Moving On

The original purpose behind The Fourteen Percent Ride has long since been fulfilled. So, I've decided that Mighty Proud will be the last posting. It just seems right.

But, don't worry. Or maybe you should. In any event, I plan to continue. I'll keep riding. And writing. Click here to come along in my new blog ~ The Long White Line. <-- check it out!

Thanks

As I've ridden for the last two years, I've picked up on the fact that Shirley, my darling wife, has been more worried about my safety than impressed with my "accomplishments." How do I know this? Well, when I'd come back and tell her, for example, that I'd hit 53.6 mph going down FO, she'd reply, "I don't want to hear it." Being the sensitive sort I figured out, after many such comments, that just maybe we were not on the same page here. But last week, she told me that she would "greatly reduce her focus on the 'fear for my safety' issue." We talked about the tour, looked at some maps, researched nutrition suggestions on the internet, and so on, just enjoying the idea of the ride. How nice is that? Thank you, Shirley!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Searching

Often the search proves more profitable than the goal.
E. L. Konigsburg

What were they searching for, I wonder? The StatCounter service I use to count visits to the blog also provides information about how visitors made their way to the site. Sometimes it is because they Googled something and were led here. I browsed the statistics the other day and found 18 of the last 100 visitors got here via a Google event. In this post, I'll tell you about what they were looking for and why, I think, they were directed here. All references to other posts are also links to the post mentioned, just in case you are inclined to look.

The most recent Google-sent visitor to be brought here was looking for Skykomish coffee stand. I looked for one of these when the tour was in Skykomish to no avail. I wonder how the searcher fared in his or her virtual hunt? The June 27 post Bigfoot Country described my visit to an espresso stand on the way up into the Cascades and the subsequent overnight in Skykomish, hence the connection to this visitor's search.

Then there was the search for fourteen girls. Landing here was a result of the fourteen as in fourteen percent ride and the posting Girls’ Night Out (June 7). But I wonder what... no, I guess it's best that we just move on.

Lark toys brought three visitors to the blog. I saw the real thing as noted in the October 9 It Was a Lark! post.

Laying out all of my biking gear (Fashion Sense, October 23), introduced readers to my bicycling ear covers triangles as they were called by one seeker of cool weather cycling gear. Another cold-eared rider found this site by looking for Seattle bicycle store ear cover fleece.

A combo of posts, May 18's The Last Word on Wind and It’s Hard to Stop a Train(ing Program) from June 13 proved enough to attract one visitor who had Googled train aerodynamic streamlining.

You might not expect someone looking for horseradish encrusted grouper calories to have ended up here, but recall the Squid Ink Risotto post of May 4. I described a dish I had at a local restaurant: horseradish encrusted grouper. What are the odds?

One hit came as a result of the search for nautical themes for cycling jerseys. "Cycling" and "jersey" appear often enough in the blog, of course. But nautical? Well just call me Captain Jack -- "nautical" appears twice, first in the May 10 post entitled Back in the Saddle Again (you'll just have to go read that post to see how I get to nautical from saddles.) Then there was the reference to nautical twilight in the July 1 Miles to go Before I Sleep post. By the way, who knows what "nautical twilight" is? If you know me, you’ll realize that having "nautical" come up only twice in the entire blog (to date) is a sign of great restraint. Hey, I was even told once that I looked like Johnny Depp. OK, I was actually told I look like how Johnny Depp is going to look 30 years from now. Oh well, close enough.

My penchant for the comic strip Frazz and my special affinity for a particular strip where one of the elementary school’s young students discusses Horace's philosophy with Frazz, the school's custodian, are shared by at least three others who stopped by during their searches for Frazz Horace, Frazz bicycle and Horace guy says possessions don't make you happy. This last search target is actually the subject of the May 13 Moments posting.

My Paradise post of July 5 pulled in a searcher who Googled rode to paradise. It can be done, just check out the pictures in the post.

And then there were the poets... looking for rhymes with orange, wonders rhymes with and what rhymes with percent. I hope the August 20 Rhymes with Orange... posting provided them some inspiration.

Finally, there is my favorite. A search for happy moments with bike. This is just what I've tried to convey throughout the blog. I have had many "happy moments with bike."

I hope the Googlers find what they are looking for. Me, I stepped away from the computer and searched for biking experiences in 2007. And I found the time of my life with the ride from Seattle to Missoula. I also sought a 5,000 mile year. Did I make it? No. I rolled out of 2007 with 4,843 miles.

Am I disappointed? Not really. As our friend Mr. Konigsburg pointed out at the begining of this posting...

Often the search proves more profitable than the goal.

Thanks to daughter #1 who provided the idea for using the Google generated hits as the basis of a posting by doing one in her blog a few weeks ago.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And the 2008 goal is ??? Search on!

Anonymous said...

Well since you've been checking your counter, you might as well know -- you're sister-in-law has just been lurking for a while!