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Apple iPad

As basically everyone knows, yesterday Apple released it's "iPad." The next device in Apple's line of media devices. I really hadn't kept up with they hype over the table, but instead just figured I would wait until the Keynote at the WWDC and let myself be surprised by what Jobs was going to pull out of the hat.

I expected something new (yes it's a new product) but I really don't feel as though the iPad is something "new." As The Onion said about the device "Come on, Steve, just think—think, dammit—you're running out of time," the exhausted CEO said as he glued nine separate iPhones to the back of a plastic cafeteria tray. "Okay, yeah, this will work. This will definitely work. Just need to write 'tablet' on this little strip of masking tape here and I'm golden. Oh, come on, you piece of shit! Just stick already!" Honestly, to me, it's just an "iPhone XL." Nothing more than the same thing that I have been carrying around for the past 3 years, IN MY POCKET. Now, you just have the beautiful feature of it being to big to fit in your pocket, it's the size of a book.

What's the advantage of this?? Nothing. Again, everything it does, I have one that fits in my pocket and does the same thing.

With all honestly, I don't like it at this moment in time. As a speaker on NPR said, "Apple is just putting the stake on the ground" and getting this project going. Yesterday the Software Developer Kit (SDK) was released to the Developers of the world to create applications for the iPad (iPhoneXL), the applications developed for the iPad could turn the way I see it around. Potentially making it into a much more useful tool than it seems to be now.

"The iPad had the opportunity to create a completely new consumer device category, and it didn't..." -- James McQuivey of Forrester Research

Sources: Apple, NPR, The Onion

Florida Tour: Day +6

So, today is the last day :(

I woke up around 5 freaking A.M. to the sound of rain, rain, and more rain. The only nice thing was that it was warm, I was basically out of my sleeping bag by the time I woke up due to being warm.

After I finally got out of the tent I realized the rain wasn't too bad at all, more of a light drizzle. Soon, everyone else was up and operating. Packing up wasn't bad, but everything was wet. I think we all shared the same happiness that we were going home with wet gear instead of having to set up a wet camp again later that night.

We made quick work of the 30 miles back to Wakulla Springs State Park and the car was still there!

After a quick loading of the car, strapping suitcases to the roof, and loading all the bikes on we ran inside for a quick change of clothes and hit the road for what would be our 16 hour trip back home to Missouri. With a quick stop outside of Nashville at Waffle House it was a direct trip home, I'd say we were all glad to be sleeping in our own beds!

Today (of course the rainy day) is the only day we had flats, well Joey had both of them. We ended up finding a few fish hooks stuck in our tires. Joey got one flat after the first few miles and another when we were about a mile away from the car. The second flat we ignored since we were so close to the car. . .

Florida Tour: Day +5

Day 5, the last night of camping for us. 2nd to last day on the bike.

We all knew it was going to be a long ride back off of St. George's Island to the mainland but thanks to a hefty tail wind (15mph+) the ten miles to the bridge was short & sweet. Thanks to a sneaky ass raccoon, we had zero breakfast, so eating before we got off the island was much needed. After asking around we found the "grocery store," got our bagels, and rolled back across the 4 mile bridge to the mainland.

The rest of the day consisted of some brutal coastal headwinds. I always thought the floodplains of St. Chuck were rough riding on windy days but the coast is no match.

Ride, ride, ride, and eventually we wound up at Ochlockocnee State Park, located just off the Ochlockocnee river. The park ranger gave us a free bundle of wood (probably because he felt bad for us) as well as warned us that there was a 90% chance of rain overnight and all day tomorrow, so we prepared. Everything was water proofed after dinner although we weren't too worked up because it was to be in the 60's and we were just riding back to the car to head back to Missouri Land.

After an evening of rice & bean burritos, a nature hike, s'mores, and a bottle of cheap champagne, we all hit they hay and let the rain begin to fall. . .

Lunch at Carabelle Beach

Cruisin'

Break Time.

Last view of the coast.

Ochlockocnee River

Florida Tour: Day +4

Day four of our tour started out just as every other day, waking up and wandering around, except today I wandered on a beach. It was low tide so I was able to walk about 150 yards off shore before I would’ve, more than likely, been attacked by birds who were out on the prowl for some breakfast. As I turned back I noticed our neighbor, Jim, just getting ready to tear down camp and set off. He and I exchanged a few words before he was heading East and I was heading downtown to “Palm Tree Books & the No Name Cafe” to soak up some Wi-Fi and catch up on virtual errands.

After a quick hour in the warm cafe, I rolled back over to camp where everyone was just getting moving. Breakfast this morning was omelette sandwiches with sweet & sour sauce left over from last nights stir fry, a nice change of pace from the Oatmeal. Soon after breakfast the daily ritual of tearing down camp began and we were soon on the hunt for coffee (for Joey).

Todays ride was one of the longer ones on the trip so far, 45ish miles. Our first 20 came and went very quickly followed by our arrival in the town of Appalachicola. We stopped at “the pig,” picking up dinner which will be pasta with tortellini and Newman’s Own pasta sauce.

