There's just no easy way to say this. My bicycle got stolen today. I'm heartbroken. Only because my father gave me that bicycle and he rode it to work for 30 years. In 2008 when he retired and gave me the bike I rebuilt it with custom made parts and rode the bike from Ohio to the Panama Canal.
Today I went out on a ride around town. I met a guy during the ride who was very friendly and we rode together for about 30 minutes. He told me he needed to stop by his house so we rode there and met his friend. We all chatted for about 10 minutes. His friend asked if he could sit on my bike to see how it felt. We were all cyclists with the gear and shoes and we were all laughing and i wanted to be polite. He sat on my bike and promptly rode off with it. Just like that. GONE. I stood there stunned. In shock really. A local guy came over who saw what was happening and called the police. The police showed up and when they found out that I had ridden that bike here from Ohio and that it was my dads and I was riding to help bring people clean water in Fiji he promised me he would shoot the perpetrator with his gun.
I told him I don't believe in violence and that God keeps track of these things in this world and that He distributes justice when He sees fit. Sometimes He distributes justice in this life and sometimes He distributes justice in the afterlife and that it's not my job to worry about such things because im not God. Besides we usually pray for God to distribute justice to others when we are the victim and pray for Him to give us mercy when we are the offender which seems a little shallow, immature, and self serving. I told Him that God keeps a good score of these things and it's just my job to try and be the best person I can. He looked at me completely cross eyed but I meant every word of it.
Another guy apologized and said it made him and his country look bad. I told him it didn't at all. I told him that good and bad people exist everywhere because we are all human beings. The nation-states we create are man made and just tend to perpetuate stereotypes. I told him that i thought the people in Medellin were wonderful and one guy who steals a bicycle doesn't change that. He to looked at me cross-eyed but I meant every word of that too.
So I spent the morning dealing with the police and philosophizing with the locals and now I'm just bummed. The only material thing is this world I value is gone...
I will try to discern what the next best step is.
Ride4water via Iphone4
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The people in Medellin live so high in the mountains they take cable cars to get home
So I'm on my flight from Panama City to Medillin, Columbia. I know NOTHING about Columbia except I'm hoping that Juan Valdez-you know the coffee guy on the side of the jar lives here and I can get some delicious tar like coffee that will make my eyes bug out with a jolt. I love parachuting into a place I know nothing about and soaking it in and trying to figure it out so I should be right at home in South America because this whole continent is a mystery to me but I made it here
I met Diego on the plane and he gave me a ride 40 minutes to the Hostel! STOKED. What a bro!
Today I shopped. They sell motorcycles at the grocery store!
Went and saw where Pablo Escobar died-yes he was in fact a drug lord
And how high is Medellin? Well the people take cable cars to their houses
And to wrap up the day Dane and his Dad met me at the Hostal
Ride4water via Iphone4
I met Diego on the plane and he gave me a ride 40 minutes to the Hostel! STOKED. What a bro!
Today I shopped. They sell motorcycles at the grocery store!
Went and saw where Pablo Escobar died-yes he was in fact a drug lord
And how high is Medellin? Well the people take cable cars to their houses
And to wrap up the day Dane and his Dad met me at the Hostal
Ride4water via Iphone4
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Over 5000 miles ridden. Section 2 Central America DONE!
Panama City
That's an old Tree!
A 673 year old church
A torrential downpour yesterday
Ride4water via Iphone4
Monday, February 7, 2011
84 miles from the Panama Canal
Today's ride was a fun one except the 2 flats i got that cost me over an hour of time. I ended up riding for about 15 miles with a Panamanian Cycling Team. They gave me a tube and helped me fix my wheel. What a cool group of guys-and a gal.
Dane and I are planning an 84 mile ride to Panama City that begins tomorrow at 5:30am on the bike. The goal is to be at the Panama Canal by noon. STOKED.
I was thinking the other day about how liberating it is having an iphone4. I just applied for a Doctoral Program in Public Health that is entirely online. Man can life get any better. I get to ride my bike through magical places helping to educate and raise funds to help people get clean water in Fiji, write a book, and study for a Doctorate all with this little super computer I have in my pocket. STOKED.
Oh yeah. I had my first bad meal today. I have tried hard to sample local cuisine and to order and never ask questions about what it is. So far it has worked out fantastically, but today I ordered what amounted to deep fried Columbian fast food. Not good.
