Blue Boys

The Blue Jays are done, it is the season for Blue Boys. They are on the second picking of Blue Boys, thinking another week or 10 days of those, then the Eliotts. With 90 degree temperatures forecast for midweek, however, the end of the Blue Boys could come sooner. It is an early season for blueberries this year. Yet another view of Pigeon Lake, from this morning's ride. I took an early morning ride of about 21 quality miles today. I have met my primary mileage goal for the month, always a good thing.

Torch Lake

Thursday, July 26th's ride, 30 miles. (So I didn't ride Mark's age in miles, either.) We left the Field of Dreams B&B for Torch Lake, the longest inland lake in Michigan, fairly late in the morning. It was about a 30 mile drive to the north end of Torch Lake, and Barnes Park where we parked the truck and got on our bikes about 10:30. Though the map showed the road going along the lake its whole length, there were few lake views. It was flat to gently rolling, with only a few category 3 or 4 hills. After the 1st 6 miles, Lynne was a bit discouraged, but we agreed to try another 6 miles and see what we found. By about 12 miles out, we were on a busy section of road, but with a paved shoulder. With some encouragement, we continued for 2 miles to Clam River, where we found a lake view and a tavern. Where the Clam River flows into Torch Lake. It is a very pretty spot, worth the woodsy trip, I thought. We'd gotten a little spoiled with constant lake views the previous two days. Rather than continue south, we rode down the Clam Lake Road for a while, but we were in the mid day sun again, with little shade. We turned and headed back for the truck.

A headwind kicked in late as the lake breeze picked up, but mostly the wind wasn't much of a factor. Given the lack of shade and the blazing sun, the breeze felt good. We returned to the truck, packed up the bikes -- again -- and returned to TC for cherry pie.

This was kind of a Sloop John B. day. (Ask Wireless if you're not familiar with the reference.) This might be a nice ride in the fall when the trees are in full color. The lake, when we finally saw it, was beautiful. Very clear water, a very pretty blue green color, supposedly from the limestone bottom of the lake. Home by about 7:30.

Peninsula Perimeter

My birthday ride. 30 miles, so not my age in miles. Breakfast at 8:00, out at 8:30. About an hour later than optimal for a day that was eventually 90 degrees and very sunny, but it is the problem with staying at a B&B. Someone else's timetable. South to Smokey Hollow Road, maybe my favorite name ever for a road. East to Bluff road, only hitting about 30 mph on the downhill this time. Rode south along the bay, into a slight south wind. The water was almost constantly in view on our left. On our right were cherry orchards. The cherry festival in TC had just finished up and it is still harvest season. There were cherries all over the roads. We also saw some interesting yard art now and then. This was probably the most extreme, and certainly the tackiest.

Very light traffic along the perimeter roads. The morning sun over the east bay was beautiful. On the 15 miles or so we went south, we saw a few very large groups of bicyclists, fortunately all were going the other way. Apparently we were riding the peninsula in the opposite direction of the map they give to the tours. We eventually met them again when we were heading north up the other side of the peninsula.

We had to spend a little time on 37 again, as we wanted to ride into town. Leaving 37 for the side road into town I learned that when Lynne says 'all clear' it means there is a Fed Ex truck behind you. Fortunately, my personal rule is that I never cross a road without checking whether it is clear for myself. Tragedy avoided, we continued to a park in TC to fill our water bottles and take a few photos.

For Jimi, the bathroom doors were a nice bright blue on the public restrooms. I have pictures, but am not posting them today.

