A new Dad trying to make his way to Valhalla without his son or wife disowning him.
Week 2 route and totals are in the bag. Here they are, along with Week 1 route as a refresher, and an overall map for frame of reference.
And with a little more zoom:
And my Week 1 route:
And now, what you have all been waiting for….
My Week 2 Route and Totals (cue Kermit The Frog screaming and shaking violently)
Not bad for 14 days. I’ll take it.
Skål!
We were given 100 KMs. And it was good.
I still kind of kick myself for not pushing harder on Day 8 and reaching 100 KMs then. I was a measly 4 KMs away. Alas, it was not meant to be.
But I did celebrate by watching a kick-ass music video from Electric Wizard, called Funeralopolis.
Here’s the video, based off of the film Valhalla Rising with that evil dude from Casino Royale (Le Chiffre, played magnificently by Mads Mikkelsen)
Turn Volume Up To 11. Turn Lights Off To Black Hole.
And here is my photo to commemorate 100 KMs, mofos!!!!!
Stalking that 200 KM like a Viking Berserker.
Skål!
Hi….I forgot to tell you something.
My Week 1 route and totals!
This is a picture of Oslofjord, the Norwegian/Swedish peninsulas, and North Sea with neighboring countries. to give you a better idea of perspective:
And with a little more zoom:
Here is my route and total KMs from Week 1:
Not bad for 7 days. I’ll take it.
Skål!
There is a song by Alan Jackson, called “Midnight in Montgomery“. Great song, really meaningful. The chorus, goes like this:
‘Cause it’s midnight in Montgomery,
Just hear that whip-poor-will
See the stars light up the purple sky,
Feel that lonesome chill,
‘Cause when the wind is right,
You’ll hear his song,
Smell whisky in the air,
Midnight in Montgomery,
He’s always singin’ there,
My midnight rowing sessions are starting to inspire their own song chorus…sang to the same tune as Midnight in Montgomery. And here it is:
“Midnight On My Rower” by VikingMike
‘Cause it’s midnight on my Rower,
Just hear that fly-wheel
See the stars light up behind my eyes,
Feel that lonesome chill,
‘Cause when the drag is right,
And the stroke is strong,
Smell sweat inside my beard,
Midnight on my Rower,
I’m always sittin’ here,
Here’s to you, Alan. Day 14 photos are below.
This is a slide show of the close-ups I took of the route I travelled on Day 14, 9 pictures in total.
At the end of Day 14, I have travelled the following measures:
Distance: 168,322 meters
Time: 13 hours, 21 minutes, and 8.5 seconds
Day 14 saw me have to make a choice…stay to the outside of Jomfruland and potentially sleep on a pebble…or stay to the inside and be showered with praise, valuables, and easy travel.
Or say that I refuse to do any more midnight sessions.
All choices have about as much likelihood as another.
Skål!
Hello darkness my old friend….
Midnight, it’s good to meet you once again…kind of..not really.
Why must I punish myself so? Seriously!
I mean…I had TIME to do it earlier in the day. But I also had excuses to hold off. Playoff football, hosting a poker game, the constellations are in a lunar shift….one of those reasons make absolutely zero sense, but I used it anyway.
However, and I am stretching here, perhaps…I will count the day as a win. I mean, after all that was done earlier in the day, I went out to the garage and ROWED for 12K meters, instead of going to bed like a reasonable human being.
Does that make me hero? Many would say yes. I’ll just say…yes. It makes me a hero.
I am a hero.
Pictures from Day 13.
This is a slide show of the close-ups I took of the route I travelled on Day 13, 5 pictures in total.
Day 13 got off to a rocky start (because Vestre Bramskjær is basically a large rock, and that is where I started from….nevermind), but at the end of the day, I have travelled the following measures:
Distance: 156,304 meters
Time: 12 hours, 24 minutes, and 25.8 seconds
Day 13 had me travelling from the small island (giant rock) of Vestre Bramskjær, all the way over to the island of Medulen, which is privately owned. While the island itself is pretty unassuming, there is a vein of marble that runs diagonally along the eastern face of the island, which serves to identify the island as Medulen, and also, help some lost tourists figure out where they are. Or lost Vikings…if there was such a thing…
Moving on!
Skål!
You know that thing that people do, where they wait around the last possible minute to do something, and then it magically gets done?
No?
What about where you wait around to the last possible moment, and it still isn’t done, so you just quit and decide to try again the next day?
Yeah, I thought that one might sound more familiar.
Luckily for me, that wasn’t quite the case for me on Day 12. I did wait until the last possible moment, but then I went out there and got it done.
Maybe Week 2 is just Procrastination Week.
Here’s to hoping that’s the case, and Week 3 will be better.
Here are my photos of Day 12’s pseudo journey.
This is a slide show of the close-ups I took of the route I travelled on Day 12, 13 pictures in total.
At the end of Day 12, I have travelled the following measures:
Distance: 144,291 meters
Time: 11 hours, 27 minutes, and 49.1 seconds
Day 12 had me travelling from the small island of Torkildsøy to the small island (giant rock) of Vestre Bramskjær. Not much to see, not much to do, just to think about the next day’s row…and how I should get started a little earlier in the day.
Skål!
The elation of starting has worn off. The daunting awareness of what lies ahead, creeps into my sight a little more, every single day.
The only way to overcome that nagging self-doubt, is to get up, grab some water, and head on out to the Varg Barn (my garage) and commit to sweating over the next 1 hour or so.
Sometimes, that is enough.
Other times…well, I would rather not think about the other times until they knock on my door.
In the meantime, I will be on my rower, doing what I don’t do best, but doing it anyway.
Making progress.
Here are my photos from Day 11.
This is a slide show of the close-ups I took of the route I travelled on Day 11, 12 pictures in total.
At the end of Day 11, I have travelled the following measures:
Distance: 132,277 meters
Time: 10 hours, 30 minutes, and 49 seconds
Day 11 had me travelling from the small island of Martaholmen, to the small island of Torkildsøy. Essentially a part of Stavern, Norway, Torkildsøy is just across a small waterway from Citadel Island, which still has a gunpowder storage tower and the commandant’s house from back when the area was set up as a naval base.
Skål!
