Basket Shop

This is from the courtyard in front of the church looking toward the Basket Shop that is so well known and poplular in Old Town.

Adventures with Padded Cycling Shorts

"Should I wear padded bicycle shorts?" is one question I get asked a lot by women, especially since photos occasionally reveal my wearing them. As with most comfort issues, there is no straight answer here. Everybody is different, and the best I can do is provide feedback about my own experience.

When I cycle casually or for transportation I do not wear cycling shorts. It is crucial to me that my transportation bikes be comfortable and upright enough to ride in regular clothing, and I do not ride them strenuously. I also do not find that padded shorts are a solution for saddle discomfort. If a saddle causes me pain, the shorts can at best mask it for a brief time, but the saddle itself will still need to be addressed.



I began wearing bicycle shorts when I got into roadcycling. In that context, I find them beneficial, in that they provide just the right amount of compression and cushioning. It is difficult to explain why this is necessary, until you yourself get to the point where it makes sense. For a while I rode wearing non-cycling-specific leggings, but ultimately did not find them sufficient. The tight, stretchy fabric of bicycle shorts - unflattering as it may be - makes the muscles in my legs feel better when I pedal vigorously. The slight padding (and minimalism is key here) creates just enough of a buffer zone between me and the saddle during active rides.



I have owned several pairs of cycling shorts so far. The first one I bought was by Pearl Izumi. Everyone kept saying to me "But how do you know that you can't wear synthetics? These high-tech fabrics have come so far!" And so I tried. You won't see a picture of the Pearl Izumi shorts here, because they made my legs look like overstuffed sausages and it's just too traumatic for me to share that. But the bigger problem is that I really do have a sensitivity to polyester and wearing these things gave me a disgusting rash along the back of my legs. Also, despite Pearl Izumi's promises of being wicking and temperature regulating, they were nothing of the sort. Sweat pooled in every skin fold, and words can't describe what an unpleasant experience it was to wear this garment. I got rid of them a month later, struggled with my cotton leggings again for a bit, and then finally bit the bullet and bought a pair of wool Ibex cycling knickers.



I have been happily wearing the IbexEl Fito wool cycling knickers since last August, and have since also bought a pair of their Seree shorts.I think the version of the knickers I have is last year's model or older (I bought it from a discount retailer), because the currently produced version features a new pad design that is less noticeable from the back. In both the new and the older design, the padding is minimalistic and feels comfortable. Overall, I am happy with theIbexshorts and knickers, and I alternate between them depending on the weather and on which pair is clean.



Now let's be honest: no cycling shorts are flattering unless you are super-slender with sinewy thigh muscles. But all in all, these are not nearly as horrific as other cycling shorts I've tried and the "sausaging" effect is very slight. At least I am willing to post pictures. A wider and softer waistband would make them more comfortable around the middle, but that is my only real complaint. The wool does not feel especially thin to the touch, but I can wear these things in 95F heat and they feel wonderful. No skin sensitivity, no pooled sweat.



More recently, I got a pair of Harlot Scarlet X Tech knickers via a trade with the manufacturer. These knickers are stretchy nylon and spandex (to which I am not sensitive), and are meant mostly for mountain biking. I thought they could work nicely for touring because of all the pockets and the relaxed tailoring.



The elasticised waistband is soft and comfortable and the styling is that of casual capri pants. They are formfitting throughout the hips and upper thighs and loose around the knees.



The padding is not visible. There is a meshy panel that runs along the inseam, providing ventilation. Decorative white piping runs along the outside seam (more pictures here).



While the Harlot knickers are well-made, flattering, and do a good job disguising the padding, I have not been wearing them much after the initial "Oh, neat" reaction. I think the reason is that I have no need for this particular style of cycling shorts. If I am going to wear something padded, then I am going to be roadcycling and I want the shorts to be tighter, more stretchy, less constricting, and without any extras such as pockets. Likewise, if I am commuting or just cycling with a friend in the park, then I don't need cycling-specific attire at all. But if you can use cycling shorts that are made like regular capri pants, only with padding, knickers such as these andthe ones by Chrome I wrote about earlier, could work nicely.