I usually go in the restaurant and just pick something, but when the deep fried cardboard showed up I just stared. I ate it and will not use this as a precedent for squelching my adventurous food eating. You can't always bat a thousand people!
Ride4water via Iphone4
Dane and I are planning an 84 mile ride to Panama City that begins tomorrow at 5:30am on the bike. The goal is to be at the Panama Canal by noon. STOKED.
I was thinking the other day about how liberating it is having an iphone4. I just applied for a Doctoral Program in Public Health that is entirely online. Man can life get any better. I get to ride my bike through magical places helping to educate and raise funds to help people get clean water in Fiji, write a book, and study for a Doctorate all with this little super computer I have in my pocket. STOKED.
Oh yeah. I had my first bad meal today. I have tried hard to sample local cuisine and to order and never ask questions about what it is. So far it has worked out fantastically, but today I ordered what amounted to deep fried Columbian fast food. Not good.
I usually go in the restaurant and just pick something, but when the deep fried cardboard showed up I just stared. I ate it and will not use this as a precedent for squelching my adventurous food eating. You can't always bat a thousand people!
Ride4water via Iphone4
Sunday, February 6, 2011
3 days until Panama City
3 days left til Panama City! Yes I'm having fun but after 5 weeks of hotness I'm looking forward to it cooling down! We are 146 miles from Panama City and we should be there Wednesday by about noon. I'm stoked because on Wednesdays ride we will actually ride OVER the Panama Canal. I plan on taking pics and celebrating the completion of another section of this ride4water!
Have fun watching the Superbowl everybody
Ride4water via Iphone4
Have fun watching the Superbowl everybody
Ride4water via Iphone4
Yesterday was a 7 hour ride with 100 degree heat 3k ft of climbing and we got attacked by KILLER BEES
We got up early yesterday and rode to the Panama Border and it took about an hour to get across.
It was a full circus. 4 different lines to get through and they search your luggage. As soon as we got across the border the road was beautiful, smooth, and the road crew must be from Newport Beach because the landscaping was near perfect. We enjoyed a flat, smooth ride with a tailwind and some cloud cover. Sometimes you get near perfect conditions cycling and it was that way for about 3 hours. We ate at a little. Alot like the 100's of other little places on this trip. It's always delicious and were always stoked. Cycling heightens the taste buds in ways I can't explain. If you ride you get it and if you dont you probably think I'm just some food obsessed exaggerator. Nonetheless it was again the BEST MEAL EEEEEEEVER.
We rode another hour then grabbed a coke and Gatorade. We decided to ride another few hours. I'm definitely feeling 100% again. Dane says he's at like 90-95% so were thankful for that. The last 2 hours I felt great and that's a good thing because in the last 25 miles of today's ride it was 104 degrees and we climbed 3000 ft. So if my blogging seems a little sub par at times it's for good reason. Sometimes you finish a hard day like today where it was nearly 70 miles of riding, 3000ft of climbing, and 104 degrees and you feel great. Other times you look like the village drunk and you haven't had a sip.
About 3 miles from the town we decided to stop at I got attacked while riding by a swarm of killer bees. It was straight out of a horror film and I took off like a bat out of hell riding as fast as I could swinging my arms widely. I lost my cycling glasses trying to kill the one that stung my back. Then I tried to swat the one the stung my left eye. Then I tried to kill the 2 that stung both my arms. The clincher was the one that went inside my cycling bib and stung my neck.
Nothing on this trip has fazed me including multiple choatic border crossings, sleeping in every conceivable place, learning Spanish, and eating all sorts if weird stuff-but this episode FREAKED ME OUT!
Dane rolled in later and showed me the 6 stings he got. He was pissed and said it ruined his day. I told him to grab a beer and listen to a Chuck Smith sermon-one of them was bound to help get him in a good mood!
Currently my left eye is swollen as well as my arms. It hurts to close my eye but im sure it will pass. It sort of looks like someone punched me in the face. So if you've ever secretly wanted to punch me in the face you can thank Mr.Bee and his gang of insano wingmen. They did a fine job on me.
On the positive side it might be the finest sprint I have ever put down on my bike. Hopefully next time I ride that hard it won't be Bee induced.
So I asked around and found out from the locals that there is a abeja tienda which means bee farm. We happened to ride by it and there you go.
What are the odds I would ride by a bee farm in Panama?
