First Stage of the Tour with Street View

Cece is by no means a techno expert...and she does not have cable...so she has to resort to her computer most days to watch the Tour!  It was with great fascination that she discovered that at Steephill TV online,  she can get Google earth and also a street view of the stages of the Tour De France!  She was particularly fascinated by the street view which shows a map and then you can hit "Play" and you can ride along the exact route that the Tour will!  So you get to "ride along" with the big guys from your armchair!Also, you can move the "little man" on the screen to, for example, just see what the climb looks like from the saddle.  Here is an example from the First stage:

The Tour Starts this Saturday!

You can watch the Tour De France live on Steephill TV. When you go to their site you will see a long list of live coverage options. They also feature profiles of each stage and historical backgrounds of the towns that are passed through.> Cece really likes this because it is like taking a virtual vacation.

Here is a teaser from the Tour:

"Cutting Off the Nose to Save the Penis"

Cece read a very interesting article in the NY Times about a new adaptation to cyclist's saddles which decreases erectile dysfunction.    Here  is a picture of one of the saddles that have been tested out by many bike cops across the country.  This may sound odd, but the fact is that putting your soft spots, whether male or female on the tip of the saddle nose...is painful and causes numbness.  So, the article describes several research articles which are graphic to the mind  and a bit funny...and mentioned several saddles variations that many bike cops have tried.

Anyone out there who has a serious problem like this and rides,knows this is not funny problem!   Check this article out...you  might be interested in trying out one of the saddles so you can get some relief and begin to enjoy riding again!

World Bicycle Relief Teams up with SRAM and +3 Network!

 You can join Cece and The Fat Cyclist in joining the Plus 3 Network.  When you log in your exercise...be it cycling,  yoga, housework, swimming, walking, carpooling and much much more, SRAM  will donate money to purchase bicycles for women and children in rural countries so they can ride their bikes to school or to the Dr's office or to get food. You can go to the Fat Cyclist  blog and see exactly how to join.  He spells it out beautifully there.

  As cyclists, we all ride for different reasons...but the woman below rides to feed her children.  Others ride to get to school.  This is Cece's favorite organization to give back to and here is an easy way to give which requires no money...just your sweat equity!

To  join the Plus 3 Network! It is free!  It is Fun! You are supporting a worthwhile  organization!  From the Plus 3 Network web site, here is information from their ABOUT page:

Mileage Rewards for Health, Fitness & Fun

Plus 3 Network is a mobile, GPS-enhanced social network that connects people with corporate sponsors and worthwhile causes on a lasting journey of personal fitness and charitable giving.

Making It Count

Plus 3 makes the world a healthier and better place by helping its members lead healthier better lives. Plus 3 Network will count millions of daily rides, runs, walks, or swims as mileage-rewarded fundraising. We are the social network that actively manages, motivates, validates, and rewards our members for participating in fitness activities. Plus 3 links our members with corporate sponsors and non-profits in a shared goal of worthwhile giving. Making It Count is our phrase for this process of bringing people, causes, and sponsors together for the good of everyone.

Each time  you work out, you earn "Kudos" which turns into a weighted amount of exercise depending on the exercise,time and distance.  In a week, Cece has earned over $11.00 toward a bicycle that costs $120.00. So you can see how quickly a bicycle can be earned!

Info about World Bicycle Relief:

Imagine if you lived in a very rural country and you did not have a car and had to walk everywhere you went.  It might take you 4 hours to walk the 12 miles to your school!  Or it might take  you days to walk to the nearest health care clinic.

World  Bicycle Relief is a  non-profit agency that gives bicycles to people to help them to be more mobile in very rural poor areas of this world.  Their mission is to provide access to independence and livelihood through The Power of Bicycles.

Founded by SRAM Corporation and Trek Bicycles in 2005 and supported by many individuals, foundations and corporations, World Bicycle Relief specializes in large-scale, comprehensive bicycle programs by providing supply chain management, technical knowledge and logistics expertise to poverty relief and disaster assistance initiatives.

Compared to walking, bicycles represent an enormous leap in productivity and access to health care, education and economic development opportunities. The simple, sustainable nature of bicycles empowers individuals, their families and their communities.

Here are examples of what a bicycle can do to leverage human ability:
* Bicycles increase carrying capacity, five times as much as compared to walking;
* Bicycles increase the distance a person can travel by four times compared to walking;
* Bicycles save time, approximately three hours for every ten miles traveled compared to walking

If you feel so called, please join the +3 Network and join Team Fatty  and Cece in raising money to give bicycles that will change lives and communities.

