Electro-Physiological Study (EP)

Awake at 3:45 and out of bed at 4 AM.  Marcia, Lizzie and I drove down town to Mercy General for the procedure.  Got my groin shaved, both sides.  Left hand was poked 3 different times to get an IV line in.  Got a yellow plastic bracelet stating I was a fainter.  Yeah, yeah, I know, all you out there reading this were wondering when all my fainting spells would catch up with me.  And despite my protestations the reputation stuck plus the preparing me for the installation of a defibrillator or a pacemaker, 'cuz ya never know.  One of the nurses who attempted to talk to me about defibrillators and pacemakers got mad and wouldn't talk to me when I cut her off stating, "It ain't gonna happen."  Later she did come back with an example of the heart monitor or 'loop' as it was called by the medical staff, but she showed it to Marcia and Lizzie first.

Finally my cardiologist showed up, 7:30 - 7:45, and I was wheeled into the operation room.  I was bundled and covered up and checked over once more then the doc said give him Benedryl, 50 to 1.  My left hand up to the elbow began to burn.  They kept asking me how do I feel, do I feel relaxed?  And my inner voice said make the burning stop and I'll feel fine, then, you know what?  I didn't care anymore.

The doc was kind enough to include me in a conversation, or bring me up to speed, he was having with a nurse about politics.  Apparently how they prep themselves for these procedures.   I had heard '5,000 Euros,' which had to do with his sister and brother-in-law in Germany's healthcare system.  The doc was messing with my right groin and the next thing I recall experiencing was the voices of the doc and staff on the far side of the room, or so it seemed to me, laughing and talking.  A nurse walks by and notices I am awake and asks me how do I feel?  'OK, I guess.'  Then they begin prepping me for the heart monitor implant because the doc could not get my heart to atrial fib or do anything abnormal, something he and I expected with a wink and a nod to the attempts to bring on the abnormal.

They put a hood over me so I couldn't see the doc installing the heart monitor but I was conscious during the procedure.  Didn't feel the pain, couldn't feel the pain, I was flying high.

The last part was having to wait 4 hours for the wounds, especially the groin, to not react adversely.  I had to lay flat on my back for a couple hours but I was able to suck down a Peet's Mocha.  The first food since last night.  After 2 hours I could sit up at about a 45 degree angle.  I ate my lunch from that position.  A nurse found a paper and a National Geographic to help me while away the last 2 hours.  My nurse returned from her lunch break and checked me over for discharge.  Once she got me up, slowly, the first destination was the bathroom.  Then it was get dressed and go home.

Tour of NW CA, Day 9

June 2, was an overcast, cool, low 60's, morning.  The ride through the Redwoods was very mellow, minimal traffic, perhaps 2 or 3 cars, in either direction.  We were headed for Garberville today.

We stopped in a small village called Myer's Flat.  There was a grocery store and a coffee shop.  Frank and Geno were ensconced in outdoor chairs enjoying the mellow morning when Bob and I pulled up.  I was ready for a second cup of coffee and something to eat.  As I entered I couldn't help but notice two women engaged in a very animated conversation.  During the time we were here one woman in particular would escalate, her voice and animation increasing, while her friend would interject comments, when possible, at an equally intense level.  The proprietor was engaged with an acquaintence and seemed friendly, smiling, engaged.  During the preceding I was scanning the menu boards determining what was available and what did I want.  When I had made a decision I turned back toward the proprietor and was casually listening to their conversation, which seemed to be about upcoming music festivals and one just past.  The propietor noticed me and immediatly stopped the conversation indicating he had a customer.  When he turned to me his whole attitude seemed to change.  Instead of the smiling, friendly person he had been a few seconds before he became perfunctory with a bit of surliness thrown in.  I ordered a coffee drink and a bagel and cream cheese.  I inquired if the bagel could be toasted?  He replied he was not a mind reader.  I thought what does that have to do with toasting a bagel and asked again if toasting the bagel was possible?  He said again he was not a mind reader and the bagel would be toasted.  I paid for the purchase wondering what was it about me to cause this personality change.  Bob had wandered in as I was ordering and did not seem to set off in the proprietor the same attitude.  I asked Bob later when we were seated outside if he had noticed anything about the guy inside and he hadn't noticed anything at all. This incident was the only unpleasant interchange with a local I experienced during our whole trip.

Thinking back, now, I wonder if it was some sort of psychic overlap from the morning when I learned the plan was not to eat breakfast in Redcrest around 9 AM, but to travel on down the road.  I take fosomax once a week for osteopenia.  Fosomax requires one to take only water for 30 to 60 minutes first thing in the morning. I had anticipated a very laid back morning, which was not going to happen.  I thought this was a disruption of my routine, but later realized riding for an hour before eating was not anything unusual in my fosomax routine or my biking routine in general.  I had barked at Geno when I learned about the change in plans.  I could not know of the change in plans because I was not a mind reader and Geno could not know of my once a week fosomax routine because he is not a mind reader either.

After Myer's Flat we had to travel on Highway 101. Although the traffic was fast and dense, compared to what we had been experiencing, the shoulder was wide.  We had a real breakfast in Miranda.  After breakfast we plugged along and rolled into Garberville in the early afternoon.  We selected a motel and as we entered our room the rain started.  Weather forecasts had indicated rain through the night into the next day.  We elected to layover in Garberville for an extra day.

