Maja’s musings

Post script

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I forgot to mention that the other thing that was so special about our ride over the past days was the opportunity to see three beavers at the start of one of our days. We had started early in the morning to beat the heat and were riding next to a crystal clear river. We saw one adult beaver swimming toward what seemed to be a small log in the river, but we then realized that it was a baby beaver that the adult picked up. And just further ahead was another adult beaver that dived under the water, but because the water was so clear, we could continue watching it. It was really amazing! And it reminded me of my very first longer bike ride that I took while in high school with a friend. We rode from Bangor to Dedham to spend the night with her grandmother. The ride was about 12 miles each way with one serious climb. Not bad for two girls who had never gone more than a couple of miles to school and back. On the route we stopped by a little pond and watched a beaver dragging some branches to its home. Later that day we saw a moose behind her grandmother’s very modest home. It was a real adventure for us.

The same day Charles and I saw the beavers, we saw another bald eagle. It’s so exciting to see these majestic birds soaring over us. I will never tire of it and hope we will see many more along the Maine coast.

We didn’t have any adventures today. Just a lot of climbing and a fair amount of heat. Sometimes the smaller hills can be harder than the mountains just because they’re so steep. I was in my granny gear several times today, which I hadn’t needed to use while climbing our monster mountain yesterday. And Charles and I actually dismounted and walked 25 yards or so when the incline was just too steep up one hill. Tomorrow will be another tough one. But we only have three to go.

The last couple of weeks

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These last couple of weeks or so, as we’ve been cycling through New England, have been some of the best of our trip for me, first and foremost and not surprisingly, because of the people we’ve met up with. In New York, my sister, her husband and two of their three daughters drove from Ithaca to Fair Haven, NY–over an hour’s drive–to meet us for dinner. It was great to see them all and be able to catch up, which we hope to do more of in September when we all get together in CA for a nephew’s wedding. Also, they had arranged for a dinner at a gorgeous water-front restaurant. It was definitely one of the best meals of our trip. We were doubly lucky since our motel was miles from a place to eat and I’m not sure if the town had any taxis to drive us to dinner had we not been dining with my sister. And the last thing we want to do after a hard day’s ride is bike to and from dinner. My brother-in-law had also decided that, since there seemed to be no breakfast place in town, he would organize a boxed breakfast. The sandwiches were incredibly yummy and so big that the leftovers became our lunch.

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My sister, Anke, her husband Ric and two of their daughters Marin and Rory at the beautiful lake location where we had dinner.

A few days later, we rode to Buffalo where a college classmate had reached out to us when she read in the alumni magazine that we were biking cross-country to benefit the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and invited us to spend a night in her home, just around the corner from the Darwin Martin House. Jennifer and I couldn’t quite put a finger on how we had known each other at Dartmouth, but after spending a day with her and her kids, I wished that we had spent more time together in college. But there’s always time to make up for that now and I hope we have more opportunities to get together in the future.

A few days later, we cycled into East Thetford, VT where we were met by one of our oldest and dearest friends, Camilla, with whom we just spent two nights and a rest day in Hanover, NH. We squeezed our bikes into her mini-van and she drove us to and from her place and our route. We had such a wonderful time with her–catching up, talking politics, watching the Olympics and eating and drinking to our hearts content including an incredible home made peach/blueberry pie and homemade chocolate malts. Camilla knows us way too well and had all our favorite foods and drinks. And she treated us to a wonderful massage. We have found that periodic massages really make all the difference! My shoulder has been SOOOO much better. While in Hanover we had drinks with an old college roommate, Deb. It was so much fun to talk about old times and great to realize that my difficulty in remembering exactly who I had roomed with at Dartmouth was not unique to me. Deb also gave us great tips on places to travel to, so our travel “to do” list as just grown by leaps and bounds. Earlier that day Camilla drove us to Manchester where we met up with another old college roommate, Judy, for lunch and a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Zimmerman House. Again, it was great to see Judy and I just wish that we all lived much closer together so we could see each other more often.

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We tried to convince Camilla to join us on our ride, but this was as close as we got her to come–dropping us off on our route after a wonderful stay with her.

