Images

Another short ride, another cool morning. A bike ride early, but too short to make up the miles needed to avoid a last place finish. The fewest miles I've ever ridden in the month of June since I started keeping records. No excuses -- I just didn't ride far enough, often enough.
The county road crews aren't mowing the 'weeds' as often this year, either. The abundance of wildflowers lining the roads is evidence of the lack of funds available for cosmetics. Not such a bad thing.
OSLO had her one month check up with her surgeon today, and he declared that she was doing very well. Most of her restrictions have been lifted, and she can resume her normal activities. We celebrated with a spaghetti supper at the beach with her and her expanded family. The three kids swam until it was time to come up the stairs to eat -- it was a near perfect day, if just a shade on the cool side.
A walk to Tunnel Park just before sunset -- and the last sunset in June did not disappoint. (It appears from the New Zealand blog that I read that the theme for July 1st is reflections.)

Busy Day

TT reminded me that one of the key indicators that it is summer is busy-ness. I guess it must be summer. Today's choice was to ride for a short while, or not at all. (Though I suppose that if I were honest, getting up earlier was also a choice... just not one that I considered.) I rode for about an hour, an out and back loop. It was 18 degrees cooler this morning than when I rode yesterday. It never quite hit 70 here today, but it was a pretty nice day anyway.
There is some sort of light blue vegetation covering the hill that covers the tunnel at Tunnel Park. I don't remember seeing it before, though that is probably mostly a comment on my powers of observation. Pretty.
Other items on my to-do list for the day included picking up the Cotu, having lunch with them at the Kletz (college coffee shop), and delivering TJ to his computer classroom for round two of creating virtual worlds. His sister mowed my grass while I supervised, and the four of us went out to supper to celebrate his grandfather's new employment status. Un-retired. It has been an unusual summer, but an interesting one.

8 to 9:45 a.m.

Totally Jammin' has successfully completed his first day of science camp at Hope. He has some new computer skills, and is willing to return for day two tomorrow. Building Virtual Worlds. I cleared my schedule so that I could take him there and get him registered -- clearing my schedule consists solely of taking my bike ride early in the day.
It seems to me that the people that are out exercising at 8:00 in the morning are more friendly than those that are out on .... say, a Saturday afternoon. I wonder why that is?

Acclimate or Else

Today the stars -- or more accurately, the weather and my available time -- aligned and opened up an opportunity for a 'long' bike ride. The definition of 'long' changes for me throughout the year -- at this point it is anything over 20 miles. It was warmish -- mid 80's eventually -- and muggy. JB says the dew point was 71 this afternoon. There was enough wind off the lake to stay cool, assuming I kept moving. (See Emmy's blog for an explanation of that effect.) Has anyone else noticed that the sun is really high in the sky this time of year? I rode north on Lakeshore, intending to stop at the PSPS on the way out for a bottle of sports drink (electrolyte replacement issues). The repaving of roads locally has degenerated into a system where a slurry of some sort is spread across the roads, then a bunch of ground up asphalt is placed on top of it. It makes for a nasty surface for bicycles. The street that cuts through to the PSPS has had this junk applied to it, so I continued on north on Lakeshore, across the Pigeon River and past the power plant. I'd planned on riding to Kirk Park, but I was running too low on water, and it was a warm day with a hot sun, so I turned back a bit early.
It is a really pretty ride north of the river this time of year, but somehow I got to mile 15 (the PSPS) without having taken any photos. I spent some time sitting at one of their picnic tables, re- hydrating, and noticed this rather fierce looking winged bug attached to their outside wall.(Late edit: According to google, this looks like a cecropia moth.)
I took the inland (flat) route back, and discovered that 164th has been treated with this same messy junk -- it seems to be all over the place. I rode it anyway, regretting it but eager to get back to the Lakeshore where the lake breeze was providing a lot of cooling power.
Tunnel Park is crowded today. I warned the attendant there that I was going to put this picture on my blog, and she ducked down below the window level to avoid that fate. June is drawing to a close.

Latest Sunset

The sun set at about 9:25 tonight -- about as late as it happens here. The slow slide into winter has begun?
The day including 'college' for her, and swimming and outdoor showering for her and her brother.
And a book about psychic vampires. She has one more of day of science camp at Hope. Next week it is her brother's turn.