So far it had been pretty shady, and except for the first mile or two, pretty flat. We rode through the campus of NW Michigan College, found 37 north to Peninsula Road, up the west side of the peninsula. The sun is now high in the sky and there is little shade on this side at this time of day. We'd planned a rest stop/pit stop at a tavern/grill kind of place, but when we got there we discovered it didn't open until 4 pm. We continued further north, ignoring Seven Hill road as a choice, eventually taking Bowers Harbor Rd back to 37. Except for the last very steep grade on the final few hundred feet, in was a manageable climb back up to the highway. The Peninsula Grill just happened to be on the corner, and we stopped. Lynne wanted lunch -- I don't like to eat meals when I am biking -- a constant source of disagreement when we ride together. Hungry wins, I guess, so we spent nearly an hour doing that, using up what I considered to be the last good biking hour before it got too hot and sunny. Leaving there, I found the bright sun and no shade to be an issue, so I returned to the B&B. Fewer miles than Lynne wanted, but she won't ride alone. I was fine with 30 miles, as I have another rule about quality miles that applied here. Oh, well. We spent some time at the General Store and the beach (in the shade) before heading into town to meet two Hope accounting students and a Hope grad for supper. The students were doing internships in TC and Lynne is director of the internship program. I'm going to spread this trip report out over one more day..... All in all, a nice ride.

Tuesday

Traverse City is a pretty little tourist town on the south end of Grand Traverse Bay. Mission peninsula runs north from there into the bay about 18 miles, with an old mission (duh) and an old lighthouse near the end. The peninsula is home to several vineyards and cherry orchards as well as a thriving resort community. And tons and tons of very high priced second homes. We left Holland about 8:30 for TC. It rained off and on the whole trip, but cleared before we got to our B&B, the Field of Dreams on highway 37, mid peninsula. We unpacked our bikes, changed and rode the northwest corner of the peninsula. The first hill to the cemetery is 'outside category' according to my bike log, and about 1 mile long. Lynne threw her chain and I just kept going. Something about climbing hills alone? Within the next mile we hit speeds around 32 miles per hour as we descended to the roads along the waters edge, where it was pretty flat. Eventually back to hilly Hwy. 37, then to the Mission Lighthouse at the end of the peninsula. It sits right on the 45th parallel. I looked around, but I didn't see you guys. I thought you lived near there. An 81 year old guy took our pictures. He was a biker and looked - maybe - 70. He wants to still be riding when he is 100. Amazing.

Back to our B&B on hwy. 37, up two category 1 hills. Just 15 miles of riding, but it was mid day, and I am not a fan of riding in the sun. This is a theme that will recur as I finish the story. We also passed a vineyard, pretty much across the road from where we were staying. Chateau Chantal. Of course Lynne 'needed' to go there, so we cleaned up and headed over there. It sits on a high point of the peninsula, and the views are gorgeous. Both the east and west halves of the bay are visible, as well as the vineyards and orchards. East bay.

West bay. Note the road in the background. It even looks hilly from here.

After dinner we drove the peninsula to preview Wednesday's ride. Most of the hills are on the spine of the peninsula, running the length of it, north to south. The perimeter is fairly flat, and there are water views almost all of the length on both sides. The B&B was nice, with a deck out back and a large clean room. More tomorrow on the trip.

Mission Peninsula

No, this isn't TRAM. But it is Lynne, returning from a ride, working her way up a long, long hill to where we were staying. The highway runs north and south, down the spine of the peninsula, and we called this hill a category 1. It was also the first thing we rode up on Tuesday afternoon when we left our B&B. It is about a mile to the top, and it came as a shock to my flatlander legs, fresh out of the car after a 4 hour drive, with no warm up.

Deck Space Filling Up

Thank you, Wireless, for your kind offer. As you can see, Potter Mania has hit Michigan full force as well. She is currently on chapter 10, and says the deck is too cold today. She has moved her reading activities to the Chair of Power. Her other Grandma took her (and Totally Jammin') to see the Order of the Phoenix yesterday. And bought her the new book, as well. I am not the only one who spoils those two. I had some stuff to catch up on today, so have not ridden as yet. An evening ride is possible, but not a sure thing. I'm feeling a bit knackered, so a rest day may be in order. Mother nature has just not provided much in the way of rest days lately. A really, really nice stretch of weather here.

This is a pretty old photo. In fact, neither of these little boys is a little boy any more. And one of them is about to have a significant, ending in zero with a big number in front of the zero, birthday. Thursday. I will be out of touch with the world that day, so I'm wishing him a happy birthday a little early. Happy birthday, Mark.

