Back Road Musings

For those of you that know where Union Springs is, and thought that it was somewhat remote, we've moved into even deeper remote and redneck. One of the keys to getting from place to place in upstate NY is knowing the backroads (it is probably key everywhere, but here there just aren't lots of main roads, so if you take those, you are usually going WAY out of the way, on the other hand, taking unknown backroads could very easily dump you on a cowpath road that will eventually send you in the opposite direction you want to be going in). I knew most of the backroads and short cuts from Union Springs, I don't know them in Conquest. So I have been talking with locals and using a combination of Google, Expedia & Yahoo Maps with occasional help from Mapquest. By combining all four I can usually figure out the best/fastest way to get somewhere new.
The difficulty I have come acrossed is that many of the roads up here in the north end of the county don't have signs. Really, no road name signs. So far there appears to be a pattern, the road that you are on will not have a road sign, but the crossroads will. So just remember what road you turned on, right? Wrong. The roads often change names when you change townships and/or villages. The crossroad signs are for roads that cross at 90 degree angles, not for Y's or forks or merges or vears or splits. So it can get quite complicated and you end up driving on intuition with some basic orienteering thrown in when necessary. Although this all gets thrown out the window if you happen onto one of the cowpath roads. In that situation, you're screwed, you either have to turn around and go back to the last road you were on, or follow it to the end, figure out where you are, figure out where you were initally trying to go, and then figure out how to get there base on where you are that you never planned to be.

John Berendt

John Berendt was in Skaneateles this past Sunday, I stumbled upon a local bookstores website and they were announcing that he was doing a book signing. So I grabbed my copy of City of Falling Angels and headed across the rolling roads of Central New York.
Upon my arrival I learned that not only was he doing a book signing but a presentation as well. He was an entertaining speaker, at times he did appear a little rehearsed, but then I assume when you talk to hundreds of people you might begin feeling a little dull.
What everyone wonders is how he gets people to tell him the things that they do. He said in Savannah everyone is odd and wants to be more eccentric than their neighbour, so to have someone talk to them and tell them they're writing a book, the stories started flowing in. In Venice, most knew about Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, because the movie plays on TV there all the time. They were skeptical that he would do a book about Venice, and when it took so long to write they felt he would never publish and so had no fears about talking. He says he carries things on as a conversation, not a typical interview, and jots notes down in a small notebook, in Italy he would often tape record the interviews as he is not fluent in Italian.
He talked about how he is a slow writer, that he makes sure a paragraph is as close to perfect as possible before moving on to the next. He is very critical of his work, even sharing a sentence that he dislikes in Midnight and what he would have changed just in that one sentence, but he is proud of his books and his writing. It was interesting to hear writers that have inspired him (Cormac & Wharton) and reasons why he enjoys their writing (use of words & creative , detailed, descriptions of people).
It was thrilling to hear an author and see them in person that I really admire. I highly suggest learning where authors you like will be speaking and trying to get to meet them. It's awesome to learn what they were thinking when they wrote a specific paragraph or their reactions when they met someone for the first time.

Jeff & Sara's Wedding

Jeff & Sara with Howard & Roberta performing ceremony.

Loren, Rob & Andrew

Deb, Erika & Kim

Robson

Rob & Laurie

Risa & Brandon

Au Revoir, Allo Cancun

Chicago

I was in Chicago last weekend for a wedding and did some site seeing too.

Erika, Deb & I reflecting in Cloudgate.

Fountain in Millenium Park

Grant Park

Buckingham Fountain

Shedd Aquarium

Guy Painting in front of Art Institute

Rochester Autumn Classic Duathlon

I did it and I survived. There were a lot of hills, I hate hills and I'm not too good at hills. The first mile and half run was nice, through the woods ramble, although there were a lot of puddles and mud, so my feet were soaked within a half mile, but at least it stopped raining. The last half mile was hills on the run. But I felt good. The bike was nice, it was really pretty country and the leaves are starting to change, it was a beautiful view of the rolling hills. It wasn't beautiful on my legs or heart going up those hills tho. Most of the roads we were on were back roads that were very quiet, typical of an early fall Sunday morning. There was one road that we had to go on for a few miles that did have some traffic, and these people did not slow down or move over for bikers, even though it was a passing zone and there was no one coming in the other direction. At one point a couple of SUV's went by me, going about 60 miles an hour, didn't pull over and I had a guardrail on my right. All I could think of was they were going to clip me and send me flying through the air, tumbling over guardrail and down the embankment, similar to Verbrugghe in the Tour de France this summer. The last leg was another 2 mile loop run. About half way through I got a horrible stitch in my side and had to walk, that was pretty demoralizing, I haven't walked in a race in years. But I got a nice technical t-shirt :)
I did the Super Sprint which is Run Bike Run, there was also Formula 1, which is Run Bike Run Bike Run. The guy that won the F1 came in at the same time I did! I saw them out on the Bike course, they were FLYING.
I'm extremely stiff tonight, the hills really killed me. I'm going to go do some yoga and see if I can't get stretched out.