The parable of the bike ride.

This week was nothing out of the ordinary; research, learn, sleep, eat, and bike. Therefore, I feel no need to rehash school related activities; I’ve done plenty of that in this blog. Rather, I’ll focus on the activity that I am growing to love more day-by-day, cycling. I put 100 miles on my bike this week alone.

LOTOJA took place on Saturday (the longest single-day US Cycling Federation sanctioned race) starting in Logan, UT and ending in Jackson, WY covering a grueling 206 miles. It’s hard to believe that it was a whole three years since I completed it tandem with Bryan Bornholdt. I am getting into biking so much now that I am considering attempting LOTOJA again in 2011, this time on my own bicycle. I feel I should share with you an experience I had on my ride Saturday.

In commemoration of LOTOJA I decided to cover 1/4 the distance of the real race, 51.5 miles. Considering the condition I was in I felt this was within what I could do but knew that it would push me. As I have yet to go such a distance here in North Carolina I needed to come up with a route that would take me that distance. Luckily, I found, what I will refer to as, ‘dairyland.’ Indeed, there is a road out there with the name ‘Dairyland.’ This wondrous mass of land is relatively close to my house (a sort 15-mile ride). Dairyland is to cyclists as Disneyland is to children. This is because dairyland is rural, thus there is no shortage of paved road with little to no traffic. What more can a cyclist ask for??

The commemoration ride had to be planned because, as previously stated, I had yet covered the said distance, but also I had not yet experienced the joys of dairyland and thus was unfamiliar with the roads there. Google maps too the rescue (I love Google maps). I used the directions tool within Google maps to set out my course and measure the distance. After trying several alternate routes I found the one that would put me at my desired distance of 50+ miles. I typed up the directions on my iPod so that I could have directions on the road if so needed. As I was in bed that night I gave my best friend a call, I call him dad, and I told him my plans for my ride. Since he was on the computer I had him bring up Google Earth and I took him though my route from memory with no major problems. I was pretty proud that I knew this brand new route from memory!

I woke up early; oddly reluctantly and excitedly simultaneously. Reluctant because it was 5:30 AM on a Saturday and excited because I was going to go on an awesome ride. In the words of Freddie Mercury; ‘ I love to ride my bicycle, I love to ride my bike!’ I knew the route to dairyland fairly well as most the route followed one of my usual loops. However, once I crossed into dairyland proper I was in new territory with nothing save my memory and directions on my iPod to guide me. I was fairly confident in the first 8 miles in the new riding country but then the road I was traveling on, supposedly Dairyland Road, started to turn in a way that I thought it shouldn’t. Did I miss a turn? Was I even on the right road anymore? I stopped to get a drink and look at my directions. Unfortunately, the directions were only text; I had no map. Thus the directions were of no assistance in identifying what road I was actually on. Luckily I was in dairyland, with cyclists aplenty, one of whom was slowing down for a stop sign near by where I had stopped and I took the opportunity to ask him if the road I was on was Dairyland. He told me it was and, although the road was turning in a direction that I thought was not right I had confidence to keep going.

I was back riding, confident with where I was headed as I had confirmed that I was on the right road and just reviewed my directions. As I continued for the next few miles I was looking for my next turn: however, it was not coming. I got really quite nervous as Dairyland Road ended in a ‘T’. When I saw the name of the road that Dairyland ran into I was relieved for I recognized the road, but it was not the road that I had been looking for. This was due to my mistake while writing the directions; I had left out Orange Grove Road. As I turned on the road I was confident that I was on the right road and knew the way back to familiar territory. But wait, wasn’t I just as confident a few miles back just to be surprised that I was looking for the wrong road? However, this time my confidence was true and I found my way back to familiar country and on to my house with exactly 51.5 miles under my wheels.

