hillary dixon rust

Unbelievable! 

I don't know where to start with the thank you's.

Allyson at Foxen was perfect. We couldn't have asked for  a better host. Going in not knowing what to expect I can safely say she was perfect. Especially considering it was her first time giving a tour on camera or giving a tour at all. We really got the royal treatment and could not appreciate it more. The entire staff was amazing and accommodating and everything just went really really well. Foxen Vineyard was just flat out beautiful in every respect. 

Emerson...what can I say? None of this would have happened without Em. I hope he's proud of himself. 

Brent is a professional camera man. He know how to set up shots to make them look the best and even when he could have been belly up to the bar getting free wine he was shooting b-roll.  He's just flat out amazing.

Justin is a nut. I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to get up at 6 in the morning to come with us let alone letting us use their camera and equipment and actually pitching in and helping out. He even hopped in the back of the Matrix and took over camera duties to give Brent a break!  

Sara, my dear sweet tortured wife. I promised her a day of wine tasting. Though she did get to taste some very excellent wines, she also got a lot more than she bargained for. She handled it all with poise and grace as usual and tolerated me and my version of "a day at a winery". 

Thank you all. 

Chirp,
hillary 

I had a plan to do like 40+ miles ranging all over from the beach to downtown to Griffith Park to Pasadena but what happened was that everyone (including me) anticipated the sooooper early day today and decided to take it easy.

I am glad we did. Instead of killing myself trying to get somewhere crazy before the sun went down after we shot in the canals, we ended up driving around the marina being a little more spontaneous. It ended up being really pleasant and it pumped me up to know we could trash Plan A and within 5 minutes be shooting a Plan B completely off schedule and still get good usable footage. 

Besides a huge thank you to Brent and Emerson, I want to give a virtual high five to Joe (last name Ohio?) that I met on the way to the beach who rode with me and talked and was generally just awesome and nice. Then there was Bill on the way home. I met him at the end of the bike path in Culver city. I had good conversations with both of them and they promised to check out the site. You'd be amazed how much you have in common with people besides your preferred mode of transportation and all you have to do is smile and say hello to find out.

What a great day! Time to get ready for Foxen. If it's half as good as yesterday it's gonna be amazing!
Chirp,
hillary

I've owned a bunch of bikes. Probably more than was ever sensible. I went through a phase where I was buying bikes a lot for some reason. I think I was just trying to find the "pefect bike" which I still think exists but it is most likely a "the grass is always greener" scenario.

Below are a few bikes I've had in Los Angeles that I've loved and ridden for more than a month.

I've owned one new bike in my entire life. It was a Murray BMX that my dad got me when I was like 10 or 11. It pretty much got destroyed. Not because I didn't love it, but because I loved it too much. I loved to jump it off homemade ramps and skid out and try to do stunts that didn't really ever work out. 

I dream of a day when I can find the perfect new bike and buy it and then try to ride it into the ground like that old Murray.

In my search for the perfect bike I've learned a lot. To me, the thing that matters most about a bike is how it feels under you, and how it makes you feel, which are very closely linked. 

Bikes come in as many sizes as humans do and on top of that almost all of the various parts are adjustable so that whoever gets on to ride can make arrangements to make it comfortable for them. 

That being said, I've probably owned over 20 bikes in the 4 years I've been in LA and none of them have had a frame that was more than 2 cm different from one another in its stated size and yet they all rode soooooo much differently.

The angles at which the tubes meet, the rake of the fork, the size of the rims and tires, everything comes into play. Changing one thing can take your bike from a pure bred racer into a air ride cruiser. 

Of course, the one thing that it all really comes down to it how much you ride. Stealing from one of my favorite bands "broken chairs your body conforms to..." Meaning, even if the bike isn't exactly "right" for you, if you ride it enough you won't notice. 

I'm not sure why I wrote all this.

Chirp,
hillary     

We're heading up to Foxen Winery on sunday to film the new promo for the site. We've got a good list of questions for just in case. I'm sure we'll get plenty of awesome information and won't even have to bother digging but as my wife likes to tell me "be prepared."

Also, hopefully we'll get to get out on saturday and film a bunch of stuff around town like the Old Pasadena Bridge and the Canals in Venice. 

I'll be taking photos as well so definitely be on the look out for a new and improved posting.


