Posts tagged illinois

Currently in:

Manila: 77F (25C)
Austin: 60F (15.5C)
San Francisco: 60F
Springfield: 25F (-3.8C) with a low of 13F (-10.5C) tonight. Also, 24 mph winds and snow flurries at the moment.

There’s a reason I’m not staying here.

When I was younger, about 18, I took the longest bike ride of my life - 75 miles.. By mountain bike. I went from Springfield, Illinois to Jacksonville, Illinois via a bunch of country roads. I didn’t know where I was going, I just took off riding and headed west; eventually I found a route. I didn’t eat much the entire trip. I remember stopping in Jacksonville along the main road - I rode my bike through a McDonalds drive-thru and ordered a vanilla ice cream cone. When I got to the window, all the staff were staring at me and I asked them to refill my water bottle too.

I wish I would have participated in some sort of race at that time. I was in amazing shape and I remember always passing guys with huge thighs and calves on the bike trail, them riding their expensive road bikes and me on my K-Mart Huffy mountain bike.. Yeah, I never knew how long they had been riding already, but the thing is - they never passed me.

I’d like to regain that endurance. I think it’s largely what kept me from always being the last person on the mat, the guy who never was out of breath, during martial arts classes and matches.

I’ve been here in Illinois less than two weeks and I’m already saying 40F (4.4C) is “warm” like everyone else here does.

Well, my car broke. I’m in Champaign, IL visiting friends and it just died on the road while I was driving around in town. $60 towing, $750 to fix a timing belt. Makes me wish I were back in the Philippines with it.. the parts themselves are hardly even a factor in that cost, it’s mostly just labor. In the Philippines I would probably spend less on the labor than I would on the parts - here in the US, I’ll spend 5-20x the cost of the parts on the labor.

Also makes me think, why do we build vehicles in this country with parts that commonly break where the cost of repair would be anywhere near 5-10% of the cost of the entire vehicle?

Anyway. It’s made me think about the near future - next few months to next year or so. Thinking about buying a newer vehicle if I’m planning to drive several thousand miles of highway. I got lucky here and was in town with friends. Would hate for this to happen on the way through the desert.

Arrived safely in Palawan. Uneventful flight. Delayed 1 hour only because of air traffic control, not because of the weather.

At the airport I met four people in a group together: one from Peoria/Pekin, one from Chicago, one from Champaign and one from Beardstown. Eight thousand miles and the first people I talk to in a strange place are all from Illinois and towns that I’m familiar with. Beardstown is about one hour away from Springfield, my hometown.

I won a prize on the plane! I was flying Cebu Pacific. They played a game near the end of the flight where they called out an object and whoever held up the object first won. I got the last of the three prizes for holding up my sandals which I had taken off at the beginning of the flight in order to stretch more easily in my seat.

We boarded the plane outdoors in the rain in Manila and outdoors in good weather in Palawan. Missed the typhoon. The airport here is surrounded by dense jungle. There are no taxis at the airport, only tricycles. It’s truly an island town; it reminds me of the Florida Keys. I’m in the wilderness already and I haven’t even left the city.

I’m writing from inside my hotel right now. $30 USD/night. Dinner was $2.80 USD