On the sentimentality of past bikes

The Surly Long Haul Trucker in its final "stripped-down tourer" iteration on Lopez Island, Washington, 15 September 2013 It happens from time to time: I go on a binge of reading my old blog posts. In the past this has happened because work has been slow, but recent thoughts about old commenters and blogs I...

On blogs I used to follow

6 Feb 2023. Olympus XA/Fuji C200 I mentioned just a little while ago about missing the regular commenters of this blog. There was an era, from about 2010 through to maybe 2015-16 where I'd get a few comments on every post, no matter how inconsequential I considered the post to be. Much of this era...

On old blog commenters

Exfoliate. 8 Feb 2023 Camera: Olympus XA Film: Fuji C200 2023 will mark eighteen years of the Urban Adventure League blog. (It'll be voting age in the US!) The blog has gone through a lot over those years. The first half-decade was primarily a sprinkling of upcoming rides and then ride reports. Besides a more...

25 Years Ago: My first cross-country adventure

The Bay Bridge, which I first saw on Thursday 19 February 1998. This photo taken on 24 June 2022. Camera: Olympus XA2 Film: Fuji 200 I've lived on the West Coast of the United States for almost twenty-three years. I'm quickly reaching the point where my West Coast life will be longer than my East...

Do What You Love: A revisit, five years later

It was just about five years ago, after leading the 2018 edition of my Palm Tree Ride, where I really thought long and hard about my future. I had been with the hostel for a dozen years, minus the year off for The Big Tour. By that point, my job hadn't been fulfilling for a...

One bike, one camera?

Johnson Creek Park, where Johnson and Crystal Springs Creeks meet. 12 Nov 2022 Camera: Olympus Pen EES-2Film: Kodak Portra 160 I was in correspondence with someone who is pondering doing one of those "one camera" challenges. Basically, the idea is to use the same camera for a certain period of time, whether a month or...

Missing the idea of the bike commute?

Explosions of color everywhere. 3 Nov 2022 Olympus Pen EES-2/Kodak Portra 160 I've hinted at this before, and it still sounds weird, but I miss the idea of a bike commute. I commuted to work by bike from 2001 to 2019. Since then, I've mostly worked from home, so the need to get on a...

Beausage and Special Bikes

Andy's Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen, 15 October 2022. Olympus 35RD/Ilford HP5+ In Grant Petersen's latest "Blahg" post, 1 he touches upon people who get fancy bikes like Rivendells yet rarely use them because they're worried about damage, theft, and the like. (It's a really long blog post, as is Grant's wont, where he talks about...