Before dinner Bob and I saw Ironman 2 in the local movie theater.  The theater impressed me as a building created during the heyday of logging, luxurious appointments, but had seen a few decades of neglect, and now was starting to see some revitalization although there was a lot of work needed to restore it to its former glory.  The theater may be used for concerts and plays also as the stage seemed to indicate use.  Ironman 2 is a pleasant distraction.  I will rent it for Marcia, (my wife, for those who do not know) to see in the future.

Day 10 Layover in Garberville

One task I accomplished was to change the rear tire to my spare foldable and insert a 700 x 28c tube.  This tube was purchased in the local hardware store which had a respectable amount of bicycle necessities, especially tubes, and camping gear, including gas cannisters for my Primus stove.  

We walked all over town using about an hour of spare time.  We couldn't help but notice the influx of alternate lifestyle vagabonds, in the '60's and 70's they would have been called hippies.  Our interpretation was the marijuana crop workers had come in out of the rain and to see a reggae festival scheduled for Saturday and Sunday in Benbow, just down the road.  I shopped for some needed necessities of the personal hygiene type.  We engaged a gentleman who was pulling a trailer with his bike outside the store.  He indicated he had traveled extensivley on his bike from inland around Ukiah to as far north as Eureka and Arcata doing various short term jobs.  He said he was going to work security at the reggae festival this weekend.  He stated he did not like Highway 20 because of the traffic and no shoulder.  We took this into consideration as one of our plans was to ride to Willits then Highway 20 to the coast.  As usual during our motel stays we watched the weather forecasts and determined to go rain or shine Friday, June 4.

Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor

This morning I saw an ENT to check out the THREE issues in my throat.  I thought their was only one issue.  I was aware of a mass in my throat and it needed actual visual inspection to determine if it is a medical problem.  There is a tonsil issue and a thyroid issue.  The mass was normal, not unusual and certainly benign.  The tonsil issue was a bit of flotsam the tonsils are prone to pick up and keep, all for their very own, and also was benign.  The thyroid issue is a tiny mass or lump or bit and most people, or certainly 40 to 50 per cent of the population, will have a little something on their thyroid.  To be safe and to be sure, the doctor recommended a biopsy, which will have to be scheduled for the future.  He was inclined to believe it too will be benign or at least that is my interpretation.

Tomorrow morning, 5 AM, I am going in for my Electo-Physiological Study when they will equip me with a heart monitor.

A friend, Jim, from the Sacramento area, sent me the following joke to cheer me up for tomorrow's procedure.

Tom's Scrotum

The pastor asked if anyone in the congregation would like to express praise for answered prayers.  Suzie Smith stood and walked to the podium.


She said, "I have a praise.  Two months ago, my husband, Tom, had a terrible bicycle wreck and his scrotum was completely crushed.  The pain was excruciating and the doctors didn't know if they could help him."

You could hear a muffled gasp from the men in the congregation as they imagine the pain poor Tom must have experienced.

"Tom was unable to hold me or the children," she went on, "and every move caused him terrible pain.  We prayed as the doctors performed a delicate operation, and it turned out they were able to piece together the crushed remnants of Tom's scrotum, and wrap wire around it to hold it in place."

Again, the men in the congregation cringed and squirmed uncomfortably as they imagined the horrible surgery performed on Tom.

"Now," she announced in a quivering voice, "thank the Lord, Tom is out of the hospital and the doctors say with time, his scrotum should recover completely."

All the men sighed with unified relief.

The pastor rose and tentatively asked if anyone else had something to say.

A man stood up and walked slowly to the podium.

He said, "I'm Tom Smith."

The entire congregation held its breath.

"I just want to tell my wife the word is sternum."

Tour of Northwest California, Days 2 to 8

Day Two

Day two began in wonderfully bright sunshine.  We rolled out after breakfast heading toward Arnold and points north.  Frank provided some entertainment for the few folks in downtown Arnold when he failed to mount his bike and fell down in the middle of the street.  Only his dignity suffered any injury.  To reward his biking abilities we found a very nice coffee shop in Arnold and sat on chairs looking east luxuriating in the pleasant sunshine.  Geno pointed out we seemed to be riding in the middle of a donut, a donut hole so to speak.  Sun was on us while all around us were clouds from the last weather front leaving and the next one coming in.  We rode in this “donut hole” all the way to Orland being pushed by a tailwind, which bumped up in intensity by noon.  We ended up doing a complete tour of Orland, counter-clockwise, looking for a motel to stay in as rain was forecast for the night.  Part of the tour of Orland was into the stiff headwind.  Orland is not a very big town.  Turns out, there is only one motel in Orland.  During the evening we watched the weather forecasts trying to get an idea of what was in store for us the next few days.  We knew once we left Red Bluff there would be no motel respites and we really would have to use all the camping gear we had been lugging, rain or no rain.

