Author: Neil Hanson

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Day 6 – Victorville to Twentynine Palms

Bicycle Touring in the West
Day 6 – Victorville to Twentynine Palms

“It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.”
  ~ K.T. Jong

Determined not to be surprised by the earlier sunrise, and highly motivated to log as many miles as possible in the wind-free early morning hours, I’m wheeling my bike out of the motel in Victorville at the earliest hint of light. I make my way east on Bear Valley Road, where traffic is light this time of morning. The shoulder is good in places, less than good in others, and I’m told that during busy times, this road carries very heavy traffic.

Connecting with highway 18 east of town, I follow this road into the little town of Lucerne Valley, where I stop at what will likely be my last available water supply for 50 miles or so. Here, I leave highway 18, and head further east on Old Woman Springs Road. (It’s also called highway 247, but that’s a boring name…)

The traffic on highway 18 is starting to pick up a bit by the time I leave it, and the traffic on Old Woman Springs Road remains very light early on this Saturday morning. It’s a beautiful morning, and while a bit of wind is swirling around, it swirls so that at times it’s in my face, and at times at my back. While there’s no shoulder at all on this road, the lack of traffic makes this a small concern.

If there was any doubt before, there can be no doubt now – I’m in the desert. And I begin to notice something, or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that I begin to notice less of something. It starts with a curiosity I develop about a chirping I keep hearing on both sides of the road. I wonder what sort of bird might be so abundant out here in the desert, and stop several times to sit still and watch for the bird. Continue reading “Day 6 – Victorville to Twentynine Palms”

Desert Solitude

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.
~K.T. Jong

I recently rode my bicycle across the deserts of the west. I’m blogging about that trip here. Here’s an excerpt from one of the postings, from a day when I was beginning to get deep into the desert:

I pull over to have a little snack, and become aware of just how quiet it is around me. The wind is puffing around here and there, and I have no doubt that it’s going to grow into a big wind before long, but right now it’s pretty light. However, even this light wind should make some noise, right?

The quiet is mesmerizing. I realize that when the wind blows, it’s not the air moving we hear, it’s the sound of the air moving through things like leaves and trees and grass that we hear. Out here in this desert, there’s just not much in the way of leaves and trees and grass. There’s nothing whatever in the way of leaves and trees and grass in fact. There are Joshua Trees now and again, which are actually a cactus, and there are some other cactusy-looking plants along the sandy floor of the desert, but there’s just not enough volume of “stuff” to blow around in the wind to create the background white noise of the normal outdoor’s that my experience has taught me to expect.

I find I really like this. It’s a rare sense of focusing quiet. Every few minutes a car or truck passes and disturbs the silence, but I stand here a long time leaning against my bike, and appreciating the quiet solitude. It reminds me of an experience scuba diving once. I was doing a night dive. Moving along the top of a reef, I found a nice sandy area, and settled down to suspend just above the bottom, turning out my light. The darkness enveloped me completely, and the silence and darkness was breathtaking. I lay there for a few minutes, enjoying the exhilaration of this silent primordial darkness, before turning my light back on and moving my way down the reef.

On the reef, both before my little experiment with primordial darkness and after, I saw a couple small sharks out hunting. I’m sure this potential danger added something to the exhilaration of the experience. I was alone in an environment that could rapidly turn mortally hostile, and I temporarily shut down my important sense – my sense of sight. I surrendered to the environment around me, allowing myself to soak inside the vastness.

Here on the bright and flat surface of the desert, I’m remembering and recognizing that feeling. Again I’ve dropped myself into an environment that could get mortally hostile rather rapidly. The quiet around me reminds me of that quiet I felt on the reef all those years ago.

I’m not sure what it is that attracts me to these “moments” out on the edge of comfort. It’s not as though I just find myself here – I went to great lengths to put myself in this situation. The aloneness with the quiet unlocks windows in my heart and soul I think. Taking this path that leads me out along the edge of life lets me feel the edge of something greater than myself, and that must be what pulls me toward these situations. I can’t keep the smile off my face as I bask in the warm, quiet solitude.

Day 5 – Frazier Park to Victorville

A Bicycle Tour Across The West:
Day 5 – Frazier Park to Victorville

Mad Dogs in the Desert
“Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. “Which dog wins? The one I feed the most.”
– Comanche Elder speaking of the inner struggle of good and evil
 

The motel I stay at in Frazier Park (technically the town in Lebec I think) is clearly a trucker’s motel. I’m in the common breakfast area at 5:00 AM, and at that hour, it’s full of truckers already. I don’t exactly fit in seamlessly in my spandex and bright yellow windbreaker, but after a few odd looks, the truckers seem to accept me in their space.
I realize we’re not that far from LA here, and many of these guys probably have deliveries to make in the LA area, and are getting an early start to try and beat traffic. Clearly this hotel isn’t a “holiday and recreation destination”…

It’s quite cold this morning – around 35 again – and I really don’t have gear for that temperature. I’m confident this is a short inconvenience at this altitude and hour. The elevation is something around 4500′, which is “in the mountains” in this part of the country. My first half-mile or so is a little climb, which I’m grateful for to warm up a little, but after cresting the pass, it’s a bitter descent for a few miles in the icy air. Yesterday morning, the temperature was about the same, but I was working steadily. This morning, descending through the icy pre-dawn air, my fingers ache and I’m shivering pretty significantly. Continue reading “Day 5 – Frazier Park to Victorville”

Book Review – The Road To Vengeance

The Road to Vengeance – The Strongbow Sage, Book 3
by Judson Roberts
Author’s website

I couldn’t help myself. After finishing book 2 in this series, I had to pick this one up fairly quickly. The story is just that well told – you don’t want them to end.

Here’s the publisher (or publicist) description:

Halfdan Hroriksson is on the hunt.
 
