Going “buy” the Book

Confession time.  I am not an avid reader.  I am more of a thinker and creator.  I love walking the isles of a local based, non-big box, hardware store.  It just gets my juices flowing. Same holds true for local bike shops! 

While rehabbing after my initial heart attack, I walked for 60 minutes (at a good clip) at my local Home Depot during the cold winter months.  The “big box” experience did not inspire me all that much, but the store layout is pretty much lasered in my memory!  It is often hard to find an employee to help there, so my constant circling went undetected.

So, what does “hardware stores” and “book buying” have to do with a cycling blog.  I’m thinking, “HARDLY nothing”.  However, like the cinder blocks you can find in the home and garden section of the Orange Box, a few books make for a good foundation.

There are three guys on the Yellow Shirt list that need to be revealed more as we explore the books I have listed in my “Book Shelf” and on the “Works In Progress” tab.  One is a “sharer”, the other is an “author”, and the other is a “gifter”.

Wayne can put...
the hammer down!

Yellow Shirt Code Name: Honking Wayne

Actual Name: Wayne Ostrander

Connection Date:  July 28, 2010

Bookage Background for the "Sharer":

When I met Wayne, in Lake Findlay, NY (a much longer story for another day), he indicated that his usual riding distance was 50 miles...where I was only averaging 25 miles per ride.  We became instant friends, and if you check out my Geeky Data page, you will see that we rode 14 rides together last year.

Let’s check the math.  Fourteen rides, 699.2 miles, which averages out at 49.94 miles per ride.  I think Mr. Ostrander is guilty of overstating his average riding distant.  C’mon man!

Besides introducing me to “Team ROMEO” and “Ebay Mary”, Wayne also connected me up with some guy (the Author…see below) he met one afternoon on the side of the road when he was out riding…a trail connection.      

Since Wayne knew that I was a newbie, he gave me his copy of “The Complete Book of Long-Distance Cycling”.  It was fun reading his penciled in study notes that were left in the margin of all of the chapters. 

This book helped me complete my first Century on 9/12/2010: The Hancock Horizontal Hundred, which was tackled with the help of ABC’s Yellow Shirt dude…”Century Tom”.

The review of this book on the “Works in Progress” tab speaks for itself.        

The “Honking” part of Wayne’s code name is in reference to the flying “V” of geese in flight.  He has been my biggest supporter, educator, and inspiration (more on that later).

Here’s a “Honk” back at you buddy…keep cranking.

Wayne (left) Stan (right)
Leading a ROMEO lunch ride
to the Burger Hut in Alliance, OH
[Yes!  That is 200,000 lifetime miler Dr. Tom (center) in pursuit]

Yellow Shirt Code Name: Pastor Stan

Actual Name: Stan Purdam

Connection Date:  August 6, 2010

Bookage Background for the "Author":

Wayne told me about Stan on the first day we met at Lake Findlay.  His comment, after they met on the side of the road when Wayne stopped to ask Stan if he needed any assistance, was that he went back home and wrote in his biking journal, “Today I met Stan Purdham.”  And as they say, the rest is history.

In many ways, these two guys are like “peas in a pod”.  Of the fourteen rides I completed with Wayne, Stan was part of six of the excursions.  Let me rephrase that.  Stan, in essence, lead six of the excursions since the rides were ones that he documented and had written about, or was currently writing about, in two local based cycling books.

The first being “Pedaling to Lunch: Bike Rides and Bites in Northeast Ohio” published by Akron University Press.  The second book, which is schedule for publication release this coming May, is "Pedaling on the North Coast: Biking the Streets of Greater Cleveland"…a work that is co-authored with Murray Fishel who is a long time member of the Akron Bike Club.

Even though I did not get to read the two touring books Stan penned until December 2010, when the snows and cold weather arrived, I was influenced by the books the moment I first met Stan.  Upon reading these travelogs, I immediate identified with the “wonderer” aspects of touring that Stan so masterfully describes. 

He made me laugh.  He made me cry.  He made me want to be out on the road exploring and…making connections! 

 

I highly recommend:

1.) “Riding Around Heaven All Day: A Piecemeal Journey Across America by Bicycle”

 and 2.) “Playing In Traffic: America from the River Niagara to the Rio Grande, by Bicycle (via Route 62)”

My first solo tour in October 2010 weaved through Millersburg, OH on Route 62.  When I subsequently read “62”, I was certainly bonded to that section of Stan’s trip.

Let me set the record straight, the Yellow Shirt code name for Stan does not do him justice. 

Here is what his bio says at http://stanpurdum.com/Bio.html:  In the course of a varied career, Stan Purdum has been a carpenter, teacher, camp manager, minister, bicycle mechanic, drama director, journalist, writer and editor.

In reality, Stan’s code word should have been “Stan the Awesome One”. 

ScoJo posing with his
South Korea Fixie

Yellow Shirt Code Name: Biking Son Scott 

Actual Name: Scott Leonard Johnson

Connection Date:  January 25, 1986

Bookage Background for the "Gifter":

Scott was always our “outdoors” man of a son.  He has massive skills.  I once wrote a song about him when he was four years old.  It goes like this:

Big Scott, Big Scott, once was a runt, but now is a GIANT man!

Yeah.  We locked ourselves out of the little house we were renting on Mercer Island, WA, but we were successful in hoisting Scott through an open bathroom window.  When I let go of his little hands, and he dropped to the bathroom floor, my heart sank in worry thinking, “What if he can’t open the front door and he is stuck in the house by himself”. 

However, like in all aspects of his life, Scott rose to the occasion and become a legend that day.

Darth Vadar and Luke Sky Walker Doing
Battle with some unique light sabers!

I have blogged in a few spots that I used Scott’s bike and biking gear that he left behind two years ago, when he and his wife ventured to South Korea to teach English as a second language.  I am not sure he intended to “gift” them to me.  But, these gifts of his have been life changing.

The best gift I got this Christmas, from South Korea via a USA delivery from Amazon, was a book.  But, it was not just any book.  It was a cycling book. 

Just like Stan’s books, I read Scott’s gift cover to cover in a short period of time (less than two days…which is quick for me).

The book, “Into Thicker Air” was a great read about an adventure writer/rider’s quest to reach the seven “lowest” depressions on seven continents.  You have to like deserts, not desserts, to attempt this feat.

I’ll never repeat the “feats” of pedaling into these depressions, but I will say that desert narrative provided an important “sandy perspective”.  Scott…thanks for the “gift” of true “grit”.

This book made me a more determined rider. 

Power Commuters of the world unite!  

Bottom Line: 

I hope to get off the schnide and become a more avid reader.  Do you think there is anyway to mount one of those Kindle readers on ones handle bars?

Probably a bad idea, but it will certainly be mentioned in a future post along with "I-pod ear PLUGS!"  You will hear my “Sandlot Rant” when this blog topic gets covered.

Remember: Ride Safe.

Hey, what “bookage” can you recommend for the readers of this blog?  Let us all know by leaving a comment here. 

Leaving “good book” references might make you a famous member of the Yellow Shirt Hall of Fame!

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