The Social Introvert

As I have traveled across the US and Canada this year, I have seen a lot of beautiful places, challenged myself physically, have seen some parts of North America that I have been to before, and many others that were new to me. This has all been great, and I have loved every minute of it (unless it was raining!) but what I will probably look back to the most is the time I have spent with people. These people are sometimes strangers, men I talk to at Tim Horton's, or women who stop me in the middle of the road to ask me where I am headed or if I need water. They are sometimes people I have met before and am visiting again. They are sometimes people who I didn't know would be important in my life, such as some of my fellow racers at the Tour Divide. 

Mr. Coffee; he kept me going during the race!
(this photo is about 30 miles from the finish)

However, the bulk of people I have met up with have been people I have met on the internet! This would have seemed weird to me twenty years ago, and I have never done internet dating, but now it just seems normal to be sleeping in the bed of a person who you have never before seen face to face! This is the beauty of the interwebs. 

The first internet people I met along the way were Warm Showers hosts. Warm Showers is a network of cyclists and hosts, where you can either stay at someone's house on your route, or you can host cyclists at your house. This is all free, and usually the hosts are cyclists, but I have stayed with people who are just nice people willing to help out and host and feed stinky tired people! So far, I have stayed with Warm Showers hosts in Washington, Alberta, Michigan and Ontario and they were all wonderful. 

My next host was a couple on Vancouver Island who found me through my blog because of my post on hiking in Slovenia. At first we ended up being pen pals, where I answered some questions they had about Slovenia and we swapped hiking stories and travel stories. They told me that if I was ever in their area I should stop by, and I did, and it was great! 

I also met up with several blog friends; you can read posts from Lisa (who I have met before, but was happy to meet up with again!), NGS, Kae and Birchie on their sites. All of them were great; everyone was exactly like I thought they would be, and I had an excellent time finally putting a 3D person to the 2D photos and written words. 

My theme: same shirt, different day!

Last, but not least, I finally made it across the country and ended up in beautiful Nova Scotia, where I met Elisabeth! Although we had never met in person before, it felt like we were fast friends already and we TWO INTROVERTS had no issues whatsoever keeping the conversation going. I had once asked her what the itinerary would be if I came to visit for three days and she provided a great list, and we definitely knocked many of these things off the list! We had perfect weather and there were no big crowds at the popular places, which was just how I like it! However, there was too much to do and not enough time, so I guess I will have to go back someday soon. 

Here are the highlights of the last week with Elisabeth! 

*Meeting her family! Everyone was so sweet and fun and so charismatic! I went to church with them on Sunday, got to walk the kids to school, and we had a blast playing games (I even threw the football around with Indy!) 

Walking the kids to school

*Peggy's Cove. I was going to ride there with Bob, but the road is small and windy and there is no shoulder! Luckily we moved the schedule around and ended up going all together, including the kids, which is probably more fun anyway, as I would have likely just done a quick drive through if I was on the bike. It was as beautiful as the photos show and we had fun jumping around on the rocks together. 

*Cape Split. This feels like the end of the earth, although you can see parts of Nova Scotia across the way. It was so windy I thought that I was going to fall of the edge! We had a great hike (I think it was almost 9 miles), a nice picnic and had a nice heart to heart along the way. 

My mouth is open because it is so windy!

*Medford/Blomidon. The cliffs and rocks were so red! The tides in these areas are crazy. Influenced by the Bay of Fundy, they can go down over 50 feet vertically and 3 miles horizontally. I think that the area we were walking on would have had roughly 25 of 30 feet of water on it when the tides were up, and the mud flats went for miles. We also saw two bald eagles! 

It's like being on Mars.

*Home cooked meals. I have been eating way too much cheese and crackers, oatmeal and processed meats. It was so nice to sit down at the table with the family and to eat real food! Plus there is just something special about something that someone else made, no matter what it is. Being at Elisabeth's house was like being with family; the house awakens little by little and eventually culminates with the walk to school, which was my favorite part of the day. 

