Nice Bike

Temperature on departure, 53. On return, 70. Although I am quite fond of my early morning rides, the sun rises quickly this time of year, warming things up fast. I hadn't planned a stop this morning, but I was too warm by the time I got to the PSPS, and needed to remove a layer. (North through the trees, east through more trees, north through neighborhoods, east through blueberry fields, north through country houses, then west to the PSPS. Familiar, but a very nice route.) I am glad I stopped, as I got my first official 'nice bike' while I was there. The only other one was while I was in the bike shop, and the guy worked there. I don't count that one. This guy stopped and asked if it was a carbon fiber bike, and did I mind if he lifted it. He also chatted about having test ridden a carbon bike yesterday, a Cannondale from VeloCity Cycles. So this one counted. This is a test run for tomorrow's theme of 'the color red' on the city daily photo blogs. I will be on the look out for something more original, but this is a nice Hollyhock, taken near the corner of Holly and Blair, near the Pigeon River this morning. It had just been hit by a sprinkler, and I liked the water dripping off of it, as well as the mailbox in the background. (A total of 23 rides in June, fortunately all rubber side down.)

'Old' Friends

Lynne called about 8:30 this morning, checking to see if I was riding this morning. We planned to leave about 9:00, and made it out of the driveway about 9:45. Sigh. She wanted to be back about 11:00, so we took another 11 mile ride -- the Tour de Lake Mac. We spent a lot of time looking at landscaping and new houses going up, so set no speed records. This is our turn around point, a spot familiar to most of you. Pretty, isn't it? During the 24 years we've known each other, we've gone from fairly young, through what she likes to call our 'prime,' into what I refer to as 'young old.' (She disagrees, but this is my blog.)

Since two 11 mile rides in one week put a real dent in my mileage goals, I recycled after lunch, adding another dozen miles for a respectable total. So with one more day left in the month, I have met my two minimum goals. More miles in June than I rode this May, and more miles than I rode in June of 2004. June of '04 was the least number of June miles since I started keeping complete records in '02. I may meet another minor goal tomorrow, which would be more miles this June than last May. And I hit a reasonably round number today as well. I had some more ambitious goals that I cannot possibly meet at this point, but so it goes. Almost time for a clean sheet of paper.

Note on recycling: My bike log says 'some pain.'

Vantage Points

Motivation for topics comes from a variety of sources. This one was inspired by Gino's photo of Lake Vadnais from the other side of the lake. Since I have posted many photos of Pigeon Lake and Pigeon River, always from the south side, I thought a different view point might be in order. To get to the north side I had to ride up and over 'hill' and up and over a sand dune behind the power plant. And of course, return. Making it a four climb ride. Which I did, as we do all climbs, alone. This is looking south and east, back towards Lakeshore Drive and the PSPS. It is remarkably difficult to get here -- it isn't well advertised that there is public access to this area. And when I got there, the water was fenced off and the boardwalk along the north side of the lake has 'rules' about bicycles. Nasty, threatening rules.

So I left the way I had come, up and over the sand dune behind the power plant, which gave me a view of Lake Michigan from a vantage point rarely seen. There is a township beach at the bottom of that hill. It's really a pretty beach, except that it sits in the shadow of the power plant.

Which means it can be a little gritty at times. (Coal burning.) The wind was from the north today, so the beach didn't get the fallout from the plant. And I found one more of these -- always a bonus.

There is a cottage community at the end of the north pier of Pigeon Lake, on Lake Michigan. I went up and over the hill to see what had changed since I was last there. Primarily, it is now much more difficult to get in there. The last time I was there it was a simple lift gate, easy to ride around on a bicycle. It now has a gatehouse and swinging metal gates. Odd. (Have I said 'up and over' enough yet?) The other motivation for today's ride was the planned bike trip with Lynne in about 3 weeks. Usually we just take a day and take a ride. We haven't done a real trip in a number of years, with the exception of TRAM. But apparently she has a significant birthday next month, and wants to do something memorable. So we will be spending 2 nights and 3 days in the Traverse City area. That is a really pretty area, but I have been there with my bike, and it is quite hilly. So it seemed like a good idea to ride up and over a hill or two before we go -- just to let my legs know that I may be asking them to do this sort of thing. Today went fine, no complaining from my leg muscles as yet.

