Another Bike Ride in Germany

Today I took another virtual ride through Germany with my bicycle set up on my Wahoo Kickr Snap stationary trainer using the FulGaz app.  I suppose that as I use it more, it will become less novel and more familiar, but for now it is still a novelty for me, and I find the technology fascinating.

Today's ride was "Around the Wasserkuppe", about 15 miles through some hilly terrain near Fulda in the Rhön.  This is very close to my old defensive sector when I was assigned to the 23rd Engineer Battalion, 3d Armored Division, in the early 1980's.  I spent 4 years in Germany preparing for the Soviets to come rolling across the inter-German border through the Fulda Gap towards the Rhine.  Of course that never happened, but the threat was serious at the time, during the height of the Cold War.

I rode my bicycle all over Germany during my free time back then, and it's fun to do it in virtual mode now.  This ride was much more strenuous than the other rides I've taken on FulGaz.  I took some photos, and want to document the user interface here, as I think it's pretty neat.

This is the setup as viewed from my bicycle.  We decided to get a full-size TV for the lower level family room, which makes for quite a vivid and immersive riding experience.  

The FulGaz display is a GoPro movie of an actual ride, which has been processed with the GPS data to incorporate the elevation profile.  I ride in "reactive mode", which means that the ride gets easier when I go downhill, resistance increases when I go uphill, and the video speed slows down and speeds up in response to my pedaling.  I am constantly shifting gears to adjust to the terrain, exactly as I would if I were riding out on the road for real.

The FulGaz display, near the halfway point of my ride.

The data components of the display are pretty neat.  Clockwise from the lower left, they are:

(Left Side)
1.  Calories burned.  This is calculated from the stats I entered (height, weight, bike data, etc.)
2.  Speed  (I use English units, even though it's Germany).  Not sure what the smaller numbers are.
3.  RPM - this field must use a sensor that I don't have, because it just sits at zero.
4.  Elapsed riding time and time of day.
5.  Current output in watts of my pedaling effort.  Not sure what the lower number represents.

(Center)
6.  Elevation profile of the ride, with a dot indicating current position.
7.  Segment info, including elapsed time and miles remaining. Some rides have small segments identified, usually sprints or climbs.  This one is the climb to the Wasserkuppe.

(Right side)
8.   Current slope gradient.  This ride had short climbs of up to 15%, and long climbs in the 6-8% range.  The climb to my home from Lake Coeur d'Alene averages 7%, so this is good practice!
9.  Current elevation
10.  Distance travelled.  Lower (smaller) number is distance remaining.
11.  Beats per minute (?) - you can attach a heart monitor if you want, but I don't have one.
12.  Direction of travel (in the video).

I found the display to be very useful in pacing and motivating myself during the ride.  I found that I alternated between heads down pedaling (the floor is boring), watching the scenery in the video (which is fun and passes the time nicely), and watching the various stats on progress (which was both good and bad).  By the end of the ride I was whupped, and tried not to watch the distance remaining crawl down oh-so-slowly as I climbed the last hill.

The summit of the Wasserkuppe, with an information center, restaurants, etc.  Next time I  take this ride I will pause here for a rest.  Maybe I'll even have a virtual beer.  :) 

Before I came back to the USA in 1985 and got indoctrinated into wearing a helmet, I rode all over Europe with this BDU uniform cap as my cycling cap.  It was kind of fun to dig it out and wear it on my virtual rides.  I don't think I need a helmet indoors!

  

At the bottom of a very long downhill "glide", going into the long, slogging climb to the finish.  That last three mile section took me 30 more minutes to complete.

Although it is a very good simulation of an actual ride, there is one really big difference - there is *no* rest at all while riding.  On a real ride, you can stop pedaling and glide downhill, stretch your legs, etc., all without slowing your forward progress.  Here, however, gravity is not helping you, so even though the resistance is much lower and you go much faster on downhill stretches, you still have to pedal the entire time.  If your wheels slow down, the video slows down, and if you stop, it stops.  So that long downhill stretch from the Wasserkuppe to this point, although it was fast and exhilarating, did not provide much respite from the exercise of the ride.

I have to think there is some way to get a summary record of the ride from FulGaz, but my "Ride History" is empty - I all have is what gets uploaded to Strava.  Strava is a useful app for consolidating all my fitness activities (which consist of walking and cycling), but it doesn't have the detail that the FulGaz app provides.  I have a technical support ticket in to the company asking what I need to do to get the history so I can look back at the rides.

Around the Wasserkuppe - Strava Record

All in all I am very happy with this setup.  There were at least a dozen different apps that were listed as being compatible with the Wahoo Kickr Snap, including their own fitness/workout app, Zwift app I already wrote about, and many others.  But for my purposes, I think FulGaz is ideal.  I am looking forward to this summer when I get out and explore this area for real.  I plan to buy a GoPro camera and record some of the local rides in the hope that FulGaz will process them into virtual rides for general use. 

Mood:  Tired

Music:  Silence

Christian Small, Union Army Veteran of Vicksburg

Today I accomplished another milestone in the organization of my new home - a shadow box dedicated to the memory of my Great-great-great Uncle Christian Small, who fought in the Civil War with Company I, 22nd Iowa Infantry.

I already wrote about him and the history of the regiment in an earlier blog entry while I was deployed overseas in May 2009:

Vanishing Footprints

Now I have finally had the time and space to organize the artifacts into a display so they can be properly viewed and appreciated.