So, why do I tell you this long-winded story of a bike ride? As I do with a lot of life experiences, I found profound parallels with the Gospel. Are these parallels simply coincidences’? I think not. This experience taught the importance of reading the scriptures and the words of modern-day apostles and prophets. Not only reading, but actually knowing the Word. This experience also taught that here in mortality there are plenty of people to help you but you need to take the initiative and ask, as I asked help from my fellow cyclist. Also, our perspectives may not be correct thus consistent reading of the Word, or map in this mortal experience, is requisite to find our way home. Not only was Dairyland Road turning in an unexpected direction, I was looking for the wrong road! A map here would have cleared everything up. All-in-all I take away from this parable, if you will, that consistent sincere study of the Word is required for us to find our way home.

My route!

View 50 Mile Loop Durham NC in a larger map

School & Cycling

This last week was the official start of classes. As indicated in my last post, this means almost nothing for me; I’ll simply continue what’ve been doing all summer, research. However, I do have a tutorial class on macromolecular x-ray crystallography, which I started on Thursday. It was great; it was me and another student in the lab sitting and being taught in my PI’s (primary investigator) office for about two hours. This will occur weekly throughout the semester.

I found something exciting on campus this week and that is a shower near my lab! Why so exciting you ask? This means that I can take my rides (cycling) in the early morning and go straight into lab. My road bike has become an integral part of my routine, as it is practically the only real exercise I get, not to mention the only exercise that I can stand when there are no mountains to climb. On Tuesday and Thursday I took a ride in the country that lies between Durham and Chapel Hill. A lot of the land is owned by Duke and is known as the Duke Forest, none of which is developed. The rest of the land is made up of estates, horse property and sparkly spaced modest homes. Being in the middle of North Carolina, the land is thick with trees. In other words is gorgeous. (When I tell locals I miss the mountains they retort, ‘I bet its nice to have trees though.’ While it is nice to have trees, to compare having trees to having mountains is like comparing having a salad to having steak and potatoes; sure, salad is substance but surly not as rewarding and satisfying as steak and potatoes.) I also took a ride on Saturday in the same area but made a bigger loop. In all, I put 75 miles on my bike this week; I’m slowly getting back into shape.

I went on a date Friday. I was a half hour late though as I put the wrong address into my GPS. But she was cool about it. We ordered Italian food to go and had a picnic on the lawn of a LDS church. Afterwards I helped her set up for a YSA dance that she was in charge of. I met a lot of new people as most of the participants were from the Raleigh singles ward. It was a great time.

Below are a few pictures that I took with my phone as I was riding out in the country.

School Starts and Poison Ivy

Classes are about to begin here at Duke University, all this means for me is that I will start to attend seminars and begin my one-on-one tutorial on x-ray crystallography. I will be continuing my research that I was doing during the summer. My PIs returned from their summer at their cabin. I talked to both of them about what I was learning and proposed I side project. They were both enthused about what I was already doing and what I had proposed. I will, as always, be busy; I’ll never have to say ‘I wonder what I will do tomorrow?’

I had my first exposure to poison ivy and can say I react very badly to it. I went to the doctor and she prescribed some medicated cream and Benadryl. However, the thing that I think worked the best was a $16 4 ounce tube of poison ivy scrub. It took about two weeks in all to get over it. The only place I can think of that I contacted poison ivy is when I was weeding in my back yard. However, subsequent investigations of the yard have yet to identify any poison ivy. I am a little more tentative about working back there now. Enjoy the pictures below.

The quote for this post comes from last General Conference in which President Uchtdorf gave a great talk on patience in the priesthood seesion:

‘There is an important concept here: patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!

Finally I can write another post! The past three weeks have been hectic with getting ready for my trip to Chicago and Utah, the trip itself, and getting back into the swing of things here in Durham. First I went to Chicago for a conference, the American Crystallographic Association. It was in the heart of down town along the Chicago River. The conference featured talks from three 2010 Nobel laureates. It was awesome to hear of their work and that they we normal scientists with big ideas. The conference had other talks during the day. Poster presentations and social events took place in the evening. I presented a poster on my research that I have been working on for the past year.

