Motionbased.com links

Links to Motionbased.com:
Day 1 (GPS on bike, Forerunner)
Day 2 (GPS on bike, Forerunner)

The GPS unit on my bike is a Garmin eTrex Vista which also detects altitude. I have it on my handlebars and use it as a bike computer to tell me speed, avg. pace, elevation, time until sunset, and things like that while I'm riding.

The ForeRunner 305 is a wrist-unit which can also grab my heartrate (except I forgot my HR chest strap at home for MS150) and cadence (except the sensor was bumped on the second day and didn't work) wirelessly from those sensors. The watch can only be recharged from a USB-type connector, so it crapped out in the middle of the second day. I sicne bought this thing at Best Buy that takes 2 AA batteries and powers a small USB plug. Good for cell phones and units like this on the road.

Count the one on my phone which I used to find out where I was in relation to roads and that was 3 GPS units total on one bike last weekend!
-CG

Done with 2008 MS150

Hell, yeah! Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

Location: Austin, leaving on a bus full of rather quiet riders. Some smelly, some refreshed with a shower.

Condition: I'm smelly. Had a small minor pain in my right knee at the end, I am crusted with a non-iodized salt, and my abs ache like they really got a good workout (thanks K^2!). Lower back sucks, but it's all part of getting old. I'm working on beer number 3 which helps to ease all pain, except for the people reading this post.

Outlook: Get back to car, get home, shower, go to a meeting on Gen Y stuff, work only a little tomorrow, pay more attention to home life, relax more, and probably skip the ride next year unless I have a change of heart in the next 6 months. Not that it isn't a great ride with an even better purpose and the best people, but at some point I need to get a little less goal-centric in my hobbies. Maybe after our hockey team wins its first championship game I'll do that. Hmmm... Aachen in late June, anyone? No goals there except roaming around three countries on a bike.

So before I nap, thanks for following along, and stay tuned for the tracks on motionbased!
-Gerty

in the park

Not sure if this will go through but I'll give it a shot.

I got to La Grange ("a-haw-how-how") at around 4:30pm after going against a nice dry head and side wind most of the way past lunch. Dry weather has been great!

Checked no bags and carrying all on bike. Cold tomorrow mornin so I think I"m sleeping in and taking one of the shorter routes.
Before you call me a woos i'll mention that I rode 100 miles today. 50 to go? Not quite.

Changing Gears

I'm going to expand the Germany blog to track progress on the MS150 I'm doing tomorrow. The plan is to leave from Tully Stadium in West Houston at ~8am, and be in La Grange by 2 or so. If you're interested, there are a couple of ways to track my progress during the ride.

The first one is this chip they gave us to attach to our shoe and send e-mail and text message alerts to people who sign up for the service. It's pretty much to save people a phone call or text to say "I'm at the Lunch Stop" so they can meet up. Go to http://www.racedayalert.com/BPMS150/Default.aspx and enter rider 1198. It will show up as Mike Kane (my nom de plume for the MS150 this year). There's also a way to get e-mail updates, but you need to sign up for an account for that.

The second way is for me to just to post updates here at this blog page from my cell phone. I'm going to try to get some GPS tracks uploaded to motionbased.com, but that might be a little more tricky fom the road. If I do, I'll post the links here. They'll be up when it's over for sure...

That's all for now - I'd better get some sleep!
-CG

Triptracker Updates

I'm growing fonder of a travel journal website called TripTracker.net. Be patient when loading up the trips, but it's pretty impressive how it integrates the data, photos and journal entries.

This link should take you directly to the 2007 trip:
http://triptracker.net/trip/2755/

Tracks and Photos

I matched up some photos with the GPS tracks on triptracker.net. It has an export feature to Google Earth too. Pretty slick website but could use some speed and a better user interface - great deal for the price though.

