Exceeding coolness. Today I got an early birthday present from my friend and longtime supporter Jeanie:
DeLorme's TopoUSA mapping software! It's very cool, and the coolest part is that I can map out routes and then display and analyze an elevation profile of it, such as
this example, which depicts the first day of the
Pan-Mass Challenge. As you should know, I've been doing more and more hill riding, and TopoUSA will be tremendously useful for getting an idea of the relative difficulty of a ride before I go. It'd alleviate concerns about how many hills would be involved in riding, say, from Portland to Augusta Maine, or across the Appalachians from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. Very cool stuff! And in other news, I finally was credited with a missing $300 donation, bringing this year's
PMC fundraising to a record $3500!