Thursday, June 25, 2009

Today was a great day in Reno. Beautiful sunshine, the Truckee River bike trail that runs from Sparks through downtown Reno, and a nice lake and marina at Ledgend's Casino.

Then it happened ... my camera slipped out of my pocket while I was riding my bike.

A woman walking along the river saw it fall out of my pocket and tried to catch me, but I didn't hear her calling for me.

I spent most of the day on Friday trying to track down where someone would go if they found a camera and wanted to turn it in. I stopped at the Reno Police Department, the Parks Department, the Street Department, and the Bus Central Office. I left my name and phone number with all of them.

I called the local newspaper to place a "LOST" ad, but they wanted almost $40. That seemed like a lot, so I didn't place the ad.

Craig's List is a good place to put a "Lost and Found" ad, and it turned out to be the ticket. The woman that was looking for me had just called the newspaper. The clerk told here that I had just called to place an ad.

Barbara is a local resident of Reno, and she's a wonderful representative of her community! We met at Meadow Wood Mall. I tried to pay her for all her trouble, but she would not accept any money. Thanks again for returning my camera!

This is the bike path that goes along the Truckee River near Downtown Reno.

This is the marina near the Legend's Casino in Sparks.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

It took two days, but we finally arrived in Reno, Nevada. This will be our new base of operations. Now, we are just waiting for the fire season to start and that first call from the forest service saying that they have hungry fire fighters out there waiting for us to come and fix them dinner!

Word around the house is that we might have a few days off. Some of the crew has been talking about going up to Oregon, and I might go with them. Otherwise, I might try to go to LA for a few days. When I went through LA at the end of the Aids Life Cycle a few weeks ago, I really didn't get to stop and see anyone there, and I really wanted to. This might be the perfect time to take a quick trip there. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Meanwhile, I'll explore Reno some and post some pictures of the place.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I went for another hike to Pima Canyon today. This time, I went in the late afternoon. It was very hot, but I took lots of water, so it wasn't so bad. These were very unusual red flowers:

As the sun started to set, the view was awesome! You can see some of the city lights as the sky grew darker.

Remember, you can find out the lastest about me by going to my twitter site: http://twitter.com/stephen_fosdick . I've been trying to send up-dates via my cell phone with the lastest information about what's going on with me!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

After working for a few hours making lunches with some of the other crew members, I met a friend here from Tucson and went for a hike at Sabino Canyon, on the East side of town.

We hiked about 8 miles, then it was a 10 mile bike ride back to the house. It was a warm day to be hiking, but that helped to keep the crowds away. As long as you have plenty of water, the heat is not too bad.

Monday, June 15, 2009

I got up early and went for a great hike at Pima Canyon, not too far from where we are staying.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, there was less shade to find on the trail.

I ended up hiking about 4 miles total, and it was a great time out on the trail. I wish I'd had enough time to hike farther, but I had to go into work today to make some lunches for fire fighters, so I had to cut it short.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Well, I'm still here in Tucson AZ. I really thought that I'd be on my way to Reno by now, but there is a fire somewhere near by, and 5 of us went down to work to make 250 sack lunches. Others have been going in to make dinner and breakfast. Until I hear something different, we'll be staying here.

I saw this tribute to a fallen bike rider here in Tucson. It reminded me of a similar one I saw last year on my coast-to-coast bike ride:

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Almost every night, there's a wonderful sunset here in Tucson. This shot was from a couple of nights ago:

Today was another beautiful day here in Tucson. I rode downtown, in search of some additional bike components. I needed a front brake and I also needed a new front derailer.

On the way downtown, I rode through the University of Arizona Campus. It's very bike friendly.

It was another warm day today ... probably about 85 - 90 degrees or so. I rode about 20 miles.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

I don't want to say I'm outraged, so I'll just say I'm "IRKED". Tucson seems to be fairly bike friendly, with lots of bike lanes going in every direction, some fairly decent bike shops, bike racks on all the buses - that sort of thing, but yesterday just seemed to be a bad day to be on a bike.

