31 Dec, 2011
This past week, I returned to the road by cycling from Atlanta to Savannah. It feels incredible to be back on the bike. Because of the other thematic posts this week, I will keep the words in this general review to a minimum. Most of the tails appear below the pictures. Happy New Year, everyone!
Extra special thanks to my dad Roy Claassen and my stepmother Jeanie for their support and tolerance during my extended holiday stay at their home north of Atlanta! Thanks also to sister Ashley! We all had many rounds of backgammon, dominoes, and general merriment. Thanks for the great service you provided in downtown Atlanta on a rainy Christmas afternoon. Great work!
I got to cycle several great red dirt roads on my way to Savannah. They were very restorative. After several weeks back in the news cycle and tensions of everyday American life, I found that I was very much in need of my return to sabbath. The red dirt went a long way in helping restore that peace.
Southern snow.
After a restful night sleeping in a grove of pine trees waving in the wind, I awoke to find that my cell phone-- which doubles as my map-- was out of battery. I was in the middle of nowhere-- 6 miles down a dirt road that turned off another tiny road. Without my electronic map, I was lost. The winter sun was not strong enough for my solar charger. I ended up knocking on the door of a nearby dairy farmhouse. The folks were extraordinarily friendly, which was aided by their Mennonite favor of my last name. They fed me, recharged the phone, and showed me all around their farm and swamp. Thank you all so much!
To give you an idea of the difficulty of following my "maps" directions, try to find the path that leads straight into the woods in the right half of this photo.
In my approach to Savannah, I experienced some extraordinary bad luck. The first sign of this was a nail that passed entirely through my rear tire.
The next stroke of bad luck was the death of my trusty Tacoma Papoose guitar. This guitar has been a close friend for a decade. We first traveled together in East Africa on my NOLS course, during which I wrote some of my best songs including "Athena from Far" on this guitar. Later, we traveled throughout South America and several other locales. It was a shocking and sudden loss. I was walking to spend a few hours playing guitar in Savannah's sqaures. All of a sudden, the strap of the case carrying the guitar broke, and it fell to its death. As you can see, it split in four different ways: top, back, and the sides in two directions. It was irreparable. When I returned to my hotel room, I learned that my Kindle had died at the same time back in the room. That one, I cannot explain, but it is true. That same day, I got a flat tire 8 miles away from my tools and suffered several other oddities of luck. Adios papoose!
The papoose now rests in one of Savannah's historic cemeteries beside a friendly oak. It has become the subject of much gossip, awe, and photograpy, which I have witnessed as I passed by heartbroken. The visitors' excitement eased my pain a bit.
Following the death of the Papoose, I met this new friend and invited him along on the trip. His name is Diego Luna, after the brand name, my Spanish class nickname, and the actor of such classics as Y Tu Mama Tambien. It is a new day on the Carbon Sabbath.