Determined to find and fight his brother’s killer, Halfdan knows he must first gain experience as a Viking warrior. He’s been lucky so far. He gained passage on a ship and is quietly learning the strategies of war and conquest from the hardy crew. Now, with a prisoner in tow—the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat—Halfdan is finally starting to earn some respect, and a name for himself.
 
But he is not looking for praise. Halfdan is only biding his time, gaining strength and skill for his ultimate quest. Time and again he proves himself on the battlefield, using clever strategy and an uncanny talent with a bow and arrow. Halfdan is growing as a warrior, but will this be enough to beat a savage murderer?
 
Through epic battle scenes and intimate power struggles, Judson Roberts brings the Viking world to pulsing life in this next chapter of the Strongbow Saga.
 

I’ve raved about this series in two other reviews of them I did. If you’re the parent of a teenage boy, I’d highly recommend you pick these up and leave them around where he might pick them up. If you’re a male that once was a teenage boy, and still enjoy adventure stories – especially if you also like historical fiction – you should pick these up.

I will say I think the ending of this one wasn’t as well done as the ending of the last one. His next one will be published independently himself, and I’m looking forward to getting hold of it when it’s out.

Day 4 – Paso Robles to Frazier Park

Bicycle Tour of the West
Day 4 – Paso Robles to Frazier Park

A first taste of remote

“At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise… that denseness and that strangeness of the world is absurd.”
  -  Albert Camus

Today is the longest planned day of my trip – 146 miles. The first 75 or 80 of those miles are across a remote section with no towns, no services, and barely any houses. I’m up well before first light, wolfing down leftover steak from the night before, and topping off the hydration tank. I’m on my bike and riding as the faintest light streaks the eastern sky. Continue reading “Day 4 – Paso Robles to Frazier Park”

Book Review – Empire of the Summer Moon

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
by S.C.Gwynne
Author’s website

I picked this up expecting a slog through a dry history book. However, for some reason I’m greatly attracted to the history, culture, and story of the Comanche people, so I was willing to put up with the slog.

To my surprise and delight, this book is neither a slog or a dry history book. The author does a tremendous job of telling the history of a people (as best we can know it) in a way that’s engaging and entertaining. The detail and thoroughness is truly impressive.

The only ding I would give it is the clear “European centric” viewpoint of the author. His words, phrasing, and context tell the story from the perspective of “true civilization” – the way we white’s wanted it to be. In his defense, he’s extremely fair in describing the events in a way that’s even-handed and exposes bias, prejudice, cruelty, and injustice on both sides. However, it’s always from that “white-centric” perspective.

It may be that in his shoes, this is the most fair way to tell the story. He does appear, after all, to be white of European descent, so telling the story from another perspective might be a bit disingenuous. However, I did find it a bit off-putting on occasion.

Book Review – Diaries of Adam and Eve

Diaries of Adam and Eve
by Mark Twain
Author’s website

It has been a while since I read anything by Twain, and I’d forgotten just how delightful it is to read his stuff.

Folks who are pretty hung-up on political correctness will find it disturbing that Twain crafts his Adam and Eve characters around pretty common stereotypes of males and females. I wasn’t bothered by this at all, and found it quite interesting that the stereotypes from 150 years ago seem so consistent with our stereotypes from today.

This is a very quick read, but after finishing it, I found myself looking back through it and reading parts of it again. It’s full of little diary snippets where each of the pair describes both the Eden they live in, and this other creature that they have been paired and connected with.

I’ll be reading some additional Twain for sure, now that my taste for his wonderful wit and wisdom has been whetted again…

Book Review – Dragons From The Sea

Dragons from the Sea – The Strongbow Sage, Book 2
by Judson Roberts
Author’s website

I read the first of these recently, and really enjoyed it. I believe these are actually classified as books for teens or older teens – clearly targeted at boys and young men. The last time I fell into one of those categories, the Beetles were still together…

Nonetheless, I really like these books.

Here’s what his publisher or publicist writes about the books:

In Dragons from the Sea, book two of the Strongbow Saga, Halfdan Hroriksson has escaped—for now—the enemies who murdered his brother and seek to kill him, too. Determined to avenge his brother’s death, Halfdan knows he must first gain experience as a warrior. He joins a Danish army gathering for an invasion of Western Frankia, for among its fierce chieftains and seasoned warriors he may find the allies he needs. But first he must prove his own worth in battle, and more importantly, he must survive, for he will face dangers not only from the Frankish enemy, but also from hidden foes within the ranks of the Danes. The Strongbow Saga is an epic tale of one man’s unstoppable quest for justice and vengeance that carries him across the 9th century world of the Vikings. This new edition of book two of the series contains maps showing Halfdan’s travels in this installment of the story, plus the route of the Viking fleet that invaded Frankia in 845 A.D.

 

This is a book I was wishing wouldn’t end so quickly. The storytelling is outstanding, even if the character development is a bit simple. But again, these books are written for young men / teenagers – I’m not sure they’d appeal to that group as much if the author got into more complex character development.

In talking to Peggy about this book, (who often gets asked for recommendations as she’s blissfully librarianing away), and told her I thought this (and the series) would be one to recommend right alongside “The Three Musketeers” by Dumas.

Now, for the other stuff.

I understand that Judson Roberts has struck out on his own, leaving the publishing company who published his first 3 books. He is preparing to publish his fourth book on his own. I LOVE to see authors doing this – especially authors like Roberts who are good and proven writers. I’d like to encourage readers to support these literary entrepreneurs, who are the equivalent of a small business-person trying to eek out a living among multinational giants.

I loved the first 2 books, and have started the third. If you like adventure stories, pick these up and read them, and then find ways to stay connected to Roberts as he rolls out his next in the series – his first as an independent.