Check the trip out at http://triptracker.net/trip/2755/

The Data is Online

Day 1: Strasbourg to Kappel

Day 2: Kappel to Weil am Rhein

Day 3: Weil am Rhein to Gugenmuhle

Day 4: Gugenmuhle to Meersburg

Day 5: Meersburg to Kempten

Day 6: Kempten to Kaufbeuren

Day 7: Kaufbeuren to Stockdorf (this one doesn't show the entire path to Stockdorf, a town near Gauting on the SW side of Munich - for some reason at lunch the GPS stopped recording data)

Day 8: Stockdorf to Munich (I realized a couple of miles into this one that the tracking had been off - still a short ride to the train station in Munich)

All of the links should be good now - remember to click on "Dashboard" to see the Gogle Maps interface and all of the stats.
Tschuss!
-Gerty

Location is Everything

Wow. I can't believe it's been a week of this. I also can't wait to tally up some of the stats of the milage and hills. I think I'm hooked on this type of vacation. I'll admit, this was probably the mother of all of them in terms of distance and sights, but a smaller version between a few key cities would be pretty cool to do - plus I think I'd enjoy being part of a small group. Would make for some more reliable stories at least, but for sure it would be great to share these experiences with some friends.

I'm on the commuter train now to Munich to buy a train ticket to Italy and maybe stop by the Oktoberfest for a beer and some souvenirs. I might not be able to meet up with Phil tonight. We'll see if I can find him in the crowd of thousands.

The riding today was beautiful. Weather was perfect and I had a really good map. Tried to find a hotel in gauting but the only one was almost 100 Euros. The hotel was literally across the street from the train station. Then, riding around randomly in the entire town, I couldn't find another hotel or a single gasthaus. I wonder if this one place has a monoply in Gauting. I'll have to ask my officemate Steve, since I think his girlfriend lives there. Seems like a great little town. Lots of shopping and I really need to get one of those ice creams I keep drooling over.

So anyway, I rode in the direction of the train tracks and settled in Stockforf for less than half the price of the Gauting hotel. The room is fine if a little older and I have to use a common bathroom and shower.

l'm writing this part later, after I did get to meet up with Phil last night, and we did some exploring of the different tents at Oktoberfest, took lots of pictures, and struck up some pretty cool conversations with folks from Munich and around the world. We're going to meet at his hostel today in time to do some daytime sightseeing and then I get my bike on a train to Bologna. Yes, I didn't get a train ticket all the way to Rome since they couldn't take my bike the whole way. So, I'll either get another ticket to Rome once I get to Bologna, or I'll ride my bike from there. Just kidding - I'll rent a car and throw my bike in the back seat actually.

I'm going to enter this post, and then the next stop is Italy for the normal vacation to begin!

Short Day, Long Night?

Well, this one I'm writing from the train on my way to Munich. No, I didn't give up cycling, but I got 28 miles in, and since I was close enough to Munich to take a 1 hour trip there, I figured I would take advantage of the chance to meet up with Phil So, a friend of mine from Wednesday night hockey. He got into Studtgart today and is taking a train that gets in to Munich 10 minutes after mine.

I should go into details about how this is totally the way to do Oktoberfest. At the hotel it was no problem to get a room, it's a 10 minute walk to the train station, and it takes an hour to get to Munich. Now without any discounts, the ticket cost as much as the hotel room almost, but I suppose as I get closer to Munich, the hotel prices wll go up, and availability will go down, but the train fare will go down too. I'll find out tomorrow how it works to get a place closer to Munich. Last train to kaufburen will be at almost midnight, so to be sure I'd better get on that one. There's an earlier one too that may be a better idea.

It was neat riding over some of the same countryside I had seen two years ago. Still some construction in Marktoberdorf that screwed me up, but it was cool to see the same landmarks and remember how clueless I was about Germany as a whole. I mean I still am clueless, but it's a lot more comfortable getting around since I figured out how to follow the signage a little better. I'm also getting a little better at understanding the language. At least the written word if not what people are saying. Speaking is another issue. I can't put together sentences yet to save my life. At least I don't have to ask people if they speak English. I have enough of an accent to make them start on their own right away.

Oh, and I had a self- taught lesson in laundry terms when I tried out the self-service waschesalon this morning. Didn't get started until around 1300 because of that adventure.

Who knows, I might have an oktoberfest update on the way back from Munich on the train. I've already been splashed with lagerbier suds by some German kids on the train, so it's bound to be quite an evening.