As I see it, padded cycling shorts and knickers are one of those "If you need them, you'll know it" things. If you are comfortable without them, I think that's just fine and there is no need to question yourself just because other cyclists are wearing them. And while cycling shorts can look silly, they are designed that way (tight, padded) for a reason, and changing that design in order to make them look like regular pants can also reduce their functionality. That's my take on it at least, for the time being.



Do you wear padded cycling shorts? What kind and for what type of cycling? I am especially curious about any experiences with Smartwool, Icebreaker, and other wool cycling shorts - particularly for women.

Indiana Sisley Stem :: Show and Tell

The topic for the 55th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Show and Tell. "Show us and tell us about an heirloom, a special photo, a valuable document, or a significant person that is a very special part of your family history." Ever since it was announced, I've been mulling it over as to what I should highlight. I've already shown some of the things that are special to me and told you about them - family photographs, reunion ledgers, old letters, my grandmother's autobiography - but, thankfully, there are still a few more things left to write about ;-)

My grandmother, Hazlette Brubaker Phend, put together what I call her genealogy book. Included within its pages are the standard pedigree charts (sadly, they are not documented) and family photographs (even more sadly, glued firmly to the pages). They are all precious to me, but there is one page that is extra special.

There are four items on the page, the first two are the topic of this post:
1. A picture of Indiana (Sisley) Stem, my 4th great grandmother! It is a copy, not the original. The quality isn't all that great, but I think it speaks volumes. I'd love to know if it still exists and, if so, who has the original.
2. The calling card of Mrs. Indiana Stem.
3. A photograph of a man with a child sitting on his lap. This too appears to be a copy of the original image. Grandma didn't identify it, perhaps she didn't know who it was, but it's possible that it is Conrad Stem, Indiana's husband, and their son Lewis Austin Stem.
4. A third picture, of the children of Austin Stemm: Earl, Charles, Ben, Hooper, Cresco, Clara, and Fern.

Indiana Sisley was born on May 18, 1809 in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. She was the eighth of ten children born to Margaret Ellis (1773-1870) and Lewis Sisley (1765-1826). I haven't found a marriage record yet for Indiana and Conrad Stem but when her father's estate was settled in 1834 they were named as "Conrad Stein and Indianee". (As an aside, the Stem surname has been difficult to research due primarily to bad penmanship and misinterpretation of that writing! Stem, Stemm, Stein, Stern, Stenn, etc. Their son, Lewis, adopted the Stemm spelling.)

About 1845, Conrad and Indiana had moved to Chester Township in Wayne County, Ohio. They were there only a few years, coming to Indiana about 1851 or early 1852. Their last child, Lewis, was born in Indiana in August 1852. They settled in the northern part of Whitley County, in Thorncreek Township, less than a mile from the southern border of Noble County. Their daughter and son-in-law, Malissa and Jacob Wise (my 3rd great grandparents) lived on the farm to the west.

From census records I know that Conrad Stem was a farmer. He died in Whitley County on July 25, 1882 at 5 1/2 pm, aged 78y 2m 9d (birth calculates to May 16, 1804 and matches the date on his tombstone).

No obituary has been found for either Conrad or Indiana. I really know very little about her. She was a farmer's wife. She was the mother of six children. Her first child, Malissa was born in 1833, followed by Amanda in 1837, Mary in 1841, Hester in 1844, Sarah in 1845, and, at the age of 43, her last child, Lewis was born in 1852. Her first grandchild, William P. Wise, was eight months old when Lewis was born. A child and grandchild born in the same year.

"Jarrad" studio was located at the "Cor. Berry & Calhoun Sts., Fort Wayne, Ind." A trip to Fort Wayne, 20 miles away, would have been a big deal back in those days, the 1880s. Was it a special occasion? Were pictures of other family members taken at the same time? I look in the mirror and see the "droopy" eyes and the cheek lines, though mine aren't quite as prominent. She looks a bit stern, but I see determination in her eyes.

The Calling Card with decorative embossing and fine lettering. To me, though worn and stained, it quite simply exudes style. Click on the image to view a larger version and you'll see exquisite details in the capital letters, including a stylized fish beneath the S in Stem. The sign of the fish, an ancient symbol of Christianity. Could that be a family bible she is holding in her portrait?

