mgt on tour

I'm currently in the middle of my 4th day in Vienna. I stayed with a new host last night in a flat full of anarchists. One of them inherited it but no one pays rent and they live cooperatively.  My host is one of the most interesting people I have every met. Very intelligent, and having some of the least concern with material things in ever seen. He convinced me to discard my route as planned and head directly into the Austrian Alps.  I had planned on heading along the Danube to Munich. He asked why I want to go along a touristic cycle path along a river that has been artificialky constrained on both sides when just south of there is one of the most beautiful places on earth. My thoughts went back to 80 or so kilometers outside of Vienna when I entered a forest which was so beautiful that I started weeping. Forests have energies and this one was overwhelming. And this was in the smaller hills just outside the Alps. So it's hard not to imagine this would be more impactful for m...

I have arrived at my first planned destination! I got into Vienna around 9AM Sunday.  I will be here for three days staying with warmshowers hosts. I plan to carve out some time for a blog post for all my dear fans.  . Road for a while through industrial suburbs... First glimpse of the city! Door to my first Viennese flat...notice the sink in the hall, it didn't used to have plumbing in each unit! Another view outside the flat... Straight to the cathedral! From the top of the South Tower after a taxing climb

I once heard physical therapist Kelly Starett call bicycling "active sitting". I feel that after long days on the bike. I've been making it a goal to get off the bike and move a couple a times each day. No program, just by feel. Sometimes I just dance and do spinal waves. It feels really good to move the vertibrae after riding! For basic strength, the upper body is fairly simple with calisthenics apparatus all over the place. The lower body is a bit trickier with no gym, I've  done single leg squats and some simple plyometics  I want to expand the plyo and maybe do some progressive depth drops. I shot a few videos during a couple  of my stops,  Click here to check them out.

Yesterday was a long day and a alot happened, I'm too hungover to write a about the whole day. I'll just give you the highlights of arriving in Austria and what lead to my current state.  To my surprise, crossing the border was a (free) bicycle and pedestrian ferry! I later snuck into a water park and took a shower. That feel great.  I rode untill till dark.  I was having trouble finding a suitable camp spot. At about 8:50 I am across a firehouse where I saw  8 or 9 firefighters drinking beer in a rec room. I stopped in front and one of them saw me and come out and asked me what I needed. They said I could use the lawn.  I went to the rest of the building to pitch my tent when one firefighters named Peter came out and asked if I would like a beer. I went inside and hung out for several hours. I learned a lot about their station and the fundraisers they throw. I just m...

Yesterday was the first real day of riding in my trip (excluding day one's misadventures). It included one 300m climb. I was a bit nervous as I did not do any training for this trip and my bike plus gear is pushing 100lbs. In total I logged around 40 miles from Kranj to Celje. For most touring folks this is a fairly conservative number. I want to keep my climbing days light though as I get my legs acclimated.  The downhill after the climb was absolutely exhilarating.  I passed three different places that Becky and I visited last year on my ride yesterday. All by coincidence and I had no idea untill I passed them. its really not a big country! At lunch time I just happened to look up and see the best restaurant we ate at last year...and I had no idea I was even in that same town. It's a Mediterranean place owned by a Palestinian chef. At that very moment a local cyclist was leading me to another lunch spot but I had to beg off and return to Tsnim arabska restav...

I rode to a hostel in Kranj to do laundry after the festival.

Got to the CVille airport and my bike box was 1.5 pounds (71.5#) over the 50-70# weight tier and they said it was going to cost $400! Bex and ripped the box open and the took out my hammock and hacky sack and got the package to 69.5#. the gate agent was very kind and hooked us up with packing tape to get the box reclosed. was supposed to get into Ljubljana in the morning, but my flight from DC to Frankfort got delayed and i missed my connection. so I went from an hour layover to roughly 3 hours. not a big deal, I still got in around 2pm. TSA had opened my bike box. But they packed it back OK. I rebuilt the bike and repacked outside the airport entrance. It's such a small peaceful airport. it was only an 18 km ride to the festival. but put in the wrong address and got lost in the forest. I'm sure glad I put bigger tires on my bike because I was doing fire roads, then single track, then I was bushwacking 🫣 it was a sweaty muddy mess and doubled my trip ti...