*36 questions. Elisabeth is reading Super Communicators, which I already listened to on audiobook. The bonus is that she is reading the real book, and in the appendix there is a list of 36 questions that you can ask a person in order to get closer to each other faster. We went down this list and answered them and some of them are pretty personal, but it is fun to get these insights into another person! I liked it so much that I asked my family one of them in our weekly video call and may ask another next time. You can find them here under section 5. If you feel comfortable, feel free to answer one of them in the comments!! 

*Good weather. Like I said, the weather could not have been better. It was in the high 60s/low 70s during the day, the sun was shining and the fall colors were very pretty. We did wear a jacket from time to time, but mostly in the mornings or due to there being a bit of wind. However, it was really very nice and I even wore a tank top on our hike at Cape Split. In October! In Canada! 

I also got to meet John and Joy, had a handmade welcome sign waiting for me when I arrived, had lunch at Cumin, one of Elisabeth's favorite places, met the neighbors and much, much more. There were so many more highlights, but I am not going to steal all of Elisabeth's thunder!  You can go over to her site, where she will regale you with all of the details in a three part post this week, which I am sure will be much more detailed than mine! 

The only lowlight was that we did not have more time! I am sure Elisabeth was ready to get back to normal life, but I could have stayed longer! However, garbage and guests start to go bad after three days I had to get moving and Elisabeth had stuff to do! 

Have you ever met up with someone from the internet? Or stayed at the home of someone that you did not know in real life? 

TGIM

The Halloween decorations are up and the weather is cool! I had my first below freezing day last week and had to get my puffy out for the first time in a while. 

The high of the last week was: A beautiful train ride through Quebec, and the fall colors; they are popping! Also getting to meet Elisabeth, but I'll tell that story later ☺️

The low of the last week was: I had a moment where I realized that I am glad that I'm going to be done cycling soon. I am kind of tired of making daily plans and want to settle in for a bit somewhere. 

Something I marked off my to-do list was: I booked accommodations for my first few months in Europe!! I will share location details later, but that was a big weight off my chest, plus it's exciting to plan it finally! 

The book I am reading is: On audiobook, I am reading By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult. It's about a woman trying to break into the male dominated screen play writing world and it's good so far! 

The best thing I spent money on was: Accommodations for Europe!! I also spent a shit ton of money on my plumbing (sewer lateral) in Oakland, which was not fun, but it is the last missing piece of things to do there and now it's done! So that did feel good even though it hurt my pocketbook. 

Plans for this week include: Bob and I are taking a plane ride. It's his first time and he will be in a box so he is pretty nervous!! I am perfectly fine though. 

My favorite photo from the last week is: jumping at Peggy's Cove! 

Butt and Gut Update: All good in the hood! Although I've lowered my I've cream consumption significantly, which is sad, but I can't eat as much of it when I'm not riding as much! 

What are you reading? What was the high/low of your week last week? What have you crossed off of your to-do list lately? 

Where Do You Keep That?

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian friends!

P.S. I made this using AI. I know! I am addicted.

After seeing a lot of people (see some examples here for Stephany, Engie and Elisabeth) post about where they keep things in their house, I thought it would be fun to do this too! However, as you know, I sold my house and got rid of all of my things, and so most of the things on the list I no longer own or keep anywhere! However, here is the original* list, which before I sold my house, I could sum up into four main places: Did not own, kitchen junk drawer, bathroom drawer and garage. (*from Engie)

Kleenex | Medicine | Band-Aids | Heating pad | Nail polish | Winter hats/gloves/accessories | Scissors | Tweezers | Slow cooker/air fryer | Dirty towels | Tape measure | Gifts bags/tissue paper/wrapping paper | Library books | Bookmarks | Pens | Suitcases | Water bottles | Dog leash | Jewelry

Did not own: Kleenex | Heating pad | Nail polish | Library books | Bookmarks | Dog leash 

In kitchen junk drawer: Scissors | Tape measure | Pens

In bathroom drawer: Medicine | Band-Aids | Tweezers | Jewelry

In tote in garage/in garage: Winter hats/gloves/accessories | Gifts bags/tissue paper/wrapping paper | Suitcases 

The only things that could not be summed up was the slow cooker/air fryer, which was an InstantPot and was in the cupboard above the fridge, dirty towels which kind of seems like a strange category because....the laundry basket...and water bottles, which were in the cupboard with the cups/glasses. 

