Author Archives: John Knapp

Elvis has entered the building!

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Elvis

Elvis

Rhinos seem to like me. Today I came face to face with Elvis, a two year old, 2,000 pound, blind, black rhino as I was leaving a meeting with Faith, the head of Lewa’s educational program. Faith went one way, I went another. Wouldn’t you know it, Elvis ignored Faith and came after me. He soon had me cornered in the office courtyard. Elvis stepped closer and closer. His snout pressed me back toward a hard, mud brick wall. “I’m going to get crushed,” I thought. What was I to do?
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Back in Kenya

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A herd of more than fifty Impala joining us for breakfast

A herd of more than fifty Impala joining us for breakfast

Anne and I have returned to the Lewa Conservancy in northern Kenya. After a long and uneventful flight, we landed in Nairobi, passed through a quick and efficient immigration and customs procedure, picked up our six bags and headed to the UpperHill Country Lodge to spend the night.

The next morning, Sunday, we gathered up our luggage and a mountain bike that Tom Gleason had generously left for us, climbed into our Land Cruiser with our driver, John, and made the four hour, 240 kilometer drive to Lewa Conservancy. Despite it being dry season, we had an afternoon downpour during the drive.

Hopefully, that ends the boring bits of the post.
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Help!!!

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Friends and Family,

Do you have any DVD movies or TV series sitting around that you think are fun, interesting, or otherwise worth watching that you probably won’t be using for the next year or so that you could lend to us? If you do we would appreciate it if you would let us know before we leave for Kenya.

As we quickly approach our time of departure, September 13, it has occurred to Anne and me that we are going to be sitting in our hut in the conservancy together with no TV, restricted ability to stream from the internet and no ability to head to the movies in the evening. Our plan is to try to keep ourselves busy but being able to watch a show occasionally would help us pass the time. We will play the DVD’s on a computer which I believe will play both regular and Blu Ray DVD’s.

If you are willing to send us any, please contact us by phone, e-mail (jknapp@usinternet.com), or by making a comment here. I can then give you our address so you can send them.

Thanks in advance.

John and Anne

First Grow an Oak Tree

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“The grandkids are coming in August. I think you should build them a play kitchen,” Anne said to me a few weeks ago. ”Now, what does this have to do with Ten Centuries?” you ask. Well, the basic Ten Centuries philosophy is that life is more fun if you do stuff. That even includes building a play kitchen from scratch.

I decided to make three pieces: a stove, a sink and a refrigerator. But where to start? Going to the internet, I looked up play kitchen plans and was astonished to see that the plans showed the stove and sink base to be 18-22 inches tall. I grabbed a tape and measured 20 inches from the floor, “That is tiny,” I thought, “it must be a mistake.” But before making them bigger I called my daughter, Marion, the proud mother of a 3 ½ year old. “Monette is only 36 inches tall,” she replied, “20 inches is past her waist.” I forget just how little a little person is.

Building from scratch.

Building from scratch.


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Hard Is Fun: The Hardest Day ever.

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Starting L'Etape du Tour

Starting L’Etape du Tour

Yesterday, Tim and I rode L’etape du Tour. It was beyond a doubt the hardest day physically I have ever experienced. We rode a total of 90 miles (81 on l’etape and 9 returning from the finish). In the course of that we were climbing for between 40 and 45 miles. The total ascent was 11,375 feet.

The first half of the ride was to die for. The weather was perfect, blue skies with puffy white clouds and an afternoon temperature of 80 degrees. The course started out with six miles of flat along the crystal azure waters of Lake Annecy with views of majestic mountains in every direction. We then began climbing past picturesque villages to mountain passes with picture perfect vistas. At every village local residents lined up along the route chanting allez, allez, allez (go, go, go).

My granddaughter Monette cheering me on.

My granddaughter Monette cheering me on.


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L’Etape du Tour de France

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I’m here in Annecy, France with my friend, architect, and riding buddy, Tim Quigley, to ride in L’Etape du Tour de France. For those of you who are not bicycling aficionados, this means that we will attempt to ride one of the mountain stages of the Tour de France. The actual race with the actual riders will take place on July 20th. We, along with 14,000 other riders, will try tomorrow, Sunday July 7th.

The ride is 81 miles (128 km) long and includes 6 ascents totaling a climb of about 9,500 ft. The hills are 3 category 3, 1 category 2, 1 category 1 and an HC (which means beyond category). The category 1 hill, Mont Revard, is 16km (10 miles) long with a gradient of 5.4% and the final hill, Semnoz (HC), which starts at mile 74 averages 8.3% for 11 km (6.7 miles). These are major efforts. If you want more details about the route go to L’etape du Tour.

Tim and I looking at Mont Semnoz. Worried.

Tim and I looking at Mont Semnoz. Worried.

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Musings on Evolution and Intelligent Design

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No, this isn’t about religion. It is about ways of thinking. The main argument for intelligent design is that organisms are too complicated to have developed through a series of random mutations followed by natural selection: the world is too “perfect” to have developed by evolution, it needed a designer; i.e God.
Now what does that have to do with our stay in Denmark?
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In Denmark

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We arrived in Denmark this morning about 9:00 am. Our friend Lise Hansen picked us up a bit later.

It is overcast/sunny/occasional showers here in Birkerod, a suburb of Copenhagen.

I have nothing new or deep to say. We are both tired because of the time change. The fight left Boston around 4:00 pm. and we got here about 3 am body clock time, both with an hour or two of sleep total.

Tonight is Saint Hans Evening when the Danes celebrate midsummer. We will be going to one of the many bonfires throughout Denmark. Lise says that they will be burning a witch (a doll) as part of the celebration. Fun.

Saint Hans Evening bonfire at Lise and Vincent's boat club

Saint Hans Evening bonfire at Lise and Vincent’s boat club

There was a pretty big crowd when Vincent and I arrived. We got there late thinking that they wouldn’t start the fire until after dark. Well at 10:30 pm the fire had pretty much burned down and it still was light out. Daylight goes from about 4:30 am to 10:00 pm at midsummer.

Traveling

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Anne and I will be heading to Denmark tomorrow. Total travel time will be 24 hours or so. We won’t be making any new posts until we get settled with our friends Lise and Vincent.

Cadillac Mountain X 5

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On top of Cadillac Mountain

On top of Cadillac Mountain

I just finished riding my bike up Cadillac mountain five times in a row. Cadillac Mountain, the tallest hill in Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor, is a 1000 foot climb over the course of 3.5 miles. It took three hours and a fair bit of sweat. But I am in training. The weather was perfect and the views were beautiful.

We got back from Kenya on Monday for a brief stay in Maine before we head out for our next adventure. On Saturday we are going to Denmark until July 4th. We will be biking and kayaking with Lisa and Vincent. On the 4th we head down to Annecy, France to take part in the Etape Du Tour De France.

Tim Quigley and I will be riding a stage of the Tour de France. It is 81 miles long and climbs 9,000 feet in three hills. The actual tour riders will do this stage on July 20th, the last stage before the ride into Paris. It has the longest climb in this years tour and one of the steepest sections. This year is special because it is the 100th riding of the tour. The 100th anniversary was about 10 years ago, but because of a couple of world wars the 100th riding is this year.

Tim and I decided to ride the Etape a year ago and I have been training whenever possible since then but with the Kenya trip, where Anne and I got Zero exercise, I have been worried about being ready. After today, I think I am.