Chicago to Newark to NYC to Kane, PA and all points in between.

I've written a lot of stuff in my pen-and-paper journal so this is just the condensed version of things for right now. Internet is few and far-between and there are only so many laptops for everyone to post every day. The majority of waking hours are spent eating and cycling, the precious hours left are for the other routines of the day, like packing or unpacking or setting up camp or decamping. It's exciting and tiring and overall fun.

I flew out of O'Hare with the team last Wednesday. I hadn't flown since a month before 9/11, but the experience wasn't as unpleasant as everyone says it was; no long lines, no endless security checks, just the same airport experience I remember as a kid with its expensive food and the familiar long checkered corridors of the terminal. The flight was uneventful, minus the sight of the New York City skyline as we flew into Newark Liberty airport. As a Chicago resident I'm ever so happy to bash NYC, but I was generally excited over the days leading up to the trip to see the big apple.

We drove out to Anish's house in Hillsborough, New Jersey and settled in. We were treated by Anish's folks, their hospitality and support for the ride was outstanding. They hosted a send-off party and invited theirs and Anish's friends from New Jersey and we unveiled our decorated vehicle, banner, and matching ride jerseys. Among all the frenzied activities we managed to learn how to set up a tent and had a long meeting to go over expectations. It was then that I realized the gravity of our undertaking and understood what I would be doing this summer.

Thursday we rode the NJT train from New Brunswick into Penn Station, right in the heart of midtown Mannhattan. Walking down 6th street we realized that it would be impossible to keep everyone together so I ended up seeing the sights with Dan and Brandt. We saw the touristy sights like Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Greenwich Village, etc. We even saw mayor Bloomberg. I ended up going solo and riding the 1 train up and down Mannhattan. I saw the Seinfeld restaurant on the upper west side and then shuttled down to Battery Park and its views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I thought that maybe the Laudes came through there, but they probably came through Canada. It's something I have to research. I then walked up to around Houston street and Tribeca but not before seeing the WTC site and the temporary memorial they have set up there as well as City Hall. I ended up being conned out of five dollars at a street festival for St. Anthony in Nolita, but I got a small stuffed dog out of it. So I named it St. Anthony and declared it my mascot. We all met up and ate at the pizza place on Mott and Spring Sts. that claims to be the first pizzeria in New York. It was good and thin, but I'd take Chicago-style deep dish any day.

It was at dinner that we met Patrice Yao and Zach Hermann, former Allen PAs. We would end up spending the night at Patrice's one-bedroom 300 square feet studio apartment just south of central park. She said rent was 4000 a month but it was subsidized by the company she's interning for. My overall impression of New York was that it was clean and wonderful thanks to mayor Guiliani but that everyone is just out to take your money. Zach would be tagging along in the sag wagon to document our journey up until Sunday morning.

Friday me, Sandy, Andrew, Brandt, Dan, and Brian went over to Rockefeller Center to try to get on the Today Show. We drew up a nice poster but were unable to take it into the Plaza where they shoot the outdoor concert and people holding signs because it had a URL on it. Luckily Patrice got us into the area that was immediately around the stage, but we did not get to meet Al Roker or get any face time. In the afternoon we walked out to the upper east side near Cornell Presbyterian Hospital where we would be starting out from. The process of getting out of Mannhattan was convoluted before the ride, but went smoothly afterwards. Before we left we had a send-off at the hospital and departed to the cheers of friends, family, and the bystanding medical folk.

I had never ridden in a major city before, not even bike-friendly Chicago, but the ride was smooth and relatively traffic-free. We rode up the East side of Central park before going up the drive along the Hudson into Washington Heights. We then crossed over the river on the George Washington Bridge into Jersey and all its suburban glory. It was then that we split up into two groups so the advance group could get back to NYC for an alumni event. I ended up slowing down the group not going back to NYC with not one, not two, but three flat tubes. That and we got lost and got into our destination in Tuxedo Park, NY as the sun was setting. The car had gotten a flat tire so the top group ended up not going to the Alumni event.