Day Three

We awoke to rain the next morning.  It was to last until mid-day.  Rain gear was the haut ere for the day.  We left Orland in a steady drizzle.  About ten miles north I experienced flat number three on the rear tire.  As the others caught up I had my gear off the bike and was ready to change tubes.   Frank and then Bob rolled on being a bit slower than Geno and I.  Geno assisted with the placement of my wheel then took off.  Hurriedly I replaced my gear and took off.  We stopped for a break at a truck stop in Corning.  Leaving Corning we neglected to pay attention to the road signs and as a result did not notice 99W made a right turn to the East at the truck stop.  Bob and I were riding together and his GPS unit alerted him to the fact we were off course.  We corrected by turning east on a road his GPS unit indicated would intersect 99W.  Geno and Frank kept going straight for a whild but eventually made the necessary correction.  Bob and I slogged together in the rain.  When Bob came around to pull for a while I struggled to keep up and eventually fell back.  I thought I must be very tired and was adjusting to the daily grind.  Traffic became denser as we approached Red Bluff and I seemed to be going slower and slower.  Geno called me but I couldn’t come to a stop and pull out my phone before it went to voice mail.  I called him back but he couldn’t answer either.  We had decided not to stay in the KOA campground, rather we would find a motel somewhere in Red Bluff but we didn’t know which one or even where it might be located.  I caught up to Bob and we elected to pull into a nearby Starbucks.  We eventually heard from Geno who had connected with Frank who was at a motel.  We settled in at the motel, watching weather reports.  As a result, over dinner, we opted for a layover day in Red Bluff to wait out the rain.

Day Four

Our layover day was an exploration of Red Bluff: a stop at the local Bike shop and lunch at a nice restaurant across from the county court house.  After lunch Bob and I decided to return to the motel while Geno and Frank did more exploration.  During the rest period back at the motel I did some tube patching and lubing of the chain.  I discovered, to my chagrin, the reason I had felt so much slower the day before was I hadn’t aligned the rear tire in the dropouts after my latest flat repair and the rim was rubbing against the brake pad the whole time.  Too big a hurry to be down the road and out of the rain put me in the rain longer than desired.

Day Five

Our layover day paid off big for us as we were greeted with sunny skies and a favorable forecast.  Our tour now started in earnest heading west into the California Coast Range.  Pine trees on the lower slopes and fir trees on the higher, wetter slopes of our climbs replaced eucalyptus trees as the dominant roadside tree.  The first climb was a middle chain ring climb and all of us exclaimed at the summit regroup and rest stop how easy it had been.  Subsequent climbs for the rest of the trip made us forget all about this first climb. 

Looking Southwest from our first summit

Geno Arrives at First Summit

Bob Arrives

And Here's Frank

Rest stop after descent.  Looking upstream

Looking down stream

The store was open at Wild Horse Ranch.  We hadn’t eaten except for whatever snack we carried with us since Red Bluff.  I consumed two microwave hamburgers plus a large bottle of Gatorade.  It was considerably warmer this day and ice cream bars were our dessert.  Leaving Wild Horse Ranch I couldn’t help but notice the huge, to my eyes, trailer and RV cities encamped on both sides of Highway 36.  It was the Friday before Memorial Day and the vacationers were out in droves to repopulate Wild Horse Ranch.  Traffic had not been indicative of this temporary city. 

Platina was our next stop and was preceded by a long, exposed, three-mile, granny gear climb.  

Climb to Platina.  The grey strip to the right of Geno, in red, is our road.

Wild flowers by the roadside around the corner from previous picture and a quarter mile from the summit

At Platina we were within five miles as the crow flies of our first campsite.  While at Platina a local engaged us in conversation asking what our plans were.  We told him we planned to camp at Basin Gulch and eat breakfast at the Wildwood Café the next morning.  He said the café had irregular hours during inclement weather but would stop by and tell the owner we would be there the next morning to make sure the store and café would be open for us.  The week before it had snowed at Wildwood.

Basin Gulch was a primitive camp where we bathed in an ice-cold stream and used a pit toilet.  Dinner was dehydrated chili-mac, a first for me, while the others made do with what they bought at Platina or had brought along.  Bob had been discarding a meal per day during our ride to Red Bluff to lighten his load but now had to put together a dinner with what he had left.  He didn’t starve.  This night provided me with my first experience on my recently purchased NeoLite air mattress.  Thus began many experiments determining what might be the appropriate air pressure for a comfortable night’s sleep.

Day Six

Our next destination was Ruth Lake. To get there we had to climb two miles to Wildwood for breakfast, yes they were open and it was well worth it, then endure three more climbs at least two or more miles in length.  None were middle chain ring climbs.  According to my bike computer we reached our highest summit for our trip at 4147 feet marked by an erector set power pole line.  We stopped and hiked out to a knob to see the view and take pictures of the snow-capped peaks to the east and north.  Mount Shasta stood out and then the Trinity Alps and maybe way off in the north distance Mt. Ashland. 

Peaks due west of nob

Mt. Shasta to the NE of us and dead center in picture.  Mts seen above are obscured by tree on right.

Trinity Alps.  Could that be Mt. Ashland on the far left?

Geno taking a picture of us.

