Photos from October 2008 China Visit

It had been nearly a year since the last visit to the Seahorse Marine boatyard (SHM) to check on construction progress. With Kurt on a low salt diet (something that is difficult to maintain in China), it was decided that Marcia would go by herself.

The only firm part of her schedule were the flights.  She left on Thursday, October 2 and had a long flight via NW. She flew first to Portland, then to Narita, and finally to Hong Kong. Her return flight on Saturday, October 25 was only two legs, HK to Narita and Narita to Seattle.

While in Hong Kong, mostly she stayed with our friends the Nagles who were living on their SHM built Diesel Duck David Ellis in Aberdeen.

Compared to the previous year, a lot of rough carpentry was completed. In addition, a high point was watching our engine, a Lugger 1066T, get threaded through the salon door and lowered into the engine compartment.

Click on the photo album to see a few of the photos Marcia took on her visit.

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What the heck is Ménière’s (or “what did you say?”)

Wouldn’t you just know it would happen but about one month before I (Kurt) was scheduled to retire April 2007, the hearing in my right ear begin to act up. 

First, it felt the way an ear gets when you’ve been swimming and water has clogged the ear canal. Next, I heard a continual ringing of moderate volume (tinnitus).  Not surprising, the hearing acuity in my right ear was reduced dramatically.  To top it off, I had several episodes of vertigo lasting 10-30 minutes.

After a visit to my family physician and determining that it wasn’t likely some terrible disease, I decided to see how the symptoms progressed.  I had had a similar experience four years previous and after 3 or 4 months the symptoms disappeared.  I hoped for the same.

Unfortunately, by Fall 2007 the symptoms seemed no better and vertigo episodes increased.  A visit to a specialist was in order.

After a battery of tests to rule out other conditions, I was diagnosed with Ménière’s Disease (NIH description). Fortunately, in my case it is more of a nuisance condition than a severe affliction. However, I want to do whatever it takes to prevent its current unilateral nature (right ear only) in my situation from progressing to bilateral (i.e., afflicting both ears).

For cases in which the vertigo is infrequent and mild to moderate as in my case, the general treatment protocol is a low-salt diet (to reduce fluid retention) and a mild diuretic (again to deal with fluid retention).  Since sodium is the flavor crutch in most industrially processed foods and restaurants, we go out to dinner infrequently and the meals Marcia prepares are often from scratch rather than from the can or box. The side benefit of the diet is that I have lost about 15 pounds from my preretirement weight.

Besides the weight loss, my low salt diet serve as a convenient excuse for not accompanying Marcia on trips to the boatyard in China to check on construction progress.

RAGBRAI Recap

My cellular provider (AT&T) had poor coverage along the route so I wasn't able to post much during the ride. "Contemporaneous" writing loses something when done after the fact so I won't try to do a day-by-day recap of the ride. Below are some of my general impressions from the ride.

First, in a good way, the ride exceeded my expectations. The people were great, the weather not unbearable and the food wonderful. Depending on what our schedule is next year, we'd have no hesitation about doing RAGBRAI again.

We had no major mechanical problems (one flat tire) and our bodies held up pretty well (Kurt's right knee started acting up towards the end of the trip). The conditioning we did before the ride must have been sufficient because physically, the ride was reasonable.

There are lots of people on the ride but you sign-on knowing that it is going to be you and 10,000 of your best friends on the trip.  

 

The atmosphere is such that you have no inhibitions over what you eat or drink. Your only responsibility is to have a good time and pedal yourself down the road to the next town. Remember, pie is breakfast food. 

 

 

The host towns and the pass-thru towns (places you go through during the day) go all out for this event. It is a celebration at every stop. 

 

There is a lot of corn in Iowa. From one end of the state to the other, we passed field after field of corn. Also, Iowa is NOT flat!

Hard Leg

7/21 - We made the real hard leg from Harlan to Jefferson. Fewer hills from here on. RAGBRAI is everything we expected & more!

First Day

First day done. Tonight we opted to be indoors at a Lutheran church sleeping on padded pews. Plus it is air conditioned.

Are we ready? The truth is in the saddle!

We fly today to Omaha where we will spend the night. On Saturday we take a bus to Missouri Valley where the ride begins.

For support along the ride we are using Pork Belly Ventures. They will ferry our gear between towns and provide support above and beyond that in the basic RAGBRAI package.

Since the ride is sponsored by the Des Moines Register American newspaper (the "RA" in the rides acronym), there is ample coverage on the web at the newspaper's web site:

  Register American's main RAGBRAI page

Bicycle Origami

Rather than carrying our bicycles with us on the flight to Omaha (near the ride's start), we shipped the them ahead on FedEx.

Marcia's Bike Friday is designed to be stuffed into a large Samsonite hard case. Kurt's Rodriguez is a conventional road bike and requires a larger case. Kurt's nephew Brett, a hard-core bicyclist, loaned Kurt his hard sided carrying case.

Before

Marcia's bike
Kurt's bike

After

Marcia's bike
Kurt's bike
Packed and ready to go

Weekly RAGBRAI Training Summary

This blog post will be a "living" post and list our weekly training log. The daily rides will be shown in the appropriate weekly log.

If you want to see what this training is about, see this earlier post - Summer 2008 Plans.

	Date	Total
Week 1	May 11-17	109 Miles
Week 2	May 18-24	127 Miles
Week 3	May 25-31	162 Miles
Week 4	June 1-7	119 miles
Week 5	June 8-14	150 miles
Week 6	June 15-21	208 miles
Week 7	June 22-28	215 miles
Week 8	June 30-July 5	135 miles
Week 9	July 6-9	149 miles
	Total	1374 miles