On our way again, but this time we had two major bridges to cross, each a few miles in length. One was connecting us from Appalachicola to Easpoint and another from Eastpoint to the Island where we are currently camped out at. Both provided some awesome views and a very wide 8 foot shoulder.

The Island it’s self proved to be longer than we anticipated, almost ten miles in length from the bridge, where we crossed from the “mainland.” The ten miles was defintiely the toughest so far on the trip menotinous plus ten to twenty mile an hour head winds make a pretty difficult ride after the long day. Soon, we had set up camp, walked with our feet in the sand, SHOWERED! (for the first time in 6 days), and were just relaxing.

When sunset was approaching I started to take a stroll on the beach. Along the way I discovered Alligator filled ponds (didn’t see any alligators though, that’s the goal for the morning) and a few awesome sand dunes. Sunsets down here in Florida seem to beat the Missouri sunsets on the awesomeness scale, hands down.

Tomorrow we are headed about 30 miles East of where we are right now. Just in case you were wondering, tonight will be the warmest night so far on this trip, just around 40 degrees.

Florida Tour: Day +3

So today was tour day 3! Today we rode on the straightest road we may have ever been on in our entire life. . . It was about 30 miles of riding on the stretch, I think there were 5 curves total. But! We made it to the coast today, which made up for it. Yup, at old Port St. Joe (St. Joe for short).

We wandered around for a while buying food, supplies, fudge. . . the necessities, before we realized where we wanted to camp was a little to far away, almost as far as we had already ridden today. After checking out the places the police recommended, we decided to start searching on our own for a place. Hanging out downtown we saw the touring cyclist, Jim Lund, we had seen earlier, Joey chases him down. As he was asking where Jim is going to camp a local man recommends camping straight down the road at the edge of the water, he said no one would bother us there, so we did!

It ended up being the best camping spot ever. . . Under the palm trees, on the sandy beach, how much better could it get?

"Dead Lakes" where we were camping last night.

THE BEACH. SCORE.

This was our campsite, just off of the beach.

Sunset.

Typical "Dad" picture.

Cooking stir-fry for dinner.

Florida Tour: Day +2

Today has been a relatively short day. I haven't had time to do a write up so will just be uploading pictures. We are somewhere in Florida called Wewatchitka, camping in the "Dead Lakes" State Park. It's a beautiful park and we are pretty much the only souls there.

The weather today has been pretty amazing, around the mid 50's, couldn't ask for anything better. Tonight for dinner we are making cold pizzas and bought a 6 pack to sip on. Tomorrow we will be hitting the beach which we are all super excited for!

That is all for now!

Getting ready to break camp in the morning. Riverside RV Park.

On the road. . .

From our campsite at the Dead Lakes.

Our campsite at the Dead Lakes.

Florida Tour: Day +1

After what has turned out to be a long day, we are currently camped out in the “Riverside R.V. Park” outside of Bristol, FL. The temperature currently feels a hair above 20 degrees farhenheit. Joey & Kady cooked a lovely dinner of bean & rice burritos with cheese. Thanks to the weather we are all shacked up in our tents reading, writing, and talking. . .

Around 9 AM this morning I woke up to the sound of Kady yelling at Joey to “Wake Up!” Within 5 seconds I could hear Joey, again, snoring fast asleep. Unzipping my tent I came to the re-realization that we were not in a beautiful campground or on a breathtaking beach. Instead we were in the middle of a rednecks paradise. Surrounding our tents were campers which each had their own fleet of lifted up toyota pick ups with oversized dogs cages in the beds as well as dog kennels surrounding the campsites. These hunters were in it for the long haul. Hunting what? We’re not really sure.

Soon all of us are up and mozying around, before I know it, our campsite is packed up and again everything is loaded onto the car and we are headed to Wal-Mart, the only “local” store, to pick up some much needed food for our few days ahead. This errand was short and sweet.

Wakulla Springs State Park was our last destination via car, it was a chore to find. One thing I can give props to Missouri for is having the state parks clearly marked. Florida, on the other hand, I can not speak so highly of. Shortly though, thanks to Kady’s iPhone, we have found the state park and begin the unloading of the car and the loading of the bikes. After a few quick hours of messing with Jessi’s new rack, we’re rolling. Nothing like a noon start!

The miles came quick and easy thanks to a beautifully wide shoulder provided for us by the Florida Department of Transportation. Something I can say Missouri has never even thought of looking into for rural areas. Our ride was accompanied by a low amount of cars but a very high amount of Logging Trucks. For the most part everyone was very respectful of us and allowed us plenty of right of way.

Quickly, sunset was approaching and we had not yet decided on a place to camp. Our options were A.) Torreya State Park (as planned) or B.) Call the local sheriff and see where we may be able to camp in the town. Around 5:15 we came across a Torreya State Park sign saying “13 miles,” a few more than we had accounted for. Since we were surely not going to make it by sunset we decided to book it into town to see what we could come up with. Within a few miles we saw a sign “Riverside RV Park - - Turn right at signal.” We were quick to assume that they were not going to let us camp their or that it would cost us $30, which is more than we want to pay at all. So, we call them, the phone is answered abruptly by a gentleman who lets us know that he has a “special spot” for tent campers like us. After our biggest and fastest descent of the day, we arrive at the Riverside RV Park. Looks like we’ll be having a good climb first thing in the morning. . .