We then stayed with another old housemate from my SAIS days just outside Lincoln, VT, the next night. Larry drove over 2 hours from Boston, had organized for the local bike shop to store our bikes overnight, and drove us to his vacation condo 30 minutes away where we had a wonderful dinner, watched the Olympics and spent the night. We hadn’t seen Larry in about 7 years so had a lot of catching up to do. We really appreciate that he drove almost 5 hours back and forth to spend a little time with us.

Getting together to with friends over the course of this trip has been a highlight and has made me realize how lucky we are to know such wonderful people. We will definitely make more of an effort to meet up with them more frequently.

A second highlight of the last 10 days or so has been riding through New England where I spent my junior high, high school and college years. It’s been wonderful for me to ride through this beautiful area of the US and to remember trips and activities of my youth: picking blueberries and apples, swimming in pristine lakes, visiting the Niagara Falls, and hiking through gorgeous landscapes. I definitely miss the water that is all around us here–just in case you haven’t noticed from the fact that so many of my photos are water centric. I am looking forward to riding into Acadia National Park where we spent huge chunks of our summers and weekends over the course of the years we lived in Maine.

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Another aquatic photo from yesterday in New Hampshire.

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We haven’t seen any moose yet, but seeing this sign reminded me of the time a moose peered into my classroom window in 5th grade. What a shocker that was!

And finally, watching the Olympics has been so inspiring. I’ve stayed up until midnight on many nights watching the swimmers and gymnasts win so many golds and have been in tears most nights as I listen to their stories. I am awed by how hard they have worked to get where they are and happy that all of their hard work has paid off. Another of my college roommates won a silver medal in rowing (single scull) so I am well aware of the sacrifices each one of these Olympians has made to get to where they are today, making winning look so easy. I admit that during the course of the day, when I may be struggling on a particularly difficult climb, I think of how hard these athletes have worked and that encouraged me to keep going. I’m sorry that the swimming is over now, but happy that I can get back to a normal sleep routine. 😉

Only four more days until we ride into Bar Harbor. Hard to believe. The weeks have flown by.

 

Addendum to day 69

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Today was a GORGEOUS day. We started with some trepidation because our map said that starting from Old Forge where we spent the night yesterday, the hills would turn to mountains. The day started with thick fog, but the kind where you knew it would burn off and the day would turn sunny. And indeed, 90 minutes later we were biking in the sun, but the day remained cool. It was one of the prettier days of our ride. The air was crisp, the “mountains” were doable, and the scenery was beautiful. The problem for me, as team “Wescov” photographer, was that we were either climbing or descending most of the day so that stopping for photos was difficult. Suffice to say, I could have taken hundreds.

To top of a great day of riding, we had a nice, warm lake right across the road and some friendly Canadian hikers in our B&B who offered to take us with them to dinner since there was no place close by. We had an interesting conversation about politics in Canada and the US.

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The view from our dinner table overlooking Long Lake

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Charles and Maja after enjoying a great meal. That is not a halo above Maja’s head, just her reading glasses.

On a final note, I would like to thank the State of NY for keeping up its roads! The roads we’ve been on for the past three days have consistently been the best of our whole trip–nice smooth surface and wide shoulders.

We have a winner!

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Someone has guessed correctly what I was counting and has won a Frank Lloyd Wright design cell phone cover. I was, indeed, comparing the number of McDonald’s to Burger Kings. My winner was surprised by the low number of both, as was I, but we have to remember that we were riding through mostly small towns. The places that had a Burger King almost always had a McDonald’s nearby, but many towns could obviously only support one fast food burger joint, and in those cases they had a McDonald’s, proving the value of incumbency. I know that you will be disappointed to read this, but since we have a winner, I will stop counting. Thanks to all of you who joined in the fun!

As you all know, we have rarely been rained on. The parched look of western NY is testament to the lack of rain. Yards are brown, corn is stunted and dry and soybean plants are also significantly smaller than ones we’ve passed across other states. While we can’t complain about staying dry on our rides, we do feel bad about the farmers whose livelihood is suffering. Today as we were cycling along the Erie Canal, many farmers were pumping water out of the canal to irrigate their fields. We don’t know if this is normal or something that is just done when Mother Nature doesn’t do her bit to keep the crops watered.