Apparently, I like Day Lilies

The dew point gods visited Michigan today, with oppressive conditions. The dew point is currently 71, the heat index is 88. We had some rain this morning, and there are thunderstorms around and about, though not here, at the moment. It is also windy. So in spite of it being near the end of the month, and the whole number of miles thing making me a little crazy, I am not riding today. So instead I bring you flowers... specifically, Day Lilies.I think these are nice, and I like the combination of the yellow and the purple.

On the other hand, these are nice, too. I assume that no hints are necessary as to the locations of these? I thought not.

More obstacles

The rain gods did not declare this to be an off day, so I took a ride. Lynne and I spent most of the morning planning the bike trip we're taking to the Traverse City area in July, so the early morning plan that works so well for me was abandoned. I admire Gino's ability to ride in oppressive heat and humidity, but it doesn't work well for me. So it was a quick out and back -- with Lynne, staying along the lake in the shade and relative coolness. No new photos, so these are from the archives. The race committee -- joggers coming down Perry, with an immovable group of greeters planted squarely in the middle of the path. Even shouting a fairly polite 'excuse me' at them, repeatedly, did little to make them move.

And the inevitable men with mechanized beasts, putting up their orange cones around the curve and 100 yards away from the last place I could enter the road, requiring that I turn around and retrace my steps to continue on my way. (And as a card carrying member of the moron family myself, I did this two days running.) The presence of my camera did nothing to change the behavior of any of these people. (Today's ride -- temperature on departure,81. 86 on returning. Just barely tolerable. 11 miles, I'm calling it a recovery day. Or even a rest day. 11 miles with Lynne is kind of like resting while on my bike. And that was just mean. And not even true.)

Rural Ride

There is a ride that I like a lot, but don't take very often. By the time I have the legs to ride this distance, the ride is too hot and sunny. Unlike almost all of my other routes, much of this ride is east of Highway 31. This morning it was about 64 degrees, and the wind was light and out of the east. I couldn't match Gino's 5 water bottle ride, but I do have 5 photos. I headed north and east from home, in order to cross the highway north of all the commerce going on around the mall. New Holland Street works pretty well -- except for about a half mile near the highway, it isn't heavily travelled. It turns into a gravel road north of Zeeland, which cuts down on the through traffic. It was pretty foggy when I left, and it took a while to clear. Zeeland is the point of highest elevation in the county, so there a few of these, but not a lot. About 10 miles into the ride. Over that hill is a small hamlet called North Holland. It has an elementary school, but no stores or gas stations. A bedroom community, I guess.

I imagine one of the reasons it isn't bigger has something to do with this. This is the turkey farm just east of North Holland. With the wind from the east, I smelled it before I heard it or saw it. They greeted me like an old friend. (I considered entering this in TT's ugliest building contest, under the assumption that if beauty is in the nose of the beholder, this is one ugly building.)

This really is a very rural ride. There were a lot of cornfields and soybean fields as well as hay fields, but the corn was too scrunty looking to even consider putting on my blog. Embarrassing, really. You can see that it is still pretty misty. At about 12 miles, I turn north. Glad to be going some direction other than into the wind.

I did the short version of the ride, going north just 3 miles, passing an Alpaca farm before turning back west on Tyler, where I stopped for a drink along side this field. Other than the cows, the only company I had on this section of my ride was three men jogging -- not together, in total. By now, my water supply was beginning to be an issue. I have not found public water supplies on this route, nor any place to buy any. Perhaps at the Elementary School in North Holland, but -- it really is very rural.

And environmentally sensitive. I'm about 18 miles into it now, and sucking down the last of my water. And it is getting warmer. I'm about 4 miles from the PSPS at this point, so not in real trouble, but I could tell that I was going to have a dehydration headache this afternoon. Which I do. I crossed back over into familiar territory soon, and the PSPS had plenty of water to sell me. Which I slammed down. By now it's over 80 and about 10:30, so the sun is hot. I took the Lakeshore route home, since that is shaded, and though I lost my tailwind as a little lake breeze kicked in, it was a nice run down the shoreline. Now, is that a nice ride, or what? Just a touch over 30 miles. (And two turkey farms.)