This Riverside RV Park we are shacked in for the night is something extraordinary! All of these “RV’s” have apparently been parked here for a few years accompanied with heaps of years of trash piled all around them. Every home is partnered with at least one dog that prefers to bark at thin air, or maybe it’s those crazy bikers in tents?

Joey & Kady cooking dinner. Rice & Beans.

Stopped for food along hwy. 20.

Unloading the car.

Yup, it's a mess.

Florida Tour: Day -1

7:00 AM is when this story begins and a long day that it will end up being. Kady and I after a long and restful night of sleep being loading my 2 door Honda Civic with 4 touring bikes, 12 full size panniers, sleeping bags, bike parts. . . everything you would need to tour with, and maybe some extra! By 7:30 we are wrapping up the loading, at 7:45 we are on the road. FLORIDA/WARM WEATHER BOUND!

To make a long story short, around 6 PM we meet up with Joey & Josh somewhere around 100 miles south of Atlanta, GA. Josh is Joey’s good friend who has been studying abroad in New Zealand. Joey has spent the last week with Josh in Miami, Josh’s home town. We all talk and scarf down a quick meal at a Sub-Par Subway, and are soon bidding good-byes. Back to the road we go with an even more packed car.

A few hours later, we are so close we can smell it, but must pick up one more passenger! Jessi! He flew into the Tallahassee Regional Airport from Charleston, SC where he had been spending time with his parents. As we pull up to the huge terminal that is the TRA, Jessi is walking out with a huge duffle, lord knows how we’re going to make this work. After a quick adjustment, my gear is strapped to the roof alongside of the two Long Haul Truckers, and we’re again on our way to camping. This is when it gets very interesting. . .

I had spent some time researching the Appalachicola National Forest. Here are the facts: we can camp anywhere in the forest that isn’t private land, hardly any of the forest is private land, we were going to camp the first place we could find. The first place we could find ended up being. . . PRIVATE LAND, according to the gentleman who politely came over and tell us with his thick southern accent, cigarrette in hand, after we had set up our tents and half-way unloaded the car. He gave us some directions to the actual “campground” and we were loaded and on our way.

Several miles later we were again, lost, unsure what to do but had stumbled upon a paved bike path that conveniently ran through the middle of no where. We stopped, looked at the map, and found that no camping sites were listed. Next option, call the sheriff. He politely told us where to go which happened to be close to where we just were, so we just off on yet another leg of this adventure.

After what seemed to be hours of driving down an almost abandoned sand paved back road, a campground appears out of no where. Albeit a campground, it was not the usual “campground.” People here were shacked up and ready for hunting. Mobile homes were brought in what seemed to be permanently, many trailers with no owners to be seen, and the gooseneck that had a plywood house built on top of it. A few trailers were accompanied by a host among a slew of dogs, dog cages, toyota pickups (of course with dog cages in the beds of the trucks), and of course the inevitably loud and annoying generator.

At this point we were “taking what we could get.” It had been a day of 15 hours of driving over 1000 miles to get to this point as well as approaching one in the morning. We gladly jump out of the cramped car, throw our tents up, and sleep in the ten degree frost laden Florida Land.

Loading up for Florida!

Finally, I am leaving for Florida tomorrow morning! The weather these past few weeks in Missouri has been brutal. Wind chills in the negative double digits, crazy wind gusts, and snow that didn't melt the next day. All rare occurrences in Missouri Land. So, tomorrow morning I will be busting out of here with a few friends to bike tour around Florida for few days, particularly the panhandle region. Although we will not be escaping the cold entirely, we're definitely going to escape it during the daylight hours with temps approaching up to the 60's. Beats the crap out of -25.

Right now we are chilling at Kady's house, rounding up gear, taking it easy. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we will hit the road for our 14 hour drive to Tallahassee.

I've made a decision about my week in Florida, i'm turning off my cell phone from the minute we unload the car until the minute we load up the car to leave. My parents don't think that will actually happen, but it's going to. I'm tired of being connected right now. I will be keeping up with my blog & checking email when I can! Just tired of the ol' cell phone.

Be sure to check back daily and see how our trip is going! I should be able to keep the blog updated w/ pictures! Thanks to MOM letting me borrow her camera!

Countdown to Florida

In a little over a week I will be rolling away from this wind chill of -5 to the Sunshine State of Florida! Starting in Tallahassee we will be touring around the panhandle for a week of camping on beaches, in national forests, and of course, enjoying 60 degree weather!

The trip is essentially a trial run for my second long-distnace tour. My first tour was multi-weeks on a completely different bike set up with less gear than this trip. My second tour, summer 2010, will be over 3 months long on a new bike (Bianchi Peregrine) with new gear, enough equipment to blog, vlog, keep a photo journal, and do presentations in cities along the way about bicycling and our trip.

I will be hopefully updating my blog on the daily for this trip, but who knows if that will happen.

My new bike rigged up with my new Axiom panniers. The "small" panniers are bigger than my "big" panniers from last year.

Picture of a beach we will be camping on in Florida.