Speaking of water, we have been drinking a ton over the course of the last few days as the heat wave has finally caught up to us. It has been hot and humid. And today add dusty to the list since we were riding on crushed limestone all day along the Canal. Our bikes, bags, etc. are gray with dust. We will have more of the same tomorrow until we turn off the canal and head toward Lake Superior, which we hope will be a bit cooler.

Today I made our reservations at a Bed and Breakfast near Bar Harbor, so the end of our adventure is nearing. We have only 13 more days with bums on saddles and 14 more days total until we reach our destination. As we looked at the map to plan our final days, we wonder why the American Cycling Association decided to end its Northern Tier Route in Bar Harbor since we bike north along the coast of Maine for a couple hundred miles before we get there. Charles and I discussed whether we should call it quits when we reach the Maine coast, but decided to soldier on. After all, what’s a couple hundred more miles? and we wouldn’t want to be accused of false advertising! 😇 So, with that said, we are now looking at riding into Bar Harbor on August 18 and flying back to Arizona around the 25th. Woohoo!

🎶Make new friends, but keep the old

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One is silver and the other’s gold.🎶 

We have been meeting lots of kind, interesting and engaging people on our trip, but there’s nothing like being with old friends. Our time in Birmingham, MI with our good friends Foley and Marion was fantastic, albeit too short and they get 5+ ⭐️s for their “warm showers” 🙃 hosting. Marion and her son Malcolm picked us up at the Marine City ferry, an hour from their home. On the way back to their house, Marion organized and then later generously treated us to two of the best massages we’ve ever had. She then chauffeured us around on various errands before cooking a wonderful salmon dinner that really hit the spot. Our next day was full viewing Frank Lloyd Wright homes, touring around some of the areas of Detroit that are in full revival, having lunch and going back home for a well deserved nap. That night, we were joined by more friends and three bottles of champagne and several bottles of wine later, we hit the sack. The next day, after a full and filling breakfast, Marion and Foley drove us back to Marine City for the ferry ride to Canada. It was so wonderful being around friends that are really family and getting back to our trip well fortified emotionally and physically. We are very lucky and thankful to have such great “old” friends. The only black mark against them was that we had so much fun over the dinners, wines and champagnes that we never had the energy for the long promised malts at their favorite ice cream shoppe. Something to look forward to for the next visit.

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Ending our fun time with the Jones’s at the Marine City Ferry landing.

We will be spending tomorrow night with a college classmate, which I’m looking forward to, and will also catch up with some more of our oldest and best friends from Virginia who now have a summer place in Hanover, NH a week or so from now. Those visits combined with our stay with our good friends from Paradise Valley, Craig and Steve, at their home in Golden Valley, MN have made this trip even more special than it would have normally been.

Musings from Day 58

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34:18. Hint: I am absolutely positive that the two things I’m counting are actually more numerous in the areas through which we’ve been biking, but we miss a lot of them because we’re on back roads and bike paths. We have been in several of the more numerous ones, but in none of the less numerous ones.

We have been missing our Warm Showers experiences. For some reason the areas in Wisconsin and Michigan where we’ve been biking haven’t had a lot of Warm Showers opportunities — and in Traverse City, MI, the one place that had multiple hosts, none of them were available. So we feel that we’re in Warm Showers withdrawal. We really appreciate the unique aspects of each Warm Showers experience and the conversations we have with our hosts. We hope to be able to organize our ride over the course of the last weeks of our ride so that we’ll end at least some of our days in places with Warm Showers hosts.

But, today and tomorrow we have something even better! We are with two of our very best friends in Birmingham, MI, Marion and William. We got to know them in Brussels, where William was a senior executive with Chrysler. Marion generously offered to lend Brady a cowboy outfit for a costume event (he was 4) when we first moved to Brussels and the rest is history. We are now family and Brady considers the three “kids” as his brothers.

Marion and their youngest son Malcolm picked us up from the ferry in Marine City, where we will be continuing our ride again on Saturday. She immediately said she had some “business” to cover with us, that included whether we wanted the massages they had set up for us today or tomorrow. How did they know that we had been dreaming of massages for weeks? We are so, so lucky to have friends like Marion and William and are so, so happy to be with them and in a building that’s not a restaurant or a motel room! Unfortunately, we have learned from experience that more than one rest day in a row is not good for us, so we will not be staying for as long as we would like to.