Chicago itself was an AWESOME city. I would definitely recommend a vacation to simply visit the city. There are tons of things to do. We went to the top of the Sears Tower looking over the city and Lake Michigan. We went to Navy Pier and watched the fireworks. Also, we rented bikes and rode along the shore of Lake Michigan for about an hour. Millennial Park is definitely a must when visiting Chicago; it’s a neat park!

While there Transformers 3 was being filmed. The coolest part was that it was being filmed right by where we were. In fact, there was a scene set up immediately adjacent to our hotel. We were only permitted through at one point because we were staying at the hotel. As we walked by they were shooting a scene! There was a woman on an overturned bus saying her lines with newspaper blowing all around. The coolest part, by far, was a night when we were trying to go to dinner, as we were walking along the river we could tell that they were about to shoot a big scene. People lined the river. In the river there were boats that had been wrecked and were obviously some kind of props. As we walked a man told up to keep moving because ‘this is not going to be a good place to be in a few minutes. As we got to the bridge to cross the river they were not allowing anyone to cross. We didn’t mind as the tension was clearly building, something big was about to happen! A few minutes later the helicopter with the big camera flew in, maneuvering between the tall buildings like it was nothing. Then it started. The boats in the river were set ablaze and very large, bright, white, flaring fireworks were set off from the top of about ten different skyscrapers. It was clear that a Decepticon was raising hell going after some Autobot. It will be fun to see what it looks like in the real movie.

Utah was great. The first full day I was there I went to the eye doctor to get a prescription. Later we ahd a BBQ at Grandma J’s where I was able to see most the family. Then late that night I picked up my friend from Duke, Jeremy Block, who had taken the old Zepher from Denver to Salt Lake. It was a 15 hour train ride, beautiful but long. I spent the next few days showing him around Salt Lake and the surrounding area. We went to Music and the Spoken Word after which we took a long car ride. We went up Big Cottonwood, over Guardsman’s Pass, and down into Park City. We spent a few hours in Park City browsing though some of the stores on main street and grabbed lunch at Wasatch Brewery. We then went by Jordanelle, Heber, and Deer Creek. We stopped by Sundance to get a drink and then took the Alpine Loop.

Then bright and early, ok, dark and early, at 4:30 AM we started our car ride to the Uintas where we backpacked for three nights. Those who went were Jeremy Block, Christopher Davis, Kyle Metcalf, Sterling Adams, and myself. We stated at the East Fork of the Bear trailhead and hiked up to lake Allsop; a lake I had visited on my first backpacking trip when I was 13 years old or so. Most of the day was spent getting up to the lake and setting up camp. Tuesday we took a day hike to one of the ridges in the bowl that we were in. We hoped to summit Yard Peak but we found this too technical so we just topped the ridge at 12,000 feet and called it good. The ridge provided great views of the canyon just to the west where Priord Lake and Norice Lake reside. Wednesday was a cold rainy day. It didn’t rain a ton but just enough to make you want to stay around the campfire.

Thursday morning we woke up to some high clouds and decided to see what would happen. We took a walk around the lake to take pictures. The clouds were thickening so we decided to go down rather than stay another night. As we packed up and started to head down the canyon the clouds disappeared and it was as sunny as could be, deceivingly sunny. The trip down was slow going, it was not like the other backpacking trips that I’d been on where the trail is so steep that the trail is a factor in helping you get off the mountain quicker. The last half of the decent clouds started to thicken up. Then with three-mile left it started to sprinkle. The last mile and a half was a downpour; Jeremy and I were soaked and muddy as could be. It was not fun being soaked but an overall GREAT trip. Here are some pictures.

Friday We recovered at home taking it easy. Saturday we went downtown to do some genealogy research for Jeremy. As expected we didn’t find much due to repeated destruction by Jewish persecutors of towns where his ancestors hailed from. We then headed up to the Rendezvous Service Ranch where I addressed the boys on how to become successful. All in all, I believe it went well. I was invited to speak again next year and plan to do so if timing permits.

This Last week I’ve been getting back into the swing of things, getting up early, doing research, being social, etc. It is great to be home.