However, since Engie asked me about to provide a bikepacking packing list and I haven't done it yet, I thought it would be fun to go over where my CURRENT stuff lives and what it is! Here is Bob with all of his bags. 

                                             

The bags are as follows: (1) Handlebar bag, (2) Fork bag x 2, (3) Top tube bag one, (4) Top tube bag two, (5) Feed bags x 2, (6) Frame bag, (7) Rear bag, (8) Hydration vest not shown, (9) Fanny pack not shown, and (10) my body not shown. 

(1) The handlebar bag contains my tent and a pair of flip flops. I also strap my rain jacket to the daisy chain on the front of this bag for easy access. You may have seen in some photos that I also strap extra food on here from time to time. 

Fritos for later

(2) The fork bags are for food; the left one has my cook kit, coffee fixings and any dinner/breakfast foods and the right one has snack foods. 

Cook kit: stove, gas, pot, lighter.
Not shown: spork and Swiss army knife

(3) Top tube bag one has things I need right away and may use several times per day, like bug spray and sunscreen. 

(4) Top tube bag two has the snacks for the day, portioned out so that ideally I do not need to get into either fork bag during the day. 

(5) Feed bag number one has a one liter water bottle; feed bag number two usually has my phone in it so I can access it easily. Or if I put my phone in my fanny pack, I often will put fast action snacks like gummy bears, Twizzler nibs or grapes in feed bag number two. 

Cherries? Yes please!

(6) The frame bag has bike repair items (multi-tool, brake pads, lube, spare nuts/screws for my rack, zip ties, rag, tube repair kit), my tent poles, my bike lock and my water filter. I also sometimes keep extra water in here in a one liter foldable bottle. 

(7) The rear bag has all sleeping items including air mat, sleep sack and sleeping bag. It also has most of my electronics, an emergency/first aid kit, toiletries and any clothes I am not currently wearing (usually a puffy, spare bottom/top, underwear, but during summer, also includes a beanie, and waterproof gloves and booties, which live in my handlebar bag when it's cold out). I also have a spare/emergency credit card and an extra bike tube in this bag. 

Toiletries: no tweezers or scissors here!

All packed up!

(8) The hydration vest I wear, and it has things I may need frequent access to like Advil, toilet paper, a charger for my phone, my passport, a pen, post cards/stamps, emergency cash, gloves, buff, arm sleeves, and wind breaker. I also have a 2L water bladder for when I am in very dry places, but I have not had to use it very often. 

(9) The fanny pack stays on me at all times and has my wallet, headphones, floss stick (yes, I reuse it), Chapstick and two emergency tampons (since the rest are deep inside my big bag). I used to also keep earplugs in here, but to be honest, I have not needed them (knock on wood!) lately, so I took them out.

My wallet here only has two credit cards, an ATM card and my ID. I have an extra credit card, my Costco card (priorities people!) and my Global Entry card stored in a separate place, and I keep my passport on me inside my hydration vest.  

(10) On the top I usually wear a sports bra, a short sleeved merino wool shirt with a sunscreen hoodie if it is cooler, with options for the windbreaker from my vest if needed, or my rain jacket if it is especially cold or wet. On the bottom, I alternate between cycling shorts (chamois) and Adidas capris. If it is very cold or wet, I wear rain pants over those, and I wear socks and regular trail running shoes (not cycling shoes). A pair of cycling gloves and a helmet tops off my ensemble. 

Same shi(r)t, different day!! 

So, there is where everything in my current life lives! I guess from the original list, the only things I still have are: Medicine | Band-Aids | Winter hats/gloves/accessories | Pens | Suitcases (do my bike bags count?) | Water bottles. 

Do you keep your dirty towels somewhere besides the laundry basket? Feel free to pick a few other things off the list and tell me where you keep them! Does anything I carry (or don't carry) surprise you? 