We are now about 1,000 miles from the end of our trip. I’ve looked at the remaining maps and am intimidated by the climbs we have coming up in New York, Vermont, NH and Maine. We will be starting with rolling hills — that sounds so poetic, but on a bike even rolling hills can be tough — but then quickly get into real mountains. So, we are lightening our load and mailing back some gear tomorrow. I think I’ll probably be able to carry what I have left in my rear panniers so will send the front ones back. Charles may keep his front panniers and he and I can switch off carrying them.

While I am looking forward to reaching our goal and getting to Bar Harbor, it will be very strange not to get on a bike every morning. We have gotten so efficient every morning with packing, loading up our bikes, putting on sun block, having breakfast, packing lunch and getting on our way by 7 am at the latest, that it will be very strange once we are back home to get out of bed, have a leisurely breakfast, read the papers and not get on a bike. But I know I am getting ahead of myself. We still have three or so weeks to go. Fingers crossed that everything continues to go well, although it doesn’t make for very exciting reading 😉

Reflections

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27:11. Hint: you can enter both of the things I’m counting.

“In organic architecture, then, it is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, it’s furnishings another, and it’s setting and environment still another.” –Frank Lloyd Wright

As we get ready to depart Wisconsin tomorrow, we are also leaving Frank Lloyd Wright’s home state and the area in which most of the FLW buildings we will see en route are located. Charles has already described most of these in previous postings. I just want to focus on a couple of things.

First, as Charles has mentioned, FLW was a major innovator in the field of architecture, being the first to design what we now call great rooms that combined kitchens with family and dining rooms, using under floor heating, track lighting, seamless window corners, and folding doors to open whole walls to the outside. He also invented the concept of car ports and, it can be argued, was the real father of ranch houses. The way he thought about his designs as being organic and part of the environment was truly unique. I could go on and on. But what really stood out from our visits of FLW homes was how far ahead he was of his architect cohort. His designs have much more in common with modern houses being built today, 70 or 80 years later, than they did with those of the day. FLW was truly a visionary. And so were his clients. They were individualists who valued what FLW had to offer and were willing to stand out in a crowd.

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If you look closely enough, you will see one lone stalk of corn in a huge field of soy beans. The foot of the corn stalk is about an inch from the bottom of the photo and just right of center. I couldn’t help but think of the corn representing FLW, rising above his contemporaries.

We were lucky enough, on several occasions, to meet the owners or owner representatives of FLW houses that they had saved from almost certain destruction. Charles and I were so impressed with the passion that these owners brought to their homes, the precision with which they restored the structures, and their willingness to open the homes to the public. They, without exception, view what they are doing as a public service, both to the general public and their communities. We really couldn’t believe the “before” state to which some of these houses had fallen compared to the “after restoration” that we were viewing. In most cases, the restorations took years and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars over and above the purchase price for the house. In some cases, like for the Willey house, the new owners, using FLW’s original plans, finished several rooms that had never been completed by the original owners. We have so much to thank these individuals for and we look forward to keeping in touch with them.

 

Wisconsinites

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20:6.  I’m surprised by how many more of the one thing I’m counting there are than the other and also by how low both numbers are given that we’ve covered over 2,000 miles.

We are spending the night in Pepin, Wisconsin, a wonderful little lakeside town.  In fact, we had the best dinner of our trip so far at a restaurant called Harbor View Cafe. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is in this neck of the woods.

Also of interest is that Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of Little House on the Prairie, was born just 6 miles north of here in February 1867, 4 months before Frank Lloyd Wright was born, also in Wisconsin–in Richland Center–about 120 miles or so from here.  Laura became a school teacher at age 16 and was married at age 18.  She didn’t start writing until age 65 and was surprised at how popular her books were.  She continued writing until her death in 1957 at age 90.