Searching for BB

Where is she? This is where I usually find her. Today was one of those rides where I seemed to be riding into the wind the whole ride. I rode north first, with a NE wind. At the PSPS I turned east, and the wind had shifted to be more east than north. I got as far as the golf course before turning south, and by then the wind was clearly SE. I knew I had to get a tailwind out of it eventually, right? I turned back west, and within about 2 miles, the lake breeze kicked in and I was riding into a headwind again.

It was a crisp, clear morning for a ride, however. I waited until it hit 60 degrees before I left. It was about 21 miles, my 7th day in a row. This was supposed to be a 'taper' week, in preparation for the trip this week. Although with the clarity of youth, my daughter asked me 'why, Mom?' She's right, I suppose. I skipped a long ride this week, but other than that, my total miles were pretty much normal for this time of year.

I had a brief conversation at the PSPS with a guy who was headed to Iowa, to be a day late for a big bike ride. He claims it is fun. RAGBRAI? A moving carnival, he called it. I'd rather ride up an Alp than ride in that crowd, but to each his own.

Shadows

It was as beautiful a morning as it ever gets here today. It is also Lynne's birthday. We spent the morning at the funeral of a colleague who retired two years ago. Funerals always have a profound effect on my mood -- and I find myself focused on petty stuff. Like when did they change 'the valley of the shadow of death' to something else? And 'I will fear no evil' to 'I will not be afraid?' I did ride, eventually. It was afternoon and the winds were strong and gusty. An hour on the bike improved my mental health, however. And I found a piece of yard art to share with you, above. And bikey, to boot.

Okay, Gino. You have a real fair grounds where you are, for sure. But when it comes to county fairs, ours has all the right flavors. Plenty of 4-H buildings, etc. Today they were just starting to set up for the Ottawa County Fair that will start next Monday. I believe a few of my faithful readers have been to it. Perhaps even watched a horse race or a tractor pull at the Grandstand.

The gusty winds we had today began yesterday, late morning. All the Lake Michigan parks had their red flags flying, and all the local news stations were warning about rip currents. NW winds, 3 to 5 foot waves, the long NW fetch that sets up a strong undertow. Today's headline in the local paper, "Rescuers Look for Body of 10 Year Old Boy." It isn't a rescue mission any more, of course. And how in the H*** did a 10 year boy get in a position to die yesterday? Shadow of death, 2.

Froggy

Two days in a row, nearly 40 miles total for the QofM. Foggy and clammy feeling for the whole ride, really. A fairly brisk cross-headwind on the way out. We turned around a bit past half way -- PSPS, and returned along the lake shore. It comes as close to a hilly route as there is here, I believe. And we needed a little hill practice. There were no deer sightings today, but we did see a very large, dead fish along the road. Not anywhere near water, strangely. We rode up into one of the cottage communities near VanBuren Street -- the one with the big stone gates, if you remember that. We found a couple of nice little hills back in there. Some tear down and reconstruction going on there, too -- but not so much as in many of the waterfront neighborhoods. The bike path was empty when we left at 9:00, but by the time we returned home it was densely populated with a wide variety of people of all ages and skill levels. Even Lynne chose the road instead of the path for a while. Here's a type of yard art that you see a lot of -- people plant flowers in all sorts of containers. These flowers are actually salmon colored, so the photo doesn't do them justice. Some nice rocks under the shrubs. (Early warning. I will be gone from Tuesday through Thursday next week, without access to a computer. Lynne and I will be on a bike trip to Traverse City.)

Biking 101

Carrying a camera with me on most of my rides has added a new dimension to it. It has been a fun experiment, and has given me the incentive to learn how to use more of the features on my new camera. And I've learned a few things about stealing photo ideas from others, as well. This idea came from a photo blog in New Zealand, I think, when one of the theme days was 'mailbox.' Here's some yard art -- Today turned out to be the day I rode with Lynne. She called at 7:30, we left at 8:00, I needed to be home by 10:00. I missed today's stage of the TdF, but we had a very nice ride instead. A good trade, I think.