By The Numbers: June - September

The last time I wrote one of these posts was in June for updates through May! My, how time flies. Part of the reason I did not keep up with this was that I was on the Tour Divide. This is twofold; firstly, I was trying to go fast(er), and so did not want the extra weight, so I sent my laptop home. Have you ever tried doing a budget review on your phone? I have, and it is no fun, so I decided to wait. Secondly, even if I had had my computer, I would not have posted due to not really having the time or the energy at the end of the day or week. You will see though as we go through a few things, that these period (June 14 - July 21) caused a lot of the numbers to change! All of the below numbers are as of Sept 30, 2024. 

El Malpais National Monument, NM

Mileage To Date:

Total Days on the Road: 191

Total Days Ridden: 143

Total Miles Ridden: 8,089

Average Miles Per Day Ridden: 56.57 (vs 48.91 as of June 1)

Average Miles Per Day ridden during the Tour Divide: 72.7

Max miles per day: 101

Accommodation To Date: 

AirBnB: 10

Established Camp: 34

Friend: 31

Housesitting: 5

Motel: 62

Warm Showers: 9

Wild Camp: 40

Total Days: 191

Total average cost per day: $40

Verdict: June and July were rough months for accommodation budget-wise, because they included a stay in Canmore with friends and then the Tour Divide, where you kind of have to take what you can get. However, I also did wild camp a lot, as you can see from the fact that it is the 2nd most used option. Luckily in September, much of my accomodation has been with friends or housesitting, as there were not as many affordable options in the Midwest and Ontario. 

Budget Average June - Sept: 

You ask, I provide! In May, you all thought it was silly that I put cycling costs under Entertainment. So, I have edited my categories, so that cycling and running costs are under Shopping. I have also added a Utilities category, which includes a monthly breakdown for the following, even though some of them are charged only once per year: phone, Garmin charges, subscriptions, credit card fees and internet security (NordVPN). 

Accommodation: $1,041 (↓ from May, highest month August --> $1,412)

Dining Out: $348  (↑ from May, highest month July --> $518)

Groceries: $329  (↑ from May, highest month July --> $400)

Health: $234 (same - insurance premium)

Misc.: $122  (↑ from May - includes CFA membership, shipping, gifts)

Shopping: $287 (↑ from May, highest month July --> $669)

Transportation: $267 (↑ from May, highest month Sept --> $652)

Utilities: $226 (new category)

Average Total Spent: $2,854 ( (↑ 21% from May numbers)

Verdict: Many of these costs, as you can see from the highest month (July) were incurred during the Tour Divide, where I ate more, ate out more, shopped at higher cost food stores, fixed the bike a lot (hence the $669 shopping amount in July), and stayed in whatever room was near the course. This was not really a budget portion of my trip (total spending in July was $3,637). However, if you take out July, my average spending goes down by about 36%. Although I may not have months like this very often, I like to keep it in, as it gives me a good idea of the ebbs and flows of spending that will happen when traveling. For example, although my lodging in September was half the amount of August, in September I paid for a flight that I will not take until December, so my monthly total was not a lot lower. I look forward to doing a recap at the end of the year where the spending flattens out a bit, as month by month is a little harder to see the actual costs. 

Fun side note, in finance we call this smoothing, and it is often a lot easier to look back on several months or years worth of data rather than look at it day by day or week by week. For example if you look at your investment account every day, you could easily get anxious for four days out of every five, but if you look at the last ten years, you will probably note a general upward trajectory. 

Overall Spending To Date: 

Currently, for the six months of full time bike travel, my average spending per month is $2,564. The breakdown per month is: 

April: $1,881 (75% California/Oregon/Washington USA, 25% BC, Canada)

May: $1,845 (100% BC, Canada)
June: $2,410 (50% MT/ID/WY, USA, 50% BC/Alberta, Canada)

July: $3,637 (100% CO/NM/IL/WI, USA) <-- Highest

August: $2,862 (67% MN/WI/MI, USA, 33% ON, Canada)

September: $2,749 (35% OR/NY, USA, 65% ON/QC, Canada)

Verdict: The west has cheaper accomodation and more available wild camping (ie free) options due to there being a lot more national forest, BLM and Crown land. Also, most likely even the motels in the west were a lot cheaper in April than they were in July. I am also getting more tired or more lazy as time goes by, and am not as diligent about always camping or getting food from the grocery store as I was in the beginning.  