Chilly mornings

My weekend rides tend to be short and usually early in the day. Temperatures occasionally dip into the 50's overnight, so these early morning rides often require some layering up. It was about 57 when I left, and nearly 70 when I returned, so I was overdressed for the last half of the ride. Nevertheless, it was a nice ride. The woman who took the photo commented that she was always trying to keep that sign out of her pictures. She found my 'road ends' theme story amusing, I think. Lake Mac, clouds, a moored sailboat. It warmed throughout the day, and by 2:00 the beach noises began to be noticeable -- so after leaving messages for Unky Herb on TT's blog, the SLO's followed their mother to the beach. I spent some time there, but I am not a sit on the beach kind of person, so left them to their fun. The water is warm enough, if a little murky today. Not unusual when there are a lot of boats out there stirring it up.

Summer is well and truly here.

Weekend Events

Our neighborhood has an annual family picnic, following a day of golf, tennis and the like. It is, oddly enough, a favorite of the grandchildren. Although they did request that we be home in time to watch Extreme Rock, Paper, Scissors on Disney at 8 p.m. (!!??) And so that is our plan for the evening. I rode fairly early this morning, a quick and easy loop designed to leave me with enough energy for the rest of the day. Jimi had asked for a progress report on the blues. Specifically, when would Bowerman's have them available. Most of the berries I see on my rides are still pretty green, but I was on Quincy this morning, which provides for an up close and personal inspection of a field. These may well be one of the early varieties, because they are beginning to get a bit larger and take on a bluish cast. They still have a ways to go, I'd say.

It is once again quite cool on the water, with a breeze from the SW at this point. I'm pleased to hear that the Bianchi Babe got out on the 8 lake tour. That's a long ride -- I've been on it -- but a very nice one. Lake Vadnais is worth the trip all by itself.

Self Timer

Well. I figured out the self timer on my camera today. I took this photo at the end of my bike ride. It's hard to compose a shot when the most significant criteria is to find a flat rock to set the camera on. Technology. Amazing. Before I took that one, I took this one. Why did I need a self timer for this shot? Good question, really. But this is how the deck looked this morning.

Just an out and back ride today, with no sightings of interest. Just for exercise, and to burn a few of the calories I will consume tonight at the regular Friday night pizza supper with the Nintendo Wizard and Totally Jammin'. And their parental units. And pretty much anyone else who shows up hungry. Should be fun.

(Late Edit) This is an attempt to show how far north the sun sets at the solstice. Sunrise is about 6 am, sunset about 9:30 pm.

Solstice Ride

The marginal weather that plagued Minnesota yesterday arrived here overnight. I was uncertain about when or whether to ride, and how far. Today is the best day this week for a longish ride, from a personal scheduling perspective, so I strapped my jacket around my waist and headed north, into the NW wind. I'd checked the forecast for today, and the wind was supposed to swing around to the north as the day progressed, giving me a tailwind coming home, if it all worked as planned. The ride up to the Pigeon River is an old friend by now, requiring no real conscious thought on my part. It's about a mile from there to the top of the hill by the power plant, where I'd had about enough of riding into the wind and turned east. It's a lightly travelled 2.5 miles connecting Lakeshore and the highway. Coming down off that hill, with a bit of a tailwind, I felt like I was flying for over a mile. The best, and only reward for climbing a hill. This would take me to the PPS, a destination that I currently avoid. It is a bit sketchy for me when I'm riding alone. There's another spot a 1.5 mile ride north of the PPS that is either a good turnaround point, or a good jumping off point for a much longer ride. The corner of Stanton and Highway 31. It's still a gas station, but a much nicer one. And there are lunch type foods available, including -- French Cuisine. Or as it says on the bag, Cuisine de France.

