Sunday, February 13, 2011

Interzone, Kansas

Old rail line is now the bike and running path through the city. Some of the old tracks remain.

I have not blogged in a few months, Gentle Reader of This Blog. At the moment, I have relocated to Interzone, Kansas, USA--and the move is not permanent. Employment in Tucson that was too good to be true, fizzled-out; Little Egypt convinced me to live with her and Rico for a time--before she possibly goes on another deployment to Afghanistan. So late January, before the two blizzards that I've now lived through, I drove up from Tucson to Inerzone.

Desert San Campus Bike now will be my City Bike.

I brought up my road bike, The Mighty Trek, and my Campus Bike I kept at the Desert San. I had fenders put on down at the local bike shop, and I put on an old front rack that Phil down at Pima Street Bikes gave me one afternoon. Now that the snow is melting and the sun is warming up things the last few days, I'm using the City Bike to explore Interzone--and hope to be car-free.

Little house Little Egypt rents near downtown Interzone and KU.

We live within a few blocks to less than a mile to everything we need. Once the weather is nicer, Interzone is a bike town. I've brought up Little Egypt's bike back in September and Rico has a new bike too. He'll ride to school at KU, the wife to her office, and me too with some luck.

My niece Olivia and my new nephew Hunter, born right before Christmas in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I made a quick stop by Tulsa to see my family before the last stretch to Interzone.

Rico in our little place, filled with music and creativity.

Rico is a drummer and has taught himself to play the guitar. The house here has a full unfinished basement in which Rico has his drums and pretty much a complete recording studio. There is an area where I have the bikes--my hope is to get The Mighty Trek on the road as soon as it gets warmer.

I put a basket on the City Bike as it will be a work bike--errands, grocery store, to the cafe, the pub, where ever I can go by bike!

The rail trail through the city. Still lots of snow!

I'm riding to the bike shop with my map of the county--all the rural roads are drawn out and the bike shop boys show me some good routes.

A few times I took some streets best to be avoided--but that's how it goes when you're exploring a new place.

Side door of the bike shop. Warm enough to open up everything and enjoy the Spring air that's on the way.

The boys at the bike shop were happy to help me out with the map I brought. Also told me about map-my-ride, which I checked out before--however often blokes leave out important details about the routes so I think best to see what the boys say. Oh yeah, everyone's bringing in their road bikes and the turn around time for tune-ups will be a week!

William Burroughs owned this house here in Interzone, which is just down the street from where I'm staying now. Rest in Peace, Old Man.

Wish me luck here with a new job--and getting back to my home in Tucson soon!

Cheers! Bruce

4 comments:

Big Oak said...

Good luck!

Dan Trued said...

Bruce,
Good luck on the new roads to explore. A link I check in on a regular basis is this guy in Lincoln, and the snow doesn't seem to slow his merry band of riders much http://cornbreadblog.blogspot.com/. He takes some damn good pics too.
They do mostly gravel road riding, I would guess with wider tires. I think there is some epic century or double on gravel maybe in Kansas if I remember right. Can't remember what the name of it is. As you probably know, Tucson was shut down for a week because of cold, and I didn't even ride for a week, but hopefully that is in the past here.

Dan

Anonymous said...

The road to "be avoided" looks like one of the old euro cobblestone roads that characterize the Spring Classics. Imagine yourself doing Paris-Roubaix rather than Interzone-Interzone. Tucson, of course, awaits your return.

Boss

starstuff said...

Good luck Bruce. New country to explore is always fun, of course riding in the snow can be fun too. I used to ride my mountain bike all over Flagstaff in the winter. Enjoy it while you can and here's hoping the prospects are good in the future.