Toll Roads

Everything seemed to come together today. Every bit of good fortune served to reward all of that vertical lift that I didn't expect. I broke the 2000 ft and 3000 ft barriers for the first time today. The rewards were key directions at perfect times, and a last 10 km or so of pure downhill, most of which came after sunset. And the hotel more than makes up for last night. The amenities? How about a flat screen TV, hefeweizen vending machines, and my own toilet!

Things kept happening today like the vending machine giving me free beer, the hotel was at the very end of the 10K downhill beckoning me with the Bayern flag, two people gave me critical directions totally randomly, and one guy even told me where to turn left and then drove ahead and waited for me to get there and find it!

I made a conscious decision to go north first and not take the Fussen track. In Germany no one I ask seems to know how to ride long distances too far away from where they are. I'm guessing the bicycle routes evolved from people wanting to get to the next town and then the government organized them by region, making the network.

I would ask everyone how they would go to Munich. A common answer to that was, "why would I want to ride my bike to Munich?" The one vote for Fussen I had was from a cycling shop clerk who thought it would be cool to take the chairlift up and cycle town the other side of the mountain (there's one of these setups right on the eastern edge of the Bodensee). I thought to myself as I left, what happens at the next mountain?

So I've been thinking. But, since this post is getting long already you'll have to see me personally for my philosphical ramblings.

But I will mention that so far on my bike I have passed: Barbara Morgan's doppelganger, 40+ German Shepherds, a herd of miniature elks, a biergarten or two, about a million reflective plastic posts every 20 meters or so which are the future of automated driving, too many baby bike trailers to count, something named after everyone in DX with German heritage, a petting zoo, a pretzel stand in Switzerland, and a really friendly dog who wants the pizza I have wrapped in foil right now. And that's without looking at my camera for ideas.

Yes, the road is taking a toll on my brain, so to speak. I may stick around this place in the morning and do a half day or something.... make sure I have correct change for the next toll road. Ja.

Oh the Trokensweet Irony

Today started out in a truly rustic hotel, about 300 years old rustic, but kept up really well. The breakfast was the best yet, and the people were really nice. I'm almost thinking of telling Rick Steves about this one.

I figured out the phone problems. I manually selected a network a few days ago to connect with the internet, and then when there were new networks in range, it didn't jump to them. I should have no problem as long as I keep manually scanning for new networks. When EDGE shows up it's great since the google maps app zooms and scrolls smoothly and shows the blue spot where I am at the moment. Pretty slick stuff. I even impressed a few Germans with it.

I went over a hill today that I probably didn't need to. It was pretty challenging since I live in a city where the hills are called bridges. So today I found out what a German hill can do. I think if I lived around them and I rode the same hill regularly, it would be a really good measure of what kind of shape my bike and I was in. Fully loaded on a road touring bike with 70 psi in the tires isn't something I'll try regularly. I just think it would be more fun than having a different performance each time you ride solely because of the weather and traffic.

So the town I'm staying in tonight is called Meersburg, and they are actually quite fond of wine. So much so that people flock from throughout the country this time of year and pay twice as much as they should for everything. How that affects me is obviously the hotel room situation, but it was also very hard to find a restaurant that it seemed right to drink a hefeweisen at. I thought it was ironic that this trip is in search of good beer among other things, and then it takes me to a snooty wine town. Maureen did get a kick out of hearing about that though.

Tomorrow I have some pretty critical traverse-planning (to use a lunar exploration term) issues to deal with. I'm going to finally put some effort into seeing if the path from the Bodensee to Fussen is littered with climbs or not. If not it may be the best way to go, but I'm thinking a more direct route is better, since when I go to a popular town that everyone else wants to be in I always seem to have trouble finding a room. Hmm. I guess I should see what I can do about getting a room near Munich from the internet cafe too.

Wrapping it up now. Fell asleep the first time I tried entering it in.
Tschuss!

