On yer bike

Hi TPT it's Hank reporting alive and well from a lovely part of Central Florida where the farm life has usurped the drunken life 5 years off it August going strong 😉

Sent from my SM-A115U using Tapatalk

Svën's body guard Kermit, 16 coastal haybale cargo pull 5 miles, Joy the feral sow orphaned by hunter who gifted her to me at 3 days old bottle fed for 5 weeks she's a monster now going on 1 y/o she has boyfriend named Dieter a castrated boar.

Sent from my SM-A115U using Tapatalk

So glad to see Sven is alive and well, he’s even more of a pimp than ever. Ha also really cool to see an update from you Hank. 5 years sober is above edible milestone. I’m in France just outside Paris next to Versailles. There’s some great bike riding here. Let me know if you ever make it this way.

Thanks Da_Nit I appreciate the offer I've heard Comrade Hidalgo has created a cycling mecca there in Paris. It's hard for me to get more than one county over with much regularity but who knows maybe I'll find a good farm sitter down the road which will allow me more flexibility to tramp.

To conclude the great bike tour of 2019 me and Sven continued on from Austin west to Silver City NM where the Tour Divide a long distance unpaved MTB trail intersects with the Adventure Cycling Southern tier route which I was following. Here my plan was to ride north towards Canada, it was about 40 miles of very mountainous terrain on paved roads from Silver City to the unpaved start of Tour Divide which we did no problem. The picture below is from where that dirt road starts, around 1/4 to 1/2 mile further my fancy pinion gear bicycle stopped propelling me forward despite furious cycling of the cranks. Somehow the front sprocket had worked its way loose and annihilated the output splines on gearbox rendering it utterly useless!

Lucky for me I was able to get transportation back to Silver City somewhat quickly where the kind owner operator of Silver City Bike works put me up for over a week while the gearbox company pinion sent me a refurbished unit. After installing the new box I decided to ride towards Los Angeles where I'd call it a ride.

Some of the highlights along the way were being blown for almost an hour west at what must have been near 25mph towards Lordsburg NM by a dust storm, it was like a video game cheat code had been applied and despite all the kit we made more distance in an hour than I ever thought possible!

Some other highlights were spending a week in Slab City during the height of summer at Dr. Spencer's (RIP) Temple of Enlightenment. Travelling around the Salton Sea and dropping into Bombay Beach for a seltzer at the Ski Inn.

When I reached San Bernadino CA I chose to ride their light rail into Downtown LA where things got very interesting for close to two weeks. Spent a lot of time in Bell Gardens at the Motel 6 making pilgrimages to the Commerce and Bicycle casinos. It's quite amusing to me that the Bicycle Casino does not allow customers to park or lock up a real life bicycle anywhere on their compound and that includes the vast parking lot across the street.

Somehow I managed to win the biggest pot of my life by a country mile playing less than a full orbit at 100-200 NL in a near total blackout. There were some well known killers at the table so I made no qualms about performing the hit and run, also they big timed me by denying entry at first saying the min buyin was 50k but later lowering it to allow me entry, perhaps one of the floor people relayed to them of my alcohol intake and antics at lower steaks....

Went to skid row a few times hung out, according to my fixer there buying alcohol is done via informal sales persons because the corner stores don't sell it?

Played bike polo once and hurt myself worse than I've ever experienced by crashing a bicycle the resulting hematoma on my lower back was grotesque.

It was a good trip all in all and the weeks long bender helped motivate me towards a radical hail mary life change which is working out better than I could have ever conceived of.

I'll post some more pictures from the journey west soon, Hank

Wow Hank another amazing update. I’m googling everything as I wasn’t familiar with Slab City but do know of the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach. How on heck did you end up in a $100-$200 NL game?

Have you thought about posting this someplace else? 2+2 is kind of dead ans thinking you might get more interaction at a place like Reddit, one of the subs for bike riding.

Well 100 200 seemed like a good idea after several days of round the clock drinking and I did have a little over 100bb to buy in with so I took the plunge and the poker gods smiled upon me
Ak-Chin tribal lands feed lot south of Phoenix

[Uploading Image...]

Casa Grande AZ

ading Image...]

Kurt & Olga

Sent from my SM-A115U using Tapatalk

Hank love the stuff and thank you for the reminder on Steve Earle. What a great singer writer.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tGnUsl1Azm...
[YOUTUBE]RDtGnUsl1Azms&start_radio=1
[/YOUTUBE]

Come on, come on, come on, let’s go.

tGnUsl1Azms&pp=ygUac3RldmUgZWFybGUgdGVsZXBob25lIHJvYWQ%3D

Withla to Old Town today, Old Town to Tallahassee tomorrow 255 ish total gonna be a burner

And Yes Da_Nit we will seek out some Steve Earle on the journey, he's great maybe find some cool FM stations out in the sparsely populated counties of Dixie, Taylor, and Lafayette!

A boy scout from many years ago installed a series of bike repair boxes with a pump, some minor tools as an eagle scout project although most of them are falling into a disrepair the floor pumps come in handy on a regular basis always good to top up on a long ride

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

Little over an hour to do the 1st 13.8 miles just warming up heading over past ridge Manor to link up with the Withlacootchee trail a 49mi gem of a rail trail

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

Passing through floral City 50 mi down, feeling ok nice canopy on trail for now gonna get broiled later on

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

One burrito down 3 in reserve

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

Getting into Dunnellon the end of Withlacootchee trail which used to be the home of a S.A.L seaboard airline train that had it's HQ in Richmond VA the mile marker indicates the distance to Richmond they are all along this and Van Fleet trail

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

Sitting here at one of the two places in Otter Creek that sells food and beverage both are closed good thing I brought those burritos one left. Rolled the dice and took Google maps suggested Bicycle route here from Dunnellon that bypasses US98 and boy it was great virtually no cars, scenic beauty, challenging riding conditions plus private hunting club roads I'm not supposed to be on, even a fun crossing of a very decrepit rail road trestle.

Over a hundred miles down another 25 or so to go, no more bypasses of 98 I'm too whipped.

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

Made it to my intended camp by the rail trail trestle on Suwanee only to find the hammock in though was in my old hammock stuff sack was actually a damaged rain fly so my friend came and picked me up and took me to Tallahassee it was a good challenge ride and so will the return trip 133 miles on a hot day with cargo not bad had to dig deep at times that's what it's all about

Check out my ride on Strava: https://strava.app.link/vhursBJrBVb

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

Hey Hank how much gravel/dirt vs road biking are you doing?

I feel like I asked this before but can you show discuss your bike setup? I’m curious and hoping to do some bike trips here in Europe.

You catch any Steve Earle on the FM waves?

What's up Da_Nit, I'm back on the saddle 20 miles deep on this return trip no Steve Earle yet however I did catch a nice FM station "The Fox" that played Eagles "All Night long" and Boston's "Foreplay/Longtime'' two serious jams I didn't have on a Spotify playlist so I added em

My bike is a Co-Motion Pangea which is a steel frame rigid touring bike with 26" wheels, mechanical disc brakes, and a Pinion drive 18 speed gear box which is belt driven. It's a heavy tank but I love it, if I encounter any mixed terrain today I'll make sure to bleed off some air from my tires had em max pressure on the last go round rookie mistake probably made things a good bit harder . I'm running 1.95 inch schwalbe marathon green tires the max I can fit is 2.25"

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk

Did 139 yesterday and it took me to Otter Creek which used to be known as Cooter Creek shame they changed it.

Another 100 or so to go then home

https://strava.app.link/M5zw0CCSGVb

Sent from my moto g 5G - 2024 using Tapatalk