 After snapping the above pictures I realized my iPhone battery was seriously depleted.  Bob and I attached his solar power battery charger to the top of my gear on the rear rack ostensibly to charge up my iPhone, but inconsistent sun due to the many trees on both sides of the highway made it a futile pursuit.  Lunch was in a park in Forest Glen.  Immediately out of Forest Glen we started the longest climb of the day up to South Fork Summit at 4077 feet.  A screaming descent to the turn off toward Ruth Lake was the next portion of our ride.  Geno and I waited at the turn-off 15-20 minutes for Bob and Frank.  I can’t recall what had delayed them so long as it was all down hill to the turnoff.  Then we rode another ten miles to get to Ruth Lake.  Geno and Bob negotiated a camping site amongst the small cabins, RVs, homes and trailers behind the store and restaurant.  It was a jumpin’ place at the bar and the store, which were all one building.  Memorial Day celebration was in full swing.  We were able to do some laundry and take hot showers, which compensated somewhat for the crude, gravelly, campsite.  We ate dinner and breakfast there, also.  Ironically I may have had my best sleep of the trip, so far, once the Sunday night Memorial Day revelries quieted down in the RV park.

Day Seven

Memorial Day began quiet enough as we left Ruth Lake.  It was overcast but otherwise quite comfortable.  I was feeling quite optimistic about our next leg to Grizzly Creek State Park.  Shortly after turning back on to Highway 36 we rode into a light but steady drizzle.  Traffic picked up, the shoulder became narrower and we then had to face probably our steepest climb of the whole tour where the road had collapsed creating a 20 per cent grade but mercifully only 50 yards in length.  I didn’t have to contend with any following traffic as I slowed to three miles per hour but worried about Frank and Bob who were behind me.  Not long after this steep little climb I came upon a sign advising trucks of a nine per cent descent.  I put my rain jacket on for warmth and proceeded on and downward.  It was an easy descent but after completing it another sign advising trucks of a 10 per cent descent appeared.  This descent was a real 10 per cent with five and ten mile corners.  I was on the brakes constantly to control my speed.  I used a truck pull out to let traffic come on by and as I was pulling out felt the tell tale signs of another flat (number five!).  Just ahead and across the road was a very wide pull out on a very sharp corner.  I pushed the bike across the road and began unpacking the rear wheel.  Geno caught up with me and soon Frank and Bob joined us.  We were entertained on this corner by the squeal of brakes, the scraping of motorcycles and the smell of burned brakes as the traffic passed by.  A mile or two down the road flat number six brought me to a stop.  I attribute the last two flats to using undersized tubes, 25 mm, in a 28 mm tire stretched too thin and easily pinched when subjected to the rear wheel load.  While frustratingly unloading my bike again a car pulled off going the opposite direction.  It was a gentlemen cyclist from Red Bluff scouting Highway 36 for some friends contemplating a tour on the highway.  He was concerned about the lack of shoulder in the Redwoods ahead of me plus the traffic density.  Later when ruminating about the encounter it occurred to me Highway 36 would probably be a lot more comfortable to ride if one chose to do so on a non-holiday week day.  I found a larger tube amongst my extras, filled it with air and continued on.  The rest of the gang was waiting at a roadside store.  A couple microwaveable burgers and a sandwich energized me for the last 5 miles to Grizzly Creek State Park.  We opted to pay for a campground rather than stay in the biker/hiker area at a cheaper rate.  It was overcast but stayed dry through the night.  Things hung up to air dry got a little drier overnight.  Our day was topped off when we shared a campfire next door with two people from San Francisco who were car camping over the long weekend.  She was a young Romanian native and he was a retired Social Security employee.

Day Eight

The next day’s morning was overcast but no wetness.  This was our first full day riding amongst the Redwoods.  There is no shoulder on the road but traffic was much, much, lighter.  Our first stop was in Carlotta at a modern day general store; a combination Ace hardware store, gas station and full service grocery store. 

While resting I witnessed a curious thing.  A friendly dreadlocks sprouting young man had his four-wheel drive pickup loaded with a pallet of soil sacks and numerous grow lamp apparatus.  One topic of conversation during our rest stops as we approached this area of Northern California had been about the ‘green triangle.’  There before my eyes just might be one of the many entrepreneurs growing pot way out in the hinterlands. 

The ride into Hansen’s Truck Stop south of Fortuna was uneventful, short and easy.  The clouds were breaking up and sun was starting to warm the land.  I received my first service for my iPhone while eating breakfast.  I listened to messages but did not call back as I assumed there would be service from now on.  Boy, was that a wrong guess!  One thing we did learn while eating was another storm front was headed our way.  We stopped in Rio Dell to determine our plan.  After much searching on phones we determined there was a place to stay in Redcrest.  We rode in and out of Redwood groves on our way to Redcrest. 

DAY 1 TOUR of NW CA

DAY ONE

The forecast had not changed for our start day so Geno proposed an alternate plan which bypassed our original route to Red Bluff, CA and opted for Highway 99W which would parallel Interstate 5 providing towns with restaurants and motels to stay in if needed.  Our original route was to ride roads hugging the eastern edge of the California coast range up to Red Bluff.  The original route would be very scenic and very challenging, as we would have gone up and down quite a bit.  The plan B route would begin flat then become rolling, as we got closer to Red Bluff.