We stayed at the Episcopal church there just behind the gates of the community. Apparently the town had been a hunting lodge for rich New Yorkers and the story goes that the eponymous evening jacket was named after what happened when one of its residents had the tails cut off a european-style coat back in the late 1800s. The rest, as they say, was history. So the stay was pretty fancy by our expectations. We woke up Saturday and got an early start and a lot of climbing in the first 10 miles, the inclines were incredible. We were, of course, climbing up into the Appalachians. The day ended up being a lot of ups and downs through a lot of middling, historic mountain towns, the kind that were formed before the Revolutionary War. Our stay in Hawley, PA that evening fell through, but Jon came upon accomadations in a friendly local's backyard. Our host, Florence, was very excited to let us stay at her well-furnished cabin in the woods out on a lake. She had the local grocery donate food and we dined superbly while hearing a lot of her interesting stories about traveling and seeing the world in general. In return, she asked for our stories and it was a good oppurtunity to hear everyone's reasons for going on the trip.

We got a late start on Sunday due to the cold, the damp, and Florence's hospitality, but the ride ended up being shorter than predicted. It was more or less the same ride through what our host in Tunkhannock, PA called "Endless Mountains." Our arrival in that town was early enough to get in laundry and have the tire replaced despite it being Sunday. The pastor who hosted us had pulled together the community to have those services done and we were ever grateful. Pennsylvania so far had opened up its hearts and homes and did not stop being an incredibly beautiful place to us. Monday was our longest ride yet, up and down more mountains and stopping in the heart of it to eat at a road-side diner in the woods. I gorged myself on fries and otherwise had a good deal of food to eat. Unfortunately I felt it later and wished I had eaten better. I was also intentionally struck by someone who had stuck their hand out the passenger side window of their car. After shouting a few choice expletives at them, I sped down the rode I was on for the next two miles trying to catch them to no avail. Once the adrenaline wore off, I began hurting and slogged into town with little more than a third of my 90 miles left. It was then that I realized the danger of what I was doing and that I have to be a lot more careful if I didn't want to end up at the side of the road.

In Wellsboro, PA, we were fed by a local restaurant and stayed at the Catholic Church there. I woke up Tuesday not feeling so well and having the oppurtunity to drive the van, so I accepted. Allison co-piloted and made calls, so we bonded and became team Haude or Team Leim. We stopped at a souveneir shop in the middle of the mountains and talked to the owner and fed his deer. At our lunch stop in Port Allegany we bought food from the grocery there, but a lot of people ate at the pizzeria across from the park we set up in. Nonetheless, everyone got into Kane, PA in good time despite the 97 or so miles they had traversed.

We spent Tuesday night and today at the First United Methodist Church in Kane for our rest day and explored the town among the organizational business to take care of. Dan, Adam, Drew, Andrew, Sehee, and I went over to the local high school to shower, which was weird for the fact that they both were expecting us and that I was going back to high school again. We just wandered the halls and talked to the students milling around. Apparently they have a good track team and even had an olympian 5k runner come from there, so we saw her pictures on the wall there. Some of us wanted to eat in the cafeteria there, but I ended up eating in town.

So hopefully I get to update my blog more often. I'm really itching to get back on my bike and do 100 or so miles tommorrow. So far I've done 275 on a bike plus the 100 or so I drove in the van. So if you've read so far, leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you and probably miss you also.

Here's an obligatory photo. It's of me standing at a scenic overlook above the Sesquehena River. I'll end up making a panorama of the complete overlook when I get a computer with photoshop.

Packing List and Manifest

Things I'll be carrying along with me down to a T. Good for future research and development purposes:

Bike stuff:

• 2000 Lemond Zurich, 853 Reynolds steel frame, Shimano Ultegra components, Rolf Vector Comp Wheelset, Hutchinson Fusion Long-distance folding bead tires
  
• Topeak mountain morph pump with a presta-valve adapter superglued into the rubber gasket. only good for emergencies.
  
• Seat bag containing:
  • 3 Park tool tire levers
    
  • Patch kit
    
  • Extra tube
    
  • Emergency cash
    
  • Angelina Cole's lucky dollar which will be donated upon arrival to San Diego
  
  
• 4 long-valve small 700c tubes
  
• 1 set (2 pair) serfas Shimano-compatible replacement brake shoes and hoods.
  
• 1 Set of Allen Wrenches
  
• Screwdriver handle with Allen and flat-head and Phillips driver
  
• Rear blinker
  
• Front light
  
• 2 water bottles
  
• Cateye Cordless 2 Cyclocomputer
  
• 1 Wristwatch
  
• Kryptonite U-lock and cable

Clothing stuff:

• Helmet
  
• 3 pair cycling shorts
  
• 1 pair long tights
  
• 3 cycling jerseys
  
• 3 pair cycling socks
  
• Pearl Izumi cycling gloves
  
• Long-sleeved black thermal shirt
  
• Gore Bikewear rain jacket
  
• Adidas Adistar Comp cycling shoes, Nashbar mtn. special cleats
  
• 1 pair brown flip-flops
  
• 1 pair Asics running shoes with orthotics
  
• 1 cycling cap
  
• 1 knitted cap, the one with earflaps and tassels that was hand-crafted in the Andes in Peru
  
• Brown H&M polo shirt
  
• 1 pair olive-drab pants
  
• 1 pair khaki hiking pants with the legs that zip off.
  
