Today, he rambles on and on and....
Rode a killer two hour ride yesterday in search for the ever elusive Musk Ox of the Snake River Valley. Once again no luck, but an hour and 20 minutes of up hill riding followed but 40 minutes down. This is such a beautiful place, and I am so glad I brought my bike. I think what topped it off was all the jumping at the top of the pass. Thanks to Arthur, my Canadian friend, I have started the Air Attack jumping program to improve my overall leap. What overall leap? You may ask. Exactly. ( Oh, the dilemma of punctuating that last couple of sentences.) I am well known for my strong sense of gravity while playing Ultimate, but hope to come back a new man. If you have never tried jumping staight up 60 times in a row, you are missing some pain in life. I can't jump at home as it shakes the foundations of the apartment in which I live, so I have found quite a number of scenic and secluded locations to practice my exercises. Fortunately the ride back was downhill, but I am paying for it today.
Needless to say, I have a lot more time on my hands than I am used to.
The people here are great. I have never spent much time in a small town, but I never expected the level of friendliness that I have experienced from total strangers here. Even small children talk to total strangers. Case in point, while I was out running this afternoon, a young boy with a kitten and a bicycle (with a chain that had fallen off) stopped me on the street to ask if I could help walk his bike home since the kitten was all he could handle. I obliged, and even ran into people I know on the way. I felt like such a boy scout, but it gave me an excuse to stop running.
What Nome needs is an artist who makes cool stuff out of junk. I have never seen a place with so much used steel and machine parts. There are literally tons of it left over from the dredging and gold mining heyday (is that one word? Did I spell it correctly?) of Nome and the surrounding area. There is so much junk that it appears to have become ritual to make your yard fit in as well. I have seen exactly three houses that actually have no broken toys/scrap metal/rust snow machine/fourth of july parade floats in their front yard. Perhaps it is because the classic mining era part of Nome burned down in the 1930s and people are expecting it to happen again, so why bother? Maybe this is just left over from the last fire. Anyway, I hear Nome is much prettier in the winter when it is dark, and the snow covers everyone's crap.
Speaking of fire, a historical note. Front Street is the main drag here in town. A fire consumed it (as mentioned above) around 1936. So what did they do? The widened Front Street to about the width of a four lane divided highway. This in an effort to keep the future burning buildings from catching each other on fire. Oddly, this only lasts for a matter of blooks as the road returns to it's 1-2 lane natural self at either end. Ahhh, necessity the mother of invention.
Finally, while I am ranting (ooh, just like Brian and Kyle, and Arthur if he ever gets me his blog address), there are no size nine shoes in Nome, Alaska. Okay, I lie. There is one pair of Reebok Above the Rim Black shiny basketball shoes for me to choose between. Should have thought ahead.
Needless to say, I have a lot more time on my hands than I am used to.
The people here are great. I have never spent much time in a small town, but I never expected the level of friendliness that I have experienced from total strangers here. Even small children talk to total strangers. Case in point, while I was out running this afternoon, a young boy with a kitten and a bicycle (with a chain that had fallen off) stopped me on the street to ask if I could help walk his bike home since the kitten was all he could handle. I obliged, and even ran into people I know on the way. I felt like such a boy scout, but it gave me an excuse to stop running.
What Nome needs is an artist who makes cool stuff out of junk. I have never seen a place with so much used steel and machine parts. There are literally tons of it left over from the dredging and gold mining heyday (is that one word? Did I spell it correctly?) of Nome and the surrounding area. There is so much junk that it appears to have become ritual to make your yard fit in as well. I have seen exactly three houses that actually have no broken toys/scrap metal/rust snow machine/fourth of july parade floats in their front yard. Perhaps it is because the classic mining era part of Nome burned down in the 1930s and people are expecting it to happen again, so why bother? Maybe this is just left over from the last fire. Anyway, I hear Nome is much prettier in the winter when it is dark, and the snow covers everyone's crap.
Speaking of fire, a historical note. Front Street is the main drag here in town. A fire consumed it (as mentioned above) around 1936. So what did they do? The widened Front Street to about the width of a four lane divided highway. This in an effort to keep the future burning buildings from catching each other on fire. Oddly, this only lasts for a matter of blooks as the road returns to it's 1-2 lane natural self at either end. Ahhh, necessity the mother of invention.
Finally, while I am ranting (ooh, just like Brian and Kyle, and Arthur if he ever gets me his blog address), there are no size nine shoes in Nome, Alaska. Okay, I lie. There is one pair of Reebok Above the Rim Black shiny basketball shoes for me to choose between. Should have thought ahead.
posted by rob at 10:14 PM
3 Comments:
I don't see how you could miss a musk ox. Based on the picture to which you've linked, they're nearly as big as a mountain!
The ride sounds radical. There was a ride in Anchorage called Powerline Pass and it went up and over to Girdwood. Did you ever do this? I want to ride it next time I am up there.
So are you going to make a video of yourself jumping before, and after? You could probably send it to Nike and get yourself sponsored.
Besides, who buys shoes in person any more? Online baby - they are never out of stock.
My blog address (besides getting it from Brian's/Kyle's page) is lodown.000k.net
Enjoy.
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