Our start day began in sunshine.  I left my house earlier than the others left Geno’s as I had approximately 20 miles further to ride.  I expected to meet them on River Road headed for Woodland, CA.  It did not work out for me quite as expected when I experienced my first flat of six (for the whole trip) on the American River Bike Trail a mile or two east of Discovery Park.  It was on the rear.  Off came the panniers, sleeping bag, ground cloth and hatchet in order to remove the wheel.  I called Geno to let him know I was behind schedule.  We agreed to meet at Elkhorn County park on River Road.

I rolled into the park to meet up with the ‘gang’ plus two others, Mike and Dr. Steve, who were escorting us to Woodland.  We rolled into Woodland heading for a breakfast spot I had frequented when my wife worked in Woodland.  My designated café was closed.  We asked around and were directed to Denny’s on the north outskirts of town.  Within a quarter mile of Denny’s flat number two stopped me.  I could see Denny’s across the field.  I walked the bike to Denny’s and because it was the rear tire again I began to suspect something on the inside rather than an exterior problem.  While eating and talking I inspected my rear wheel and decided the problem was a poor taping of the spoke holes.  I realigned and re-taped making sure all the spoke holes were covered.  They weren’t.  Bob during brunch conversation mentioned he wanted to do a trans-continental tour.  I have wanted to do the trans-continental myself so volunteered to join him with next summer our designated time.

After breakfast Mike and Dr. Steve said their goodbyes and we began our tour in earnest seeking the most direct roads north and to Highway 99.  To the west we could see the incoming front on top of the coast range.  The sun was still shining in the Sacramento Valley though and we had a tailwind.  We were riding through the breadbasket of California and much of the United States.  Tomato fields, rice fields, other grain fields, grape vineyards, Almond orchards, past acres of corn, sunflowers, saffola fields and olive orchards.  The foregoing was to be our environment all the way to Red Bluff.  Our overnight stop for this day was a motel in Dunnigan.  The rain started softly just as we rolled into the motel parking lot.  

The Buttes from 99W

Introduction To My Tour of NW California May 25 through June 11, 2010

The following entry was initially targeted as an article to be submitted to Adventure Cycling, but since my bike accident and subsequent posting of my accident on this blog I have rethought my intentions and am now going to publish this bike trip on my blog.  I will publish in installments as after all it was an 18-day trip and does not have to be pared down to fit a magazine’s word quota.  This gives me the opportunity to add more of my observations and thoughts about each day’s experience and pictures.  I have my journal entries to rely on plus hindsight.  I invite you to share this journey with the four of “us.”  (to be named later)

I had been preparing for this trip, mostly in my mind, more than 6 months in advance of leaving.  Geno had expressed interest in retracing a trip he had ridden about 5 years ago.  To avoid some of the issues Geno had experienced during the first trip he found a couple extra campgrounds to shorten what had been some very long days.  For me it was going to be an out the front door (alright garage door) trip and back, with 16 days between the beginning and the end.  I would find out if I really liked extended loaded bike tours since the longest I had experienced prior to this one were 5 to 6 days in length.

I named the touring bicycle the Green Machine or GM for short.  I bought the frame off the web. Thank you, Bike Nashbar.  It is a touring frame with all the needed threaded bosses plus double eyelets at each drop out.  One down side to ordering off the web was the web site did not specify bottom bracket height from the ground so I took a guess it would be low for stability but found out it was normal like most recreational bikes are.  Therefore the frame is one size to big, a 58 centimeter frame versus a more appropriate 56 cm.  One compensation was to shorten the stem length.  Putting my leg over the top tube can be a problem for an old guy and shoe marks on the top tube attest to the strain.  The components were pieces and parts from various sources, my personal stock and from various retail sources, Rivendell and Patriot Bicycles, my LBS.  I built it up several years ago but did not tour on it until the summer of 2008.  I have since averaged one multi-day tour per summer.  I also use it as my climbing bike since it has a 30 X 34 low gear although for loaded touring I would prefer a 28 X 34 low.

Previous tours had informed me I would need better racks to mount my panniers.  I researched various styles or types of racks.  An article in Jan Heine's Bicycle Quarterly had taught me what structural components to look for in a well-made bike rack.  The original rear rack had all the structural components of a good rack, it was made by Blackburn, but the mounting apparatus interfered with my rear V brake.  It only took me two years to realize it did interfere.  Then followed the usual speculation in my head why did it take so long to figure out?  I finally decided on an Old Man Mountain made by White Rock as it seemed to have the flexibility to fit most bikes.  

The first or original front rack was suspect from the beginning.  It presented problems from the beginning.  The mounting brackets did not match my bike's threaded fork bosses so I had to use the provided adaptors.  When I mounted my bags they had to fit around the adaptors, which was always a challenge.  I took the racks off and remounted them two or three times before I began touring and a couple times during touring.  There had to be a better rack out there!  My thinking about this rack was if the fork bosses matched then these would be perfectly OK but I wasn't to be blessed with matching fork bosses.  The spring catalog from Adventure Cycling provided me with the solutions I needed.  As mentioned above I ordered an Old Man Mountain and for the front the Arkel AC Lowrider Rack.  

