Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, May 17, 2007
May 14 2007 Kearney to North Platte
May 14 2007
Around six I get up and think about breakfast. There is a continental breakfast over by the lobby. I pack up some of the clothes that I washed out and start to pack up my bike.
For some reason, I seem to be worn out. Things are taking me a long time because I seem to be moving slowly. There isn’t really a reason for me to be worn out. I find it frustrating. I almost seem to think I am losing time, but I don’t feel ill. Losing time, not knowing where it goes is often an early symptom that means that I need to take it easy, to rest.
I’ll try to do that later in the week.
This morning, my body still seems to be dehydrated as I am craving water. I try to drink as much as I can, but don’t seem to have much caffeine available that will sit well on my stomach.
An hour later I am still packing up my bike and once again, like yesterday, things are not going well. The weight is off, but it is time to go. I carefully ride off after asking directions.
The people at the front desk could only tell me where the campus is and I am unable to mapquest the Drake Theatre. It is not in the telephone book, at least not where I am looking. I just have UNK Drake theatre.
I drive around on the campus and ask a couple of people where Drake theatre is and they don’t know. Ahh, I see a sign for student services.
When I ask, they tell me that I am very close. To walk across the parking lot and go in the fine arts building. (Actually, that was kind of what I was looking for, but managed to drive by it and not see the huge words on the side of the building so near to me.)
I go in and ask about a projector. I am more than able to give the presentation without a projector, but when people can follow along and read supporting documentation, it is easier for those people to remember the main points.
The presentation goes well, but my tongue trips a couple of times like my brain isn’t as closely connected or as sharp as I desire. Not unusual when I haven’t had enough caffeine, but I decide to relax as soon as I get to the hotel later today in North Platte as a preventative measure.
I eat lunch with Cheryl, Linda and Tammy. Cheryl mentions eating outside, but I am trying to avoid extra outdoor exposure when I have no sunscreen or lotion on. I am catching the beginning of a lot of sunburns that my body doesn’t seem to be adjusting to. It isn’t like my tan is helping me with a base layer, I guess is the way to describe what is happening. We eat inside.
As I am readjusting the load on my bike a man from Australia conducting a survey on the way mid America views god or God, however you believe it. He asks me,
“What one question would you ask God if you could ask him one question?”
Ahh, that fundamental Christian background. I try to tell him that I don’t believe that way, that the question doesn’t work well with my spiritual beliefs, but he doesn’t understand. I tell him again that I don’t really have any questions.
He really doesn’t understand and feels that with my belief system that I could go out and kill people if I changed my mind. So not true.
If I believe that my true job on earth is to
- Find great happiness, peace and joy and then to
- Help others find happiness, peace and joy
People once again tell me that there is nothing much to see on route 30, but I find things to look at. There is the place where the persons house has decayed so much that they can’t live in it anymore so he has placed a tiny trailer next to it and is living in there.
There is the town that has nothing but huge tanks next to the railroad tracks that look to be filled with fertilizer. And all the stores across the road are boarded up, no one lives there on the main drag. And I have to wonder why there is no one. Is it because of fumes, of people who can’t afford to survive, or do people have what is called cancer clusters here?
There is lots to see.
I really enjoy the ride. The wind is reasonable, enough to keep me cool and keep the bugs off, but not enough to make me ride on the outside of my tires.
When I check in to the Holiday Inn Express, I find out there are the standard free beer and hors from 5-7, there are cookies and milk from eight until nine and that the swimming pool and hot tub are open 24 hours a day. I tell them that “I love you guys.” And I get two nights here, how cool is that?
Because of the chronic pain that seems to accompany me, the hot tub right before I get to sleep really helps me sleep better and longer. At the same time, going in before 11 doesn’t always work. If I don’t get to sleep right away the effect wears off. I am often unable to get to sleep before midnight and the tightness and pain have often returned by then.
I go upstairs, fall asleep for a few hours and then go downstairs. I don’t avail myself of the free beer, but enjoy the food.
Happy Trails, martyMay 13, 2007 on the road to kearney
May 13 2007
Today I got up and tried to get moving. Why is that almost always next to impossible?
Ginny drops by as she has a check for the hotel and needs the bill before she can pay it. She is much more of a morning person than I am so she is there way before I am ready to leave.
I had hoped to go to church, but instead end up missing it. The hotel had put me on the side of the building that was in the sun and my brains seemed somewhat scrambled as I tried to load up my bike. When I went to back out of the parking space, I realized that my load wasn’t as balanced as I like so I drove around the building to find some shade.