A Brief Summary

I haven't blogged much lately, and I have a few photos that I have been meaning to share.
Lynne's new house was in the Parade of Homes this year. It is finally over, and they are in the process of moving in. The COTU say we have ''house envy.''
Flag day has come and gone, but the wind remains a constant factor. Lake breeze mostly, and it has been warm enough that I am no longer cursing the fact that we live next to a big pond of cool water.
There have been a few bike rides, but nothing epic or different. I'm on track for the least miles I have ever ridden in June, since I started keeping track of that sort of thing. Gotta love a record setting month.
The COTU are doing separate science camps this year. The teen COTU is doing a comic strip drawing camp, and she seems to be enjoying it. No tests, quizzes, grades or homework.
There has been a lot of this, too. This rolled through here this morning, leaving puddles of water everywhere. It is already one of the ten wettest Junes on record.

Let Them Eat Cake

Bike Path

Remember that great ride I took on Monday? Well, I could still feel it in my legs this morning. Tired, sore, crampy. But yesterday OSLO called her surgeon to see if she could get the okay to take a bike ride (it has been 3 weeks since her surgery) -- and he said no. She was disappointed. She's doing great -- taking long walks, and walking up and down stairs. (She's been up and down the stairs to the beach twice since Sunday.) Two more times than me.

So.... Wimping out did not seem like an option. Long story short, I did take a bike ride today. With drainage ditch reconstruction going on along much of my usual route to the north, I've been riding up Lakeshore to the PSPS regularly. It has a couple of hills, and about 3 miles of what I think it is fair to call 'rollers.' Usually I then find a way to loop around the construction on the return trip, coming back on the flatlands. (Hence the name of this blog.) Today I rode the Lakeshore both directions. A pretty nice ride. And yes, my legs still hurt.

Foggy Blue

The sun didn't break out here until after 6:00 pm, after dense morning fog and a cloudy day. The COTU spent the afternoon here, helping me out with some yard work and such. There was just enough time this morning before I went to pick them up to fit in a bike ride.
The fog was still evident even as far inland as Bowerman's. The new fruit stand appears to be nearly ready for business, though it looked to me like there was some parking lot work still underway.

Some of these berries have already started to show signs of blue. Most of the berries that I pass by on my rides are still green, but this must be one of the earlier varieties. Summer must be here.

Pierce Street Pavement Ends

The paved part of Pierce Street ends at the Pigeon Creek one room schoolhouse. They have added a bell tower since the last time I was there. The sun only shone for about 5 minutes during my ride today, so the lighting for the photo wasn't great. I think only two of my more or less regular readers have ever been to this spot -- it is a couple of miles north and east of Kirk Park.
As usual, I turned around when faced with three roads that all have gravel surfaces. I've ridden two of the three directions at other times, though. Both the north and the south roads hook up to asphalt within a mile or so. I took the inland route (Hiawatha) rather than Lakeshore on the return trip, and finally got a photo of this old barn -- something I've been meaning to do for a while now. It's pretty country up there, but it is also a longish ride to get to it.
Today's ride was the first time this year that I rode further than GZ rides on an average day. Not a competition, since I'd lose. But an interesting yardstick. It has been an erratic year for biking -- but today persistence paid off. Bonus points ... I was back before it started to rain.

Bikes

An early morning ride was in the cards today -- due to both the weather forecast of hot, humid air building in later in the day, and a plan to spend the afternoon with my favorite, very handsome grandson. I wasn't alone on the road this morning, even at 8:00 am or so. There was a duathlon in progress (not a tri, because of high e-coli counts at the swimming venue) and I hit Lakeshore just as the first few riders ripped on by.
Lots of different bikes and gear (my personal choice was a 50x17) were evident, this one was the most extreme. I'd call that a time trial bike and helmet. More than a few bikes had a bad case of derailleur rub going on, and a few chains were badly in need of lube. Maintain your equipment, people.

Most of the racers were on standard road bikes, a few on what I think are called tri bikes, and I saw a handful of mountain bikes. An odd choice for someone committed enough to sign up for a race of this sort.
There is nothing at all wrong with mountain bikes, of course, in the right place. Part of the afternoon plan with the Grandson was a trip to the bike shop for a new helmet, and an adjustment of the drive train on his new mountain bike. I approve of his choice of the highly visible yellow helmet.

