Astonished Head Does America

Prepare yourselves everyone. This summer, Ian Wood of Astonished Head, is going bring the adventure of a lifetime right into our very homes:

Anway, here are the procedural elements of said Crazy Stunt:

1. Sell house.
2. Put worldly possessions in storage.
3. Stash Bob the Cat in friend's apartment.
4. Pedal tricycle across America.

No, really. I'm serious. I put a down payment on the trike on Saturday.

"Astonished Head Does America!" That's right, Ian is tricycling from Coast to Coast across America and he will be blogging it. Fortunately for us, this isn't going to be just any tricycle. Ian will be carrying enough energy to power the Las Vegas strip for about, .000000001 seconds:

I will be carrying two folding 32-watt solar panels, designed and built by Connecticut Solar. When in use, these panels will deploy across the top of the Burley trailer, and will provide power and charging capacity for the following devices:

* Dell Inspiron 700m laptop
* iRiver iFP-799 MP3 player/recorder
* Apple 60GB iPod
* Samsung SPH-i700 cellphone/PDA
* A yet-to-be-purchased digital camera
* A similarly unpurchased GPS unit

While I am crossing the country, I will be updating this site on a regular basis. My laptop is equipped with a Kyocera KPC650 cellular EVDO modem that will provide at least a 14.4 kbps connection across large swatches of the United States, and when I can't get a cell signal, the laptop has an ordinary 56K modem.

I will be creating and uploading podcasts using the iRiver recorder and Giant Squid Audio Lab's omnidirectional stereo microphone. I'll edit and produce the podcasts on the laptop using Audacity.

Visitors will be able to find out where I am by clicking a link on the site and opening a Google Map populated with my latest GPS data.

I've taken this descripton, and through the use of CAD, if I have come up with a model of what his vehicle could look like:

I'm sure there will be a few modifications, as the original vehicle had numerous design flaws that were later revealed when it was far too late. I'm only speculating, but I am assuming that Ian will opt to replace the Artifical Intelligence based HAL 2000 computer system, for a more manual system that relies on human innovation, brainpower and rigorous physical endurance.

It isn't even May yet, and I'm excited about virtually joining Ian in support of his trip. Tune in often to the link above for updates on what is happening in preperation for his trip. Like everything Ian does, it is certain to make you laugh, cry, or dance with midgets in a biker bar.

Enjoy!