It's always a peaceful spot to sit and reflect for a while. The sun came out a few times along the way, but not enough to warm it up much. 54 when I left, 55 when I returned.
I took this from the top of 'hill' on my way back. There are some things that just don't get easier, no matter how many times we do them.
It was a longish parade, but short on both bands and floats, two of my favorite parade elements. However, two of my truly favorite parade elements showed up eventually, and waved to the crowd.
OSLO, TOG and I did a lot of walking along the parade route. Fruitport is a pleasant little town, and they put on a long, long parade. I was a little surprised to see lots of vintage, classic and antique cars in the parade -- I assume because of the "Old Fashioned Days" theme.
I was also surprised to see that the Sons of Norway were represented -- there was quite a large group of them. The parade paused and I went up and asked this Viking if I could take his picture. I thanked him afterwards -- "mange takk." There was a sharp intake of breath from his wife who said, "Oh! You should come to our steak dinner tonight." In a Norwegian accent. She was the real deal, apparently. It seems that all it takes to get invited to dinner with the Sons of Norway is to speak a little bit of Norwegian. Good to know.
There have been a few bike rides here and there -- but working for a living isn't the only thing that interferes with biking. It rained this morning, and there is rain on the way for later tonight. Rain showers tomorrow. It has been a very soggy spring thus far.
Before and after photos. The water was about 51 degrees. Way too cold for swimming.
Another set of before and after photos. OSLO and I watched from the sand --
Apparently she needed a little encouragement, and her little brother was happy to oblige.
Outdoor showering season has officially begun. Happy Memorial Day weekend.
I took the next photo on a bike ride a couple of days ago. It was a brighter, warmer day.
I find the signage to be very confusing. Is there a message there that I am missing?
I rode through the newly expanded part of a park -- whose name I forget -- near the bridge that goes into town. The walkways along the waterfront are a nice touch. There are signs that say 'no bicycles' on the boardwalk, of course. As I was leaving a man on a mountain bike with his fishing pole in his backpack (!!!) rode down the walkway to the fishing pier. In Michigan, almost all signs are taken as being advisory, not compulsory. This includes traffic signs, something that still startles me on occasion.
I made a quick stop at the bike shop to talk to Laura about tomorrow night's bike forum at the Civic Center. She had asked me to be a member of a panel discussing when, where, why and how much people in Holland bike. It may be interesting. Or not, we'll see. I was home before noon, having had a really nice couple of hours on the bike, and at no time during my ride did I ride slower than yesterday.
The first dozen miles or so were uneventful. My legs were tired from yesterday's activities -- lawn mowing and gardening -- but I've got 1,000 miles on them this year, so I was pretty sure they'd hold up for the return trip into the wind. I stopped at a gas station and picked up lunch, shown above, and took it with me to Quincy Park. I had the place to myself until an SUV pulled in and a Dad got out and did what looked to be an emergency diaper change on his young child. Boggable? Just barely. The sky was blue, the wind was brisk, and I was adequately hydrated and caffeinated. Time to head for home.
I turned west onto the golf course road, heading directly into this new direction of the wind for the first time. I looked down at my bicycle computer and realized that I was having trouble maintaining 6.5 mph. It occurred to me at that point that I might be in violation of rule number one. A rule so basic that it shouldn't even have to be written down. Don't ride further away from home than you can ride back. Given that I was now barely able to ride as fast as BB walks, I was suddenly a long, long way from home. That golf course road curves a bit, emptying out on New Holland Street between the golf course and a corn field. Nothing to break the wind. Nothing to do but grind it out, tired legs or not. Cornfields gave way to blueberry fields, equally devoid of shelter. Finally, west of 160th and south of Ransom, the fields give way to houses and woods. Enough shelter to get my speed back into the double digits. Eventually I got close enough to home to know that I wasn't going to need to use my bail out plan -- one I have only used once, and that was for an exploding tire in Florida -- call TOPWLH. Up the hill, then coasting home. The forecast for the rest of the week is the same as for today -- winds from the SW at 15-25, gusting over 30. It may turn out to be a very low mileage week.
I've been playing around with trying to display bigger photos on my blog. I waste an amazing amount of time on stuff like this. It is a good thing I'm retired. The top photo is from a Picasa album, the bottom one is from a Flickr album. Both are of my front yard. 
