Initial Tour of the Alps Proposal
(Originally sent Oct 30th, 2004)

Ever since Lisa & I did our Tour of the Alps in 2003, I've wanted to
go back and do more riding there. Since Lisa is in school and can't do
any long tours I've determined that I'll have to do it on my single in
2005, which will open up possibilities for longer days and more
cycling. If you're interested in joining me on such a tour, read on!

The basic idea is to start around the second or third week of June
(when most of the passes open) in Google's Zurich office. I'm thinking
to spend about a week or so riding the French Alps and riding the
classic climbs of the Tour de France as well as many of the more
interesting ones that have been charted by the British OCD
(http://www.ocd.org.uk/) in their French Alps guide. While we'll visit
many classic Tour de France climbs this is NOT a "follow Le Tour"
ride. My intention is to get into the French Alps early and be out of
France by the time the Tour visits the Alps. I don't really want to
deal with the traffic and crowds.

I'd also like to revisit many of the classic Swiss passes that so
captivated me last year --- Sustens pass, Oberalp pass, Nufenen pass,
and St. Gottard pass. This will take another 5 days to a week or so.
Then with the remaining time, we may visit the Austrian Alps, which
are very pretty as well and significantly cheaper. I've found that on
a 21 day tour, if you plan about 14 days, you'll have room for
unexpected events (such as a fantastic B&B that makes you want to stay
an extra day) and weather while still having the flexibility to do
extra exploring if that moves you.

I'm expecting to ride about 60-80 miles a day. (Lisa & I managed 45
miles a day and 3800' of climbing a day on a tandem, so on a single I
expect to be able to put in another 20 miles a day and another 2000'
of climb) If you've done a century with about 6000-8000' of climb
before this should be no problem --- I'm a fairly slow rider. Costs
would be around $75 a day a person for double-occupancy, depending on
the level of accomodations you want and how much/where you eat, and
whether you take any trains. (Trains were by far the most expensive
part of our trip, so I'd really like to avoid that as much as
possible, especially in France, since French trains aren't very cycle
friendly --- and if we succeed then the costs might be reduced, but
the Euro has also gone up since our visit in 2003, so it'll probably
be a wash) There'll be no SAG support (those tours cost $200 a day
minimum), so expect to fix your own flats. Accomodations wil be found
as we go (no reservation until we hit the ground in Switzerland,
except for the first day's accomodations), so if you're the kind of
person who can't deal with adventure or uncertainty, don't even
consider coming along --- my experience in 2003 was that we always
found some place to stay, even though there were two days (both
weekend days) when we had to backtrack a bit before we found
accomodations. I know enough French and German to get rooms, etc.

If you've read this far and are still interested, e-mail me. I have
maps, extensive information from the OCD and pointers to web-sites,
and a (non-digital) slide show of our 2003 trip so you can see what
it's like. You'll have a say in where the trip goes, of course. I have
a maximum group size of 4 in mind (including myself) but won't be
disappointed if nobody else wants to come along. Plane tickets are
cheapest around December/January, so if you wait until the last minute
to buy those, you may not be able to get them or you may find them
prohibitively expensive (hence I'm planning the trip now).

Oh, if you want to read my description of our tour from 2003, the URL
is http://www.geocities.com/piawandlisa/trip2003.html)

Tour of the Alps photos

Mike Samuel, Steve Purcell & I did a 3 week tour of the French & Swiss
Alps, and the photos are now up at:

http://www.mikesamuel.com/alps2005/photos/

A full trip report on my side is forthcoming (I just got back on
Monday, so it'll take awhile), but Mike's writeup is available at:

http://www.mikesamuel.com/alps2005/

We had a fabulous time!

The trains in Zurich are very bicycle friendly 

After many wrong turns, I make it to the Zurich Googler office 

Zooglers 

Zooglers? 

Foosball is always welcome 

Zurich Googlers 

More Zurich Googlers 

Friendly faces at the Zurich Google office 

Rob & Mayumi 

Ken Lee 

James Porter, Western Wheelers President 

The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler

Even if you believed everything he writes in this book, his strident tone may very well put you off, espcially if you've seen the speaker in person. He makes lots of assertions without backing them up (though you can probably back them up yourself trough appropriate research), and doesn't really offer any interesting or creative solutions. You're better off reading Peak Oil, or Hubbert's Peak.

Another day, anothe stoker

I took Christine out for a ride on the tandem yesterday. She loved it. I remember how nice it was when I first went for a ride on a good bike, and I'm sure she had a similar experience. It's always a delight to share cycling with others, and I'm beginning to realize that tandeming is one of the best ways to introduce cycling to non-cyclists: it's non-threatening, it's liberating (the other person doesn't have to steer or brake or watch for traffic), and the fact that you're a good mechanic means that the stoker also never worries about mechanicals.

Sequioa Century stats

105 miles (door to door), 7:53 riding time. Start approximately 6:30, finish approximately 3:30 (9 hour elapsed). Cold on skyline, but excellent otherwise because of the cool climbing. The Fuji is one fast bike!

The Wall-Street Journal on Class Mobility

Although Americans still think of their land as a place of exceptional opportunity -- in contrast to class-bound Europe -- the evidence suggests otherwise. And scholars have, over the past decade, come to see America as a less mobile society than they once believed.

Vanguard Re-opens energy fund

It was closed in 2004 because too many people wanted in. It'll probably close again in the future. If you missed it last time, here's another chance.

The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenbegger.

"Okay," I say, "let's see. The choices we're working with here are a block universe, where past, present and future all coexist simultaneously and everything has already happened; chaos, where anything can happen and nothing can be predicted because we can't know all the variables; and a Christian universe in which God made everything and it's all here for a purpose but we have free will anyway. Right?"

Clare wiggles her toes at me. "I guess."

"And what do you vote for?"

Clare is silent. Her pragmatism and her romantic feelings about Jesus and Mary are, at thirteen, almost equally balaned. A year ago she would have said God without hesitationl In ten years she will vote for determinism, and ten years after that Clare will believe that the universe is arbitrary, that if God exists he does not hear our prayers, that cause and effect are inescapable and brutal, but meaningless.

Niffenbegger is not a great writer, but she is a great plotter. This is one of those books you have to read twice, the first time to understand the layout, and the second time to pick up all the references that were dropped the first time --- passages in Henry/Clare's lives that didn't make sense the first time round because you were getting it out of order.

Highly recommended!

Idlewild, by Nick Sagan

Yes, he's the son of that famous astronomer. A decent book, a bit disjoint, and while it has a few interesting idea, is a bit staid. An obvious first novel.

They're gone now, off chasing a better tomorrow. I told them I wouldn't actively oppose them. It's a truce.

I'm alone with my thoughts.

I said I had nothing left... but that's not true.

Even with a shattered memory, I still have hindsight. With perfect clarity, I can see what made me the way I am. I can't see forward, but I can see the path back.