IRK #1 - Major businesses that give me a bad time for taking my bike in their store. Right now, I don't have a bike lock with me, so if I'm in a place where I fear that someone might take my $20 bike if I leave it parked by the front door, I just take it the store with me. Maybe I'm wrong here, and if I am, please set me straight, but aren't these businesses screaming for us to give them our hard earned cash! I was shopping at Target yesterday for a card and few other items, and I had my bike with me in the store. As I was leaving, the security guard came up to me and was harassing me publicly about the fact that I'm NOT ALLOWED to bring my bike in the store. Then I tried to stop at the Super Wal-Mart ... this time, the greeter at the door, the one that is supposed to make you feel good, wouldn't let me enter the store because I had my bike with me. I was polite (I hope) and simply told the greeter that I would leave in search of a business that wanted my money and that was more than happy to let me bring my bike with me into the store, like CVS Pharmacy, Safeway and Walgreens Pharmacy. I'm not calling for a boycott of TARGET and WAL-MART, but if you feel the same way as I do, please let me know, or better yet, find a different place to spend your money.

IRK #2 - Stupid drivers! Tucson seems to be full of them, and yet, I'm sure they don't have a corner on the market. Yesterday just seemed to be the one day of the week that they were all out in full force. I was in a bike lane approaching an intersection. Tucson has a good record of providing a bike lane that is positioned between the right turn lane and thru lane, with dashed lines and a sign that says RIGHT TURN YIELD TO BIKES. Nonetheless, a large charter bus that came up from behind me practically ran me over as she was trying to merge into the right turn lane and I was trying to go straight.

Then at another busy intersection, I was going straight with the green light, ringing my bell and keeping a steady pace, and was almost t-boned by an on-coming car that was stopped but waiting to make a left turn. Had I not panic stopped, he would have taken me out completely. I'm fairly confident that he saw me, but he was in a hurry and just didn't care.

At yet another section of the same road (Ina Avenue), where the posted speed is 45 mph, and the road narrows from 4 lanes to 2 lanes and the bike lane disappears, I tried to stay as far to the right as I could, yet cars were whizzing past me at 45 or more within inches of my bike. One car in particular flipped me off as he passed, as if to say that I didn't belong on his road. Come on, drivers ... slow down, pass when its safe for both of us, and give a little space between your car and my bike! You'll get where you're going soon enough.

Bike riders, we must unite against stupid drivers, many whom are talking on their cell phones or worse yet, TEXTING, rather than keeping a sharp eye out for bikes. That's why I won't talk on my cell phone while I'm riding my bike! So if you call me and I don't answer, you can assume I'm on my bike right now. Leave me a message or send me a text, and I'll respond as soon as I can.

BE SAFE OUT THERE, and keep on pedaling!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Hello everyone. I hope you are enjoying the adventures of my new job with Port-A-Pit Catering. My first assignment has been to help serve food to the 2,100 bicycle riders and an additional 800 or so volunteers as they ride their bikes and drive their trucks from San Francisco to Los Angeles, about 560 miles total over 7 days.

I'm working in the Salad Kitchen, and each meal (dinner and breakfast), we serve clost to 3,000 meals. There's a second team doing the same thing, so we alternate between stops. Today was a travel day for us. We'll get all set up here in Lompoc tomorow morning, and will serve our first meal here tomorrow night. The days are long and the work is not easy, but I'm having a lot of fun, meeting a lot of people, and I'm really enjoying hanging out, when I can, with some of the bike riders.

I hope you are following along on Twitter! You can view my short up-dates at www.twitter.com/stephen_fosdick, but since I'm not posting photos there, you'll need to come here to see the photos!


This is the field of flowers next to the park at Lomboc.


Standing on the roof of the kitchen truck, you can see the tent city in the background.