Author: mwmiller2@outlook.com

I haven’t been posting too much because I’ve just been working off my ‘to do’ list to get ready to go.   The weather warmed up a bit and the snow melted so I’ve been able to get a few rides in.  I suspect I’m only going to get two or three more rides in before the weather is either too cold or there is rain and/or snow.    But, I did buy a GoPro and have been playing around with it.  There is a lot to learn and I’m not sure how effective it will be on the trip but we’ll give it the old college try!!

Not very far from my home is an area called Triple Tree and it’s about a 2 mile long uphill grunt to the top but then you get rewarded with the descent in the linked video.  I had to post it on YouTube because anything over 64Mb is not allowed here.   It’s on these descents when you hope that a deer doesn’t decide to cross the road!  :0)   I have much to learn about the fine art of video editing but you have to start somewhere.  More to come.

https://youtu.be/L4FTwLS88lg

I recently did a ‘test pack’ of all of my gear and it looks like I will make the weight limit with no problems.  We are allowed 2 90 liter duffels, each of which has to be less than 50 pounds.

In a few days, when the weather dictates no more riding, I will disassemble my bike and stuff it into the bike box I got from the local shop.  I have a really nice hard shell bike case which has wheels on it and which makes handling it very easy.  However, I can’t use it for this trip because we start in Auckland and end in Queenstown, over a 1,000 miles away and they told us there is no room on the trucks for bike cases!  :0(  So, the standard cardboard bike box it is!

So, what does it take to do a bike tour like this one?  Fortunately the company organizing this ride has a lot of experience doing these types of rides and provides a recommended packing list, which makes a very handy checklist to use when getting prepared.  So, under the supervision of Jordan’s panda, I did a ‘test pack’ with all my gear to 1) check the weight of my bags and 2) check off things that I had and to identify the few remaining items I need.  We are limited to two 90 liter duffle bags, each weighing 50 pounds or less and, of course, our bike box.

First off is the bike.  I will be riding a Surly Long Haul Trucker bike.  It’s the same bike I rode on the Route 66 ride.  It has a steel frame and is specifically designed for touring and carrying heavy loads.  These touring bikes have a triple chain ring on the front and I have an 11 – 32 cassette on the back for a total of 33 gears – all of which I’m sure I will use!!   I will be riding on Schwalbe Marathon 700 x 35 tires with heavy thorn resistant tubes (I hate flats!) And, most importantly, I installed a Brooks leather saddle – by far the most comfortable saddle I have ever had on a bike.

According to the original plan, I should be somewhere in southern Australia about now pedaling along – hopefully having survived crossing the Nullabor Plain!  The Company, TDA Global Cycling, is a Canadian company that specializes in long distance cycle tours – their most famous ride starts in Cairo, Egypt and after 5 1/2 months, ends up in South Africa!  The entire Trans-Oceania ride starts in Perth in Western Australia and ends up in Queenstown, New Zealand after a little over 3 months.  That was the original plan, to do the entire ride – I originally signed up for the ride in early 2017.

However, once I decided to relocate from Los Angeles to Montana, by way of a 4 month stay in New York, life just became too complicated for me to get everything done, get resettled and head for Australia at the end of Continue reading The itinerary

It’s been a while since my last post so I will just provide the Reader’s Digest version of events since that time and then begin to focus on my upcoming trip to New Zealand.  I just wanted to get this blog up and operational as I have one month before I head ‘down under’.

After looking at many homes in Billings, Columbus, Red Lodge, Livingston and Bozeman, I finally ended up on my little acre about 10 minutes from downtown Bozeman.   In spite of all of my international travels and life in LA, I always said I am really just a ‘jeans and boots’ kind of guy – I have been here now for 3 months and feel right at home.  Bozeman has a great vibe to it and I’m glad I found my way here.

I have learned a lot over the summer as I have gotten moved in to my new house.   I am outside the city so I am on a septic tank and a well – both new experiences.  I bought that riding lawn mower that I always wanted – and quickly realized that 1 acre is a lot of yard to take care of.  But that said, I love having all of the space.  And, a big bonus, I often have deer in my backyard!!

As I got settled into my place, I also started bicycling on the roads around Bozeman.  I found some great places to ride – little traffic, great scenery, and, in general, pretty courteous drivers.   The training was going pretty well until I crashed about 4 weeks ago and really screwed up the tendons in my left forearm.  But, thankfully, time and physical therapy has me almost back to 100 percent.

So, now I find myself one month from when I shove off for the drive to LA and the subsequent flight to New Zealand.   So, I wanted to get this blog up and operational again and begin to chronicle this whole adventure.  I am getting excited but also apprehensive.  Excited because from everything I hear, New Zealand is a spectacular place – and I’ve not been there before.  Apprehensive because there will be some very long days including a couple of days with 6,000 to 7,000 feet of climbing – that’s a lot!  Hopefully my legs will be up for the challenge!

I will be posting more details about the trip, the itinerary and my preparations in the coming days and weeks and will try to post regularly from the road once in New Zealand.   So, come on along – here we go!  But, for me, it’s off to the gym because this is what my backyard looked like this morning!

So here I am in LA again.  The night I flew in there was a major traffic jam on the 405 which resulted in a circuitous 2 hour trip to Studio City where I am staying!  What an appropriate welcome!   I will not miss the traffic in LA!!

