Tall Ships & True Tales

Day Two: Tall Ships & True Tales (Traverse City, MI)

I can’t stop for more than 30 seconds without someone sauntering over to ask me about my unusual scoot. What a blessing. I had never realized what a lure this three-wheeled ride would be — which then gives me an opportunity to tell people that I’m riding 3,500 miles to raise awareness for Hidden Disabilities.

"What is a Hidden Disability?" they all ask.

My response… Any disability that one might not recognize just by looking at the person. They might be deaf, autistic…

Often, the person interrupts me and starts listing other Hidden Disabilities, like MS… I can’t begin to tell you how many stories I’ve heard in just the last two days.


I'm spending the night at a unique Bed & Breakfast, which takes place on a Tall Ship on the water at Traverse City, Michigan. Tonight I heard from a crew member of the Tall Ship, Jeremiah Bailey. Jeremiah’s brother, who has MS, works on a Natural Gas Rig in Colorado. He’s only 25. Sometimes one side of his body goes numb or his hands don’t work. He will get worse over time.

I’m stymied sometimes by people’s stories. I have so many questions, but they all seem too personal to ask. I wonder if they have insurance, if the person has enough support within their family or community. I wonder what could change in their life that would really make a difference.

At this point, I just want the very first step: I would like to get people to stop and think for a moment. If someone isn’t behaving the way people expect them to — or want them to — then maybe something is going on with them.


I am honored to have these strangers share their stories with me. Together we will figure this thing out.

And on we go!

Night One: Sleeping On A Sub!

USS Silversides. Decommissioned sub, museum, and place to lay your head,
in Muskegon, Michigan. Image from glnmm.org.

USS Silversides at the Great Lakes Naval Memorial & Museum

Well it's the first night of my Midwest Training Tour and I'm spending it bunking down in a submarine, a real submarine! The USS Silversides, commissioned December 15, 1941, just 8 days after Pearl Harbor was attacked. To get the lay of the land (so to speak), I took what was without question the coolest tour I’ve ever been on!

Electric Room.

But wait -- first let me make something clear: I’m really not into war. I’m freaked out by the Bomb, internment camps, all that stuff -- but seeing the movie in the museum here, and experiencing the hour-long tour of the sub itself, I certainly got some insight into the culture of that time and a sense of how life was on a U.S. sub.

Some of my sub buddies from Boy Scout Troop 264.

The tour I took was lead by Gary Reynolds and joined by Retired Officer Dan, with Boy Scout Troop 264 from Griffith, Indiana. It began with a solemn ceremony in which the Boy Scouts (guided by Gary) lowered five flags, appropriately folded them and handed them off to him with a salute. I don’t need to have served in the military to have been touched by the honor of it.

An underwater Underwood.

The tour itself was amazing! It included information about how submarines work, the military practices on the ship, the history of the patrols made by the USS Silversides, and the stories of some of the men that served on this ship. It was honestly fascinating. Here some of the interesting tidbits I learned:

Burial at sea aboard the USS Cobia, 1945. Image from ussflierproject.com.

• How was a person “buried at sea”? The body was wrapped in a tarp and weights were added to prevent the enemy from finding it, giving away the location of the ship. A special ceremony would be performed with all officers on deck, in uniform. The body, with a flag draped over it, would then be placed on a board. The board would be tilted so the body would slide out from under the flag and into the sea, leaving the flag behind.

• Mike Harbin, Torpedo Man Third Class, was the only serviceman killed on the Silversides. He was hit by enemy machine gun fire on her first war patrol in May of ‘42. Rumor has it that his ghost still haunts the sub. (Boy Scout Collin explained to me that the ghost usually appears early in the morning or late at night, when you feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand up or a rush of cold air; he thought that with all of us on board there was probably too much activity for the ghost to appear tonight.)

• The propellers are called “screws.”

Ward Room that once served as a makeshift
Operating Room. Image from ussflierproject.com.