No Room at the Inn

Today started off in the late morning, but still the morning, which was gut. The first thing to do was to get out of the bind I had gotten into by getting to the most southwestern part of Germany I could. Trying to avoid going south I headed over my first big hill since it was a very direct route east. Fun stuff in the morning. Got to ride by grapes being harvested again, and see an incredible view of what was probably three countries at once. Then a downhill of my dreams. It must have been 2 miles long, and I hardly had to break once, going about 25 or more the whole time. I can't fib since the GPS won't lie, so those are my actual guesses. We'll see how they stack up to the data.

At first I thought it was a bad idea to go into Switzerland, but I found out later you can pretty much come and go as you please on a bike. Since I was caught in this valley with nowhere to go but up, or Switzerland. The same hill was over there just with dirt trails instead of pavement but I missed the factories I would have had to go around. When I got back to Germany it was much easier to get down the Rhine because of the paved roads. It was also pretty cool to go from one country to another without a soul in sight.

The evening was very straightforward, with these little signs telling me where to go. The bugs got a little annoying. Let's just say I'm glad I shaved yesterday. Now I know why the pros go all out. It's not wind resistance, it's bug resistance....

I suppose when you go to a small town in southern Germany on a Saturday, on the shores of the Rhine, it's best to call ahead, but as usual I was rolling in at a little before sunset hoping to find something frei. Since the woman at the "Bett und Bike" place felt bad, she called around and found a place not too far away. It was back the way I came, but that was better since I kind of knew where it was.

Apart from the last minute change of plans, the evening went well. I had my obligatory 'something I can't pronounce' for dinner, and a beer to wash it down. Gut stuff!

That will be alles. I'm getting texted - Gute nacht! Oh, and in case you're keeping track, the town I'm in is called Gugenmuhle, and I think it has about 17 residents.

Rain chances stay mainly on France's plains

Today was a long, great day. I started a little late again. After being wide awake at 5am I fell back asleep and woke to the hotel frau knocking on my door. Later she would tell me in broken English, "I don't know you dead". But breakfast was still waiting for me downstairs, a fine collection of breads, cheeses, and sliced meats - and kickass coffee!. I bet the french are rubbing off on them since they're so close to the border. Kind of like us and fajitas.

I got out of there at 11am or so, and made my way south to the Rhine. Once there I realized that there's a dirt trail down the entire length on the French and German sides. Sometimes it's interrupted by a factory or something, but they usually provide a way to get around. But it was dirt, and I wanted culture, so I tried to go from town to town and go south. Even tried going over to the french side again to see if it was easier. I will say that the French give more attention to bike trails, next to roads, etc. But as soon as I got over the bridge it started to rain. Really wasn't that bad, but somehow I associated it with France. I wanted to get back to Germany more than ever!

After finding the bridge in Chalampe I just wanted to cover as much ground as possible to make it even remotely possible to get to the Bodensee tomorrow. So after going through a few small towns and losing track a few times, a found the Rhine trail again by accident and just got on that dirt road. Cycling tip: your average speed drops to 11 or 12 miles per hour when you're on packed wet dirt, but you can cover more miles per hour when they're kilometers, so it kind of evens out when you're on the Rhine trail.

I was able to make it to Weil am Rhine, which is roughly as close as you can get to France and Switzerland without leaving Germany. Since I got here pretty late I didn't have a lot of time to look around and I'm basically staying in a German truck stop Gasthaus. Pretty shady outside, but standard German deal happening inside. Great food, better beer, and lots of people loud and boisterous at the dinner table. Next time someone calls me a loud American in Russia I'll remember this restaurant. I just hope my bike is still in the biergarten in the morghen!

Texan-style hospitality in Strasbourg

When I left off in the last entry I was enjoying a hefeweisen and a pretzel while on the train to my starting point - Strasbourg, France. This town is the home of the International Space University, and the temporary home of my friend Amanda, who just started her year-long masters program there.

I arrived at the train station in Strasbourg at 11:30pm with a large cardboard box with a bike in it, and three other bags, two of which I figured out how to strap to my back. I'll spare the details, but picture me with a decision to make between a 50 yard walk to the taxi stand and a mile walk to an apartment, holding a GPS device, a phone with Google Maps, a bad signal and low battery. Tough call, I know. But I hadn't walked anywhere in few days so I decided to find out how badly I need a lighter road bike and better battery life on my phone. I found Amanda's apartment fine, sorta, and after some Alsacian wine and a few hours of discussing the future of human spaceflight, I was ready for some real sleep.