Ride4water via Iphone4
It was a full circus. 4 different lines to get through and they search your luggage. As soon as we got across the border the road was beautiful, smooth, and the road crew must be from Newport Beach because the landscaping was near perfect. We enjoyed a flat, smooth ride with a tailwind and some cloud cover. Sometimes you get near perfect conditions cycling and it was that way for about 3 hours. We ate at a little. Alot like the 100's of other little places on this trip. It's always delicious and were always stoked. Cycling heightens the taste buds in ways I can't explain. If you ride you get it and if you dont you probably think I'm just some food obsessed exaggerator. Nonetheless it was again the BEST MEAL EEEEEEEVER.
We rode another hour then grabbed a coke and Gatorade. We decided to ride another few hours. I'm definitely feeling 100% again. Dane says he's at like 90-95% so were thankful for that. The last 2 hours I felt great and that's a good thing because in the last 25 miles of today's ride it was 104 degrees and we climbed 3000 ft. So if my blogging seems a little sub par at times it's for good reason. Sometimes you finish a hard day like today where it was nearly 70 miles of riding, 3000ft of climbing, and 104 degrees and you feel great. Other times you look like the village drunk and you haven't had a sip.
About 3 miles from the town we decided to stop at I got attacked while riding by a swarm of killer bees. It was straight out of a horror film and I took off like a bat out of hell riding as fast as I could swinging my arms widely. I lost my cycling glasses trying to kill the one that stung my back. Then I tried to swat the one the stung my left eye. Then I tried to kill the 2 that stung both my arms. The clincher was the one that went inside my cycling bib and stung my neck.
Nothing on this trip has fazed me including multiple choatic border crossings, sleeping in every conceivable place, learning Spanish, and eating all sorts if weird stuff-but this episode FREAKED ME OUT!
Dane rolled in later and showed me the 6 stings he got. He was pissed and said it ruined his day. I told him to grab a beer and listen to a Chuck Smith sermon-one of them was bound to help get him in a good mood!
Currently my left eye is swollen as well as my arms. It hurts to close my eye but im sure it will pass. It sort of looks like someone punched me in the face. So if you've ever secretly wanted to punch me in the face you can thank Mr.Bee and his gang of insano wingmen. They did a fine job on me.
On the positive side it might be the finest sprint I have ever put down on my bike. Hopefully next time I ride that hard it won't be Bee induced.
So I asked around and found out from the locals that there is a abeja tienda which means bee farm. We happened to ride by it and there you go.
What are the odds I would ride by a bee farm in Panama?
Ride4water via Iphone4
Friday, February 4, 2011
Cold weather and LOTS of climbing in Costa Rica
So after spending the night in San Jose we got up and rode for 4 hours into the mountains and it got cold! It rained on us and after our ride I end up wearing my smartwool base layers, pants, jacket, beanie, wool socks-the works. We pulled off at a convenience store some 3500ft up into the mountains and a guy made us coffee and told us we could stay in his guest house.
STOKED. Then he invited us in to have dinner with his family. We had rice, beans, tortillas, and some jamon. It was amazing. We told him about our ride4water and we became friends with Oscar and his familia. We slept well after another 3500 ft of climbing.
We arose today and it was cold with fog everywhere. We got going and we rode an epic climb today. 12 miles with 3000ft of climbing. That ranks up there with one if the toughest of this entire trip. Think Colorado Rockies but with lush tropical landscape. It was epic.
Some goats
Epic waterfall
Pineapple fields
Ride4water via Iphone4
STOKED. Then he invited us in to have dinner with his family. We had rice, beans, tortillas, and some jamon. It was amazing. We told him about our ride4water and we became friends with Oscar and his familia. We slept well after another 3500 ft of climbing.
We arose today and it was cold with fog everywhere. We got going and we rode an epic climb today. 12 miles with 3000ft of climbing. That ranks up there with one if the toughest of this entire trip. Think Colorado Rockies but with lush tropical landscape. It was epic.
Some goats
Epic waterfall
Pineapple fields
Ride4water via Iphone4
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Rode yesterday and today. Heading into Costa Rica now!
Rolling into Costa Rica now!
La Playa
Ive seen cows in the road on during my rides for weeks now. Here they are just a few feet from me.
When your hungry it's always the Best Breakfast EVER
A sign your getting ready to get a GREAT cup of coffee
Ride4water via Iphone4
La Playa
Ive seen cows in the road on during my rides for weeks now. Here they are just a few feet from me.
When your hungry it's always the Best Breakfast EVER
A sign your getting ready to get a GREAT cup of coffee
Ride4water via Iphone4
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