Blue Sky

This road leads to a 'private association' according to the sign. No houses are visible from the paved road. Clouds are rolling in from the west, over the lake, obscuring the sunset.

June

Some bike geek that I know told me that he removed an 11/32 cassette from his bike and replaced it with a 14/25, giving up 9 gear inches on every revolution in his lowest gear.
He did this on purpose, because unlike me, he doesn't need much help getting up hills.
I have gear envy.

Gravel

The terrain where I live is very different from that in the land of Saints. For one, it is pretty flat. For another, on a fairly regular basis, pavement ceases and gravel begins. This is not a good surface for riding a skinny tired road bike. And there are miles and miles of gravel roads just off to the north of here.
To be fair, I have ridden Ruby down gravel roads on occasion. Including this one. But it isn't what Ruby was designed for, and mostly when I encounter gravel, I turn around or choose a different direction. Who knows what lovely barns, or fields, or bridges I'm missing?

Yesterday

First, an update from OSLO. I figured I'd use her own words from an email she sent me on Thursday. "The recovery is still going good. I am taking both the muscle relaxer and tylenol, although I do not feel like I need the tylenol. I am taking it just to be safe and listen to the doctor. I have been walking TJ to school and home at the end of the day. It feels soooo good to walk and stand. Not doing a lot of sitting. "

Yesterday -- it rained again. Not a lot here, but it was enough to cancel the 5th grade bike trip for TJ. He was soooo looking forward to riding his brand new Raleigh mountain bike to Rosy Mound Natural Area, on the shore of Lake Michigan. He was bummed, but the weather forecast looks good for Monday, the back up date. They left the bikes at the school over the weekend, and I (of course) am concerned about who is going to pump the tires on all those bikes before they leave on Monday, or are they all going to be riding on soft tires?

Yesterday -- was National doughnut day. Or donut day, if you prefer. I did not indulge -- I don't eat many donuts any more, and on the rare occasion when I do, I have a rule that they are only eaten while riding my bicycle. I believe I mentioned that it rained yesterday? Today I did ride, and the PSPS was on my route (not exactly accidentally.) They have fresh, if slightly greasy, donuts available. I bought one, and ate it on my bicycle. I then felt the need to stretch out my usual ride to the PSPS a bit, so my turn around point today was here:
The top of Hill. In a piece of good news, I did not require all of my gears to get there. I congratulated Ruby on her good job, of course. Rain has been on the radar off to our west all day, so I didn't push my luck any further than this. There were a few sprinkles on the return trip, but nothing serious yet. Nice ride, Ruby.

Construction

There were a lot of puddles here and there -- left overs from yesterday's off again, on again, all day rain. The cold front finally swept away the fog and humidity and left us with a decent amount of blue sky. It was in the mid 60's the whole time I was out -- marginal for biking shorts, but I wore them anyway. It's June.
I haven't taken a photograph of the new fruit/vegetable building at Bowerman's lately. It is about a month or so until the start of blueberry season, and it looks like finishing it before then will be nip and tuck.
Today was one of those days when I could almost convince myself that an alien invasion had removed the other 9 million or so people from the state of Michigan, and left just me as the only inhabitant. Blair is often a quiet road -- but it was almost eerily quiet today. Looking west towards the big lake, above, and looking east towards .... well, Zeeland... below.
I'm enough of a hermit to enjoy that sensation, at least for a little while. More inhabitants did turn up, eventually. And as if to prove my point that I'd be happier here all by myself, they proceeded to make my life difficult. It should have been 5.5 miles home from this spot -- only if the road is open, though.
Not exactly a big deal, it was 6.5 miles instead. 164th and New Holland. They are working on the new Park Township Drain, I think. There's no place like home.

Images

I rode past these wild irises in a ditch along 160th, near the PSPS. They reminded me a little bit of the purple iris on Emmie's blog a few days ago.
There is a small cemetery along Lakewood that I occasionally ride through on my way home. I stopped for a little while today to reflect on the flags on the veterans' graves.
Just a few images from the west coast of Michigan. The sky was blue, the winds were light, the humidity was moderate and the temperature was in the upper 60's to low 70's. A pretty nice day for a bike ride.