Random Meetings and Catching Some Waves

We left San Simeon early and headed off to our Warm Showers hosts in Nipomo.  We knew we had a long day ahead of us but we were feeling confident, especially after the charge through Big Sur the day before. We were starting to get into the rhythm we had found while we did our shakedown in East Anglia and the earlier frustrations from short days was melting away.  The morning ride to San Luis Obispo was mainly on highway and we managed to grind out those miles quite quickly but when we arrived we were starting to have a food low and needed fuel and a chill out.  This also gave us a chance to confirm the arrangements with our hosts before the final push to Nipomo.  After a map reading issue we arrived safe and sound, but a wee bit late to Don and Mary's.

So, you may or may not know but I have Danish roots. This might seem like an odd statement but stay with me. Our hosts Don and Mary were fantastic and on our rest day they took us on a tour around the area.  We went to a mission near Lompoc and learnt about the Spanish Missions in the area and then headed to Solvang. Solvang is a Danish City within California and was on our list of 'like to do' but it was a bit off our route, but since this is about detouring we were going to make the effort, especially because of my Danish heritage.  However Don and Mary drove us there to have a look and pick up some pastries and headed back to figure out our change of route with Don, who has cycled in every one of the 50 states of the US.

All rested and refreshed we moved off down the coast to El Capitan State Beach.  On route we bumped into Andrew again and cycled with him for about 20 miles before our routes split.  It was great to ride with another cycle tourist and gave us the energy to get to the camp site early.  We had time to pop into the ocean and try our hands at body surfing.  We rose early the next day and headed off to Santa Barbara where we knew there was an REI to buy camping gas.  REI also has free WiFi so we got online to double check some stuff and found out some friends from back home were working around Santa Barbara and were available for a meet up.

The hook up with Bert and Neil was brilliant, we chilled out in Santa Barbara, did some long boarding and just had a brilliant time in the city on Paddy's Day. It was a short day on the bikes and meant we were pushing it to get to our next stop in Thousand Oaks, but the route looked pretty flat and we knew where we were headed so we said goodbye to the Pacific Ocean until Vancouver and headed inland.  Further map reading issues meant the day was longer than we were expecting but the main issue of the day was the crazy steep climb to get to Sue and Cal's house right at the top of the hill. After 40 minutes of pushing our bikes we arrived safe and sound, if a little sweaty to our friend's Auntie's house.

We were given a suggestion of a route to get to our next destination by Cal, and looking on the map it looked like a long, winding road through the hills and was called Grimes Canyon Road so we were expecting a tough day climbing.  After a gentle climb for a couple of hours we had a brief stop before a blind corner.  We both were expecting the corner to reveal the final steep push up to the summit; however we were wrong.  The road dropped away into a long, sweeping descent that lasted for miles and miles.  The views were amazing, the road quality was brilliant and it was such an unexpected descent it made us smile.  We arrived at Peter's house in Santa Clarita and headed out to watch the March Madness College Basketball, our team won and we headed home for an early night in celebration.

We were now on our fifth day in the saddle and were looking forward to another rest day with Ron in Quartz Hill.  The riding was fairly standard with some nice climbs and descents, with the scenery slowly changing to rocky and desert-like.  The hospitality we received once we arrived was outstanding.  Ron was a brilliant host and fantastic cook and both nights after a delicious meal we talked long into the night about almost everything.  We planned the route to Las Vegas and got ourselves ready for the long lonely riding through the Mojave Desert; watching out for heat stroke and rattlesnakes.

Get Us Detouring

So, part of the plan for while we are away is to try and detour to as many random places as possible and this is covered a little bit in our About Us page and after all it is the name of our blog.  Some of the detours we have already planned, like going to Moose Jaw or trying to get to Rough and Ready. However, we also need some input from people in the know, just like you.  So far we've had friends point out the Tunnels of Moose Jaw and Ellis Island Casino and Brewey; but we need more.  I've had family members talk about a beautiful, winding scenic route from Flagstaff up to the Grand Canyon but that can't be the only hidden gem that you lovely people know about.

The trick is that in the United States and Canada the distances we will be covering and our visa lengths mean that detouring will have to be kept in check - but hell we get 180 days in Mexico so if you know of a place then please, please, please get in touch.  Try to not get us in too much bother but that is all part of the adventure right?

One of my colleagues had a mate that went off into the big wide world and he got people to take polls for his next destination.  Granted I think he was taking flights so it was higher stakes and quicker, but hey man I think this could work on a bike; why not???  I'm not completely sure that Sophie will be 100% game, but I love the idea.  Also, if we can't decide between the east or west coast of Costa Rica then why not involve you guys?