We stopped at the VanBuren Dune spot I photographed earlier. Lynne didn't remember having seen it before, either. As we were leaving, I commented that the last time I was at that spot, I had seen a lot of deer tracks. We looked across the road, and discovered that we were being watched by this guy. Antlers and all. 18.5 miles. (This is apparently my 101st post.)

Queen Cancels

Pretty much as expected, something else came up. As it turns out, today wasn't such a good day for a ride, anyway. It started raining about the time I got up this morning, and I ended up watching the whole stage of the tour while I waited for the sun to come out and dry things up. As you can see, the sun didn't come out, but the wind did come up. It dried things up enough for a ride after lunch, if you don't mind riding in the wind. I used the self timer on my camera here, and you can see from the flag on Big Red that there was a fairly stiff wind from the south.

I'm introducing a new category of photos, too. I'm calling it 'yard art.' This one is especially incongruous -- the kissing Dutch children and a sail boat. In my favorite spot, in front of a 'road ends' sign. Yes, you've seen this sign a time or two before, but not lately.

Sorta Raining

If you believe the radar, it has been about to rain since mid morning here. I rode early, with an eye to the sky, staying fairly close to home and did not get wet. I did a north loop of the blueberry fields, then swung south to ride along the cottages on Lake Mac. I eventually rode out towards the state park, then home through neighborhoods. This was the only photo I took today, somewhere along Riley, across from a blueberry farm. Sometime last week, Lynne had asked me to ride with her tomorrow, so she can train for the bike trip we are taking next week. She would like to try riding my 'old' bike, the Elite. Nancy has been riding it quite a bit, so it is a popular bike -- even if it is, at 9,200 miles, fairly old.

Dune Grass

Temperature on departure, 49. Record low for the date. It was a nice ride, and I was home in time to watch the last hour and a half of today's stage. It remains interesting, but my attitude toward the tour has more than a touch of cynicism to it. And I remember Rasmussen falling, and falling, and getting back on and falling again during the individual time trial a few years back. So... I spent most of the day just hangin' out with the SLO's. I noticed how dry the grass on the dune is -- there was a big fire south of here, near Saugatuck last week. Kids with fireworks set the dune grass on fire. Lost a mile of dune vegetation and three houses. Scary.

I mostly leave the choice of vegetation on the dune to Mother Nature, though we paid for a bunch of expensive dune grass to be planted about 10 years ago. Wild grape vines are a scourge, smothering everything. The milkweed attracts butterflies, and this is their time of year. They are unwilling to pose, but my patience was rewarded today.

The vegetation traps sand with some help from the wind, and the fore dune grows. The bench is nearly buried in sand, and you can no longer see the water from it. Ride on.

Big Blue Thing

Enough rain and wind to make a morning ride seem like a bad idea. By the time it cleared, weekend visitors had arrived. The OSLO is currently out for a ride on my old bike, and I am keeping the SLO's company. Looks like a rest day.For anyone thinking of blueberries, here's a blueberry picking machine. The berries are hand picked for the first several pickings of the field, then the machines go in and clean the berries off the bushes. At least, I think that's how it works. I'm still seeing greenish berries on my rides, but more and more the fields are looking blue. The season is gearing up, the Hispanic population in town has increased noticeably as the migrant labor force arrives.

Primary Objective

We had some weird weather blow through here last night -- water spouts were sighted off of the Grand Haven State Park. We got gusty winds and unusual cloud formations. Nothing severe developed, and it blew through.