Then I pulled the front bag off my bike, repacked it and tried a slight test drive. I had missed church, but was still near Barnes and Noble. I thought about heading on over, but realized that the whole day might pass if I started another book.
Instead, I drop by J. Rocks house to give her the t-shirt and some CDs. We sit and talk for a while, then I climb on my bike and head over to Kearney which is pronounced Car.Knee. Nebraska is an interesting state in that there are many places where the name of the town isn’t spelled the way that you say it.
The ride was nice except for the wind. I don’t think that I had much wear on anything except the sides and edge of my tires. I decided to take the back roads, Routes 34 and 30 into Kearney.
When I check in there is a gift basket waiting for me to help me feel welcome. I dig in as it is mother’s day and I want to return to Skeeter Barnes to eat dinner. Wanting to avoid the crowd, I call to find out what hours they are open.
The Ramada Inn has a laundry machine, but it is not in my building and I seem to be exhausted. I wash out some of my clothes so I will look decent tomorrow; put them in front of the heater and head on out to eat.
The food was great, but as I ate it, all I could think about was about how food is harvested in our country. I keep getting told that there is nothing to see when you take the back roads, but there is; rural America is out there. If you look, riding on almost any rural highway will really show the decaying of America.
Towns where the local gas station is also the local restaurant. The stores where many shop are in the bigger towns and even when there is a small store, it is filled with junk food; very little of the food available has any nutritional value. There are the requisite Little Debbie’s, Hostess, Hershey, etc, but little more. The cleaning supplies are targeted to those driving through. It can even be tough to pick up a staple like Duct Tape.
Denni and I once talked about a town in our community where the only sit down restaurant available was a McDonalds and how it impacted the community. If you wanted to eat out, you had to drive to another town to get food with any “food value” whatsoever.
I get to bed as early as I can get to sleep as I need to get up and pack up before I can head over to the college. Sometimes I can negotiate a late check out that doesn’t cost the sponsoring organization any money, but this hotel had a big sign that stated, anyone staying over for a late check out would be charged $20, but anyone who was still in their room after 1 would be charged the full room rate.
I debate about picking up the $20 charge so I won’t get sweaty, but decide that I can’t make it back before one, so I give up on the idea and decide to go to bed.
Happy trails, Marty
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
May 12, 2007 Lincoln, Numbness when writing
But first, I am to present at a biker breakfast. To be honest, I am not sure what to expect.
The biker breakfast is scheduled to start at 8AM. I am having a terrible time waking up and getting moving. I got up early and started my routine of what I need to do to wake up, but it is not working. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get my head to work the way I want it to.
One thing I am having trouble with is that when I make notes, or write, my hands and arms fall asleep. It doesn’t happen when I keyboard and I try not to make notes very often, but this morning I know that I am presenting without a projector or computer. And my morning started out at five, with my trying to make notes, figure out how to best do the presentation in an outdoor setting, thinking through my options and my trying to wake myself up.
The numbness that I get when writing is starting to scare me a lot. When I write presentations, I first like to do things in longhand, and then transfer them to computer. I also try to draft other things by hand. It helps me slow my brain down to where I can think things through.
The numbness doesn’t happen when I ride my motorcycle either. We know what it isn’t, but don’t know what it is. The feeling takes longer to leave than it has before and once again I am late.
The presentation goes well. The breakfast is great, it is all consumers and they feel free to get up, wander around and smoke if they need to while still being able to listen. I miss those days.
J. Rock and I ran around the rest of the day, we went shopping in a thrift store, and checked out the state capitol until it was time for the party to start. I trade in my boots for sandals, grab my backpack and we head out for the party with our driver, Robert.
The party was awesome. There were a lot of really neat people. I wish that I hadn’t had to get up at five so that I could have gotten to get to know more of them. I really enjoyed myself. I even sat, listened to more great live music and thought about just how much my social skills have improved.
I hope that some time in the future, I can meet some of them again. There were people that I would have loved to talk to away from the music. I took my hearing aids, but with the background music happening the way it was, I couldn’t use them.
The party was held in a house that used to be a barn. It was such a wonderfully awesome house. It was unique, the materials used were recycled, it was all natural wood, the view of the Nebraska Capitol from one of their windows was amazing. There were conversation nooks everywhere, a great kitchen, lofts, that overlooked all the floors and the view.
Holy cow, what a great place. We moved from person to person, conversation to conversation. It was a good time, good conversation, great music and people that I wish I had the opportunity to talk to more. I don’t think that life can get any better than that.
Tomorrow I am off to enjoy the ride to Kearney.