Our 47th State is Missing: Part 2

Well, after Cece finally got her luggage checked, she found her way to her flight gate only to find out the plane was running late. No problem. It ended up just about 15 minutes late and they boarded shortly thereafter!
Cece entrusted herself , this time, to carry bagels back to a friend...but would she be able to hold onto them...or would she pass them out like she did the biscotti on the way over? 

Once everyone was seated on the plane, as it sat at the gate, an official came onto the plane and told them 18 people had to leave the plane or else the plane would remain sitting at the gate until 18 people got off…however long that took, that is how long they would sit at the gate…it seems the plane was too heavy.
So there we all sat, contemplating our schedules, agendas, reason we were flying in the first place…and immediately 3 people got off…15 more to go. In the next hour of hot sweaty breathless interior plane air, 15 more people got off and finally we were set….or where we? People were angry. People escalated. People threatened and cursed…mostly at the flight attendants. But. it was not their fault. It was the weather.
The plane pulled out of the gate and taxied for a bit and stopped. The pilot came on and told us that we were 22nd in line and that we would be off in a little while. Then, the airport closed. Nothing went up or down….and we sat…and we sat…and we sat. We sat for three full hours in one place on the tarmac. Looking out, we could see lots of other planes, parked…no one was coming or going at all.
People escalated even more as they realized that they would not make their connections. They threatened. They worried. They panicked. They drank.  Cece’s  seat mates asked for vodka….she asked for her  drug of choice…coffee.   It was ugly.

Cece is now certain that flight attendants must take mandatory classes in counseling! Watching the ways they handled all these upset passengers was amazing…including setting limits in no short terms about how much abuse they would take.

The Casablanca Plane:

And so it came to pass, that Cece missed her connecting flight and ended up in Denver at an ungodly hour. She was able to catch the last plane out and was ushered through the passenger gate to her plane. As she walked and walked down hallways and alley ways into the bowels of the airport, Cece wondered, “Where is her plane?” She walked down fight upon flight of steps. Where was she going? Finally, she saw her gate number 73 …handwritten on a piece of paper that was taped and flapping in the open breeze way of an open doorway. She showed her boarding pass and was told to get on her plane. Cece looked out. Once she left this doorway…she would walk down a gang plank and onto the runway. There she saw several tiny planes….she asked “Which is my plane?” The attendant pointed “That one” “Which one?”, Cece asked. Again the attendant said,. “That one” Now mind you…”that one” could have meant any one of a collection of planes that Cece considered  way too small for her liking. Finally she said, “Tell me the color of my plane.” The woman heaved a sigh and said “Blue and white.” Cece looked and there was her plane. It looked like a Casablanca era vintage plane to her tired bleary eyes. The stairs to the plane folded out of the doorway and she had to walk up steep high steps and into the plane. Once she made it in, she felt like a sardine in a can. Several of them were packed in there tightly.

Well, needless to say, Cece made it back in one piece, with bagels in hand...very tired, but none the worse for wear. Really, the airlines need to have better and more efficient contingency plans for when things go wrong and Cece wrote several email to United’s customer service her first morning back to tell them just that. Perhaps there will be a part 3 post given their responses to her email….. or not.

Who Took the 47th State? Part 1

A few years back, Cece had an incident with her luggage on United Airlines.  Since then, she has carried on her luggage as often as possible!  What was the  incident you ask?
Well, her luggage was lost for 6 days while she was on vacation.  When she called United Airlines baggage claim, she discovered that they had outsourced the baggage claim to Mumbai, India.  When Cece heard  the  responder and asked politely if they were overseas, her reply was "No! We are not overseas. You are overseas!"  Harumph!
The person answering the call  kept telling her that her luggage was caught in a huge traffic jam (for 6 days?)  on the Long Island Expressway...but since Cece just got off the L.I.E. she knew that this was incorrect.
Anyway, 6 days later, her luggage was delivered...just in time for her to leave and go back to New Mexico!
But United does do other good things...like make it easy to check in for a flight.  Cece did this effortlessly...so since she has "luggage issues," from her past travels,she decided to check her luggage in advance.  Somehow Cece's luggage is 5 inches too big and so she could not carry it on this time!
Checking her luggage, she pushed all the correct buttons on her computer and  was typing in her credit card address when and all of a sudden the United Airlines system did not recognize that New Mexico was a State!  The machine kept telling her that she had typed in an invalid state. New Mexico is not a State? It became the 47th state in 1912!  United has not kept up with the times!  They are almost 100 years behind.  So, Cece was unable to check her baggage because our 47th state was missing!  

Part 2 of the travel saga will be coming on Monday.