To end this number heavy post, here are a few non-cycling related stats! 

Favorite Ice Cream: The mint chip at The Clark Store outside of Steamboat Springs, CO. It was cash only, but a double scoop only cost me $5 and the kids serving it were top notch! 

Double scoop of mint!

Favorite New Town: Marquette, MI. The entire UP was nice, but the town of Marquette checks a lot of boxes. It is right on Lake Superior, it has a sweet bakery (Huron Mountain), is laid back, has good coffee, is walkable, has old buildings, has a Saturday farmers market, and has excellent bike paths! Win, win! 

Marquette Bay

Favorite New Water Related Venue: Although all of the Great Lakes were beautiful, I have a special spot in my heart for Lake Huron. I put my feet into all five of them, but was able to swim a few times in Lake Huron, and it was fabulous. Actually my first week or so in Ontario was all along Lake Huron and other waterways and every morning I got to see the sun rise over the water and it was very special. 

Lake Huron at Blind River

Favorite Food Item: I am back in the land of pate, of which I am a big fan. When I was in France, it was not uncommon for me to sometimes eat bread and pate a few times a day. Currently, I am not doing that, but it is nice to have the option! Bring me the liver! 

Foie!

Favorite Book: I know I have mentioned this before, but I really enjoyed The Indifferent Stars Above. Another one that was thought provoking was The Anxious Generation, which I've also already mentioned. My largest category for star ratings is four stars, so there are a ton more I could add, but you can look at them on my Goodreads page here instead! 

Okay it's your turn!! Do you like pate? What is your favorite water related venue that you have been to? What was your favorite book last month and why? 

Books, The Library and Notes on Life

Guess what? I am off the bike! Because of this, I have a little more time to hang out, and therefore you get a bonus post this week! Today I am going to talk about a book I recently read, more reasons to love the library, and a tool I have been using to help me think and get things done more efficiently! 

Books, but Specifically One Book: After reading Jonathan Haidt's book, The Coddling of the American Mind, a few years back while on a hike, I could not help but regale my hiking buddy Bugsy with blurbs from the book. It was very thought provoking and I had to get the thoughts out of my mind tout suite. I probably drove him crazy. However, now I can't wait until our next hike, because I just finished The Anxious Generation, and I have some things to say about it! There were a lot of things in it that resonated with me, or caused me to ponder how our future generations (mostly Gen Z and beyond) are going to be, and if that is necessarily going to be a bad thing or not. 

It also made me nod my head on some of the points about our current generations (boomers, Gen X, millennials). For example, he talked about our lack of ability to really truly multitask efficiently, and how we don't really listen to our friends/companions/colleagues when our phone notifications are going off, or we are distracted by our phones. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I am in the middle of a conversation with someone and they keep glancing at their phone. I am sure that whoever is texting (or more likely, whatever spam email is coming into their inbox) is VERY important, but maybe we need to work on focusing more on what is in front of us rather than what is in a distant cloud of possible better things. 

This could really get me going on a rant, and/or make a lot of people angry at me, as I am a firm believer of no phones at the dinner table (or at meals out at restaurants etc.), no out loud conversations on  your phone unless you are having a call with grandma as a group in a private place, and definitely no out loud conversations in public places. Also, this goes hand in hand, but no out loud music/podcasts/news/YouTube in public places. How have we let our phones take over our lives, and were we always rude, or have they exacerbated our rudeness?? Let's discuss! Or better yet, read The Anxious Generation and let me know what you think. (PS if you do any of these things, I am sorry, but please enlighten me on why I should change my mind about how I feel about them, or why you do them). 