They arrived in early May.  If you glance up at the title you might notice early May is only a couple weeks before we left.  I did not order these through the bike shop as I had run out of time and decided to go the Adventure Cycling route, as I knew they had what I needed.  I had waited this long for a couple reasons.  The first reason had to do with one of my goals for this cycling season, which was to ride a century a month as sanctioned by the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association.  My first century ride in January, on my birthday, ended with me mounting my touring bike in my pickup rather carelessly.  When my son, who had come to pick me up after I had ridden 96 miles, went around a corner and the bike slipped in the fork mounts.  The forks bent at the dropouts.  I took the fork into the bike shop I work at and realigned the dropouts, but I had doubts about the reliability of the fork.  Thus I asked Scott, the owner, to order for me a new fork with threaded bosses.  I chose a Surly chrome-moly fork offered by Quality Bicycle Products.  Scott needed to put together an order sufficient to allay shipping costs so it took a couple weeks.  It was the end of February when the new fork arrived and I was able to install it with a new yellow Origin 8 headset.  It was then I began to research replacement carrying racks for the bike.  The second reason is more obscure, and of course has nothing to do with procrastination.

I have all the tools needed to mount a rear rack and for the Old Man Mountain all I needed was a 4 mm Allen wrench and a 10 mm open-ended wrench.  The Old Man Mountain rear pannier rack package included: 2 aluminum right angled brackets, 2 aluminum slotted extender bars, 2 M6 by 20 mm bolts for the V brake studs or posts, 2 M5 by 16 mm bolts for the dropout eyelets, 4 M6 by 16 mm bolts, 4 M6 stainless nuts, 10 stainless washers and explicitly written instructions with pictures.  Unfortunately attaching to the seat tube stays’ threaded bosses still interfered with the V brake.  An alternative mounting solution was to attach the rack via the V brakes studs.  The two M6 by 20 mm bolts and the right-angled brackets were needed as well as the slotted extender bars (these would be needed to mount the rack regardless).  The right-angled brackets were mounted to the brake posts using the long bolts.  The right-angled brackets attached to the extender bars with the 16mm bolts and nuts.  And the extender bars attached to the rack with two more 16mm bolts.  The extender bars and the rack both have slots so adjusting the rack to level is pretty easy.  The rack sits high with appropriate clearance above the fender.  My REI Novaro panniers snapped on like they were made for each other.  Pannier removal was also easy.

Installation of the front rack was just as easy using the same tools.  The Arkel Front Low Rider Rack came with 2 M5 by 45 mm bolts, 4 M5 by 25 mm bolts, 4 M5 nyloc nuts, 10 M5 washers, 4 M5 aluminum spacers and adequate written instructions.  There were two sets of instructions, one for a boss drilled all the way through the fork and the other for a threaded boss not going all the way through the fork.  My Surly fork was of the latter design.  I attached the rack to the dropout eyelets using my own M5 bolts, as they were not provided.  Not mentioned in the parts list are the 2 slotted bars.  These are attached to the rack using the 4 M5 by 25 mm bolts and nyloc nuts with one pair in the racks vertical slots.  The 2 M5 by 45 mm bolts in conjunction with one spacer per bolt were slipped into a bar slot then screwed into the fork.  Rack levelness is accomplished by moving the bar in the rack’s slots up or down as needed.  In my case it was very minimal adjustment.  As stated the instructions were adequate for the job.  Perhaps a person more mechanically challenged may find installation a challenge if their fork doesn’t quite fit the two sets of instructions.  The REI Novaro front panniers (they do not match the rear panniers) fit beautifully, going on or coming off the rack.  

I have no reservations concerning either rack.  Between them I could haul 73 pounds of stuff, 40 in the rear and 33 in the front.  My goal was to haul 40 pounds in the rear and 20 pounds max in the front.  I have no way of weighing my stuff so weight distribution was a guess.

All the preparation I had made in my mind and in fact was necessary as we were confronted with the wettest spring in some time.  A couple days before leaving Geno emailed the rest of us asking if we wanted to delay a day or two to avoid the front forecast for our start day.  The “us” mentioned before were Frank, Bob and Geno plus myself.  I advocated for staying with our start date as my bike had fenders.  What we hadn’t figured on was how fickle the weather was going to be for the rest of our trip.  We were rather optimistic ‘normal’ Northern California springtime weather would appear and our trip would proceed as projected in our mind’s eye, i.e. riding in sunshine.

Cardiologist

I saw Dr. Aryana this morning, a Harvard trained cardiologist specializing in electronic monitoring. After a thorough discussion I have elected to undergo an EP (electro physiological study) where they will insert 2 electrical wires into my femoral artery near the groin and run them up to my heart. He does not foresee any need for a pacemaker or a device to stimulate the heart unless they discover something very unusual. He believes a monitor will be called for and will be inserted under my skin just up and to the left of the heart. The device will monitor my heart for a long time, up to 3 years is the battery life, but he thinks a year will be more than sufficient. My bike crash was reported to the DMV and they want a Dr.'s sign off before the DMV will authorize my driving. The circumstances of my crash are just puzzling enough to warrant a study of my heart activity. Did I experience a heart episode or something else? is the question to be answered.  Dr. Aryana admits my health, age and activity level presents an anomaly regarding the episode. He diagnosed the event as a possible basel basel - something - which usually happens to people when they are at rest not when being active, i.e. riding a bike, and usually are much younger.
The EP procedure has been scheduled for Sept. 22.  It may be the next time you see me I will have a lump on my upper left breast about the size of a flash or thumb drive.