Chirp,
hillary

I had this old blog called ClogLA.com. It was ironically named because I want this city to get moving. Oddly, as we all know, riding a bike normally slows you down as well as the people that have no idea how to deal with you riding your bike where they want their car to be.  Here is a post from ClogLa.com from back in August of this year -


a wider bike path would be safer...so i “worked” in the valley the last few days. it was a very strange spot in van nuys where if you were on the street where the house was where we were shooting you’d think something along the lines of “wow, this is such a nice area. i want a family and a life and everything and i’ll just be happy here forever.”

then if you went to the end of the street and went half a block in any direction your thoughts would shift to something like “oh, shit…where the fuck am i? i should call someone to come pick me up. i should just hide behind a bush until they get here. fuck, there are so many things i never did…huck, spluts, garble, murmur, huhuhuuuuuu…”

the real news is that it was 16.3 miles from home going the shortest distance so i got a pretty deese lil’ ride in without even meaning to.

but so after work each day i decided it would be smart to try to find a different way home. one night i was riding down riverside drive where there is a nice bike lane that goes for miles and miles and it’s really well lit and it’s flat and straight so you can just haul arse and whatever. so i hit this one light and there’s a turn lane so i make sure i’m not in it and i take a drink of water and a lady pulls up in a silver honda civic and rolls her window down and says hello.

i’m a little weirded out but i say hello back to her. she then says to me “a wider bike path would be safer.” i say “that’s true.” she rolls her window up and turns right on red and then the light is green and i’m off again.

about 30 seconds go by of me replaying the whole thing when i realize she didn’t say “a wider bike path would be safer.” she said “a white backpack would be safer.”

i am now officially over how mad it made me when i realized i’d misheard her. but to say the least i was glad it was a nice cool night. i’m not even going to bother explaining all the reasons her statement bothered me. i won’t even explain what i was wearing, or all the safety features i have in use on my bike.

i’m also not going to ask why so many people take upon themselves the burden of giving advice when it’s not asked for.

i will simply give this unsolicited advice -

griffith park should be open to bikes only at night if they are not going to turn on the lights.

la river bike path should @ least have those little solar lawn lights to illuminate the edges of the path.

all bridges that it’s not illegal to ride a bike on should have a bike lane even if there is no bike lane leading up to or away from said bridge.

when fixing potholes in this city, a big lump of asphalt is at least as bad as a big hole so it’s worth the extra time to everyone involved on both ends for the people doing the “fixing” to smooth it out. especially on beverly, 6th, 3rd, and wilshire east of la brea.

this city should pay people $1 a mile to ride their bikes for their commute to work.

okay, that’s all i can think of right now.

chirp,

hillary

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3320809weeblylink_new_window

YEEHAW! Lots of climbing today. Good times. 

I was super pumped for the Roscomare descent and then it turned horribly bad really quickly. See what happened was that the whole street was like a mine field instead of a civilized paved road and I was poised for speed and I hit the first 4 bumps and my seat hit me in the groin 4 times. 

It was all down hill from there. The head wind didn't help me get home any faster. 

I got a sooooooper dope Champion brand "weatherproof" cycling jacket today for really cheap and now I want it to rain!

Chirp,
hillary

I haven't gotten the tires yet but Schwalbe has been gracious enough to become what I will forever consider our first real sponsor. I got an email back from them today saying that they would be happy to provide us with tires. Which, if you've bought tires lately you know they cost money and Schwalbe makes awesome tires so win win win for us and I hope they feel like it's a win for them to and I will try to make it a win for them for sure.


Thank you Jeff!


Chirp,
hillary

Rode up to Irwindale to check out the Santa Fe Damn and stuff.


http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3307508weeblylink_new_window



Sara's brother camped out here when he was here fighting fires and saving us all. Thank you Evan for everything. Seriously. You will probably never get the credit you deserve...


San Gabriel River Valley trail is cool. It's one of the few places in LA you can actually see water and see it moving. It's cool. The bike path goes a lot further than I went today and the whole thing is awesome. Check it out.


Also, thanks to Ryan at IMartin Cycles for being radness and spreading the word and being the best bike mechanic I've ever met. His customer service skills are out of control as well and he has kept me riding almost everyday for two plus years now. 


Oh crap! I almost forgot. Schwalbe tires likes our idea and we're trying to get them on board even though I'm dumb and missed the sponsorship deadline...whamp whamp!


Chirp,
hillary

Beware! I've got business cards and they are awesome and I will force one on you and you will then feel compelled to find an ingenious way to help! AHAHAHAHAH!


Chirp,
hillary

It's been brought to my attention that no one likes to scroll down through album after album of photos. So in an effort to keep the viewers happy I will forever be placing all new pics at the top of the page. If you want to see my cat as a beer coaster you'll just have to search for her.


I bought 3 maps on Saturday and taped them up on the walls. the are all the same size so I now have Arizona, New Mexico and Texas really big plastered up in the living room. I highlighted our route and I stare at them all the time. I just stare. I wonder if I'm doing too much. I wonder if its worth wondering about. Will the whole thing unfold as we go into some amazing adventure or will we really have to dig to find a "story"?


Well what does this have to so with remembering anything you may ask? I don't know.


Chirp,
hillary