So, in a nutshell, if you know somewhere awesome that we shouldn't miss out on then get in touch. Cheers in advance folk, I know you're going to have some amazing suggestions.

Apologies Galore

I'd just like to apologise for the complete lack of activity on the blog lately. It's the rather boring and overused excuse of "being busy". We have been organising and sorting out but it's all the boring stuff.

One such essential but boring activity of getting ready to go; spending time at the doctors getting stuck with needles.  Because I have never been away I have had quite a few jabs, with many more to come. We still need to sit down with the nurse and sort out all the malaria tablets, joy of joys!  But needs must, and with every little prick the adventure becomes more of a reality.

We've also had a rather fruitless conversion with US immigration where we learned nothing new and they actually used the line "A law is a law".  And the first leg of the journey, cycling around the western states of America, is based on the Customs and Border Patrol Officer that we interact with at 8pm on a Friday night.  We'll all just have to find out how that goes.

I'm also going to say sorry because we have changed the way emails from the blog are sent to people who have requested them.  We weren't entirly happy with the pervious arrangement.  We had no control over the database of contacts or when or how you were notified, so we are now the custodians of a fancy new newsletter that we write, manage and organise when and to whom it goes to.  However we have to ask all of those who want to get it to sign up here.  Just so you know, another benefit is that if you reply to the email then we do get the response and we can strike up a conversation and keep in touch with you lovely people.

And last but by no means least we have also added a Facebook page for Detour to Moose Jaw.  Some of our loyal fans were finding it difficult to comment and share the blog post from the blog page, so we have been beavering away moving a lot of the content over to good old FaceyB.  Just head over on this link to find us.  Please be aware that the posts are just summaries of the longer blog entries, a bite sized chunk if you will.

So without further ado we both wish you all the happiest of Christmas' and a fantastic and wonderful New Year.

What is a Rohloff hub and why do you keep banging on about them?

LONG TECHY POST ALERT!  We got asked to do a post about what a Rohloff Hub is so this is it.  I am in no way a bike expert or bike geek so this will be in very simple terms.  Basically there are 2 types of gear system for push bikes - external derailleur gears which is the type found on most bikes and internal hub gears which is what we've opted for on our touring bikes.

This is your average external derailleur gear system.  You probably recognise it.  There are a series of different sized cassettes at the back and often a number of of different sized chain rings at the front with a chain running between the two and derailleurs to move the chain up and down the cassette and chain rings.

                   

An internal hub means that all your gears are packaged neatly away inside the bit in the middle of your rear wheel (the hub).  This has a sprocket attached to it and at the front, where your pedals are there is one chain ring.  These are connected by a chain, which continually runs in a straight line, unlike with a derailleur where it moves up and down the cassette and chain rings.  How does all the internal stuff work?  No bloody idea.  You can read about it on Wikipedia if you like or watch this video on the Rohloff website.

All I know is our Rohloff hub (Rohloff is the make) is a masterpiece of German engineering and we are already very fond of them.  So what is so good about it I hear you ask?  Well these are the reasons we chose them instead of the 'normal' external gears:
1)  Reliability.  There are stories galore of people riding thousands and thousands of miles on these guys with pretty much zero maintenance apart from the oil changes.
2)  Sturdiness and durability.  Because it is all enclosed it doesn't rust or get clogged up with mud/dust/sand.  There aren't any fragile bits sticking out from the frame to get bent or broken.  And because your chain is continually running in a straight line it doesn't wear out so quickly.  You change gears by means of a gripshift on the handlebars, which again means nothing sticking out to break.
3)  You can change gear when not pedalling, i.e. when stationary or coasting.  This might not sound like that big of a deal, but how hard is it getting a bike going if you've accidentally left it in the hardest gear?  Now multiply that by 20 because the bike weighs a ton.  I absolutely LOVE this feature.
4)  It has 14 gears, which doesn't sound like a lot when you get bikes these days with 27 or more, but unlike with external gears each gear is different.  With external gears because it is to do with the ratio between your cassette and chain ring there are a number of combinations you could be in with virtually the same feel.
5)  Amazing customer service.  On the relatively few times I have read about something going wrong with Rohloffs they are renowned for their excellent customer service.  The same goes for Thorn bikes so we're in good hands.

So if they're so amazing why don't all bikes have these instead of external gears?  Well I'm guessing the main reason is probably price, they are very expensive bits of kit.  They added around £1000 on to the cost of each of our bikes, but we personally felt like it was worth it for not having to spend time repeatedly fixing and fiddling with external gears.  Something we have to do on our commuter bikes a lot and don't really enjoy.