• A ship’s pharmacist, Thomas Moore, with only improvised instruments (he used bent spoons as retractors) and an anatomy book, once performed a successful appendectomy on the table in the Ward Room. This scene was reenacted in the 1943 movie Destination Tokyo, starring Cary Grant.

Lobby Card for Warner Bros.' Destination Tokyo depicting

the appendectomy scene. Image from carygrant.net.

• The nickname “Pigboats” came from the odor that resulted from the fact that purified water was used first for the engines, then cooking and hand-washing, and then bathing. Officers were allowed a shower once a week, but the enlisted men could only shower once every 13 days. (Scouts Daniel and Anthony helped me with fact checking on this one.)

• This sub had its “screws” removed because the U.S. has a treaty with Canada saying there will be no active warships in the Great Lakes.

• The USS Silversides is 80% active. The engines are run on Memorial Day to honor the 3,600 men who died on U.S. submarines in World War II.

• On a side note, I just read that starting in 2012 women will begin serving as official crew members on U.S. submarines for the first time.

Something else I got from this visit: I guess I'd never heard much of Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech, beyond that opening declaration, until seeing the museum’s movie. It becomes clear why so many young Americans were motivated to enlist, and risk the ultimate sacrifice.

In FDR’s own words:
“I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again...we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.”

The crew sleeping quarters; bunking down with torpedoes.

Throughout the tour Gary repeated the average age, 18-20, of the young enlisted men who served on the USS Silversides. Their bunks lie in rows alongside the torpedoes. I could not help but think about our young men and women now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- the intensity of what they are called to do, the risks and challenges that they bear, and the ways that it changes them forever.

We only just started this journey and already I'm finding inspiration all around me. I can't wait to see what the road will bring next.

My New Best Friend

I’M ECSTATIC! Now that is a very strong word, so you may think I’m exaggerating -- but no, this is the real deal, full on, over the top excitement!! And what’s crazy is, I’m excited about a product. Not my typical area of intense exclamations.

Before we go any further, I should warn you, my faithful reader, that this product I’m about to rave over relates to a specific bodily function, and I know that “nice girls” are only supposed to talk about bodily functions in private (if at all), but this product is so remarkable, even life changing, that I’m willing to talk about it -- or rather scream at the top of my lungs about it -- regardless of whatever “nice girl” rules I might be breaking.

So, what’s this all about? Well.... peeing. Yes, this is a post about peeing. But hold on for a few more paragraphs and I think you’ll be cool with the topic, and the aforementioned product, and even afore that, the ecstatic part. Just hang with me.

Here’s the deal: I take a medication that forces me to drink somewhere around 7-8 LITERS of fluid a day... notice, I didn’t say glasses, I said LITERS (that comes to about 2 gallons a day), and that number can go up in warm weather. This presents a problem for servers in restaurants who swear they just filled my glass literally 6 seconds ago, but that is a story for another blog. The primary fallout is that I have to pee OFTEN. There is no old fashion version of a road trip where the Dad’s says, “You’ll pee when we get there,” and barrels off down the highway. Oh no, anyone who has traveled with me since I’ve become disabled knows that I’m a constant interruption on the road. This also means when I have to pee, I really to have to go, because I’m likely holding more pee at that interval than most people pee in a whole day. As a result, I can’t say (as many discerning women might), “Oh, that gas station was just too disgusting, I think I’ll hold it until the next one.” I don’t have that luxury. I’m trapped.

Now, we move on to my next challenge. I don’t have an abdomen. For those of you who are new to this blog see (Backstory); all the abdominal musculature was removed from my body, so I can’t do the hovering tricks or other antics that girls use to avoid sitting on a scary toilet.
Again, I’m trapped. If we add the complication of squatting when camping which for me is extremely difficult if not impossible without making a mess out of the whole deal, well, I have some peeing issues to say the least.

As I’ve been preparing for this trip, I’ve been worrying about how I was going to manage having to pee in the outside world for 50 days straight. Now, I had a vague memory from when I was about 12 or so, of there being a plastic sideways funnel for just such a purpose in the Whole Earth Catalog -- but I’d never heard or saw of anything like it since. When I presented my growing concern to my friend Liz Cross, who had just given me a hardcore Camping 101 lesson the week before, she set to work trying to resolve this problem. I am thrilled to say it was she who found the miracle product.

