About

I find it hard to believe that people actually read these bio sections.  Honestly.  I never do. And the seven of you who will could just as easily read the first post and likely learn all you need to know about me there.  But given how blogs work, with the first post getting continuously shoved to the back of the room until it is eventually quite forgotten, the eight of us can think of this as a review.

My first ever ten-speed bicycle, you will recall, was an Italian-made Gloria, one that was not actually made in Italy, or ever once vacationed there, or had anything whatsoever to do with the much acclaimed Italian-made Gloria’s of the 1950’s and before.  Mine was, all in all, a pretty cheap bike.  But she had ten speeds, which was nine more than any of my previous bikes, and was quite fast, I thought.

And again borrowing from the first post, I’ll remind you that I would ride Gloria in the hills around Austin, Texas during the times when I was probably supposed to be hanging out with people, and once, with something real close to zero in the way of planning, I attempted to ride her home (250 miles, more or less) during Thanksgiving break. I rode 120 miles the first day (I was young, and thought my bike had been made in Italy) and spent the night under an overpass on U. S. Hwy 290, wondering, lying there in the dark, how I had ever thought this was a good idea, and waiting for the grassy footsteps of the highwayman who was about to emerge from under the overpass weeds and run a knife through me.  Or ask me if I wanted to play a game I’m pretty sure I would not have wanted to play.  The following night I stayed in a small, run-down motel in Liberty, Texas, whose elderly owner knocked on my door a few minutes later, with a warmed up plate of roast beef and mashed potatoes, because she thought I looked hungry.

But WD-40 makes a really shitty chain oil, and washed off the next day just as soon as the rains from the surprise cold front arrived, and that was that.  Which brings us to now, forty years later, and my giving it another go.  I have even more gears this time, and actual oil on the chain, and a number of t-shirts each with a different map of Texas on the back, and a tent and a sleeping bag, and a green helmet to match the green water bottles I ordered on-line, but all that really matters here is that I finish the thing I started, get people I don’t know to smile at me, and find the lady with the warmed-up plate of food, so I can tell her thank you.  It’s been some time now, and I’m not sure what’s become of her.