From the picture and calling card we can infer that Indiana Stem was literate. She's holding a book (a bible, maybe?) in her hands. Those are the hands of a farmer's wife, the years and arthritis have taken their toll. I do wish more detail showed, but doesn't that appear to be a lace shawl covering her head and flowing down the front of her dress? I don't have a date for the photograph but Indiana Sisley Stem passed away on Christmas Day in 1888. She is buried beside her husband Conrad in the Hively Corners Cemetery (now called St. Matthews Church Cemetery) in Thorncreek Township, less than a mile from their home.

It wasn't until I moved to the Tri-Lakes area in 1997 that I discovered where Indiana and Conrad had lived. Our new home was less than two miles away. Every time I go into Columbia City, I pass by their place and the cemetery, and I say a silent hello.

I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself, but this is a two-part post. In June of .. I was contacted by a descendant of Amberson Evans Sisley, brother of Indiana Sisley Stem. Please, click on through to discover the treasure I received from her. . .

This post was contributed to the 55th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: Show and Tell

Reusable Grocery Bags: Their Contents and Discontents

Normally I put groceries either directly into my pannier, or ask for a paper bag. I had not used dedicated reusable shopping bags till now. The Urbana bikeI am testing supplied a couple to go with its rear rack, so I decided to give it a try.



My experience at the grocery store was interesting. This was a "normal" grocery store, not an organic or whole foods one. I bought a few things, among which were a couple of loose apples and a packet of raw meat. The cashier rang me up and asked whether I wanted paper or plastic. I replied that I had my own bag, and began putting the groceries in it. The cashier then started helping me by taking the apples and reaching for a plastic bag. Seeing her do this, I said, "No thanks, I'm just going to put them directly into my bag." She replied, "But they're loose. Let me put them in a plastic bag first." I assured her that I preferred to place them in my bag as they were, and reluctantly she relinquished the apples. But then we moved on to the meat. Again, she tried to put the already packaged meat into a plastic bag and I resisted. She then warned me that carrying produce in reusable bags will make me sick because of the bacteria. I pointed to a stack of reusable bags by the register with the grocery store's logo on them. "But you sell these yourself; don't you expect customers to use them?" To which she replied that customers use them, but first they'llput items like meat and vegetables into individual plastic bags. And just as she was saying this, I saw a customer at the next register doing exactly that - placing groceries that were already in individual plastic bags, into a larger reusable bag that they extracted from their coat pocket.



It surprised me to encounter resistance from the cashier with respect to the reusable bag. I've experienced milder versions of it when putting food directly into my pannier, but never to this extent - perhaps because I keep the pannier below the cash register making what I am doing less noticeable. Now I wonder whether most people using reusable bags are in fact putting their food intoplastic bagsfirst for fear of bacteria. Maybe I am missing something here, but does that not defeat the purpose?..



I know that many of you like reusable grocery bags. How do you carry loose fruit, vegetables and packets of meat? Do you wash the bags? What do you make of the "bacteria" debate?

Reading Bill Strickland's Ten Points

A little while back, someone suggested that I read Bill Strickland's Ten Points, and before I knew it I was interacting with Bill Strickland himself and he sent me a copy. When the book arrived, the cover alone induced a pre-emptive sense of nostalgia. A cyclist walking his bike into the fading sun, beneath the overhanging trees, as if savouring the sweet devastation of defeat. Of course this would be on the cover of Bill Strickland's memoir.



Bill Strickland is the editor of Bicycling Magazine. He lives in Pennsylvania. He races for Kapelmuur Independent. And he writes, a lot. Articles for various cycling and sometimes non-cycling magazines, a few books, blog posts. The first time I read something by him was maybe in Rouleur a year ago, and then I began following him online. I remember it initially surprised me that a person who wrote like Bill Strickland was the editor of Bicycling. Those guys are all about nutrition and training and race coverage and roadbike reviews. Strickland's writing is evocative and sensual and self-consciously sentimental. And that's just on his instagram account.



Ten Points is an unconventional memoir. It's inextricably tied to bicycle racing, but is not really about it. Bicycling is more of a metaphor, an explanation, a case study in magical thinking. At the start of the book, the author tells his little daughter that he will score 10 points during a single racing season, then proceeds to participate in criterium races and fail spectacularly week after week.



