July 2008 Archives

contact lens solution is held under lock and key and only available for sale in optical shops or maybe pharmacies.

a MILE is 10 kms.  no joke.

cars must stop for pedestrians in a cross walk, but not for cyclists who are pedaling.  still, they all stop for us, maybe they see our titanic impending-disaster potenial.

sometimes it's possible to snake the ferries.

sales tax is 25%, already included in the price.

all the norskies know excellent english but can be hesitant to speak it.

crazy creek camping chair: long gone

MSR frypan: holding strong even with kurt's cheap metal spatula flipping fried eggs

fancy Specialized racing saddle: long gone

extra MSR fuel bottle: going the distance just because i like having lots of red metal bottles and it's really not that heavy or bulky

green plastic fuel container: going the distance until we burn enough white gas (tak4 something in norway) to fit the rest of the 3L into our 2 bottles

crocs without holes: great in the wet grass, great for slug & snail resistance, a little sweaty in the sun

MSR hubba single person free standing tent: a bit of an overkill since we've found stake-able ground most nights, but it sure is nice to be able to stretch at night and fully sit up in the mornng and have peace of mind that i can pitch it on a gravel construction site.

ahhhhhhhhhh, beautiful home stay.  we have regained human levels of organization, restfulness, and hygiene.  it feels wierd.  afternoon tea in the sunshine with chocolate cake, and a non-pasta dinner.  our rest afternoon included summiting the city mountain.  i managed it in crocs.

It took 12 days to cross the arctic circle and we're almost to Trondheim where we will turn SE into Seweden for Stokholm.....

We left Alta for the 3rd, and final time, after a bus trasfer brought us back there.  But it took a while because we kept seeing it across the fjord.  Just out of town we caught and passed two Norwegian college girls, Christine and Sølvi, who were going slow.  We also had more rain but then some great weather to complement great scenery.  A german couple and a swiss couple gave us some good route pointers as we headed twards Lofoten......

we're somewhere roughly 200km north of bodo, the town name begins with an St..... super helpful, really, but if i'm more specific the authorities may find me.  We've been pedaling along, tunnels, bridges, ferries, doing the fjords and islands and whatever else.  It's been a great week, we've found some nice quiet roads and the weather's been fine; Kurt's carrying all the heavy stuff and doing all the camp chores and pulling me through all the windy parts.  I just draft all day and tell him when we're going to camp, and sleep until he wakes me up.  We're already planning our next tour together, after the south american one, we have to come back to europe to spend more time in france and spain since that might get cut a little short this time.  Or maybe we'll start doing 200km/day and we'll see it all.  Even at our current easy pace, we're on schedule to do 8,400 kms.  That seems reasonable.

Cannondale shorts: excellent.

Pearl Izumi shorts: not excellent.

Trailer vs.panniers: trailer wins on aerodynamics, waterproofness, and ease of organization.

Hookworm smooth trailer tire,110 psi: excellent

Kurt's old school Zefal frame pump: excellent, actually got 110 psi into my trailer tire.

Jen's tiny Crank Bros pump: not excellent.

Jen's one pair of socks: excellent. since I managed to leave my thin pair of socks in the states, and my thick pair at my aunt's house in scotland, i'm managing with the one pair of replacement thin socks bought in scotland that are blue and grey and say coolmax on the bottom.  i've washed them once (this morning) and they dried on my feet.

Planet BIke rear blinkey light: absolultely excellent.  thank you brian.

Planet Bike yellow fenders: excellent

We finnaly got out of Alta on Monday with some food for the road.  Immediately we met Rachel and George who had sold their house 2 years ago and have been bike touring ever since.  They were rolling south to Alta looking for a bit of work.  The area is mountainous and the scenery spectacular....... 

spectacular day today, almost finished with kurt diving face first into the pavement with his hands behind his back stuck in his rain jacket sleeves, going 30km-hour on a 100 lb bike in a significant crosswind.  He pulls it off at the last minute by bringing his hands back over his head, still wrapped in 300 dollars worth of mountain hardware goretex, back to the bars to come to a stop.  a true hudini move.  next time remember the sinched wristlets.

He's champ though, rolling with the 5:45 wake up since i fell asleep at 8 the night before, and didn't really wake up when it started to dump rain because i could hear him puttering around outside making sure everything was tucked away.

we got to the big tunnel before 8am, when all the good people of the world were still far away.  9% grade DOWN under the ocean, absolutely terrifying going that fast in a dark tunnel with SO much

It's surprisingly HOT in alta, our final airport destination, well above the arctic circle.  The norskies are keeping their secrets, and everyone's going to alaska for their northern experiences, so they have their beautiful country all to themselves.  Clear sunshine and 65 degrees, with the sun going around in circles, not setting until sometime in late August.  Since kurt had managed less than 3 hours of sleep in the 36 since leaving boston, i navigated our way out of town from the airport, leading us out with the sun in our eyes.  Kurt muttered something about our relative position to the sun this far north, but what does he know about summers in the far north?  When we passed a sign saying 500 kms to somewhere, and we were counting on 250kms to the end of the road, we checked the map and realized we were headed in the wrong direction.  An hour later we were 1.5 kms north of the airport and we got to stop at a real campground with a shower.  lots of sleep and bread later, we rolled out and went south again for all the amenities of town, including this internet access, and really, i mean really, we're headed out now, heading north, really, and will be in nordkapp, the northenmost point in norway, in maybe 3 days.

I'm in the arctic working on my cycling tan.  It's in the 60's here but when the sun comes out from behind the clouds its hot!

Hello all.

I (Kurt Hackler aka:two wheel drive) will be attempting to blog my bicycle ride across Europe with Jen Miller aka "Oracle Jen".  I am terrible with computers but will do my best to post pictures and the such.  Please leave me comments and I will reply when possible.

A few things before I leave.....