• 2 pair gym shorts that can be swum in.
  
• 3 T-shirts, American Apparel
  
• 3 pair boxer shorts
  
• 3 pair non-cycling socks

Living stuff

• REI Mojave sleeping bag and compression sack
  
• Sleeping bag liner made out of a top sheet
  
• Inflatable sleeping pad
  
• Toiletries
  
• Camp towel
  
• Sunscreen
  
• Bug spray
  
• Bandage kit with alcohol wipes
  
• Anti-inflammtory, fever, and headache relief
  
• Cell phone and charger
  
• Wallet with cash, debit card, driver's liscence, insurance cards
  
• Sheet of important phone numbers in ziploc bag
  
• "Jon Schlesinger" kit
  
• Bag to put all my living and clothing stuff when I'm not wearing or using it.
  
• Carabiner keyring with kryptonite key
  
• Keyring with extra kryptonite key and house keys

Misc. stuff

• Journal
  
• SPACE PEN! and non-space pen.
  
• USB thumb drive
  
• iPod and headphones
  
• Olympus digital camera with charger, 2 gig and 64 meg xD cards, soft case.
  
• 1 copy "On the Road" or something about the romance of the American landscape.
  
• This packing list / manifest.
  
• Hard glasses case
  
• My self

This should last me 2+ months. And if it doesn't, then I can get what we need when we go through Chicago.

So how do you fit four bikes in the back of this van?

This is a problem that has plagued me for a few hours, but I found a solution after much tinkering. I guess I should also say that this is the transition from this blog being about Art and the class I took this spring to being about bikes in general and the Illini 4000 in specific thissummer. So hello, new audience. You're in for a world of adventure. Thank you for reading, I'll do my part to keep you informed and entertain. But first, an engineering conundrum.

My family's wonderful '96 Chrysler Town and Country has become our support vehicle this summer and has sprouted a quad of Yakima bike rails on its roof, soon to be six thanks to Amy and Clif's generosity. (Thank you guys!) So, if six can go on top, then only four need to go in the trunk if we're hauling ten bikes. The problem with putting bikes in the back is that sometimes the hatch won't close, especially with longer frames, bigger wheels, or taller handlebars. This is caused by the position of the middle-row seats. This is where they are when they're as far back as possible:


and this is what it looks like with bikes in the back:


compare that to this configuration, with the middle row seat moved up a mere six inches.





Well, you can't really see it, but the bikes aren't sticking out as much, plus you stick the bikes in rear-wheel first or handle-bar first. I figure that leg room comes at too high a premium at the expense of cargo room. That and the configuration is not static, it can be moved just as easily as I did tinkering around with it. And that's the support vehicle, it will be our life-line and carry all of our equipment so we don't have to!

We leave in a week!

A look back at ART 250 and the days I spent at Art+D

I think it was best summed up when we were all penciling in our ICES forms and I posed a question to the people who would walk in a few weeks, sheepskin in hand, "is this the best class you've ever taken?" The answer was a resounding and unanimous "yes."

I'm half-way (hopefully) through this journey called college and I can truly say that this is and will be the best class I've ever taken. For one thing, it's art. Art is Hard, yes, but it's so delightfully subjective and open-ended so as to demand the use of your creative mind, which is a breath of fresh air given my scientific and analytical mindset. True, there is a lot of that thought involved in being creative, being witty, and being fresh in your observations of the world. In a purely aesthetic sense, this form of art is the complete opposite of everything I've done, and it's a nice break. This is probably the last "nice break" I get for the rest of college, life, etc. and expect to get credit for it. Unless I find something and take it upon myself to stuff it into my schedule. Otherwise, it's been an inspiration to start expressing myself through words and images and sounds again.

So it was an expressive outlet. It was an emotional outlet. In short, it was a learning experience. I was made more aware of my abilities to articulate things and say it in a concise and thoughtful manner. I was made aware of the nature of objectivity (it doesn't exist) and that somewhere in the discourse of things, we can all find common ground. I learned that robots take a lot of work, but when they spread their love, it is well worth it. More importantly, I discovered that the exigency to produce art is also the impetus to do something real. Whether it be mobilizing peoples' opinions or commentary about the state of affairs of things or to simply exist as a light in a bleak world, art has a purpose beyond itself.