But this plot line merely serves as a trajectory for the real story - a story of surviving childhood abuse, emerging damaged, then wondering for the rest of your life whether you're human or a piece of garbage. In adulthood, the author considers himself cursed, a monster. He struggles to stay in control, but the past haunts him and he worries about being a fit parent and husband. He believes that cycling keeps the monster in him at bay. And winning 10 points for his daughter might just have the power to lift the curse entirely.



Reading the memoir and trying to process it as such, I must admit that I found the 10 points theme to be overbearing and at times distracting. The writing is good. Bill Strickland excels at creating a visceral sense of understanding between himself and the reader. Repeatedly I found myself lost in his past, in his life, in his very sensations. In contrast to this, the overarching storyline of the 10 points feels forced, packaged. Like maybe the author had written the book differently, and then some editor swooped in and tried to make it more marketable for those who like the "top 10 ways to tackle hills" types of articles. I don't know how else to explain it.



Could the story have been told without the 10 points theme being so overt? I honestly think that it could. The book is really a rich collection of snippets, flashbacks to various incidents in the writer's life, and there are other ways in which these could have been tied together. The narrative style is jewel-like, seductive, while somehow also managing to come across as sparse and reserved. It is part American Gothic, part John Updike, but replete with its own, uniquely Stricklandian, characteristics.



In a way Ten Points reads more like a novel than a memoir, and some characters feel more believable than others. The incidents from the past, despite how dramatic some of them are, read as believable, as do the parts about racing. But in the present-day dialogue with the wife and daughter, the things they say are sometimes too well-phrased, too conveniently meaningful. In those instances I could practically feel the author trying to wrangle them into the 10 points plot.



At his best, Bill Strickland is the sort of natural storyteller who can engage an audience with a description of an Idaho cornfield. He can stir the reader into alternating states of wistfulness and fear within a single paragraph. He is a master of subtle foreshadowing. I want more of all that, less meta-narrative.



Writing about this book, I find myself wishing I hadn't interacted with the author prior. Because now I am hyper-aware of him as a real person and nervous about how he will feel reading this. But maybe that's arrogant. After all, who the heck am I and what does it matter what I think. I am describing the book as a reader, not as a critic. And I continue to follow Bill Strickland's writing with interest.

Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge

I couldn't visit the New England area without taking pictures of at least one covered bridge. Unfortunately, we only saw one that I could take a picture of. It was an awesome one though! If you click on the picture above, it tells how it is the longest wooden bridge in the US and some other history.

This alone made the visit here worth it! The river separates Vermont and New Hampshire.

I love what it said above the bridge too.

Isn't it just beautiful here? It's like a fine painting everywhere I look. I am enjoying our time here so much!



Living the life in Vermont!

Custer State Park :: Bighorn Sheep

Wednesday, August 24th - - After spending not quite five hours in Badlands National Park, and with temperatures into the 90s, I was hot and tired. Route 44 took me toward Rapid City but my destination for the night was a little to the south, Custer State Park.



As it turned out, all campsites in that park are by reservation only. However, you can call in when you get there to make a reservation. As a non-resident of South Dakota, I also had the privilege of paying an extra fee to make that reservation! In addition to that fee, the park charges $15 for an entrance pass, which is good for seven days. Most other South Dakota parks also have an entrance fee but much smaller and good for just one day. Custer Park “did away” with the daily pass last year.



Anyway, I was assigned a site at the Center Lake (I think it was) campground. It's a large park and I don't remember how many campgrounds there are, perhaps half a dozen or so. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon and I was driving on a hilly, curvy road to the campground, which was about ten miles from the entrance, when I came upon two cars stopped in the road. I could see several bighorn sheep right alongside the road and rather impatiently wished that the drivers ahead would move on so I could get close enough for a picture.



After a few minutes they did move on and I slowly drove up next to the sheep and stopped, having already put the passenger window down. I was able to get off one shot when several motorcycles came from the opposite direction and another shot as the bighorn sheep scrambled down the side of the hill and into the woods.







When I took this photo, I was a little disappointed that the sheep had turned away. However, I think it really shows the size of those horns rather nicely!





A cropped version of the above photo.

All in all, it was a rather incredible day! I'd like to return to the Badlands some time when it isn't quite so hot and take a few of the trails that I missed this time.