So, after a flurry of doctor’s appointments the first few days I was here (my torn retina is all healed according to the folks at the Jules Stein Eye Institute) and lunch with good friends, I’ve begun the process of actually moving to Montana.

The movers came last Thursday and spent a few hours packing up all of my worldly possessions into a moving van that is now somewhere between here and Montana.  Mine was the last of four shipments on board (those are REALLY big trucks!) and the estimate is that he will be in Billings next Thursday.

And I will be there to meet him.   I have not yet bought a house so the stuff will go into storage in Billings and, although I hate to move it twice, the cost of the storage in Billings is one tenth of the cost of the storage in Los Angeles!

The realtors in Billings and Livingston have sent me information on over 100 properties to look at so I will be making a short list and then get to work on the great house search when I get up there!    I have about 4 or 5 months to find a house and get moved in before I am scheduled to head for Australia/New Zealand for another bicycle adventure.  I’m sure it will be a very busy summer!

As a parting gift to Jordan, I got a tattoo of a father-daughter Celtic knot, just to let her know I’m thinking of her even if I am up in the wilds of Montana when she is in New York.  (And, if I ever get frozen in a snow bank – I’ll be easy to identify!!  :0)  )  LA has been good to me but now its off to The Big Sky Country!!

It’s hard to believe but my time in NYC is coming to and end – for now!  Given that Jordan has a few more years of school, I’m sure I will be back from time to time.

It has been a great time here.  I have seen things and done things that will be cherished memories.  But, most of all, it has been so great to spend the time with Jordan.

But, now it’s time for other adventures.  I will be in LA for a couple of busy weeks of doctors appointments, lunch with friends, hopefully a bike ride or two and getting my things ready for the movers on May 11th.  I will head for Montana around May 13th or so.

I have been working with realtors in both Livingston, MT and Billings, MT and they are both sending me some interesting looking properties.  I have no doubt I will be able to find something to my liking in the next couple of months.  Ideally I will be moved in to my new house by the end of summer but we’ll see how it all plays out.  I’m sure it will be a bit of culture shock but I’m getting excited.

Jordan will be coming up to visit me the last two weeks of June and it will be fun to show her around ‘The Big Sky Country’.

She hasn’t been to Montana since she was very little.  I hope to show her around some of my old stomping grounds in Miles City (where I went to high school) and Bozeman (where I went to undergrad).  I will be staying in Billings where my sister lives but even though Miles City and Bozeman are each 150 miles away, its an easy 2 hour or less drive each way, given that the speed limit in Montana is 80 mph and there is very little traffic.  No more sitting on the 405!!!

So, stay tuned, we’ll see how this all works out.

 

My time here in NYC is winding up.  I am leaving a week from tomorrow but am still trying to make the most of my time left.  After Jordan went to her formal affair at the Whitney Museum of American Art last Thursday evening, I realized that I had not yet visited the Whitney.  So, on Friday I jumped on the subway and found my way there.

 

The Whitney has some interesting exhibits but is perhaps best known for the painting ‘American Gothic’ by Grant Wood.  It is a very interesting building and was well worth the time.

 

When I left the museum, I decided to walk home via The Highline.  The Highline is a walkway/park that was made from an old elevated railway bed.  It runs about 1 1/2 miles from around 13th street to 34th street along the west side of Manhattan.  It’s a nice pleasant walk although it can get a little crowded in places.  Nonetheless, it’s a nice walk.

Jordan didn’t have any plans on Saturday and so we decided to head for Coney Island.  She had never been there and I just wanted to ‘check the box’ that I had been there and had eaten a famous Nathan’s hotdog.  It’s about a 40 minute subway ride but it’s a very easy way to get there.   The day was beautiful and there were quite a few people enjoying the boardwalk. (I can’t even fathom what it must be like in the middle of summer!!)

We ate our obligatory Nathan’s hotdogs  (or a corn dog in Jordan’s case).   We had a lot of fun walking around in spite of the fact that I failed to win her a stuffed animal (not that she needs another one!!)  It was a great way to spend my second to the last weekend!

 

After my week plus of house arrest I was itching to get outside.  Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day with lots of sun and temperatures in the mid 70’s.  What a change from a couple of days before!  And then on Sunday, the temperature plunged into the 30’s and today, Monday, it is pouring rain and in the 40’s.  But on Saturday I took the subway up to Central Park and walked through the park.  There were tons of people out – walking, bicycling, having picnics, playing soccer and just enjoying the sunshine and nice weather.   The pictures here are from that excursion.

It seems like my NYC adventure is coming to a rather mundane and rather unexpected ending.  I have been offline for the past week because I have been on 100 percent ‘eye rest’!  I noticed something funky going on with my left eye a week ago.  I called my optometrist’s office in LA to make an appointment when I go back to LA.  When I described what was going on, they advised that I should have it looked into asap. Continue reading House arrest in NYC!!

I live about a 10 – 15 minute walk from the Empire State Building but have never been up to the observation deck.  I’m not really a big crowd fan and the thought of standing in a long line to go up to the observation deck never really appealed to me.  However, this morning it was bright and sunny out and I knew the Empire State Building opens at 8 a.m.  So, off I went and arrived about 8:15 a.m.   Continue reading Really high and really cold!