When I woke from a very comfortable futon, I had a lot to do. Assemble my bike, pack for the road, eat lots of calories, and set off. After a nice breakfast at a french café, Amanda went to school and I started construction. I should have practiced at home just to cut down the amount of time it takes to do it, but everything went together fine. The guys at Webster Bicycle did a good job making sure that a drunk Bavarian couldn't break anything by sitting on the box.

After that I packed up my bags, Amanda came back and made us some pasta - the perfect food to prepare - and I was off! Ok, I still had to overcome the last minute scare of a flat front tire with no way to pump it up, but at 4:15 or so I was really off. Thanks to Amanda for some great Texan hospitality in Strasbourg! She says she wouldn't mind more visitors from the States, so if you're thinking about touring through, consider making the stop in this really neat little French/German town.

The 25 miles I got in today wasn't all in a straight line, but most of it was as I went mostly down a canal with a nice side road on it. A detour onto the dirt road side of the canal slowed me down a bit, and since I had a late start I didn't make it all the way to Freiburg like I wanted to. I got about halfway there to a town called Kappel - but at least I was in Germany and not France like I had been riding most of the day in - would have made for a more challenging exchange at the hotel I'm sure. It was just about sunset when I got here so when I found a place with a room frei, I jumped on it.

The food was great. I had a turkey schnitzel with a curry sauce and homemade pasta. Oh, and fresh Paulaner hefeweisen on draught. After that I went back to the room to wash some of the clothes I had worn and do some communicating with the outside world. My phone only works while I'm holing it high off the floor of my top-level hotel room, so this post and my texts may be a bit delayed. But for now, time to get some rest for a longer day of riding tomorrow!

A glimpse of Munich

After a run through the Munich train station, I found the ticket counter for the trains, waited in line for 20 minutes, and bought a ticket for one that left in 8 minutes after that. I swear, this is some great, low-stress practice for The Amazing Race.

The train I did get on has two changes before strasbourg, so that means dragging my still-packed bike from platform to platform. The two weisbiers and the pretzel I had should help with some energy to do that though.

I got a little glimpse of the Oktoberfest as many revelers made their way back home after what must have been a long day. I put my bike box up against a long wall on the train and went to get my pretzel. 20 minutes later I had to step over the German kid that was passed out sitting on my bike box. He was entertaining to listen to before he lost consciousness so I didn't mind.

A few Americans around too. it gives a little sense of home - and confirmation that I'm not crazy for loving this place. Surprisingly I've been keeping my mouth shut and most people don't know that I can't understand 90% of what I'm hearing. Usually it's not long after I do open my mouth that they figure it out.

Dutch is messing with my German brain cells

The Amsterdam airport, besides being large enough to have several zip codes, is very clean and it's very easy to get around. At first I didn't realize that I was in a small segmented international part of the airport, but when I left passport control they made me finish the liter of water I had just bought at the duty free. I suppose I need to stay hydrated anyways.

So the plan as it stands now is to get into the Munich airport in Freising, jump on a train to Munich proper and then to Strasbourg to crash at a friend's apartment (thanks Amanda!). Then I'll leave from there Thursday morning, weather-permitting down the Rhine and to the Bodensee, and up to Munich. I still have to do some serious estimating about how much ground I can cover per day and when I might get to Munich. The original plan was to bike away and take a train back, so it matters a little more now if I want to fit in a few liters of beer before Rome.

On board!

Smooth sailing at IAH on a Tuesday evening getting checked in and on the plane. Continental charged me 95 dollars to get my bike on the plane, but only one charge to go all the way through to Munich.
Looking at the weather for Munich during the last couple of days, I'm seriously considering taking a quick train ride to the west and starting the ride from the other end. I never got reservations in Munich for Wednesday night so I hope that works out. :)
The next test will be to see if I can blog from the Amsterdam airport.
Tschuss!
-CG