1st Bike Ride in a month

I rode my basic Ride Around the Block (RAB) route (14.3 miles) in exactly an hour, which is not bad for being inactive for exactly a month. Last half of the ride I would feel a twinge from one of the ribs when I moved in just the right way.

First mile or two felt like an experiment. Can I do this? Do I remember how? After I crossed San Juan which is about a mile or less from our house and is one of the major boulevards I must cross when doing my RAB I began to feel confident the muscles remembered and the brain was catching on.

I rode the infamous corner, the La Casa De Los Gobernados corner, only in the opposite direction this time. The corner presents as more dangerous in today's direction as there are a couple of dips and a manhole cover to be conscious of. Still I rode through the corner without any new or different experiences.

The next challenge is to experience my stretches in conjunction with my healing injuries.

I have just had a follow-up with my NP. The lung nodule is benign and we will do CT scans to track any changes. The PET scan report did not say anything about the mass in my throat. The ENT will have to be satisfied with the original CT scans done at Mercy.

I am psyching myself up to get on the bike and do a ride today, although I am finding work at the computer to be sufficiently distracting.

A Bike Accident August 8, 2010

Imagine, if you will, you are out for your morning run. It is a familiar course and a lovely Sunday morning. There is light traffic on the road if at all. You come around the corner and you meet some of that light traffic, a bicyclist. It being such a lovely morning the words “good morning’ form on your lips but before you can utter them the bicyclist performs a horrific upsy doodle and lands on his back, apparently knocked unconscious by the impact of hitting the ground. Having a cell phone with you and the presence of mind to use it, you call 911. You step out into the middle of the road to deter and flag down any traffic that might come down the road. The cyclist tries to rise up and you encourage him to not move, because you will take care of any traffic that might approach. The EMTs arrived in what seems to be too long of time but in reality is only a few minutes. They ask you a couple questions about him, ‘did he pass out’ and ‘for how long?’ They load him into the ambulance and whisk the cyclist off to the nearest hospital.

The preceding is how I imagine it might have been for the runner who witnessed my “upsy doodle” a week ago Sunday. My morning began a bit rushed since I slept in a little late. I had agreed to meet David on the bike trail riding his new “Red Baron” bicycle he had won during the last rendition of the Tour of California. I have not seen the “Red Baron” since he received it and was curious, not to mention going for a ride with David, something I had not done since he took up cycling a couple years ago.

The route I rode was a familiar one taking me by the almost governor’s residence. ‘De Casa Los Gobernados’ is what the sign on the stonewall proclaims, or used to, as this Sunday morning I noticed the sign had been vandalized and many letters had been removed. I rode by the residence just the Tuesday before, and now deep in thought, did not recall the sign being vandalized or maybe I just hadn’t noticed. Whatever, in any case the next thing and last before waking up on the tarmac was seeing a female runner.

I have no recollection of what I did next. I have only my bike as evidence of what might have happened. The front wheel is potatoe chipped, the left brake lever is at a right angle to the handle bars, the front wheel and fork are at a right angle to the frame. There are big scratches on both brake levers.

I ask myself did I hit the brakes hard propelling me over the handlebars or did I turn the wheel just enough to get the wheel sideways in the pavement ripples found near the center of the corner and then the wheel got caught up and over the top I went? I’ll never know as that time is lost to me. A black hole in my memory cells.

At the Emergency Room I was met with a team of professionals who, true to the television images I had witnessed many times before, cut my one and only Fall River Century jersey off of me. I cannot recall if I had been placed in a cervical collar by the EMTs or at the Emergency room. The cervical collar proved to be more painful than my other injuries while on. It rubbed against my larynx and I endured it for several hours until the CT scan report had been reviewed revealing I had no neck injuries. Later I was to realize the cervical collar had actually bruised my larynx. What the CT scan did reveal was I had two fractured ribs and a rib broken in two places on the left side. My whole left side was bruised. Whenever I attempted to raise my left leg it felt like it would cramp up. I had road rash on both knees and both elbows as well as my right wrist. Also I had endured a very small subdural hematoma as a result of hitting my head against the pavement. I needed to wait for the neurologist to release me, which was not to happen until Sunday evening, before getting word on discharge from the Trauma Intensive Care Unit.

They kept me overnight for observation and the next morning took me in for another CT scan. Later that afternoon I was informed they had deleted my results and would need to take another CT scan. I found these trips to the CT scanner a nice break in the monotony of sitting in bed. While being moved from the CT bed to my patient bed I experienced a 5 to 10 second bout of intense dizziness. I told my nurse and I expect she noted it in her patient notes. The next morning I woke up feeling a bit light headed but nowhere near the intensity of the day before. Once again I reported it to my day shift trauma nurse.

