RM, while you’re up there, you should try and have a look at the Sierras and Tahoe if you can do it. Actually, scratch that. Come back to the Sierras in winter time, to ski. ! !!! !!!!!

But otherwise the bike was fantastic, even if I still couldn’t keep up with the fast brigade flying up the hill.

Thanks for the tip on Muir Woods. I did see some very tall trees on the ride, but perhaps not the world’s tallest.

No detour to Yosemite this time, I’m afraid. In any case - and to give away what’s wrong with the picture - I generally like climbing things on a bike, not walking or hauling myself up. Unfortunately, the hire place didn’t give me a bike lock, and there’s a rocky walking trail for the last 400 metres to the summit of Mount Tam. Hence I had to carry the bike up to the summit

Your bike is infected with Shimano judging by the levers. Campagnolo or walk, it’s one or the other

Muir Woods also has a couple of interesting historical associations - the first time legislation was used to “preserve a living species” - Teddy Roosevelt acted in 1906 to protect the Coast Redwood Tree:

http://www.nps.gov/muwo/planyourvisit/muir-woods-centennial.htm

Then in 1945, delegates to the founding conference of the UN met to unveil a plaque commemorating FDR in Cathedral Grove.

should i point out that the bike is supposed to be supporting you, not the other way around.

I don’t recommend making that mistake again if you get the chance. Tis quite stunning, especially if you luck out and go when the steelhead salmon are spawning.

carbonsink: I did have a pretty good time in SF, once I made it into the city. Real food, urban culture, and cheap shopping with the combination of the currency and the US recession. Hays Valley feels a little bit like Richmond, Height-Ashbury is Brunswick Street writ large (though a bit touristy), and Mill Valley is roughly like Healesville or Daylesford.

I didn’t quite get to Muir Woods, the route I took to Mount Tam didn’t take me that way. Had a look at Old Mill Park though.

I meant to go out for a ride on Sunday but didn’t get there. Watched TdF on Saturday night (whoooooosh Valverde!). Sunday brought a harbinger of doom that even Garnaut didn’t account for:

What is the worst part about global warming? The missing arctic ice? Double Bay mansions under water? Endless stupid ads for vegetarianism interrupting the cycling?

No, it’s MOWING THE BLOODY LAWN IN JULY!

It’s JULY and the damn grass is still growing. In New England! Get the hell out of your cars and switch off three of your four televisions you selfish buggers, I HATE mowing the lawn.

As for the photo weirdness, is there something broken with the bike?

Glad you had a good time!

You’re larger in real life?

Well I spent a big part of this afternoon aranging the species names of Russian flora and fauna into a song lyric…as you do.

Panthera pardus orientalis
Rangifer tarandus
Cervus canadensis
Ursus arctos
Pusa sibirica
Lagopus muta
Nyctereutes procyonoides
Tamias sibiricus
Pteromys volans
Moschus moschiferus
Mustela sibirica
Vipera berus
Picea obobata
Abies sibirica
Aguila chrysaetus
Strix nebulosa

Full marks for identifying what they all have in common.

And bonus points for popping the weasel.

Happy wanderer, eh? So there’s more to Hahndorf history than mere drinking scores at its Schutzenfest.

Robert, Mark and Everybody:

Went to the annual commemoration service at St.Christoper’s Chapel just off the Emu Park Road outside Rockhampton, Central Queensland. It’s held on the Sunday nearest American Independence Day. The service honours the thousands and thousands of United States military personnel who passed through Rockhampton during the Second World War - and the Australians who fought against the Imperial Japanese in that war too. The non-denominational Chapel was built by American soldiers, in 1943, out of creek stones they gathered by hand and out of bush timber and whatever else they could come by at the time. After that war, it was maintained by a dedicated band of volunteers, including Mr Jack Fleming of the 41st Infantry Division, who married a local lass and made his home in this part of Australia.

The Salvation Army Band, as always, put on superb music.

I - who have had no hestation whatsoever in attacking the military follies of Rove, Rumsfeldt, Cheney, Bush and their cronies or semi-cronies and who time-and-again voiced my opposition to the waste of war - was proud and delighted to take part in that ceremony.

It was a ceremony that honoured the ordinary decent Americans and Australians who put their lives on the line when their homelands were attacked and in dire peril …. and who wanted nothing more than to return safely to their families and to their work and to their normal lives …. A lot didn’t make it ….