WOW!!!!!!!!
So after I left the wonderful hospitality of Haluna Gunterman, I headed south. I cheated a little bit and took the public transit to the end of the line in Fremont. From there I hoped on my hand trike and rolled onward. I made terrible progress. First, because I was fat and out of shape, secondly because this contraption is DIFFICULT!
My hands hurt so badly, not from calluses, but from grip. You get so much of your power from pulling on the cranks that after a while my hands were killing me. I had to change position some how. So I adjusted the distance between me and the crank making more space. This allowed me to use my abdomen to help me push foreword and my back muscles to help me pull back, thus allowing my arms to pull up and push down on the cranks giving me nearly a constant torque. Then end result: now my whole body hurts!!!
After 25 hard miles of trudging along the city scene, I finally arrived at my destination. The wonderful and efficient apartment of Mr. Chadwick Conway. He stashed key for me so I could let me self in, I drank his beer, soaked in his tub and then he came home and made me pizza!!! This is after I ate an entire hand of bananas I found on the counter with the jar of homemade peanut butter Dominick had given me.
I did laundry, chatted with Chadwick about his job at Tesla Motors and then passed out on his futon. I was whipped.
Then next day I woke at 7 as Chadwick headed for work. I had left over pizza for breakfast and then hit the road myself. My goal was Santa Cruz. I had google map directions, trail mix (complements of Chadwick) and plenty of water. I was set. What I was not prepared for was the 1000+ foot climb to the top of a damn mountain. I didn't even try cranking my way up, I got off and pulled the dang trike all three miles and 1000 feet of it. It was long, hot and grueling. Minus one wrong turn and some back tracking it did all go pretty well, though.
Once at the top of this ridiculous climb I though "goody! what goes up must come down!" Well, I did come down, and fast. So fast in fact that I could smell my breaks. NOT GOOD. I am hauling down this mountain on three wheels (which by the way, three wheels at low speeds are inherently more stable than two, the opposite is true at high speeds) on a very narrow road with lots of switch backs. I nearly died, again. So, after finally coming to a complete stop, I spat on my break drum and sure enough I hear the sizzle that means heat and see the steam. I pour water on it and begin to think. Then, I spy a stout piece of pine branch and get an idea. It is just about the right length and with a little toying around I am able to lever it under the bike so that is drags constantly, and if I pull up on it, it drags a lot! Excellent! So down I go once more. It is working pretty well, I use the wheel break to negotiate turns and the branch to keep me at a reasonable speed. All is well, until I stop. While slugging down some refreshing water I smell something, smoke. I look around and see nothing, then the though occurs to me. So I look at my pine branch and sure enough, it is smoldering. Well, shoot. So much for using that as a break, I keep this up and will soon be moving like my butt's on fire!
So I dowse that with some water and go looking again. In the end I settle on what I think is a nice green piece of birch, about as big as my wrist. For the rest of the cruise down the mountain I have no problems. Until I reach the bottom of the mountain. I inquire as to the address of the friend I am aiming to stay with and the man point to the top of the next mountain. ABSOLUTELY NOT! I didn't say it out loud but I thought it. So I text and call Ms. Abby Chrystal and she agrees to come the 5 miles to rescue me in her Yaris. Ohhh! What a Godsend!
To be continued.
So after I left the wonderful hospitality of Haluna Gunterman, I headed south. I cheated a little bit and took the public transit to the end of the line in Fremont. From there I hoped on my hand trike and rolled onward. I made terrible progress. First, because I was fat and out of shape, secondly because this contraption is DIFFICULT!
My hands hurt so badly, not from calluses, but from grip. You get so much of your power from pulling on the cranks that after a while my hands were killing me. I had to change position some how. So I adjusted the distance between me and the crank making more space. This allowed me to use my abdomen to help me push foreword and my back muscles to help me pull back, thus allowing my arms to pull up and push down on the cranks giving me nearly a constant torque. Then end result: now my whole body hurts!!!
After 25 hard miles of trudging along the city scene, I finally arrived at my destination. The wonderful and efficient apartment of Mr. Chadwick Conway. He stashed key for me so I could let me self in, I drank his beer, soaked in his tub and then he came home and made me pizza!!! This is after I ate an entire hand of bananas I found on the counter with the jar of homemade peanut butter Dominick had given me.
I did laundry, chatted with Chadwick about his job at Tesla Motors and then passed out on his futon. I was whipped.
Then next day I woke at 7 as Chadwick headed for work. I had left over pizza for breakfast and then hit the road myself. My goal was Santa Cruz. I had google map directions, trail mix (complements of Chadwick) and plenty of water. I was set. What I was not prepared for was the 1000+ foot climb to the top of a damn mountain. I didn't even try cranking my way up, I got off and pulled the dang trike all three miles and 1000 feet of it. It was long, hot and grueling. Minus one wrong turn and some back tracking it did all go pretty well, though.
Once at the top of this ridiculous climb I though "goody! what goes up must come down!" Well, I did come down, and fast. So fast in fact that I could smell my breaks. NOT GOOD. I am hauling down this mountain on three wheels (which by the way, three wheels at low speeds are inherently more stable than two, the opposite is true at high speeds) on a very narrow road with lots of switch backs. I nearly died, again. So, after finally coming to a complete stop, I spat on my break drum and sure enough I hear the sizzle that means heat and see the steam. I pour water on it and begin to think. Then, I spy a stout piece of pine branch and get an idea. It is just about the right length and with a little toying around I am able to lever it under the bike so that is drags constantly, and if I pull up on it, it drags a lot! Excellent! So down I go once more. It is working pretty well, I use the wheel break to negotiate turns and the branch to keep me at a reasonable speed. All is well, until I stop. While slugging down some refreshing water I smell something, smoke. I look around and see nothing, then the though occurs to me. So I look at my pine branch and sure enough, it is smoldering. Well, shoot. So much for using that as a break, I keep this up and will soon be moving like my butt's on fire!
So I dowse that with some water and go looking again. In the end I settle on what I think is a nice green piece of birch, about as big as my wrist. For the rest of the cruise down the mountain I have no problems. Until I reach the bottom of the mountain. I inquire as to the address of the friend I am aiming to stay with and the man point to the top of the next mountain. ABSOLUTELY NOT! I didn't say it out loud but I thought it. So I text and call Ms. Abby Chrystal and she agrees to come the 5 miles to rescue me in her Yaris. Ohhh! What a Godsend!
To be continued.
Glad to hear you are safe and kind of made it! I couldn't stop laughing reading this post. Hang in there! Love you bro, Chad
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