Before I introduce it to you, I just have to say I think that this marvel of ingenuity and convenience is the greatest mechanism of liberation for women since The Pill (hence my use of the word ECSTATIC! at the beginning of this blog)! As soon as it arrived I tested it, and I can honestly say there was not a single drop of dribble-age the very first time, AND I barely had to move my drawers! I’m telling you it is just that simple. Okay, take a look at the video:



A single pack of 5 only costs $4.95. And the thing is, one doesn’t need to be going on some big adventure to make use of this amazing little product. For me, it’s life-changing, a whole new way of thinking about peeing in the world! There are plenty of times when I don’t want to sit on a toilet in a restaurant, gas station, department store, I could go on, but I’m sure you get the the idea. And the cool thing, I was all crazy evangelical BEFORE P-Mate said they were going to sponsor Off The Map. This is an honest to goodness partnership!

The P-Mate is truly my new best friend!

pmateusa.com

Up to Speed

As of today, I am 21 days out from departure on my Midwest Scooter Training Tour (hitting the road Friday, July 9th). I thought I’d take a moment now to revisit some of the basics about this project, just to get everyone up to speed: this summer’s trip will act as a training session for my big tour of France, which is next summer. This training tour covers 3,400 miles: 7 States, 26 towns/cities in 50 days. I’m staying mostly in lower cost hotels, with a couple of B&Bs thrown in, but there are about 10 days camping (yikes!) well as a few more adventurous stays like in an overnight on a submarine and another on a Tall Ship.

Now let’s address the bigger question: what is this project all about? Well, I have a Hidden Disability (which you can learn all about in gruesome detail, if you wish, on the new website which I’ll describe in a moment) and I’m doing this project to share my story in hopes of raising awareness about Hidden Disabilities, something I and millions of other Americans deal with every day (see posting with H-P article). Around my depart date there will be a super cool web-site which will include real-time tracking that will allow all of you to follow along with me on my journey, as well as my updates and videoblogs and photos and the works.

In the meantime, you can keep up with me on my Facebook Group: Off The Map: Europe, Twitter: offthemap_eu or meet-up with me through FourSquare.com (ara@offthemap.eu).

Safety

What a lucky break: it was raining today for my private motorcycle safety class. Instead of rain catching me alone with the scooter in the U.P. on a gravelly road or the busier streets of Minneapolis, I had gentle guidance from Steve of Michigan's Safest Riders. It was awesome! I was so happy.

When I arrived, they asked what I wanted help with. I explained that I was having trouble with balancing the scooter, primarily starting out and at slow speeds. I also wanted to learn with confidence how to use the safety feature on the Piaggio MP3 that locks the two front wheels so that the bike doesn't fall over. As I found out during my lesson today, if I lock the wheels if they aren't straight, it can be a disaster; so I'm not locking them anymore until I'm stopped. I also was turning too wide, because I wasn't comfortable leaning properly.

The pavement in Kalamazoo was quite wet, with puddles scattered about. The parking lot we were working in had plenty of places where it was chewed up, so I had to pay very close attention. Steve was great. When I did an exercise perfectly right off the bat, we skipped ahead, and we spent as much time as I needed to become comfortable on the exercises that were a bigger challenge for me. In fact, at the end of the lesson, he asked me if there was anything I would like to do again. When I told him which exercise I wanted to work on, he had his assistant set it up and he let me run it until I could feel it right in my body. Better still, when I would do it wrong, I could feel what I had done wrong.



He said he was "very comfortable giving me my endorsement" (again, on this new vehicle). He went on to say that he was impressed with my progress from the beginning of the lesson—when I really couldn't lean on turns at all—to the end of the lesson when my lean was very appropriate for the bike and the size of corner.