Today I finally made the ride up to Grand Haven. It is a full 3 weeks later than my first ride up there last year, but I declare it to be a success. A light NE wind this morning on the way north, which picked up some once I was north of Pigeon Lake. Several other bikers were making the same trip, but mine was the only Liquigas jersey. One marginally old guy rode with me for a while, chatting about the distances involved, which did sort of help distract me from the wind. The SLO's were very happy to see me -- they've been waiting for that first appearance of biker Grandma. They fixed me a peanut butter sandwich with chips and lots of water, without a doubt the best lunch I have ever had. The look on their faces when I arrived was more than worth the trip. I told them that riding up there was the easy part, that the hard part was getting home. Only partly true, as the north wind held for quite a while on the way back, getting wiped out for a while around Kirk Park by the lake breeze. I was feeling a bit low at that point, sore legs, sore neck, etc. It only lasted for a few miles, and by the time I got to the power plant, I was confident that I would make it home. In fact, when I rounded the corner by the Ventura Cemetery, it felt like all of the calories and caffeine I had consumed finally kicked in. (And the tail wind picked up. Might have had something to do with it.) I even hammered for about 3 miles, including one mile that I'm claiming was a 4 minute mile. (Okay, but it is very good for me.) I wasn't saving anything for tomorrow, or even for the hill at the end. I figured that I'd manage to get up it one way or another. So one of my primary objectives for the biking season has been reached. Strong enough and fit enough to visit the SLO's on my bike. And I am now officially, as they say, cooked. (I took a few pictures while I was there, but they didn't come out, so you get weather photos instead.) 41 miles.

Too Nice a Day

Today was too nice a day not to ride. It was sunny, the sky was blue and the air was warm. So it was a little windy. There will be a day in November when it will be cold and cloudy and windy and I will ride anyway, trying to push back the day when winter arrives and biking season is over. So I rode today. On the other hand, it was too windy to ride any great distance. So here I am again.Pigeon Lake was very photogenic this morning, with the wind making patterns on the water. There is some purple loose strife in the front edge of the photo, but it hasn't overwhelmed the shore line, at least not yet.

Tunnel Park has a new building for the restrooms, changing rooms and shelter for the vending machines. Newly painted, the doors are a reddish brown. Note to GZ -- the primary wildlife sightings today were of the road kill variety. One raccoon, a bunny and a few other flat brown things that were probably the vermin squirrel. I haven't seen deer or turkey for a while. I got home in time to watch the last hour of today's stage of the TdF. I can't work up enough interest to watch the whole thing, but the last hour has been pretty good all week. I could have used a peleton, or at least a team, to block the wind for me today.

Deere on Dune

Today's ride was all about the wind. Trying to find a route with some shelter on the way out, trying to avoid the temptation to ride too far with a tailwind. NW at 17, gusts to 24. Not quite Hard Core, but definitely an application of the Auckland rule. North and east until I got tired, then home. I swung into Tunnel Park, mostly to take a picture of the restroom doors..... instead I saw this. This was kind of fun to watch. He was dragging the sand back up the dune, so that people can run down the dune and push it all back down again. I knew they did this in the spring, I didn't know it was done more often than that. (Today's miles put me at the half way point on my annual mileage goal -- which is to ride one more mile than I did last year. We'll see.)

Views to the South

Even at 8:00 a.m. it was too humid to be comfortable. Downtown Holland is south of here, the wind was from the south. Here's a photo for TT, demonstrating that not all bathroom doors are orange. These are the public restrooms in the gazebo in Centennial Park. Pretty much turquoise -- though they were being cleaned and the doors were open, so you'll have to take my word for it that all of the doors were the same color. I rode through campus, and decided that a sculpture of a bolt of lightning, with a church and cross as a backdrop, was worth a photo. Western Theological Seminary is on the south edge of Hope's campus. This is theirs, I think.

CSX railroad, the city of Holland and Hope College have agreed to close some city streets -- to cut down on car/train collisions is the explanation given. This is the one on 12th street, just east of campus.

The sidewalk is still open to pedestrian (and bike) traffic, but the road ends where the railroad tracks begin. The church in the background is no longer a church, and the cross has been removed from the steeple. The steeple remains, and the result looks odd. The ride wasn't all that long -- about 20 miles, but with a dew point in the 70's, it felt a lot longer. Cooler tomorrow, I'm told.