Trip Prep

I have had quite the exciting week getting ready for my upcoming trip to Chicago then out to Utah. In fact, I am sitting at my gate at Raleigh/Durham International Airport as I type this post. My flight was delayed 2 hours!! I’ll be here a while! The main task that had to be done before I left was to get my poster done for the conference that I’ll be attending, the American Crystallography Association (ACA). For those unfamiliar with the scientific research culture, one way in which we present our research is through poster presentations. The posters consist of figures and text. During a poster presentation session one stands by their poster and presents what is on the poster to those who are interested; some people take a quick look and then move onto the next poster. I present on Monday evening. Poster presentations are not the only event that happens at scientific conferences, there are also talks, workshops, social events, etc. This will be my first scientific conference so I am very excited, plus its in Chicago!

I have also been trying to ride my rode bike more; I average two mornings a week and around 20+ miles per ride. I hope to increase both those figures as I slowly get back into shape. An interesting fact is that I weighed myself a few months ago when I was not riding (because I didn’t have my bike) and I was surprised to see that I had gained weight, I was between 145-150, fairly divergent from my consistent 140 that I got use to in Logan. I’m happy to report that due to my return to road cycling, I am back at a happy 140! I found a new route in which I go west of Durham. Although the roads are narrow, there is very little traffic so it’s not too bad.

On my ride yesterday I had a scary moment. I was going down a small hill probably doing 20+ MPH when a car behind me decided to honk for no apparent reason (probably a cyclist hater), I got startled and moved as close as I could to the non-existent shoulder, which was not entirely necessary because there was no cars to speak of around us. Unfortunately, I skimmed the gravel, overcorrected, and lost control as my front wheel was wildly swerving back and fourth. I knew I was going to go down and it was going to be bad! However, help from above helped me recover control. Who says miracles don’t occur?! Despite staying on my bike I did get a small cut on my knee, somehow my knee hit something on my bike (like my handle bars?). It was quite the experience. Aside from that, the ride was great and I’ll be doing it again as soon as I get back to NC.

My garden is looking great save one tomato plant. The garden is surprisingly fairly low-maintenance. My corn, on the good half of the garden, are a good four feet high! I hope to see ears when I return. I have pictures below. I look forward to seeing all my Utah friends and family next week!

Ashley''s Visit

Sunday July 18, 2010

Last weekend my niece, Ashley, came to visit from northern Virginia. We had fun just passing the time with each other. We toured Duke campus and went to see Toy Story 3 on Saturday. Of course, the Duke campus was magnificent, you kind of get use to it when you se it everyday so it is a treat to show someone else around. Toy Story was also magnificent and I HIGHLY recommend it. That night we went into my lab and played Wii Fit Plus. Our favorite game was an obstacle course that you had to run/jump through. On Sunday we went to church, took it easy, then we watched a movie. Monday we went to Eno River State Park and out to lunch. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I decided to escort Ashley back to northern Virginia as well as take my roommate to DC. I then left the next day, a quick trip but well worth it!

The rest of the week was spent designing a poster for a conference that I am attending I Chicago. The conference is with the American Crystallography Association and I leave this coming Saturday. The poster is coming along but is most definitely a work in progress. I hope to finish it up by Wednesday so I can get it into the printing company. I am in Chicago for 5 days then I go to Utah! I’ll be in Utah from July 29-August 9.

Here are some pictures from Ashley’s camera:

Moving

This week I helped my brother, Shane, and his family move from Round Hill to Ashburn, both in Virginia. It was no small move as he has a large home with four children. We did a lot of lifting and moving. It was very hard work! At the end of the days I thought my arms were going to fall off! After many trips between the two homes (about 30+ minutes apart) we got all the stuff moved.

I drove home Friday night so that I could get some work done on Saturday. The drive from northern Virginia to Durham never seems to get shorter. Saturday morning I worked in my backyard weeding the garden, trimming the tomatoes, and mowing the lawn. The garden is looking good, particularly the tomatoes and squash. The corn, unfortunately, is looking half-good, quit literally. One half of my three rows look great while the other half is not growing so good. I hope they’ll perk up soon!

I took some pictures of the garden. Enjoy!