As I was reading the historic marker about Laura and realized that she was born the same year as Frank Lloyd Wright, I couldn’t help but compare her with him. There were certainly many similarities from the start-both were born in the same year in Wisconsin, not far apart, and both were from families of limited means but which were very focused on education.  Interestingly, neither had formal training in their field of success. Frank never went to architecture school and Laura never graduated from high school.  Both were also very successful late in their careers. While Frank had had major successes throughout his career, he also reinvented himself several times over the course of his life. For example, he started thinking about and planning the Guggenheim Museum–considered to be one of his masterpieces–about the same time as Laura began writing her books at age 65 and the building was completed in 1959, the year of Wright’s death at age 91.

Of course, there were also significant differences in their personalities.  Laura was very surprised that anyone would be interested in reading her books, since she didn’t consider herself a writer and was not particularly well educated even though she had been a teacher.  Frank, on the other hand, was supremely self-confident, bordering on arrogant, and once suggested that he could rebuild the nation in an interview with Mike Wallace.  I wonder what they thought of each other.  They were quite famous, so I imagine they knew of each other and their common backgrounds. It’s interesting to ponder…

Singing the praises of warm showers

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18:6  OK.  You all have not been guessing what these numbers mean. So I’m going to start giving you hints.  Remember, the winner gets a Frank Lloyd Wright design phone cover.

Hint # 1:  the numbers compare two different things.  They increase more rapidly in larger towns/cities.

I have been asked by some to provide a little more info on our Warm Showers hosts and experiences so here goes (sorry, no great photos).

As you know from our previous postings, our warm showers experiences have been 100% positive from a purely people perspective.  Our hosts have been welcoming, generous and warm.  So it will come as no surprise that most of them are in service related jobs, or were before they retired.  Hosts have included teachers, social workers (addiction, child welfare, parental instruction), physicians, hospital technicians, government workers (Federal, State and City).  In fact, we have had only one host that hasn’t fit into the service-related category in some way.  Many are active Christians and believe strongly in being generous towards others.  Most, but not all, had some level of cycling experience.

Our routine when we arrive is to be shown our room (we spent the night in a tent at one warm showers location) where we drop our gear.  We then take a shower, which makes us feel human again, and if we need to, do a laundry.  We then get together with our hosts to get acquainted and then generally have dinner together.  Sometimes we help.  Most often we are ordered to just relax.  Dinners have been without exception fabulous!  Pasta is generally the meal of preference, but we have had chili, bento boxes, and chicken with quinoa (which we actually fixed for one of our hosts who had had a long day).  We tend to turn in pretty early and get up at 6 am to be on the road by 7 am.  Our hosts have also treated us to yummy breakfasts–often including pancakes!  I am a pancake convert.  At home I eat oatmeal pretty much every day for breakfast but have only had oatmeal once since we’ve been on our journey.

Homes have ranged from farm houses, to lake houses, to apartments, to subdivision homes, to city homes, to houses in the middle of nowhere.  Everyone of them has been a unique slice of America and has offered us insights into the American experience.

Our dinner conversations have been the best part of our warm shower travels.  We have learned so much!

Three of our hosts have been involved in animal husbandry.  We could have talked about that all day long.  John and Mary raised Angus cattle, principally to sell the bulls and calves or to use the Bulls as breed stock. The day we were there, they had just finished the long and arduous process of artificially inseminating their cows.  Once that was done, they would also cover the cows with visits from live bulls, just to improve the chances of insemination.  The plan is that cows will give birth more or less at the same time, making life very hectic around calving time, but also improving predictability.  Insemination is done in the field with the cattle being rounded up on horseback and herded into enclosures. Andrew and Gretchen’s family raise turkeys and have done so for generations.  We had no idea that Minnesota is one of the biggest turkey states in the country.  They also focus on selling the offspring, rather than the meat.  In this case, they sell fertilized eggs and Gretchen spent some time for a couple of years gathering eggs from the nests, which involves lifting the turkeys off their nests and reaching in for the eggs.  There are several shifts of egg thieves every day and thousands of birds.  Amazing and incredibly hard work, I imagine.  Lifting one turkey from the freezer to the counter is about all I can handle!  And Jason’s family has been raising bees for five generations.  If they didn’t move the bees from California, where they pollinate almond trees, to North Dakota every year, they would have to feed the bees because there’s not enough pollen in California during the summer for the bees to survive.   Jason also said that his grandfather didn’t have to worry about all the diseases and hive collapse that bee keepers face today.  They lose about 50% of their hives every year, but they have enough hives that they can split to make up for the loss.  Smaller bee keepers have a much more difficult time.  We tasted some of their product, and it was yummy!

