32,000 over North Dakota…

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Here I am at 32,000 feet, over South Dakota, cruising along and writing this on my computer. When I think back to my younger years, so much has changed. In my youth, I was building radios with vacuum tubes that were bigger than my current cell phone and consumed much more power. How far we have come. I’m writing this on my Chromebook, which is miniature compared to my early computers.

It looks like I am on my adventure, riding across the United States by bicycle, from Oregon to Massachusetts. It doesn’t seem real yet. There is still the issue of getting my bicycle, on time, in Lincoln City, Oregon. At last check, it was in “transit,” somewhere in Wyoming. Update: we are currently over Wyoming, maybe I’ll see my bike down there?

FedEx really has dropped the ball on this one. Twelve days to ship a 42-pound box from Florida to Oregon is unacceptable. Apparently, FedEx isn’t keeping up with the technological advances I mentioned earlier.

Jane dropped me off at the Sarasota airport early this morning, around 05:00. She seemed to have her emotions in control, but I suspect it was difficult for her. At one time, we considered doing this together, possibly on a tandem bicycle, but now was not the time. I promised her we will do the Camino from Rome to Santiago, in Spain. Now I am committed.

This flight is scheduled to land in Portland, OR about lunch time. I’ll get something to eat, catch the HUT shuttle to Salem, OR, and then meet my new friends, Neil and Claudia and they will then take me to their place in Lincoln City. They’re both ham radio operators, KE7XL and N0JRU. I can’t thank them enough for putting up with the schedule changes and for helping out.

The bicycle is scheduled to arrive, at the latest by tomorrow. Once I can unpack it and reassemble it, this show can get on the road!

Author: Dennis Blanchard

Dennis Blanchard was born in Bristol, Connecticut. He and his wife Jane moved to New Hampshire in 1980 where he has climbed thirty 4000-foot mountains, biked the trails and enjoyed the wilderness. Never living very far from the Appalachian Trail, Dennis was always aware of the seductive siren’s call to hike it. Dennis is an electronics engineer who has freelanced for amateur radio, technical and motorcycle adventure magazines. He now lives in Sarasota, Florida.

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