Blogs from Redding, California, United States, North America

Hallo Ihr Lieben Seit Dienstag Abend bin ich bereits in den Staaten, d.h. In Californien. Nach gewissen kleinen Anfangsschwierigkeiten ist es nun recht gemütlich. Nach einem langen Flug bin ich am Dienstag ca. 16:00 h in San Francisco gelandet. Das Einchecken in Kloten am Vortag war recht mühsam, denn die „Kofferwaage“ zeigte mir zu Hause etwa 2 bis 2,5 kg weniger an als die Waage am Flughafen. Fragt sich, welche stimmte... Jenu jedenfalls musste ich beide Koffer umpacken, habe die Bücher in den Velokarton geschmissen und diesen wieder zugeklebt (das Velo mit „Zubehör“ war Gott sei Dank 9 kg leichter als erlaubt). Mit diesem Sperrgut kämpfte ich mich wieder zurück zur Check-In Frau, sie hat mir tatsächlich geholfen, den Karton zu heben. Aber dann war alles gut und eben, den Flug hab ich glücklich überstanden und ... read more

REDDING, Calif. - I’m not used to stopping for the day at 3:35 p.m., but it felt pretty good to get off of the bike and into an air conditioned motel room in the 97 degree heat of Redding. I covered 424.3 miles in 6 hours and 40 minutes of riding today and I’m poised for a 315-mile jaunt tomorrow to Monterey with an afternoon/evening foray down to Big Sur. Sean took me to a spectacular little German bar and eatery called Prost! last night. They have all of the great German standards on tap and their outdoor patio features tables and benches from the Spaten beer tent at Oktoberfest in Munich. I had a brat and sauerkraut and a liter of Spaten Optimator. I was up by 5:45 a.m. today. Sean and Ruth got up ... read more

September 3, 2009 All my life I’ve been a chronicler. Perpetually feeling the need or desire for reecording my wonderings, my feelings, thoughts, reflections both internal and external in words and images. Gotta keep a record, lest I forget. Gotta reflect, be deep, poignant, poetic, clever, relevant. You know the drill. For the past weeks I’ve released myself of any such discipline, having let go of my journal, hardly emailed anyone, and not entered my musings onto our blog. Instead I’ve enjoyed just being in the moment, present in place, and quite on the go I might add. Here are some pics of our backpack trip with beloved friends from the Bay Area. I brought a camera but nothing the read or write. It’s been most enjoyable but perhaps I’ll re-explore the joy of using the ... read more

On Memorial day weekend, Joe and I decided to go on another road trip. We started our journey on Friday, May 22nd after he got off work. We rented a car through Enterprise and got a Chevy HH6. We almost had to make the trip with an SUV (Dodge Journey) since they didn't have any available compact or mid-size cars for us when we got there. Fortunately, I was able to return the Journey for the HH6. Gas on the Journey would have been a bugger. Anyhow, our main destination was to head up to Redding and rest there for the night. Along the way, we managed to checked out Colusa Wildlife National Refuge, Colusa Sacramento River State Recreation Area and the Colusa County Courthouse listed as one of California's historic site #890. That was pretty ... read more

We travelled from LA to San Francisco on a cheap coach. It was run by a company called USAsia. You guessed it we were the only none Asians on the coach. All the information was in Chinese, so we ended up just following the crowd to ensure that the coach didn't go without us. When we disembarked in China town the bus drive kept thanking only Phil and me. Then as we were trying to find a cab the coach driver went passed and was blowing his horn and waving at us. We must have been a novelty for the bus driver. We stayed in a historic hotel on Market street, right in the centre of the city. It was really foggy and cold when we arrived, I put my jacket on it was that cold. ... read more