Bonnie and her husband Jeff have opened their house to others for years.  They live in an area that, until recently, had a baseball team that played in the league for college players to improve their skills during the summer–like the Cape Cod league and they have housed numerous players over the years.  Consequently, they know and have kept in touch with several pro baseball players.  Keeping in touch includes calling them for every home run and sending them home made chocolate chip cookies every year on their birthdays. Unfortunately, the team recently went belly up, but the upside for us was that Bonnie and Jeff are now warm showers hosts to fill some of the void. They also own a lakeside resort in Minnesota that they run on the honor system. You leave a check to cover your stay when you leave. Isn’t that wonderful? And they’ve never had a problem.

Ron and Joyce both had very challenging and rewarding careers in working with drug addicts and child services. They spent the evening after dinner with us driving us around Bismarck and being incredible tour guides. This was way above and beyond, but clearly they also enjoyed it so we didn’t feel too guilty. It was so nice to see things that we normally would not have from our bikes and to do it from the comfort of a car.

Joel was a man after Charles’ heart–a baseball fanatic, albeit a Cubs fan. So he and Charles talked for hours while I went downstairs and read. A rewarding evening for all involved 😉.

And of course we have always learned about the local environment, politics, and life in general.

I could go on and on, but won’t bore you. We can’t wait to get back home and become hosts ourselves. Phoenix is on the Southern cross-country route, so we’re hoping to be able to reciprocate in some small way for all of the hospitality we’ve received. If you’re interest, search for warm showers and you’ll find everything you need to know.

 

Frank Lloyd Wright

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As we’ve been biking and reading some of the historic markers along the roads, I’ve been thinking about how old Frank Lloyd Wright was during these events and how he might have thought about them as a child or young adult.  He was born on June 8, 1867 and we and lots of other organizations and institutions, including MOMA, will be celebrating his 150th birthday next year. It was fun to try to put myself in his shoes and imagine what I would have thought about some of the following events at his age. Newsworthy events included battles between Native Americans and US troops and the subsequent promises of reservations, discoveries of gold, the expansion of the railroad into and across western states and statehood.

We haven’t seen a lot of FLW designed structures so far, but hope to see the Willey House in Minneapolis next week and will be biking to Taliesin in Spring Green Wisconsin toward the middle of the month.  There’s no doubt that the times in which FLW was living influenced his thinking about buildings and architecture and I look forward to visiting his works with a new perspective gained from our ride.

WASHINGTON

  • Washington statehood in 1889.  FLW was 22 years old.  All in all, FLW witnessed the creation of 12 states during his lifetime, from Colorado to Alaska.  His death preceded Hawaii’s statehood by 4 months.
  • Klondike Gold Rush in 1897-99.  FLW was in his early 30s and was probably too well established by that time to be tempted.  But who knows?

IDAHO

  • Population. When FLW was 3, Idaho’s population was 18,999 and there was a mini gold rush going on.
  • 1870s.  Throughout the 1870s, when FLW was a boy, numerous Indian Reservations were established in Idaho and the railroad first entered the state, a momentous occasion in any of the western states’ histories.
  • Statehood.  Of the four states we’ve biked through to date, Idaho was the last to become a state in 1890.

MONTANA

  • Yellowstone.  In 1872, when FLW was just 5, Congress created Yellowstone National Park.
  • Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce Indians retreated across Montana in 1877 after their surrender at Bear’s Paw Mountain.
  • Railroad.  The railroad entered Montana in 1880.
  • Statehood.  On Nov. 8, 1889, Montana became the country’s 41st state.

NORTH DAKOTA

  • Custer’s last stand on June 25, 1876.  FLW would have just turned 9, an age when boys and girls were playing Cowboys and Indians when I was growing up.  At age 70 he was finding Native American petroglyphs at Taliesin West and giving them prominence in his new home in Scottsdale, Arizona.
  • Statehood in 1889.  North Dakota entered the Union as a State on Nov. 2, 1889 when FLW was 22.  In the intervening years the State had welcomed thousands of homesteaders and the railroad, which was a constant companion during our ride, entered the state.