Wednesday, September 9, 2009

J. Benjamin Eckenhoff Memorial Bike Ride


This weekend, September 12th, will be the 15th Annual J. Benjamin Eckenhoff Memorial Bike Ride. Since my dad passed away in 1994 from Leukemia, we have been raising money towards research at Stanford Hospital. We have raised over $800,000 since the start of the ride, and we only hope to raise more money in search of a cure.

The reason we chose a bike ride in memory of my dad was because he was an avid road cyclist and rode through the hills of Portola Valley, near Palo Alto in Northern California during his lunch breaks at work and on the weekends. We decided to have three routes to choose from on the memorial bike ride. There is a 10, 20, and 35 mile ride. While I have completed all three of the rides, I tend to stick with the 20 or 35 mile ride for the challenge.

The point of this ride is to gather family, friends, and supporters of my dad as well as those who want to be apart of the search for a cure for leukemia. The registration fee for the bike ride is $25 (which is tax deductible) and with that includes a Ben Ride t-shirt and a lunch after the ride.

For more information please check out http://www.benride.org/

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Euro Pack on the Way: North Face Terra 60



Before embarking on my trip to Europe, I needed to get my backpack situation locked down. Looking at my inventory of camping gear, I realized that between my K2 external frame pack and my overly large internal frame pack, the job was not going to get done. So the past few weeks, I have been doing research on what backpack I want to buy for my trip to Europe. I have solicited advice from well traveled friends. One of the recommendations that I gained from them was that the Eagle Creek Truist 55L was a great pack for Europe. I looked into this option, because it is specifically designed for international travel. Unfortunately, the price point was higher than I wanted to spend at a firm $200 everywhere.

I did more research and found that both REI and North Face had models that would get the job done and that would be suitable for trips abroad, as w
ell as trips into the wild. I decided that I wanted the North Face Terra 60.

On a walk from Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood to the Loop two weekends ago, I stopped at 2 Uncle Dan's outdoor stores, the Lincoln Park REI store and a Sports Authority.
Uncle's Dan's Southport: $125.00
REI Lincoln Park: $149.00
Uncle Dan's Lincoln Park: Did not see an available Terra 60
Sports Authority: $149.00

I followed up with some price checking, a few days later, I ran(by foot) a few miles to my neighborhood Moosejaw store, where the Terra 60 would have to be special ordered and where the sales woman tried to up sell me into more expensive packs I didn't want. When I convinced her that the only pack I was interested in was the Terra 60, she looked it up in their computer system. When she told me the price($149), I told her that it was cheaper at Uncle Dan's. She thought I was an idiot and said well that is because Moosejaw has access to different colors than them.
I said, "What Color do you have?"
She said, "...Well....well...what color were you looking for?"
I then told her that the backpack comes in green, greenish, blue, blueish, and black, and that they are identical, and that there should not be a pricing difference. At this point she realized that I had educated myself and that her sinister tactics would prove fruitless.

Yesterday, I ran(by foot) to my local Uncle Dan's on Southport, and ordered a Large Blueish North Face Terra 60, and it should arrive at the store either today or tomorrow. Their sales associate also mentioned that their store has a price match policy that applies to other stores, but not online sales.

The terra 60 will be mine soon enough.
10 days until aira non-ferma, 11 days until Italia terra firma.