Professional Repair and
Shop Operation Class

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Ashland, OR

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I arrived on Saturday so that I would have a day to check out Ashland and hopefully do some cycling. Three of us arrived on Saturday, including Joe from Minneapolis, Bob from Asheville.
Covered bike parking
on campus
I was up by around 5 am. In order not to wake the others, I decided to walk into town. There's a decent sidewalk system, although there are several gaps along the frontage of some of the older homes. I was pleasantly surprised that a coffee shop near the university was open at 6, so I lingered over a steamer, reading the Sunday paper.

I walked so much those first few days that I ended up buying some new insoles for my hiking boots. It was often wet during the first week, although the temperature was generally milder than back home in Reston. Since the hostel was so close to town, I enjoyed exploring the downtown area.

I needed groceries, so on my way home from the coffee shop I stopped by the local Safeway, figuring it was the only place open on Sunday. I loaded up on groceries for the coming week, but as I was checking out I realized that I had overdone it. There was no way I was going to be able to carry the groceries back to the hostel. The store staff kindly offered to store my stash in the produce locker while I returned to hostel to hook up the suitcase/trailer on the Friday to haul back the food.

After lunch I talked for a while with the new room mates, Hank from Eureka, CA, Sally from Columbus, Ohio, Markus from Asheville, NC and Mike from Bellingham, WA.
Ashland bike lane
It was a decent day so I explored some more on the bike, riding south along Siskiyou Blvd, then west on Park St. up the adjacent mountain. There were bike lanes along all of the major roads. The road goes directly uphill at about a 17 or 18% grade. It was a more difficult ride than climbing the Manayunk Wall in Philadelphia. I never did make it to the top, as I ran out of gears and didn't feel like stuggling to the top. The ride back down could have been exhilarating, but I didn't dare let go of the brakes since there were many side roads and driveways along the way.

Back in Ashland I rode into Lithia Park and climbed Pioneer St. for about a mile or so. The park is on the National Register of Historic Places and is the site of the first Shakespeare Festival. It's a beautiful park and I regret that I didn't have time to walk the many trails.

After dinner I met Erich of Creston, Canada. He's an organic farmer who lives in a solar powered house, uses horses for his farming animals and used to shoe horses for a living. He's currently a “scaler”, assessing the value of logs brought to the mill where he works. He rides his bike to work whenever possible. He and I were the geezers of the class, both of us being over 50.

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