Two nice enough days to bike, in a row! I suffered some from tired leg syndrome from yesterday's marathon, but sucked it up and rode anyway. Tomorrow's forecast is for rain, again. Here's the route map for today's ride, called Ransom.
The second reason for "marathon" is that the round trip is just a touch over 26 miles, about the length of a standard marathon. I know the route map says 12, but it doesn't start at my house -- and you mostly know where I live. Plus it is just a one way map, and I rode it both ways. Of course. My longest ride so far this year. Two things I thought of as I rode into Stanton Corners. In no particular order:
This is a really, really nice ride. Especially the north end of it -- I really should ride it more often. Though it is a touch far. The second? I was overdressed. Even though the temperatures never made it out of the mid 50's, once the sun came out, I was too warm. At the Marathon station I removed my middle jersey layer, tied it around my waist (not a good look, but what other choices does one have?), and was quite comfortable on the return trip.
We still have issues with standing water in fields and ditches even more than a week after the last deluge. The vehicles in the distance are men working to clear a drainage pipe that runs under a railroad track. (For those of you who have biked here, this ride is roughly the same distance as the Kirk Park ride from the beach. Only it's inland. So it is warmer.)OSLO, the SLO's and I spent some time this evening watching the closing performance of this year's Klompen Dancers. The 73rd such performance, apparently. Today is the last day of Tulip Time, 2009 -- so for the few weeks until Memorial Day, the town returns to normal. I took more photos of tulips, and will probably post them in a day or two, but I've posted lots of tulip photos. I believe that this is the first video of the Dutch Dancers. (A little bit of family history. OSLO was one of the Dutch Dancers in her Senior year of High School. She remembers that it was very warm that year. This year we froze as we watched them dance in their wooden shoes.) The dancers are all from local high schools, including Zeeland. They've been practicing since January, in order to get a few days off from school in May.
Sometimes I just need to appreciate how lucky I am to be able to ride these roads every day.
The recent monsoons have dramatically demonstrated just how clogged many of the drainage ditches are. Some property owners have given up waiting for the county to fix the problem, and are hiring their own heavy equipment to get them cleaned out. The blueberry fields are especially vulnerable to the standing water in the fields, and there are concerns over the effect it will have on this year's crop.
There is a bee in the middle of this lilac cluster. My lilac bushes aren't blooming yet, but these were along 152nd, a few miles inland. Their scent when I ride past them is better than pie.
I was taken by the 'weeping' characteristics of this tree. It's in a neighborhood about a half mile inland from the big lake. The wind shifted from ESE to WNW while I was riding. Soooo not fair. Though the winds were pretty light -- thus not really a big problem. It was still much cooler near the lake.
The pink buds below are on one of the ornamental crabapple trees alongside of my driveway.
Spring is finally getting serious here.
It was finally warm enough to ride in shorts and short fingered gloves. Today was the furthest north I've ridden so far this year, and the first trip to this location is always a milestone of sorts. And no, once again I did not go inside. I'm just not that brave. (Railroad tracks for perspective.)
On my return trip I made a quick loop through Hemlock Crossing Park. There is some sort of construction going on -- it looks like they've given up on prairie vegetation, and may be creating some different sort of habitat. The meadow walk appears to have a newly constructed bridge over what may be a pond or just standing water from all of the recent rain. Hard to tell at this point. Story: I had one of the oddest experiences I can remember (on a bike) near the end of my 2+ hour ride. A car pulled up next to me as I waited for a light at Lakewood. He leaned out the window and asked me if I wanted to race. The very idea seemed bizarre and I laughed out loud. "I don't think so," I replied. "If you can't beat somebody's Grandmother....." He laughed and said, "You'd probably beat me anyway." Who in their right mind offers to drag race a bicycle????
It wasn't as cold on the beach as these bundled up people would make it seem. The sun was warm, though the air was crisp. It was actually quite pleasant, in a big lake in May kind of way.
Nor was it as warm as my granddaughter seemed to believe. Bare feet? Wading? She's a pretty hard core fan of the lake, but the mid lake buoy says the water temperatures are still in the low 40's.
I did take a short bike ride after supper, but I didn't have my camera with me. From my perspective the photos from our walk on the beach are more interesting than anything I saw on my ride, anyway. I am not yet willing to give up the temperature difference between home and the beach, so at least for a little while, it will be a weekend retreat.
