Gravel On

As hinted at a couple of weeks ago, I've been bike shopping.  Here's the result:

Nice picture from Lafayette Park.  Toward the background you can actually see the humidity.  I ended up with a Surly Straggler, just because that seemed like the best all-round gravel and hell-raising bike available at a somewhat local dealer.  Which is appropriate, considering how much it's going to be ridden on the dirt roads in Tate's Hell.  28.5 lbs – and that's with chunky Mallet pedals installed.  Pretty light for a steel off-roader.  The ride is playful and ground-hugging, and way more comfortable and in control than my old aluminum Specialized.  Well, fifteen years of refinement of exactly what a gravel bike should be will do that.  The Avid BB7 brakes were somewhat of a mystery at first, but this video cleared things up.

Further additions... not just yet, beyond maybe an under-seat bag to hold keys while riding.  I'll keep the VHF antenna mount and the blinker off the old bike to possibly install later, but for now I think I'll leave it plain & minimalist.

Just a Bunch of Baofengs

Wednesday's exercise at the FSU Marine Lab (setup mentioned on Monday) went well.  With a total of five organizations, well, nobody's radios talked to each other.  Except for... a bunch of FRS's, which FCEM handed out like so much Halloween candy to various reps from the five organizations.  For the maybe half-mile ranges required, this was plenty.  Anyway, here's a colorful picture of the bunch recharging:

I don't care what radios you have, have a bunch of FRS's at hand and ready to go.  As a backup, they can't be beat.

Set them all on one channel and hit the lock button.  "How do I use this?"  "Push the button on the side and talk."  Easy.

Protip: When it's time to wrap up and you need your radios returned, announce over the air that the keg is cold & ready and one of your people just came back with a bag of Subway sandwiches.  Trust me, they will be retuned PDQ!

I Sense a Pattern Here

Bay [St. Louis] named among Gulf Coast's top '7 Towns With a Slower Pace of Life' at The Sea Coast Echo.  Scroll to the bottom for the complete list, then click through to the original article.

Hm, and I've lived in three of the seven, Ocean Springs being the third.  Two others are fairly close by, and I've been to them but a re-visit  is long overdue.  The remaining two are way over in Texas; might or might not get that far.

There are of course many other small towns with the same slower pace of life, some of them even slower than these.  I'll keep those to myself however.  Wouldn't want them to get overcrowded the way some on this list of seven have.

Mid-August Monday

Prepared for Wednesday's emergency exercise at the FSU Coastal & Marine Lab with FCEM today, mostly getting gear (expectedly) set up and (unexpectedly) repaired.  With that complete and the hurricane situation looking alarmingly stacked-up but for the moment mostly out of my problem zone:

I then set out for parts unexplored, namely nearby Bald Point State Park.  It's the western point at the mouth of Ochlockonee Bay, and the farthest eastern reach of Franklin County.  Nice and quiet place on a hot Monday afternoon.  Will have to go over there and poke around some more.

Not a great swimming beach, but beyond that it's a pretty nice place.

My Monday So Far

Yeah.  Just like that.

Trader Joe's Found

It was reputedly impossible, however on the fourth attempt the Fabled Land of Joe was discovered.  Evidence:

I didn't really need anything, but there it was and I wasn't about to pass on the opportunity to turn in when it presented itself.  Picked up a bag of dried apricots and was on my way.

Sure, my pith helmet is now a little sweat-stained and the machete needs a sharpening, but at least Trader Joe's has been found.  Next up on the list:

• La-La Land
• Oz
• Flatland
• the other side of a Möbius strip
• inside of a Klein bottle

Wait, what was I doing up north of I-10?  Searching for a gravel bike that (a) fits me, and (b) is in stock so that I can test ride it.  It's going to take a few more weeks while store stock gets shuffled around but this one is a strong contender.

A Little Non-Local Color

After a relatively quiet hurricane season thus far, the Atlantic basin is tuning up a little:

Hm.  Nothing local yet, but still all the alert colors we don't like to see.  Welcome to Monday.