There are also these things which people have said against them:
*  They are relatively unusual and so in many parts of the world your average bike mechanic wouldn't know what to do with them, meaning if you do have an issue you do have to rely on customer service 'back home' and waiting around for couriers to deliver a new wheel rather than external gears which are ubiquitous around the globe and fixable by almost anyone.  True, but we trust in their reliability.
*  They can be a bit noisy, especially the seventh gear which is a bit gratey.  This is sort of true, but for us is of utter insignificance.
*  They're heavy.  Well maybe if you're an ultralight touring type this makes a difference, but for us, honestly, we're the heaviest component on our touring bikes and we'd probably eat the equivalent weight in day so...
*  They are really expensive, better to just spend the money on the adventure.  Again we'd agree with this, and if the choice was own this bit of kit and not go away or have external gears and go away then the choice would obviously be the latter.  But we are lucky enough to have saved enough to do both and we are generally of the philosophy of 'Buy Cheap, Buy Twice, or Thrice or...'  So if you have the money to buy the best quality do it as it'll save you in the long run.  We don't expect to ever need to buy new touring bikes, ever again, for the rest of our lives.  So this seems like a good investment to us.

Optimus No. 96 and the Hunt for Fuel

When looking at possible stoves options I remembered that somewhere amongst my Dad’s stuff that I had put into storage in Tom’s folks’ attic was a small brass stove, with a name ending in ‘…mus’ if I remembered correctly. 

So we dug it out of the attic and I unpacked the contents of the small cardboard box emblazoned with the name ‘Optimus’ joined by Colin (Tom’s Stepdad) who told me that they’d had a stove like that when he was young.  My Dad had kept all the bits together and I pored over the instructions, spare parts and soon had the bits of the stove assembled.  It’s a beautiful little thing and when I told my Godfather, John, about the stove he said he remembered using it with my folks in India many years before I was even born and I loved the idea of taking this little piece of Swedish kit that my Dad had used away with us.

The instructions say that it requires methylated spirit for the spirit cup and ‘best quality paraffin (kerosene)’ for the actual burner.  It seems a bit faffy to have to carry 2 types of fuel, but I figured these would both be easy to come by and relatively cheap.

We’ve got ourselves some meths from the hardware shop down the road, but getting hold of kerosene or paraffin has proved nigh on impossible.  We’ve tried Go Outdoors, Towsure, B&Q, Wickes, local hardware shops and The Bike Tree which Optimus have listed as a dealer on their website and nothing, no joy.  But on the recommendation of one of the guys at Towsure we tried the garden centre and managed to find lamp fuel with ‘hydrotreated light kerosene EC265-149-8’ on the label having googled this and coming up with an MSDS we were pretty sure we’d found kerosene and this would work in the stove.   Then lo and behold I was in the massive B&Q near my work with Faye, my colleague, and her eagle-eyes spotted a lovely big canister of paraffin.  Bingo!

Since we’re off on our 2 week practice cycling holiday on the 14^th September we wanted to have the stove working for this little trial so we had a go in the back garden with the paraffin and meths.  Not entirely sure how to evaluate this first attempt...  We got it to light, but you can see from the photos that this was rather uncontrolled and regulating the flame and keeping it alight were not really achieved.  I am sure this is user error and that with a little patience and practice we can get it working a treat.  Tom isn't so sure.  So we'll take it on our little trial run and report back in a few weeks.

All Part of the Fun

So yeh, so far everything is pretty much going as expected. We have ordered the bikes, we're getting somewhere with most of our kit and we have started selling/getting rid of the random items that you seem to acquire, so all told pretty happy with the progress.  Granted we've had a number of unseen issues when we properly sat down and started planning our adventure, but that's part of the fun; right?

The first stumbling block was about some visa issue in the United States where you need to leave the continent to be eligible to get the two 90 day stays; oh well, we just changed the route and bowed to international border laws - no biggie. The second was finding out about the Darien Gap.  I cannot believe that I have only just learned about an "... anarchic cartel filled jungle that divides the continents..." of North and South America (great turn of phrase from The Runaway Guide).  We're not quite sure how we are going to tackle that one just yet, there seems to be three main options of yacht, fishing boat or fly - more research is needed.

But I think that the research is one of the aspects I'm really enjoying.  We started off with a vague idea but we built it up and developed it in our heads, and it all seemed so easy, so possible and it was just a matter of determination and time. Then the more we researched and planned, the more we realized that our initial idea was just a pipe dream, but that was fine because now our plans are becoming increasingly based in the real world and not a fantasy dreamland.  Our plan now has facts and figures with actual no-go-areas, laws and boundaries and, personally, it feels so much more real because of these limits and adjustments; now it has a grounding in the here and now, and that is really exciting situation to find ourselves in.

I cannot wait to go away, but before we do I know that there will be more obstacles to surpass, situations we'll have to figure out or major upheavals to sort but all of these will solidify the dream into reality.