So what's in the bag? Well... I admit ... it is cake. Or what those of us who like cake for breakfast call muffins. And as I was now inland, and in the midday sun, I sat for a while and ate half of it. (The top half, of course.) I considered whether to head further east -- it is a very nice ride inland from there through horse and corn country, with a few turkey farms thrown in for effect. And some nice tree lined stretches. But the experience of years of riding said that I had gone far enough, and that ride will have to wait.

The tailwind thing worked out on the way home -- I love it when a plan comes together. Just a few miles from home I stopped at the top of a slight rise to finish what was in my water bottle, and when I looked up from drinking it, I was joined on the path by......

Bambi? It stood and looked at me for a long time. I wonder if their eyesight isn't great and I looked a bit like a deer on my bicycle? A blue, alien deer? It decided to turn and slowly walk away. I stood as still as I could while trying to get my camera out of my pocket without scaring it away. Not totally successful, but still a nice moment. Have I mentioned that I love where my bike takes me?

Errands....

A problem with doing errands on the bike is that I can't choose how I want to work the whole wind issue thing. The bagel shop and the blueberry farm are where they are. Even with a brisk west wind, I decided to give it a try this morning. Bowerman's had a sign up yesterday, so I swung by there to check it out. It was closed and empty, as you can see. But their flags were flying in a nice display of red, white and blue.
On closer inspection, they are just selling strawberries at this point, and only irregularly at that. My next opportunity is Friday from 9 a.m. until they are sold out. Locally grown strawberries are available in a lot of places right now, and I've had quite a few. So I may not stop by there again for a while.

I also made a stop at the Great American Bagel shop, purchased 4 bagels, ate one and brought the other 3 home in my little back pack bag. Worked like a charm. The bagel was still warm, and very tasty. Something to be said for errands on a bike, perhaps.

(This is for Wireless. In yesterday's photo of the Pigeon River, what's the deal with the blue thing? )

Ruby, Tuesday

Temperature on departure and return, 71. Wind from the W at 16, gusting to 21. A west wind is a no brainer. It has to be a North/South ride. I found the crosswind to be fairly manageable, especially since my usual route provides for a lot of wind shadow. (Love that phrase.) I missed the memo that declared yesterday to be self-portrait day, but I love a theme day, so here's my contribution. I love my new biking sandals. They are probably the best biking shoe I have ever had. Other than the fashion faux pas of wearing socks with sandals, they work really well. Lots of gripping ridges on the sole, so my foot doesn't slip, and they are cool. A fairly stiff sole as well, though with a platform pedal that power transfer thing probably isn't much of an issue. -- Notice the water bottle? -- I took this at the PSPS, at the picnic table. I took a page from Gino's book and had me a lengthy sit down there.

That wasn't quite the turnaround point, though. I rode to where the road ends -- you've all seen the sign -- just before the Pigeon River begins. I didn't go all the way to the water -- too much duck poop. (If there had been 'a little goose poop' I'd have had to break into song. Name the group for no prize at all.) An excellent ride. (The title of today's post just cracks me up.)

Nice Tree

We had the lawn service guys trim some shrubbery at the beach house. The guy who owns the lawn service chose to trim this tree himself, rather than have one of his crew do it. He thinks we should have it appraised -- in case of storm damage. It is a Weeping Beech tree. It is a nice tree, but appraised? A tree? Anyway, so I took a picture of it -- and here it is.

Slowly recovering from my non life-threatening 'under the weather' thing. Biking is on hold for the moment. But solid foods have re-entered my life.

Fathers

February, 1942 Earlier

Happy Father's Day.

Camera Power

This was taken on yesterday's ride. The tractor was parked on the bike path, but when I stopped my bike and got out my camera, one of the men working on the landscaping got on the tractor and moved it. The power of the camera? So what I have here is a photo of an obstacle being removed from the path. It still counts, I say. The overcast is clearing here. It looks to be a nice beach day. DD is planning to cut the grass on the beach stairs this afternoon. Water temperatures this morning from the Spyglass website satellite feed were 64.5 -- warm enough for many. Happy Father's Day to TT and GZ, good fathers and kind brothers.

Prairie Grasses

This may be a post that only KS could love. I've been saying all week that an early morning ride seemed like a good idea. If I wanted to ride more than a dozen miles or so, without the oppressive heat, it was time to act on the plan.