This is a photo of Patrick Monaghan, a soldier from Hinkletown, Iowa who was also in the 22nd Iowa Infantry.  Because I don't have a photo of Christian Small in uniform, I include this to show what his uniform and equipment  would have looked like.  Note: The photo was apparently printed in reverse - everything is backwards.

My Christian Small shadow box, mounted on the wall of my study underneath his musket.

The musket is an Austrian Lorenz rifled musket.  These were commonly issued to militia/volunteer units during the Civil War.  They were originally .54 caliber, and some stayed that way in service.  Others, including this one, were bored out to .58 caliber so as to use the same ammunition as the standard issue Springfield rifled musket.  This one has Christian Small's initials neatly carved into the stock, which is a nice personalizing touch.  The musket was probably in better shape when he brought it home, but my dad told me that he and his brother used to play with it as a toy when they were kids. They'd put strike-anywhere match heads on the nipple, and it would make a "bang" when the hammer fell.  I don't think I'll ever try to fire it - it still works mechanically, but is fairly rusted and the wood is not in such good shape.  It's a wall hanger with some neat family history, including the fact that it was carried at Vicksburg!

The artifacts in the shadow box are, clockwise from the lower left:

1. Christian Small's canteen.  I think this canteen may have been modified at some point over the years.  The blue felt cover is moth-eaten and has been sewn back together by hand. The chain holding the cork looks to be of more modern manufacture.  It also has a leather strap, which may or may not be original.  I've read that most Civil War canteen straps were of linen, but as he was in a volunteer regiment, they may have been irregularly equipped.  In any case I didn't want to change it.

2. Photo of Christian Small's grave in Panora, Iowa.  Taken in 1992.

3. Hat Badge (Bugle).  This was the hat badge worn by Union Army Infantry soldiers.  This one is a replica, but I thought it would look nice in the display.  As seen in the photo of Patrick Monaghan above, the 22nd Iowa wore "Hardee hats" rather than the familiar Civil War era forage cap.

4. "The American's Creed".   This card was with some family papers.  It may have belonged to another family member, but it mentions being "indorsed" by the "Auxiliary to the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War" so I thought it belonged here.

5. Photo of Christian Small with my Aunt Lorraine in Panora, Iowa in 1927.  She was one year old, and he was 90.  He lived for five more years, so until my Aunt died, our family had a Civil War veteran in living memory.

Lorraine Foster Jennings with Christian Small, Panora, Iowa 1927

6. A letter from a friend, attesting to Christian Small's service-connected disability.  Dated Sept. 29, 1898, it reads:  "I have know Christian Small before the war and I have been personally acquainted with him ever since the war.  he got his back injured in the army and after his return from the army was nearly blind for several years with sore eyes which injured very much to the present time. he is also troubled with stomach trouble and piles and has not been able to do a full days work for several years on account of the disease contracted in the army.  J. J. Iriggens" (Higgins?).   I think this letter is fascinating - there was no Veterans Administration at the time, so this letter on American flag stationary is apparently an attempt to establish a credible connection between Christian Small's medical problems and his Army service.  I have no idea why, but I did find a PhD thesis from the University of Iowa entitled:

"The harder heroism of the hospital:" Union veterans and the creation of disability, 1862-1910

Apparently the plight of disabled veterans was a hot political issue that helped swing the elections of 1888 and 1896, so perhaps this was in some way connected with an attempt to qualify for benefits.

7. Photograph of Vance Hartzell with Christian Small, date unknown.  Vance Hartzell was my father's uncle, after whom he got his middle name.

8.  Christian Small's Pocketbooks (or Day Books).  These are small leather-bound notebooks, each closing with a flap and having a small pocket for money or papers.  The pockets contained an illegible receipt from 1904 and the photographs above.  The pencilled entries begin in 1867 and run through the early 1900s.  They are sporadic, and are almost all either accounts of things he purchased (groceries, supplies, and occasionally things like boots) or else accounts of work he did for others.  These are accounted for by the day or by the job (cut wood, etc).  There are a few recipes, including one for "varnish remover".  There is also one page with some lines of verse that I once thought he had composed, but later learned were lyrics from a popular song of the day.  The pages are too faded and delicate for me to scan, but they are interesting to look through as a record of someone's daily life 150 years ago.

9. Invitation to the first reunion of the 22nd Iowa Regiment, September 1886.  This is a 12-page document that was apparently sent to all known survivors of the regiment inviting them to the first post-war reunion in Iowa City.  It includes a complete roster of all known survivors, listed alphabetically by company, A through K.  We have no indication that Christian Small attended this reunion, but it's an interesting document nonetheless.  It was important enough to him that he kept it, and I have it scanned as a pdf file.

I also have his obituary, his service record, and the record of the 22nd Iowa Infantry from Ancestry.com.  These documents as well as electronic copies of everything but the pocketbooks are on an SD card that I put in the bottom of the shadow box.

So this is my attempt to preserve some family history.  It makes for an interesting display on my wall, and perhaps someday future family members may do additional research and add to our knowledge.  More likely, however, this is the extent of his legacy, as one of the many hundreds of thousands of Americans who went to war and then came home to quietly live out their lives in small towns and on farms across America.

Mood: Content
Music: "Take Your Gun and Go, John", Bobby Horton, Homespun Songs of the Union Army