Van Buren Street

It was already 76 degrees when I left this morning around 8:00. There was still a fair amount of wind -- we've got gusts to 24 the last I checked. I've been wanting to check out the park at the end of Van Buren street. It's one of those road ends township parks, but I've been curious about the availability of water on some of my rides when there's no place to buy it. There's a mile stretch between Lakeshore and 164th that I rarely ride, maybe because it has a hill. So on the return leg of my ride, I rode down that stretch and found this. I didn't know it was there, and it's fairly close to home. It's a 120 acre site, open to the public for hiking and cross country skiing. And hunting, but no biking. It's called the Van Buren Street Dunes. Unimproved, but interesting. Of course, I like my sand dunes to be more civilized, with paths and stairs and the like.

I continued to the park at the end of VanBuren, on the lake shore. It does have a public water supply, pictured here next to Ruby. It is called Kouw Park, pronounced 'cow' to all of you outlanders. (????? What does that mean?) So I deemed it to be a successful quest, though I'd been to the PSPS and did not actually need water at this point. Home by 10, in time to watch the end of today's stage of the TdF. I may need to revise my picks, by the way. Is there a time limit on this?

Numbers

I visited this scenic overlook yesterday, before I got caught up in the excitement of ripe blueberries. Notice that they are watering the bike racks. It is hot and windy today, with small craft advisories on the lake. So I will not be riding today. (Because it is hot and windy, not because I was planning to ride my bike in the lake.) It has been noted in other places that the biking season is 7 months long. April through October. And for the fully employed, that is probably true. I have been keeping pretty complete records since January of 2002, and my biking season -- defined as a month with more than 100 miles -- has varied from 11 months (in 2002 and 2003) to 6 months in 2004. So far this year only February has failed the 100 mile test. That having been said, I am about 60 miles short of being half way to my goal for 2007. As I look back over the years, the timing varies a fair amount for when I hit the half way point. My bike log has lots of strange info in it, so I looked at last year, and I believe Gino hit his half way point about July 18 last year. I was a long way behind him then, but I am even further behind him this year. Ah, who doesn't love a number to crunch? I try to remember the words of Hammer, however, and don't let the numbers own me. Just ride ---

Blue Jays

No, not the birds. Or the baseball team. It's the earliest variety of blueberries. I heard on the news that the berries were ripening 2 or 3 weeks ahead of schedule this year, and yesterday I heard the sound of the gunfire they use to scare off the birds. So this morning I rode out James, cursing the people who water the path and road, and Voila -- Open for business. I had a nice conversation with Mrs. Bowerman -- I said 'the blueberries are early this year.' She replied, 'Yes, you're the first person who has mentioned it.' So I asked the variety -- Blue Jays -- and since I had $2 and a jersey pocket that a pint would fit in, I bought a pint of them. She assures me that there will still be berries by the first week in August, but it is hard to say what variety they will be. So we had a nice conversation about various varieties of blues.

I was on a bike ride of course, and Ruby was leaning against the sign. An old woman with a cane got out of her car, looked at Ruby, looked at me, and said 'that's a nice bike.' I was floored. I don't know how she knew, but I am counting it as an official 'nice bike.'

It was a very nice morning for a ride, even though it was well over 80 inland by the time I turned for home -- and into a surprisingly strong breeze. With the sun as hot as it gets this time of year, I didn't mind the wind -- unusual for me. In other ride related events, I threw my chain, saw a family of turkeys and hammered home. Maybe it was the morning coffee, but I felt pretty strong this morning. (The last photo is just to be mean, I guess. Sorry.) 20.28 miles

late edit: My picks for the Td'F are O'Grady, Kloden and Evans, in that order.