I don't think I've written so extensively for any class so far in college. I look back on all the substantial things I've written and all the notes and figure it's somewhere on order of 60 pages, and the fact most it just flowed out in a stream of consciousness showed the enthusiasm I had for this class. I really wish I could do that for other courses, but perhaps this is an exercise in helping-me-write-more-faster. I've neglected voluminous amounts of writing for so long, but really it's cheap therapy. It keeps me busy. And keeps the thoughts running around in my head from going wild. It kept me going through mid-semester when a lot of shit went down. It was just nice to reflect on things and renew some sense of self-worth that I had stripped myself of. So, as unfortunate a situation that was, it was a fortunate outlet to that end.

Most of all, the class gave us an oppurtunity to get to know each other better. In words, yes, in workshops, yes, in barcrawls even, but there was such a sense of comraderie, these are people who you will wave at on the Quad if you see them, rather than passing them by with awkward acknowledgements like peers from other classes. I don't know everyone from other classes, that would be an impossible exercise given the 100+ person lectures and large discussion sections in other technical classes. The class size was just perfect for that kind of social engagement and dare I say synergy?

And above all, we had a great instructor in Cory Holding, someone who was gentle, warm, inviting, prodding, and otherwise perforce more interested in her students than some run-of-the-mill TA. Here's to you Cory Holding, you made us look forward to coming to class each monday and wednesday and your copious e-mails kept us delighted and on task!

And that's it. Until I return my external hard drive, there will be no more walking the halls of A+D, seeing all my art friends in the hallway, seeing zak or daniella or whoever else at the check-out window, parking my bike outside the building, seeing the magnolia tree outside in bloom, or room 225 and its copious amount of ever-increasing natural light and views of the stadium. To paraphrase my future tech+mgmt. professor, it's important to venture south of Green Street. And that, that I have done with spectacular results and have taken with me long-lasting memories.

Argument reception, critique, and distribution notes

Success! My last project is finished and shown and I'm pretty much done with class. Which is bittersweet for its many reasons, but that's for another journal entry. I showed it with some unavoidable technical glitches, but the point went across the minds and hearts of my class mates. I distinct remember everyone laughing at appropriate parts, which surprised me. FARM BOT is serious business to me, or maybe the humor is just lost on me because I'm the one crafting the piece or if I put back-to-back all the times I've seen it while working on it, it would be longer than the Godfather Part 1 and 2 but not 3 because it's terrible. I remember telling people not to laugh! I guess FARM BOT is just naturally funny and brings joy to everyone, which in turn fills me with a lot joy. Mission accomplished. I achieved the truth and brought the people something they enjoy.

I wish I remember the critique a lot better, I'll just assume that someone said something about how the levels on Tom Abram's talking head were kinda low. Which I cranked up to 150 percent in post. Also it wasn't in a big room and wasn't mic'd. So there wasn't little I could do in post, but maybe in photography I could have done something. I remember people watching the video the second time around when I played it without sound, but they were too enraptured with catching the details I sprinkle into the movie so cleverly to give criticism. I really wish I could redo critiques.

I posted this on YouTube and 48 hours later it has 1024 views. I was hoping to get a thousand by friday, so this exceeded my expectations by far. I did a lot of promoting it on facebook, messaging all the members of the FARM BOT group and posting it and encouraging people who had seen it to encourage others to see it. I feel this will be instrumental to the movement. Because the whole reason for this film is not only to be an academic piece but to promote our cause. It has been successful to that end. I hope to have 2000 views after a week, but that's being optimistic I think. Because it's finals time for one thing and on the verge of summer for another, I think it's a little late to promote it beyond the internet venues, but the piece is written for the Internet and ART250, so I think it works.

UPDATE: Friday, May 4. It has over 2600 views. It was also mentioned on the local political blog IlliniPundit from which it was mentioned on RealClearPolitics, a nation-wide blog sponsored apparently by CNN/Time. I'm a little surprised. I guess my next goal is 4000 views, we'll see how that goes.

In the future though, there will have to be revisions to the film. Already I forgot to credit my friend Evan for being inside the costume and another person who came out to help build, but I don't remember him. And as for Evan, I don't want people to know it was him inside FARM BOT that Thursday, but I'm thinking the people who would care already know.

Oh well: here's the YouTube posting: