As of today, I’m a bike geek. You may have seen bike geeks decked out head to toe in Gear. In the past, whenever I saw someone wearing your general-issue cycling uniform (i.e. the spandex-or-whatever shorts and a jersey) I figured it was more for show then for real. After all, we Americans love our gear. Now I know better. After logging nearly 2000 miles wearing street-issue, I now wear Gear. I have cycling shoes, shoes that attach your feet to special pedals made just for the purpose. You put them on, they feel like regular shoes, except with a stiffer sole. Once you get on your bike, you roughly align the clips and clip into the pedals by exerting a little pressure. It’s easy–until you have to stop.
Not wanting to embarrass myself, I’d gone out the night I’d gotten them, clipping and unclipping, first with just one shoe, then with both. I didn’t fall off and felt pretty confident that I had it down. When I started my ride to work the next morning, I clipped in without too much trouble and was able to unclip at the first stop I had. I clipped back in and went for about a mile. I was on a sidewalk when I hit my first long light. There were a bunch of cars to my left, in the right turn lane. Ordinarily, I would let them pass in front of me, then take a right and a left into a parking lot to get past the light. That morning, when I reached a dead stop, I suddenly realized that my feet were attached to the pedals and I couldn’t put my foot down to hold myself up. I just fell over. It must have looked odd to the people in the cars to my left–nobody moved for a long time. I skinned my knee and the palm of my hand. I haven’t fallen off since.
In the process of getting ready to go to Baja. I can’t help but think “oh how things have changed”. The last time I went to Baja, I went on the cheap, camping on the beach, living out of somebody elses trailer, off the milk of human kindness, the kindness of strangers.
The Mexican people have plenty of kindness to go around. With more people in the streets of L.A. protesting–ever–the sleeping giant has awoken. I’m embarrassed by how the United States treats people who’ve left behind family and friends and often risked their own lives to meet a demand for work we won’t do ourselves. We won’t do our own dirty work, and treat those who do like criminals.
With that as a backdrop, I feel entirely overprivileged and soon to be unworthy of the graciousness of our Mexican hosts. When I return to the United States, I always feel comparatively ill mannered, ever the uncouth host entirely lacking in graciousness.
As the uncouth host, I must say I’m looking forward to being an inconsiderate guest–without exception, Mexican people have always been incredibly warm and welcoming. I’m sure we’re going to have a memorable trip and I’m looking forward to spending time off the beaten path seeing a little bit of the real Mexico.
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We’re getting ready for a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Baja Mexico and vicinity. We’re planning on going whale watching in the Bahía Magdelena area, out of Puerto San Carlos. Next, we’ll be off to La Paz for a full day of sea kayaking and snorkeling. Then we’ll head to Todos Santos. The trip will end with 4 days at an all-inclusive resort which we’re being treated to courtesy of my wife’s workplace, where she won the People’s choice award for employee of the year.
I went to see Roseanne Cash perform at the SXSW Auditorium shores show last night with a friend. We ran into a band (who shall remain nameless) on the way, they were from the east coast. As one member quipped, “we’re done playing, now we’re playing“. We asked them how they were enjoying Austin, they said they loved it and asked, “Is it always like this? This is Texas, isn’t it?”. I thought to myself, “well, it is SXSW, so it’s not always like this”, but settled on saying, “South Austin is it’s own country.” It was definitely a freak show, my fellow Weirdo-Americans were out in full force and in full regalia.