Hiatus

I probably should have updated this site a while back with what's going down these days after our abrupt termination of our cyclastic voyage. I blame the delay on a number of things. At first I barely wanted to acknowledge our temporary defeat (more on why temporary soon) by commenting on it in such a widely distributed medium as the internet. I've had plenty of private conversations in the course of the last month about how and why we were taken off the road, so I didn't feel the need to elaborate in the blogosphere. Then I started working in anticipation of future travels and my eventual move to Eugene, OR so I didn't really have the time. And lastly, I started some fun new projects and adventures in Nashville which made me hesitant about looking backward and more excited for the future. That last theme will be the theme of this blog for the next few weeks while Tim and I are on hiatus planning for our next grand adventure.

That being said, here's a quick rundown on what's going on:

Tim and I agreed while staying at Severed Deer Foot Cabins (aka Royal Oaks Cabins) that if we had to stop our journey, it would be merely a temporary delay of our plan to do some exhaustive bicycle touring this summer. We had our first taste of bicycle adventure and we were hooked! The freedom of carbon neutral travel and exploration was exhilarating, and was not something we would give up on easily. The TransAm plan was out for several reasons. The main reason was time: with a concrete deadline corresponding to the start of our academic adventures we likely had 5-6 weeks of travel available to us (as opposed to the 10 we were planning on taking). As fun as it would be to bike across Kansas and Missouri, we felt something more exciting would be more ideal. Also biking across Utah and Nevada in July and August seemed like a death wish, especially for this melanin-challenged blogger. A few other ideas came to mind. Naturally we thought about touring in the South if Tim's injury was going to be prohibitive in a longer journey, but the sweltering summers are way more daunting than the thought of biking in a desert. One idea that persisted through all our discussions was touring down the Pacific Coast of the US. At first the thought of getting all our shit out there seemed a bit challenging, but it occurred to me that, considering we are both moving to the West Coast, it's likely that we would have to fly out there sometime this summer anyway for apartment hunting and the like. It doesn't seem like it would be all that more expensive to get our bikes sent out there. Furthermore the idea of biking down the West Coast seems so much nicer than biking in Bumfuck(or Bumpass), USA. A summer of breweries, wineries, and other intoxicating aspects of Western life awaits!

Until then, Tim is recovering, slowly strengthening his legs, and identifying problems that could have led to his injury. I am biking around Nashville as much as possible, and will be bringing you pictures of my local touring if I remember to bring my camera on my trips. Also I have started several bike projects (see next post) which allow me to keep doing stuff bike related even if I can't bike all the time due to my work schedule.

If you're wondering what my job is, I'm essentially a glorified data entry assitant in a Lab. I analyze podosome formation (look it up) in rat vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Once or twice a week, however, I get to make movies of podosome dynamics on a TIRF (look it up, seriously wikipedia is really good about laymans description of shit like this) microscope, which is pretty damn cool. I get paid as much as I did in my last job, and I am gaining valuable experience with mammalian cell culture and advanced microscopy! Yay skills for paying bills.

-sf