This morning I managed to get out of the house about 8:00, with lots of time to ride before it got hot. It was 69 degrees when I left, with a light south wind. Good biking practice would have been to ride south, or east. But I haven't been to Hemlock Crossing in a while, and I wanted to see how the prairie grasses that have been planted there were doing. It's a mostly north, slightly east ride out, so there was a slight headwind returning. I am glad I went, however. The prairie grasses are doing better than last year, and the area is looking less 'planted.' That's the photo on the left. Not a spectacular showing, but still worth the trip up there. The grass on the right is planted in a field near there -- so not native prairie, most likely. The temperature was 79 when I got home, so I did find the sweet spot in the day for a ride.

Karma

Yesterday's ride fell victim to the bad flat tire karma. Today's was nearly cancelled due to technical difficulties. I was on the phone early this morning for 45 minutes with the technician from AT&T, trying to figure out why my internet connection wouldn't work. After all this time without success, he said he'd call me back. Which he did, eventually, with the news that there was a service outage. No internet available from the provider. In spite of having missed the window for riding in the cool of the morning, I rode anyway. It was, predictably, hot. Internet service was eventually restored. Jimi had a nice old scanned photo yesterday. This one is too easy for a quiz. Name all four people for a pint of blueberries? What kind of flowers are they standing in front of? What color is her dress? Where was this taken? Too easy.

I promised a series of photos on bike path obstacles -- reasons why bikers ride in the road. Men with chainsaws are a way too common occurrence.

Bicycle gods

I didn't comment too much on GzMooHoo's earlier blog about bicycle tire longevity, because I didn't want to jinx my own run of good luck. I haven't had a flat tire on an Armadillo tire since I bought the first ones for my Bianchi before the 2002 TRAM. I replaced one set on that bike because of tread separation after several thousand miles. I rode much of the 9,100 miles currently on the Elite on Armadillos -- I did have a few other sets of tires on it for a while -- some Cippolini tires, for sure. I put Armadillos on the Ruby when the original equipment got its first flat tire at 1,200 miles. This morning at 8:30 I left my garage for a ride, and the rear tire was flat. Armadillo tires are advertised to be able to ride through crushed glass without a puncture. And barbed cactus thorns. This flat was from a small, sharp (duh) limestone rock shard. It barely nicked the tube, so I suppose I was lucky in a sense. The flat tire occurred in my laundry room overnight instead of out on a ride. I'm very disappointed in the tires, however. Only 2,500 miles on that tire. (Well, so far -- Nate put a new tube in it, and I will continue to ride on it. But the streak is over.) I took this as a message from the bicycle gods that it was time for a rest day. It would be too hot to ride by the time I got it fixed, so unless I rode the Elite, I was done for the day. 5 days in a row, time for a rest day.

Also, the other person who lives here, okay my.... wanted some help with a landscaping project we have going on. This area has just been planted in grass seed -- years of low water levels had led to it becoming a weed and sumac infested area. (We had to set up some sprinklers and timers, since our sprinkling system won't reach all of this area.) Now it will have grass and we will be mowing the area that used to have a boat parked on it. If it looks good, I'll add another photo once the grass has actually sprouted.

Queen of the Mountains

We left the house about 9:30 this morning -- it was already getting warm. We rode a leisurely 18 miles; inland route to the PSPS, Lakeshore returning. (For the hills -- she is the Queen, after all.) It was her first ride of the year, so a pretty good distance for her. Notice her MS Tram jersey, team. We didn't set any speed records, and we took a few little side trips. She pronounced herself satisfied when we returned. And hot. I did find a few shots for a series on bike path obstacles. I missed the money shot on this one, though. We came over a hill on Lakeshore and there was a deer standing on the path. It fled into the woods, of course. We coasted to a stop where it had been, and I took this with the zoom lens on my camera. It is standing there, watching us. If you click on the photo you might be able to make out its shape in the center of the photo. It is the first deer I've seen so far this year.

BB -- thanks for clearing that up. Every bit of confusion that has a logical explanation puts off that certainty that I'm losing it. For a little while.