I subsequently learned when one experiences dizziness coupled with a resting heart rate of 57 medical people get excited. A carotid ultrasound, a heart ultrasound and an EKG were ordered to check out my heart. When the cardiologist came in during the early evening he asked some questions about family history and surmised an overreaction by all but he wanted to conduct some further tests to discern for sure whether I had passed out after hitting the pavement or in fact I had passed out first then had a wreck.

The next day I underwent a cardiolyte stress test in the morning and a tilt table test in the afternoon. A cardiolight stress test consists of being placed in a machine that takes pictures of your heart at rest for 20 minutes. What was hard about this portion of the test was keeping both arms extended over my head especially my left arm as that tended to set off discomfort in the rib area plus the bruised portion of my left side. I found I could relax my left arm against the camera housing and endure the last few minutes. The next step was to chemically induce stress. They injected me with a drug dilating my arteries as if I were exercising. Along with the quickened breathing came nausea, sweating and bowel perturbations. I was reasurred these were all normal reactions and then shortly after their reassurance the effects abated. Less than 5 minutes total for this ordeal. I spent a little time in the bathroom since my bowels had not moved since Sunday morning. The last step was to put me back in the large picture taking machine for only 16 minutes this time and see what my heart looked like after being stressed. I was wheeled up to TICU to wait for the afternoon Tilt Table test. Did I mention I could not eat anything for either of these tests?

The Tilt Table test consisted of laying down on a table, getting strapped in, then tilted up to 70 degrees (consider 90 degrees as standing straight up). Once again they monitored my blood pressure and heart rate for 20 minutes. Then they lowered me and administered a nitroglycerin pill under my tounge. I was raised back up to 70 degrees while all in attendance waited for me to pass out. The cardiologist and his nurse assistants monitored my blood pressure and heart rate. I experienced the familiar feelings of nausea and sweating. A thought occurred to me advocating a beligerant stance, ‘by God I’m not going to faint!’ I struggled with this thought as passing out seemed like a good way to get over the feelings of nausea and the very intense sweating but around the time I might have wanted to pass out I began to feel slightly better. The cardiologist remarked my blood pressure was starting to come up indicating the nitroglycerin effect was wearing off. Instead of waiting the full 20 minutes he accepted the fact I was not going to pass out and 15 minutes would be enough time. They laid me down and recovery was almost instantaneous. I had to lay prone, though, for a few more minutes while my blood pressure climbed back to more acceptable levels. I was wheeled back to my room where my wife was waiting. The cardiologist gave us his report based on the results of the two tests. He had conducted two tests which proved nondiagnostic, but he wasn’t convinced there might not be another remote possibility. He wanted me to see a colleague who specialized in electronic heart monitoring. The cardiologist suggested we might monitor the heart over a year’s time with a small device embedded in my chest. He said I could go home and needed the on call trauma doc to discharge me.

When I got home I checked my email and found an email from the runner who had witnessed my oopsy doodle. I e-mailed the runner asking her to answer some questions about my accident. She answered them in full. Her perspective was she startled me and she answered a second e-mail describing exactly what she was wearing. My memory was only slightly accurate as she was wearing a baseball cap and shorts but the colors she described did not match my memory.

What this all means is I still do not know at this time whether I passed out first then had a wreck or passed out after colliding with the pavement. I have no history of heart problems. I have since examined the corner where the accident occurred and now know there is a six-inch wide depression, maybe an inch deep, running diagonally across the road. Not believing there is a heart problem then the only other conclusion I can draw is; either I slammed on the brakes for no good reason and catapulted myself over the bars. Or I made a slight correction at the time the front wheel was in the depression and the front end over corrected getting caught up in the depression and over the bars I sailed.

September 3, 2010

Since finishing the first chapter in this saga I have had a follow-up with my doctor’s Nurse Practioner who has referred me to the cardiologist specializing in electronic monitoring of the heart, an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist, and a PET scan to check out what the ER CT scan revealed in addition to my bike accident injuries.

I had the PET scan yesterday but will not receive any information until next Wednesday when I have another follow-up with the NP.

My injuries are almost healed as most of the road rash is now pink skin except my right elbow which was rubbed by the blood pressure cuff during hospitalization and my left knee. The left knee was pink with skin flakes I elected to peel off one evening and to my consternation the next evening discovered blood had pooled underneath making it look like a blood blister. I managed to control my desire to pop or peel this blister-like phenomenen and this morning it is a scab.

My left hip though still has a blood pool under the skin. I can poke it and watch it shake like jello. It is about an inch and a half in diameter. I can’t tell if it has decreased in diameter or not since first discovering it after my initial shower upon returning home from the hospital. I am assuming the body will eventually absorb the blood and it will be gone. I will have it checked out Wednesday when I visit with the NP again.

Last night I reread the hospital CT scan reports and now am experiencing some trepidation regarding the node found in the right lower lung, a lesion with ground glass internal density on the left seventh rib, a mass in the throat and something else needing an ENT specialist to inspect.

I have no personal history or family history of heart issues but do have family history with cancer. The throat, rib and lung issues could conceivably be indicative of cancer. The PET scan will indicate whether I need to see a pulmonary specialist or, heaven forbid, an oncologist.

It was hard to write the last word in the preceding sentence.

And time marches on.