Routine Rides

My bike rides lately all seem to cover the same familiar territory, with the possible exception of my 'long rides.' I've noticed it in previous years, but it seems even more obvious when I'm trying to be both descriptive and interesting for the 4 or 5 regular readers of this blog. So -- I did get in a ride last night after we returned from dropping off the SLO's at their home. Thunderstorms were crossing the lake north and west of here, so I rode north on Lakeshore to make it easier to keep an eye on the relevant part of the sky. Evening rides seem to come with more than their share of encounters with the Moron family. It is a little hard to photograph them behaving badly, but I came pretty close with this one. She was driving her golf cart down the middle of the bike path. She then saw my camera and turned out into the street -- but my word is good. Illegal, impolite, unwise and all in all the act of the totally self absorbed. I continued along the shoreline, and eventually arrived at the PSPS without seeing any dangerous looking clouds. The ride home was also sunny, so I took a brief loop around a nearby neighborhood before heading in to the barn. When I looked out the front window, I could see rain out over the lake. It never really rained here, however. A shower hit the south side of town, but I could have ridden further.

Our wind has been pretty light and mostly from the north and west the last few days. So it is fairly cool here compared to inland. I needed arm warmers this morning when I left (thank you, Mr. MooHoo) -- for a ride to the bagel shop, then north, eventually back to the lakeshore as the morning warmed. (The arm warmers came off at the bagel shop.) So two nice rides in the last two days. But I've not been in new territory for a while. I like my leafy, country rides so I am not really complaining. Just sort of apologizing for the slightly boring, fairly redundant photos and descriptions.

Granny Duty

It is a very nice day here today, one of those days when cooler near the lake is a good thing. The SLO's spent about an hour swimming this afternoon -- the lake has warmed a little bit from the frigid 50's. They are spending the day here, while their mother does day care duty with someone else's children. They're feeling a little smug at the fun she's missing. I biked early yesterday morning, before the parade and cookout preparations took over the day. About 7 miles out I passed a field where the blues seem to be in an advanced state of ripening, compared to most. An early variety, I imagine. It seemed time to issue a progress report.

Independence Eve

Today was a good day to just take my bike for a walk. It was sunny when I left, and clouds filled in quickly. It still hasn't rained, but there's some nasty looking stuff trying to work its way across the lake. In any case, I beat the rain home. It is expected soon, as are the OSLO and the SLO's. This parade hasn't been rained out in the 10 years we've lived here. It's a lot of goofy fun, with the kids decorating their bikes and the adults decorating their lawn mowers, golf carts and convertibles. Vintage cars and the occasional fire truck have been known to show up. Those who don't march, applaud. The SLO's consider it one of their traditions.

My goal for my ride today was to find houses displaying 4th of July decorations. There seems to be just the one decoration, however. I took pictures of a number houses displaying the flag, but this one the only one I deemed blog worthy. It is the condos across from Anchorage Marina.

Pigeon Creek

It was a four water bottle ride today, even though it never really quite warmed up while I was out there. The SLO's have been suggesting that I should be riding my bike to their house for lunch (peanut butter sandwiches, prepared by them) sometime soon. Only that is a much longer ride than my 'long rides' so far. Thus today's ride pretty much split the difference between the longest ride I've ridden this year, and the round trip to their house. It was north and east to Stanton Corners first, into a light E wind. The home of French Cuisine. This is about 15 miles into the ride. I finished off my water bottles there and refilled them, as this is the 'jumping off place' to a longer ride, and it was 20 or 22 more miles home. Heading further east, I couldn't remember why I liked this ride -- mostly trees, a couple of turkey farms and a few fields. I think I've ridden this a few times in the fall, and it has been pretty. Anyway, I've taken pictures of the Pigeon River and Pigeon Lake, so for consistency, here is a photo of the Pigeon Creek Park. Fairly undeveloped, some hiking trails as well as horse trails. One of the roads I took followed the creek for a while, so I can attest that it does exist, and does contain water.

The wind shifts seemed to give me a constant headwind, but my average speed was fairly good for this distance. I didn't kick any asphalt, but I was surprised when I got home and checked the average speed. I was tired the last half dozen miles or so, but I had enough water to get home. Following the advice of Gino and TT who suggest 'hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.' Nice enough ride, but the next long one may well have grandchildren in the middle of it. We'll see.