21-24 July, Tuesday-Friday: hung out with the Robinsons. Traded my tent to young Knox Robinson after we went camping in the back yard. Searched for duplexes and found some great ones. The Robinsons are in contract on one now.

As I was driving, I was thinking about “get-rich-quick” books. I have recently read several of them, mostly about real estate, and it occurred to me that many of them aren’t scams at all. They appear that way because their titles are usually something like “Multi-Family Millions.” I can verify it personally that the advice in that book is solid. So why don’t people usually take advantage? Really, why not? I think the real barriers are

1. Social life: People really like having a job because they meet a lot of people through their job. It is their social life. Even people who hate their job feed off of the shared hardship and it deepens their connection with their coworkers.
2. “Get-rich-quick” is a misnomer: try this: read any get-rich-quick book, but instead of focusing on all the $$$money$$$ the book is talking about that you can make, focus on the work it says you have to do. It really is a lot of work! Plus, you have to compete with others and there is a lot of personal risk. If you aren’t good at what you are doing or make a mistake working for yourself, it will affect everything about your life, not just a promotion. The reality is, they are not “get-rich-quick scams,” but actually “work-for-yourself options.”

23-25 July, Thursday-Saturday: departed in the evening for Memphis, slept in the car along the way and arrived in Memphis mid-day on Friday. Met my goddaughter, Julia and her brothers Shane and Brian the triplets. They were awesome. Went on a bike ride around the neighborhood with my cousin just like old times biking to the gas station for a pack of gum. Departed on Saturday evening for Chicago.

Again I was thinking along the drive, this time about my phone. Our grandparents’ generation said that kids were not to speak unless spoken to. I feel like we are going to say the same thing about phones as we get older. My phone is constantly trying to guess what I want to know instead of waiting for me to ask. It is surprisingly good at guessing, but it is still not worth it to have it “notifying” me all the time about random junk. “30 minutes to home via such-and-such route” “there is a back-up on I-70, such-and-such route will save you 5 minutes.” Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not going home right now and I really don’t care about 5 minutes. Shut up phone. If I want something, I’ll ask!

26-28 July, Saturday-Tuesday: didn’t sleep at all Saturday night because I was driving and listening to the audiobook Unbroken and arrived in Chicago at 4AM on Sunday morning. Got my bike out and went for a ride. I ended up riding more in Chicago than anywhere else. Brittany was a great host despite that she couldn’t ride with me 🙁 We went to Kingston Mines and saw J. W. Williams play the blues. That was the highlight–other than the Chicago Bean of course!

28-29 July, Tuesday-Wednesday: drove west to the ‘burbs and visited my cousin Rachel and her husband Tony for a day. Tony made dinner, then we went to sleep. In the morning, visited with Rachel, skateboarded their parking garage, then taught her about the phases of the moon and the tides. Drove home to Ohio and arrived on the evening of Wednesday the 29th for a game of Scrabble that I lost!

9-11 July, Thursday through Saturday: Arrived in Mapleton, UT at Gary and Leesa Price’s house. Gary is a sculptor, Leesa is a retired real estate agent. The visit started by going to the neighborhood women’s meeting where I spoke as an ambassador for the responsibility movement. The next morning, we went to Gary’s foundry and watched an actual bronze pour of four of Gary’s statues followed by a tour of the foundry. Gary made his famous salmon that evening and Woody Woodward and his wife Shea came over for dinner. Saturday morning, departed for Salt Lake City and the Family History Library.
Family History Library, Saturday, the 11th and Monday the 13th: I arrived at the mecca of family history in Salt Lake City on Saturday afternoon. I brought my family history books that had been made for me by my grandma on my dad’s side and great aunt on my mom’s side. The library is operated by the Mormon Church and they have helpers there doing service hours to show you the system. I figured out the system on Saturday, then decided to stay until Monday to continue working. www.familyhistory.org is their website and a lot of information had already been entered for me by my distant cousins. I was able to find 7/8 great grandparents, 14/16 great great grandparents. I traced most of my lines back into the mid-1800s, and all of them to who immigrated to the new world. My grandmother’s book traces back to the first Ruffing, the great Michael Toussaint born in 1635, who moved to the Alsace-Lorraine region from Rouffin, France.
Great Salt Lake Sunday the 12th: camped on the Great Salt Lake on Antelope Island State Park. Had to go down to the lake and float in it of course. It’s 6-8 times the saltiness of the ocean and sure enough, you float like a cork. Normally I sink, but even when I blew out all my air, I was able to sink only to my chin. Lounged there for a little while with the other people who were doing the exact same thing laying back with our heads, hands and feet above water with no floats, then took a shower. The fruit flies were all gathering at the lake and dying in it. The water was like a soup of dead flies so I didn’t put my head in. The flies were mixed with tiny little red specks that if you looked up close could identify as little shrimp, one of only two organisms that live in the lake.
Strawberry National Forest, 13-15 July: Monday evening, started driving toward the Rockies. Only an hour or so outside Salt Lake City, the sun was setting and I came upon the Strawberry National Forest. At higher altitude, it was nice and cool so I gave in to the camping signs. I was glad I did. On Tuesday, I did a really cool bike ride up a mountain on a gravel path. Departed on Wednesday morning southeast.

15 July, Wednesday: drove from the Strawberry National Forest to Albuquerque, New Mexico and stayed at a friend’s house. I took him and his son out for dinner, had a visit, then left early in the morning.
16 July, Thursday: drove from Albuquerque to San Antonio and stayed with Nate Robinson in his newly-rented apartment near downtown. Visited the river walk at night and biked to the Alamo the next day until departing again in the afternoon.
17 July, Friday: drove from San Antonio to Fort Worth. Traffic! It was terrible from San Antonio all the way through Austin.
17-19 July, Friday-Sunday: Arrived to an amazing Bosnian dinner, then relaxed in Fort Worth with the Matijevic’s through Sunday.
19 July, Sunday: Drove to Plano, Texas to visit my cousin, Mark. He had left the door open knowing I was coming. He was golfing, but I hung out in the pool until he arrived. He took me to a steak dinner, where after several waiters and the manager came by, it was clear that they knew him well. We were treated like kings. That evening, we caught up on Ballers on HBO.
20-21 July, Monday-Tuesday: drove straight from Plano to Tallahassee to Z’s house in Wakulla County, War Eagle Country, stopping only at a rest stop to sleep. Crossing from Texas to Louisiana near the Mississippi River, the humidity goes from dry to muggy. I was dripping sweat because I don’t believe in air conditioning.

Nothing earth-shatteringly profound in here like my last post, just the trip log.

6 July: Monday morning, departed Scottsdale and headed north on I-17. Just past Flagstaff, stopped near Sunset Canyon National Monument and biked the rest of the way to the volcano overlook.

Continued to Page, AZ, stopped at Horseshoe Bend–amazing view!–continued on and spent Monday night at a campsite called Wahweap on Lake Powell.

7 July, Tuseaday: Woke up early, went to Wal-Mart for supplies. Ate breakfast with a German couple from Bavaria, Thomas and Lisa. We made dinner plans. Biked to Glen Canyon Dam for the tour. Bill from Arizona let me put my bag in his car during the tour because the dam people wouldn’t hold it for me.

For all the tens of people eagerly awaiting the debut of this site, I didn’t want to disappoint on day one of my travels. Day one was everything I hoped it would be, with 6 miles on the single-speed all the way to the library and back!

Starting easy… crawl, walk, run!

That bag on the back is money, by the way. More about that in my next ultimate bike post.