Then I stopped at the Secretary of State's office on my way home to take the written test and get the official CY on my driver's license. Plus, this would allow me to get a new driver's license with my current hair color. I'll 'fess up and tell you: I failed the exam my first time through, but there were some questions that one could not know without reading the book... and I hadn't read the book. For example, in the State of Michigan, at what MPH does one need to wear sunglasses? I said 15 (correct answer: 35). There were also some clutching questions that I hadn't paid enough attention to during my first class (as it wasn't relevant to my twist-and-go scooter). Oh, and in case you don't know: What goes first when you drink alcohol? A. Vision, B. Hearing, C. Balance, or D. Judgment? I answered Balance—but the correct answer is Judgment.

Having blown the test the first time, I took the book, went to Orchards Mall, bought a Diet Dr Pepper, and read the Michigan Motorcycle Operators Manual. When I got back to the Secretary of State and took the test again, I did just fine. In 30 days, I will have a new license, with my CY and an adorable new picture (they let me see it, so I know I'm pretty cute).

Custom Piaggio MP3 scooter rack nearly complete!

Cześć, merhaba, and hello, everyone!

(This blog post will likely only appeal to hardcore gear-heads, so those not interested in the construction and technical details of Ara's custom carrier (or "rack") for the Piaggio MP3 250, designed for her 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, should bail out now.)

Guest blogger Michael (Level-Two Tech Support, Base Camp Manager, and Eighth-Level Geek) here! Ara has mentioned previously we are working with Mike Huspen at Fab-N-Weld to fabricate a custom carrier for the scooter. Today, we went to see the latest incarnation, and I've got to tell you, the artistry and simplicity of its design has me all gooey in my slacks. We couldn't wait to tell our faithful readers about it (unfortunately, the only camera available was Ara's iPhone 3G, so the pictures are less-than-stellar; we'll take better shots soon, I promise).

We've worked closely with Huspen on a number of other projects so he his familiar with Ara's limitations. Thus, the leading design principle was that no strongman tactics would be required to get the bike on to the carrier, or to batten it down once on the carrier. Beyond that, Ara gave him a fair amount of freedom with this project, outlining problems she saw and letting him determine the best way to solve them. Suffice it to say, the direction Huspen took has received the full thumbs-up from Ara!

Back in April, we looked at the 1st-gen carrier Huspen created, and could see things were definitely moving in the right direction. The carrier was designed with a platform atop a central fulcrum, with the "default" orientation of the platform being as a ramp. The idea was that Ara would drive her scooter up on to the platform, and the weight of the scooter would cause the ramp to tip up to a horizontal orientation. Then, while still sitting on the scooter, she would reach over and tighten a pin to lock the platform, dismount, and use ratcheting tie downs — hooked to rings welded to the platform — to secure the scooter in place for transport.

Custom Piaggio MP3 carrier, v.1.0.
Huspen (left) studies the angles;
Ara (on scooter) waits in position.

Huspen got a number of things right on the money with the 1G carrier. Sufficient space between the innermost edge of the carrier and the Tahoe's bumper allowed Ara to shimmy in and open the rear lift gate. The lift gate had plenty of clearance to open, too, even with the scooter on the carrier. Carrier width was even within DOT limitations. He really did his homework.

Nevertheless, there were some issues*. The combined weight of the carrier plus the scooter is upward of 600 pounds — aggressing the maximum tongue weight for the 2008 Tahoe Hybrid. Considerable thought was given to reinforcing the factory hitch/tow bar assembly, but this idea was discarded**.

The paltry hitch ratings for
2009 Chevy Suburban half-ton K1500 LZ,
identical to those for the 2008 Hybrid Tahoe.

Ultimately, Huspen bolted a second receiver tube to the bumper/tow bar. An extended pintle goes in to this second receiver. Once the main carrier is mounted in the factory receiver tube, the extended pintle bolts on to the carrier, forming a single unit. This setup will help resist carrier torsion and also distribute the tongue weight over a larger portion of the bumper/tow bar.

