally got around to buying rear racks for the panniers last night - at a paltry $35 a piece i think we made out okay. could have been worse.
oh course, when we bought them, they didn't fit our frames at all. we were having serious doubts about getting them to fit. thankfully, the nice folks at Bike World were good enough to let us hang around (and even lent us some tools and a couple racks) so we could work on getting the racks adjusted. eliot ended up rigging his reflector holder and screwing the rack mounts into that so it comes off the saddle stem. i got some longer mounts and bent the heck out of them with a set of pliers, mounting them straight into the bike frame. whose will be mightiet? LET THE BATTLE OF JURY-RIGGED PANNIER MOUNTS BEGIN.
afterwards we went for a ride ... in 45 degree weather ... in the rain ... in bike shorts. people, "cold" doesn't begin to describe the kind of pain i was in. but it was good. or, at least, character building (which, growing up, my dad apparently thought was synonymous with "discomfort.") still, we live to bike another day and now we can take stuff with us. exciting. pictures forthcoming.
three big purchases left, folks - the insurance, the visas and the tickets.
Drive in Totals:$: 1713.71
oh course, when we bought them, they didn't fit our frames at all. we were having serious doubts about getting them to fit. thankfully, the nice folks at Bike World were good enough to let us hang around (and even lent us some tools and a couple racks) so we could work on getting the racks adjusted. eliot ended up rigging his reflector holder and screwing the rack mounts into that so it comes off the saddle stem. i got some longer mounts and bent the heck out of them with a set of pliers, mounting them straight into the bike frame. whose will be mightiet? LET THE BATTLE OF JURY-RIGGED PANNIER MOUNTS BEGIN.
afterwards we went for a ride ... in 45 degree weather ... in the rain ... in bike shorts. people, "cold" doesn't begin to describe the kind of pain i was in. but it was good. or, at least, character building (which, growing up, my dad apparently thought was synonymous with "discomfort.") still, we live to bike another day and now we can take stuff with us. exciting. pictures forthcoming.
three big purchases left, folks - the insurance, the visas and the tickets.
Drive in Totals:$: 1713.71
Thursday, December 10, 2009
blech.
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