I Own a Lot of Bikes

I got nothin' today, folks. I took a ride early this afternoon, and I took my camera like a good blogger. I even had a plan -- I was going to take pictures of things on the bike path. The kind of things that make it less a bike path than, at best, a multi-use path. Like children on golf carts. Men with chain saws. People walking multiple dogs, talking on cell phones while roller blading. You know -- the typical stuff. None of the above showed up today. So here I am. I also thought I was going to ride with Lynne today. You may have noticed that she hasn't shown up here, as yet. Mostly because she hasn't ridden yet. We were scheduled to ride this afternoon, but 'something came up.' Perhaps later in the week. The Queen of the Mountains is not what you'd call a dedicated biker. Oh, well. Since yesterday's post featured my two Holland bikes -- well, two of my Holland bikes -- I thought I'd give equal time to my two Florida bikes. Well, two of my Florida bikes. From a ride this January with TT. Rubber side down.

Note: Click on yesterday's photo of DD, and check out what's over her shoulder.

Knackered

It was family ride day here, too. DD wanted a long ride, so we rode around Lake Mac -- my second time in four days. I think she had a really nice time. She was very proud of her 29 miles. Me? I'm knackered. Here's our first rest stop, at Kollen Park on the south side of the lake. About 8 miles into the ride. A very nice view from there. Winds light and variable when we left. About 8:30 am. The turn around point. Yes, it is the same 'Road Ends' sign from Wednesday's post. But it now has a model in front of it -- for scale? Anyway, we rode through some nice neighborhoods and a long stretch of South Shore Drive to get there.

No complaints about the weather here, either. We were home by noon. There were a number of rest stops, a search for a bathroom, and the need to find a place to refill the water bottles. Riding through town can be a slow process, but quite pleasant in the end.

Tennis, Anyone?

This photo belongs more on TennisTousan's blog, or maybe GZMooHoo's. But here it is, anyway. And I'll steal from TT again -- it's a quiz. When was this taken? Where? Who's the babe? And a very happy birthday to Wireless. Kagami Sensei beat me to it on her blog this morning, but I'm happy to add my wishes to hers. Hope you have a great day!

I did ride this morning -- PSPS, sharing the paths and roads with the Moron family, as usual on a Saturday. Lots of dogs and kids on bikes, Dads on bikes 'walking' dogs, utility workers, kids on golf carts... the bike path is a dangerous place. We're looking forward to a visit this afternoon from Darling Dafter and the Dynamic Duo. (DD&DD?) Cousin Leslie is also visiting. It promises to be a good weekend. We may emulate the Moron family and take a family bike ride.

Great Flatlander

One of the reasons I even have the Auckland Rule (if you don't ride in the wind, you don't ride) is because riding in the wind is supposed to be similar to riding hills -- and as you know, we don't really have a lot of those around here. It was cool and cloudy, with winds around 17, gusting to 25 when I left, but declining gradually. (We had a wind gust of 51 mph at the lake yesterday, I'm told.) The sun came out while I was out and it ended up being a pretty nice ride, even so. Not as nice as Wednesday's ride around Lake Mac, though. Here's another scrap metal sculpture photo from that ride -- I'm not sure what it is supposed to represent. It's in front of the Padnos scrap metal reprocessing plant. I think those are supposed to be tulips in it's hand. That ride took me through Holland, riding south -- beyond the city limits, in fact. Nothing like seeing horses to make you know you're not in the city any more.

Pretty much all we have on the north side are blueberry fields and turkey farms. On a windy day, you can smell a turkey farm for miles. Which reminds me, I must have been downwind of Heinz this morning -- we had breakfast downtown -- and got my first whiff of pickling brine. Ah, Holland. 14 miles today.

Scanner

In honor of the Kiwi's win yesterday, here are a few photos from the South Island, circa 1997 or so. Before digital cameras entered my life. Thanks to HP ScanJet 4300C -- probably close to 10 years old. And user friendly enough for me to manage with minimal tutoring from the other person who lives here --

Dunedin Botanical Gardens and an unnamed beach. But I love the sign. Even better than a 'Road Ends' sign. (Too windy to ride.)