The Library, and Even More Reasons to Love It: As you all know, I love the library. While traveling, I can still get audio and e-books, and I have gone into the library in places like Wonewok, WI to ask where I can get lodging or in Lucknow, Ontario to use the internet and bathroom. Thanks librarians! But! Did you know that you can also borrow tools from some libraries? Yup. In Oakland, you can borrow house tools, like skill saws and screw guns (drills) and nail guns etc. You can also borrow yard tools, and you can also borrow bike repair tools. Some libraries have an area where you can fix your bike too, so if you are riding around, you can stop and work on your bike along the way. 

But wait, there is more! The other day my brother was talking about digitizing some photos and he was considering buying a photo scanner (his printer/scanner is a flattop scanner, which is a bit of a pain when you have hundreds of photos.) I told him to check the library and he did, and not only do they have top of the line photo scanning equipment, but they also have VHS digitizing equipment, so he is going to also digitize a couple of old home movies. I am sure they probably have CD and DVD digitizing equipment, so now we all have no excuse not to declutter! 

Library Extension: If you don't already have this, it is a game changer; it is an extension where you can add your library or libraries and also Hoopla and Kanopy. When you are looking up a book on Amazon or Goodreads or whatever, a sidebar will pop up, telling you where that book is available at your libraries! For example, when I went to get a screenshot of The Anxious Generation, here is what popped up! 

So Many Things to Talk About: As you may know, Engie recently did a little miniseries about books and it was so fun to not only read her posts, but to read through the comments and the back and forth about what people read, where they read and how they read! 

Ask AI: Speaking of the above...I know, you are wondering what AI has to do with it. However, I have found that if there is a really long article that I am struggling to get through, I will ask AI to summarize it. You can even do this with a blog post. For fun, I used one of Engie's book posts including comments and asked AI to summarize it for me. Here is an excerpt from the answer. It was given to me in bullet form, but I have condensed it into a paragraph. 

Do you read multiple books at a time? It turns out many of us are multi-taskers when it comes to reading! NGS regularly reads three books at once—one physical, one Kindle, and an audiobook. Birchwood Pie and Kyria are also fans of combining audiobooks with traditional reading. Jenny and Ernie are more of the “one book at a time” crowd, finding it easier to immerse themselves in just one story. Life of a Doctor’s Wife juggles multiple books, with physical copies, audiobooks, and even reading aloud to her kid. Others, like Ian & Pat and Lindsay, balance multiple genres by keeping one fiction and one non-fiction book on the go simultaneously.

I also used this on a page from the Social Security Administration to summarize something that was just not sticking and it was great. Actually, this may be helpful to some of you so I will explain what I did. Basically I took the entire SSA page and asked AI to summarize it (you have to copy and paste it into the chat box), then once I read through that, which was a six or seven paragraph bulleted summary, I asked it to sum it up in one paragraph and here is what I got: 

Understanding Social Security retirement benefits is crucial for effective retirement planning. To qualify, you need 40 credits, typically earned over 10 years of work. Your benefits are based on your Averaged Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) over your highest 35 years of income, which determines your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) — the monthly benefit at your Normal Retirement Age (NRA). You can start collecting benefits as early as age 62, though payments will be reduced, or delay until age 70 for higher benefits. Tools can help simulate different filing scenarios to optimize your decision.

So it can be a useful tool and is not just used to write poems about hats, although since I mentioned that, and today seems to be shout-out-to-Engie day, I thought I would ask it to do one for her, and here is what it came up with. 

Ode to Hats for Engie

Oh, hats, the word that makes her glow,

In every song and book you show.

A simple brim, a crown, a cap—

Engie’s heart skips with each "hat" snap.

Obsessed, she finds you everywhere,

In stories, lyrics, and the air.

A fleeting mention, quick as that—

Her joy ignites at the word "hat."

And though Dr. BB's hat’s absurd,

It’s still a "hat," her favorite word!

For in her world, no hat is wrong—

Her love for them is lifelong strong.

And with that, I will bid you all adieu! What book have you read lately that has sparked a fire in your mind? Have you ever borrowed tools from the library or used their equipment for a job you had? What do you use AI for?