There it is folks, the 270 mile sandwich.

The other day at breakfast, I was drinking out of an old reusable cup I had from Jimmy John’s. After I went to work, the thought occurred to me that I hadn’t eaten a Jimmy John’s sub since before I moved to Georgia in 2008. This got stuck in my head all day, and so I decided to find out where the nearest Jimmy John’s shop is located. The answer: Columbia, SC, roughly 130 miles away.

So, here’s the thing. There’s nothing all that special about a Jimmy John’s sub. It’s tasty and all, but nothing that’s really worth going out of your way to eat. But, I do have a pretty blue motorcycle, and it does like taking me places…

I hatched a plan to head out on Saturday morning. When I checked the weather forecast early on Friday evening, Saturday was supposed to be nice and clear. The path looked super easy: US-301 N to US-321 N. A right onto US-1 in Columbia, and I’d arrive at my sandwich shop. Upon waking up on Saturday morning, I heard the sound of rain. There was also intermittent thunder. I don’t mind riding in the rain, if I need to get somewhere, but it’s not worth it for a wet ride to get a sandwich.

This morning it was still raining and thundering. Around noon, though, the rain had stopped and the weather radar wasn’t showing much precipitation anywhere in the area. Though it was still a bit dark and overcast, I decided to set out to get my sandwich.

The ride up was uneventful. I didn’t stop for any photos, as it was pretty overcast the whole ride up. By the time I ate lunch, it was clearing up in Columbia, so I decided to stop by a park to read a little bit in the book I had with me before heading back home.

Checking the iPhone, I saw that there was a park listed less than 1/10th of a mile away from the sandwich shop:

Based on that image, “Bicentennial Park” looked like a pretty sizable park right on the river. Seems like it had promise.

Well, when I got there, it turned out that Bicentennial Park really wasn’t much of a thing. Here’s an overhead view:

There was a little parking area and a wooden walkway leading down towards the river. The ground was pretty much scraggly overgrown grass and not very pretty or park-like. I decided to give the place a shot, though and walked down the bridge to see where I would end up.

The walkway went around a couple of bends and ended up at the tiny little observation deck type thing. It was maybe 10′ x 10′ and had a little bench. From what I could tell, this observation area, and the scraggly overgrowth were the entirety of “Bicentennial Park”. There were some folks off in the grass areas near the water fishing, but besides that there wasn’t anyone around.

To the North, the deck offered a view of a the US-1 bridge over the river.

To the South you can see more river.

I sat on the little bench and read a couple of chapters in The Girl Who Played With Fire and then packed up for the ride home.

The ride home was also rather uneventful. I didn’t want to get back too late, so I just rode straight through, stopping just to fill up. By the time I got home, it was roughly a 7 hour trip, and was exactly 270 miles.

So there you have it, friends: the story of the 270 Mile Sandwich.

It didn’t take long for me to hatch plans for a ride. I hadn’t really given my new speakers a test, yet. Nor had I really tested the highway pegs on a longer ride. After thinking about where I’d like to go, I decided I’d take a ride up to Hilton Head Island. Hilton Head is about 94 miles away from Statesboro by back roads. I checked the weather radar, which indicated I might hit some rain or thunderstorms along the way, but I didn’t care. It was time to go.

Above is the route I took. With the exception of US-278 approaching Hilton Head, it’s all quiet two lane back roads. There were many stretches where I didn’t see another vehicle, or anyone at all, for a half an hour at a time. The map is clicky, so you can look at the route more closely if you like… or change it into aerial photos, or…. well, you know the drill.

This photo is from after I had already crossed into South Carolina. I pulled over to try to get a shot of how conflicted the sky looked. I don’t think I really captured it, but the sky was always a mixture of clear blue and dark & stormy. On the way to Hilton Head, I hit a few pockets of really really light rain… while directly under blue sky. Usually just the windshield and the front of my shins would get wet. Everything would dry out within ten minutes each time.

Much of the trip was through quiet, abandoned back roads such as this one. I pulled over here to try to get a shot of a wild turkey in the road, but he ran away before I got the camera out. I was greeted by some other friends though….

There was a whole family of armadillos on the side of the road. Most of the pictures didn’t come out right, including the one of the armadillo-guy who came right up to my boot to say hello. These were the first live armadillos I had ever seen (being from Connecticut, and all) and apparently they were strange ones. There were 5 of them out together, in the middle of the day, and one came up to say hello. According to what I’ve just read, this is not usual. Maybe they knew that I didn’t want them for their tasty pork-like flesh. I prefer tofu.

A couple of shots of the beach once I made it to Hilton Head. I was the only guy walking up and down the beach in jeans and boots. Beach wear and bike wear don’t correlate too well. Who knew?

The temperature was about 79 degrees with a gentle breeze. It would have been a nice day to hang out there, if I had been properly equipped. Instead, I just got some strange looks.