Custom Piaggio MP3 carrier, v.2.0,
featuring dual-pintle anti-torque design (patent-pending).

Another exquisite feature of the 2nd-gen carrier was the addition of a DC winch to pull the scooter into place. This eliminated a number of balancing and safety concerns we had around Ara riding the scooter up on to the ramp*. Now, all Ara has to do is lock the front fork, attach the winch hook, and gently pull Michi up the ramp!

The one-ton, DC-powered winch. In its final iteration,
the cord(s) will allow the controller (itself out of frame)
to unplug from the winch for stowage inside the vehicle.

Huspen wisely chose combination tail lights with stop, turn and tail lamps that feature illuminated side markers. Carrier 1G had the lights mounted, but no electrical work had been performed; carrier 2G was wired for action.

I got in the driver's seat to turn on the headlamps so that we could test the wiring, and was able to check out the reflective safety tape that runs the entire edge of the carrier. The tape even wraps around the front of the carrier so that the driver can see exactly where the sides of the carrier are (see photo below).

Side view mirror perspectives for driver (left) and passenger (right).
Green arrows indicate the carrier's safety tape,
visible even in these images taken with a cell phone camera.

We plugged in the wiring harness and gave the turn signal a go. (Click on the image below for a 770KB animated version!)
Very exciting. It's in the home stretch! Once the carrier is complete, the next step for Ara will be a trip up to Grand Rapids for a three-hour safety instructional with Pastor Freak's son, a one-on-one class customized to her own specific needs, as well as the abilities and limitations of handling the Piaggio MP3. Driving the Tahoe up for the lesson (instead of scootering there and back) will not only cut Ara's travel time in half, it will save wear and tear on her personally — not to mention provide a nice road test for the carrier itself!

We welcome any questions or comments you might have about the carrier. As of this writing, it isn't finished, so if anyone thinks of something we didn't take in to account, please speak up! Thanks!


____________________
Notes:

* Many of the issues we encountered with the 1G carrier had to do with the intricacies of Ara's primary disability: her lack of an abdomen. Although she is fine balancing on the scooter while she is riding it, the delicate process of trying to drive the scooter up the ramp was a problem. Moving with enough momentum to overcome the ramp lip (and gravity), but without so much momentum that she slams into the roll stop, was hard enough. But those "in-between" moments when the front wheels were on the ramp but the rear wheel was still on the ground were precarious; Ara's feet couldn't touch the ground or the ramp. That put her in danger of falling over. Additionally, once level on the platform, she couldn't lean over far enough to reach the locking mechanism that would secure the platform in a horizontal position. That meant she would have to dismount without the platform being secured — another dangerous situation.
(Back up to text)

The locking mechanism,
roughly level height with the receiver tube,
was too far out of Ara's reach.

** Newer model GMC truck hitches have integrated body-frame architecture, where the receiver tube is attached directly to the bumper assembly.
Previously, buyers had the option of a receiver tube attached to a tow bar assembly independent of the bumper, similar to aftermarket models (e.g. Rigid's). An example of this can be seen at Shawn's 2000 Tahoe Limited page. The main difference between the two designs is not so much their towing capacity or distribution, but rather how the receiver tube distributes tongue weight to the frame. The aftermarket-type receiver tube/tow bar setup attaches to the vehicle at numerous points, distributing the load over more of the frame; the integrated receiver tube is essentially attached at one point only: the center of the bumper. A vehicle's bumper is designed to be a crumple point upon impact. On the Hybrid Tahoe (and the 2009 Suburban), the bumper is attached to the frame at its ends, allowing for some degree of flexion at the integrated tube. Reinforcing the bumper tube would not be a straightforward endeavor, as there are at least two fenestrations in it already (one each for the receiver tube and the wiring harness). Reinforcement could also compromise the safety of the designed crumple zone, and would require a major disassembly process… so this approach was set aside.
(Back up to text)

The Word is Getting Around

A Tour de France on a Scooter for a Special Girl
Journalist:Mike Werner Normandy, France
Bikes in the Fast Lane: Motorcycle News



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