Trivia question: Who is Octavio Chanute, and why is a Kansas town named after this 19th century Frenchman. A 64 ounce Gatorade and a big bag of Fiery Dorritos to the winner.
Djina mentioned that we rode 100 miles yesterday. She forgot to mention that Yonah did it with his back brake on the entire time! This morning as I did my weekly ritual of oiling and checking the bikes, I could barely get his wheel to move. It was essentially wedged against the brake pad. The culprit was quickly found: a busted spoke. Luckily we have spares. But what's this? A second broken spoke. And, believe it or not, a third. Seabisquit (aka Yonah Biers-Ariel) rode his first century loaded down with food, clothing, cooking equipment, sleeping pads, and three broken spokes. What a shtarker!
Djina also spoke about the two evangelicals: the librarian who would not sign our petition, and the newspaper reporter/retired English teacher who accused Yonah of being soul-less. (Note: The article she wrote in the Hutchinson News was both well-written and made no mention of our problem child.) Since we've been in Dorothy's home state, we haven't been so forward with the petition. But today I went to purchase pepper spray (recommended against dogs in Missouri whose owners chant 2 words when they see cyclists, "Sic 'em!) at a pawn shop/gun smith. Two guys worked there. One had a USMC shirt and tattoos with the same message. The other was non-descript. Both chained smoked. There were lots of guns. One was pink. They asked what we were riding our bikes for, so I gave them the rites of passage shpiel and mentioned the petition. (Volare alert! I'm writing this blog next to the front desk at the Holiday Park Motel [the poor step-sister of the Holiday Inn], and for the 4th time since I sat down [conservative estimate], the muzak in the background is blaring Volare. I'm looking for a barf bag or just a spitton, but no luck.) Upon mentioning global warming, these two guys just launch into it. "Damn place is getting so goddamn hot." "I've been talking about this for more than ten years." The USMC guy is saying, "Tell Congress they should lower the goddamn speed limit to 55 mph again. Save gas and lives." These guys sign the petition. Their friend comes in and they browbeat him into signing. I tell them we need the government to take the lead in dealing with the issue. Says the other, "It's us that's got to change. You can't depend on ol' Bushy to do shit." I'm thinking, "Am I really in Kansas?" Then the Marine starts in on how the government is hiding technology where a gallon of water can fuel a car for 200 miles. "Well..." I begin, but they start looking on the Internet for the evidence.
When I left, I thought, "You just can never tell. A reporter and librarian, who one would imagine well-educated, spouted drivel are on one hand. On the other are a couple of pawn/gun shop owners, with maybe a high school education who understand that we are in deep do-do unless we act quickly."
I'd take time to analyze the Truth discovered here, but guess what? Yep. Volare is on again.
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11 comments:
Exceptional! You said it all much better than I did.
While the reporter wrote a human interest story she treated you folks very poorly!
Good luck to all of you!
Linda - Bee Reader
P.S. I write you when taking brakes from computer work - my summer adventure and this is the first time I have blog.
Djina, Matt, Yonah and Solomon:
I am Courtney, sister of Casey (your VH buddy) and she turned me onto your blog last night. (I think we met a long time ago...)
The only time I went x-country it was in a VW pop-top and we took Anna Cady (then 10 years old!) as far as Colorado. We guzzled some gas but had a lot of fun!
Anyways, I want you to know I read the whole dang blog last night. It is compelling and inspirational to us as a family and will stimulate lots of discussion about how we can contribute and why it is so important to try.
I doubt you will be traveling any further east than DC (we are in Brooklyn) but we would love to host you here!
Also, if you could post some information about the event on August 18th I would like to pass it on to some biker-activists here in the city.
Great luck to you all as you move further eastward.
Courtney
Courtney, we totally remember you. And even if we didn't Casey talks about you so much we would FEEL like we remembered you.
We don't have any info. yet about the 18th but will post it on the blog when we do.
You are hard core, reading the whole dang blog in one night! You go girl!
L,
Djina
Hi Matt,
I think you mean Octave Chanute, the railroad and aviation engineer. But by using Octavio, you got yourself top billing on Google! (try googleing Octavio Chanute)
Can't believe you guys are almost all the way across Kansas! I looked at where you were on a map of the states and it seemed you were in the center of the continent. In fact, I seem to remember that the center is in Kansas somewhere. Turns out it is in Lebanon, so you missed it by a couple of hundred miles to the South (http://www.answers.com/topic/geographic-center-of-the-contiguous-united-states)
Woke up this morning and it felt like I was in Kansas too. It was pouring rain. Can't remember the last time that happened in Davis in July. Turned into a beautiful day. Enjoy your rest day and your trip accross Missouri. We all miss you guys.
...leo
Leo, who knew you were such a wealth of info...or that you had so much disposable time to do computer research!
Love,
Djina
Thanks, Leo, for the correction, but you didn't answer Matt's question...so here it is, and I'll take those fiery doritos and that 64 oz. gatorade when you return:
Octave Chanute was widely considered a brilliant and innovative railroad engineer. During his career he designed and constructed the country's two biggest stock yards -- Chicago Stock Yards (1865) and Kansas City Stockyards (1871). He designed and built the Hannibal Bridge which was the first bridge to cross the Missouri River when it opened in Kansas City, Missouri in 1869. The bridge was to establish Kansas City as the dominant city in the region.
Chanute invented a system for pressure treating rail ties and telephone poles with creosote to preserve them. He also introduced the railroad date nail into the United States - a simple and efficient way of recording the age of railroad ties and other wooden structures by date stamping the heads of nails.
OK, so that's enough from wikipedia. I hope it's not another urban legend!
Miss you guys tons, and I hope those dogs don't latch on too tightly.
xxx,
Chicky
Just wanted to let you know that in my experience living in Kansas, there are a lot more people like the guys you mentioned in your article than the reporter and librarian-thank goodness!!! I am so glad you had a positive experience to end your time here.
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