Before heading back, I grabbed some dinner at Giuseppi’s Pizza and Pasta, a restaurant decorated with a whole bunch of Pittsburgh sports memorabilia. There’s Steelers stuff, Pirates stuff, Pens stuff, and even some Pitt stuff. Apparently the owner was originally from Pittsburgh. I felt under dressed, having only my Buc’s cap to offer. Next time I’ll have to be sure to wear a jersey. At least I was able to get an Iron City with my pizza, though!

After pizza, it was time to head back. This photo, taken about here, shows that the sky was still a mix of clear and dark. Since it looked like I might be headed into some stormy weather, I decided to stop and put on the rain lining for the jacket as well as the visor for my helmet. While I did hit a few pockets of very light and brief rain, it was dry most of the way.

All in all it was a good ride. The speaker system gets high marks for its performance through out the ride. Both music and spoken stuff comes through pretty well. On the way up, I listed to the most recent episode of This American Life. It was almost entirely comprehensible, save a few short phrases here and there that were lost to the wind. Music comes through fine all the way up to 70, even on busy roads. I didn’t go much faster at any point in the ride, nor do I usually go any faster anyway, so it’s a win.

As it turns out, though, my 3rd G iPod only lasts about 3 hours on a full charge these days. for the last hour of my ride, I had to hook up the iPhone instead, which has a much more limited selection of music on it, currently.

All in all: great day, and a great ride.

So it’s just about that time. Tomorrow morning I leave for Orlando… well, actually Kissimmee, FL². At any rate, I attend the ACPA conference every year, and go for the professional development opportunities, as well as the chance to see friends who are scattered far and wide. This year, however, my big focus is the job search.

I have 9 (first round) interviews currently scheduled. I’ll probably pick up a few more while I’m down there, as well as some invitations for second interviews at the conference. As I mentioned, I’m not naming specific schools or positions publicly. I will however tell you some of the regions where these schools are:

Pittsburgh (yes, Pittsburgh schools are interviewing me … in ‘Orlando’.)
Erie, PA
Northern California
Chicago
Rhode Island
New York City

I anticipate hearing about interviews at a couple of Southern California schools as well.

When I looked back at my posts from the 2004 job hunt, it looks like I only had about 11 or 12 first round interviews that year. Considering I was going for reslife positions having had no previous reslife experience, I feel better about what I have set up for this year. I may be at the bottom end of the experience spectrum that some of these schools are looking for, but I have 3 very solid years here in Pitt, and an awful lot to communicate in an interview.

Also, these 9 interviews came from about 22 applications vs. the 60-70 I put in in 2004. Lets hope that my advancement rate to the next phase of interviews is as improved as it has been for the application process this year.

Here we go…

___________________________
¹This is what I called my 2004 Pre-con post, and I got a good job, so I’m calling this post that as well.

²This is something that really pisses me off about conferences. Kissimmee is actually 20 miles south of Orlando, not in the city at all. When the conference was in ‘Nashville’ it was actually in this compound about 20 miles outside of the actual city. At least last year when we went to Indianopolis the convention center was right in the city. Same as Philly in 2004. What’s the point of having a convention in a major city if it’s not actually in the stupid city. I want to be able to walk to things. I want options for food. I want stuff. Not some isolated conference compound. Idiots.

Since I moved to my new apartment back in late May. Since that time, I rode my bike a total of three times, for about 45 miles. Yes, from June until now, just 45 miles. With about four months of prime riding weather in there. My disinclination to ride was not helped by my acquisition of my other two-wheeled friend in August.

Needless to say, since the time I stopped riding, I’ve noticed a certian reversal of some of those neat effects of my regular biking schedule. Last week, I figured I should do something about that by getting out on the bike, but I let the cold and rainy and icy weather turn into a convenient excuse not to get out there. Also, since I hate going out to the gym and other such things, I didn’t get myself into an exercise facitlity.

Well, today I decided to do something about that. I went out and picked up a Blackburn Trak Stand Trainer. My original plan was to check out Pittsbugh Pro Bikes since that’s where I picked up my bike and they’ve been pretty good to me in the past. As it turns out, they’re closed on Mondays these days, and that’s lame. I ended up going to Gatto Cycle, as I figured they’d be open. I could have waited, but I felt that if I did, I might start finding convenient excuses to not get out and buy a trainer.

After getting an old tire on the back wheel of my bike, the trainer set up pretty quickly. I adjusted all of the settings, strapped on the heart rate monitor and spun for about 45 minutes. Now that I have my bike on a trainer, right in front of my television, computer, and stereo, I should have no excuse not to get on and get some regular exercise in.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

What I really need right now is a nice long cruise on my Shadow. No distractions…. just me and the bike cruising along with no destination in mind. It wasn’t even a bad day for it either…. low 50s, high 40s… totally managable…

But no, I had to go and be the responsible Shadow-daddy and winterize her all up. It’d take 3-4 hours to get her back up and running. No time for that, right now, no time for that.

Instead, all I have tonight is a sixy of Iron City and a bag of O-fries.

Poor replacement.