Public Transportation

November 1 is theme day again, and the topic is public transportation.

What to do on a windy day?

I might as well add some of my old photos to the mix. In no particular order --
My best guess is 1968 for this one. In front of the Boyd's house on Ryan Avenue.
The envelope this one was in said November, 1973. The family room in the house on Hope Farm Road, in Ft. Wayne. (I still have that cup.)

And the much discussed tennis championship of 1961, from the 1962 BLAST.

Between Two Storms

Enough rain fell last night to fill up all the usual ponds and sinkholes in the neighborhood. Laura's dad called about 10:00 this morning to tell me that they had finished working on the Elite and it was ready for a ride. They had installed new cables, but just cleaned the shifter -- they hope that will solve my shiftless issues. So I headed over to Cross Country Cycle and took my bike for a test ride. There was some tweaking that needed to be done, but it rode and shifted as good as ever. I loaded it in the back of the Beast and headed for the bay, where I took it for a longer ride. It was an unusually warm day for this late in October, and the beech woods were a perfect choice for a ride through rustling leaves.
I'd dropped Ruby off at the shop when I picked up the Elite, to get a stem extender for it, too. Things were quiet in the bike shop today, so I went back and picked it up after my ride. I stored the Elite in the basement at the bay and took Ruby to the beach. Where I recycled.
It was 70 and sunny when I left the beach about 3:30, and the wind had died a bit since my earlier ride. If the weather forecasts are correct, we are in for a couple of days of high wind and storms, possibly severe. A storm of historic proportions, was one description. Storm warnings are up on the big lake beginning about 8 am, and I plan to pack up the rest of my beach stuff and head inland tomorrow before the power lines start to fall. The low that will be parked just north of Minneapolis is supposed to have the extreme low pressures of a category two or three hurricane. The wind event will last a couple of days. Time to batten down the hatches.

Times Up

The time has come to move away from the beach to a more sheltered location. Big storms are coming soon, I've heard, and November is just around the corner.


Yes, I know. That was a different lake. The point still holds. The COTU arrived yesterday to help me with the packing up process. Saturday was a rainy day with periods of drizzle, but we made some progress, and got in a final evening walk around the neighborhood.
We loaded up The Beast twice, once with a load of stuff for Goodwill, and a second for a trip to the bay.
Today they helped me strip the beds and carried loads of stuff out of one place and into another. Eventually we called it good enough. It was nearly 70 degrees in town this afternoon, but the big lake's water temperature is in the 50's, and the wind was strong from the southwest. We made one last trip to Tunnel Park for the season -- discovering how cold the sand is on bare feet this time of year.
The only other visitor to the beach that we saw had four feet -- and even the dog didn't stay down there long.
It is a different place this time of year, though still plenty worth the effort it took to get out into the elements one more time.
I still have lots of laundry and a little more packing up to do, but it is just a matter of a few days and I'll be locking up for the season. The end of the biking season and the end of the beach season both arrived before I was completely ready, but when it's time, it's time.

The Longest Bench

Seen while just riding around. I'm still waiting to hear the status of the Allez Elite. I talked to the bike mechanic this afternoon, who was working on the new cables, and he had not yet looked at the shifters.


A note from the traveler: "We got to Curitiba about on time and were met by our driver. Then started to Joinville on the divided highway and traffic stopped about half way there! An accident involving a phosphoric acid carrying truck had shut down the highway. Eventually our driver who spoke no English discovered a back road (gravel) way that got us to Joinville at 8:15 PM over 4 hours later than expected. We checked in, had dinner with the team here and went to bed."

And last, but okay, least -- this. (There is a no deposit, no return policy on your time, should you chose to view this.)

Back to Ruby

I have been riding the Allez Elite since early July, when I replaced the saddle on it and it became more comfortable to ride than the Ruby. Double versus triple chain rings is part of it, but the stem extender on the Elite that allows for a more upright position is also a factor. Today the wind blew hard, and I rode out into it on the Elite. I'm not looking at accumulating miles any more, it is too late in the season, and this season was awful, so it was more about getting outside and getting some exercise. Bicycles are really good tools for that, in my opinion.
(For those of you who don't speak bike, the short version of the next paragraph is that my bike is broken.) At roughly mile 6, I made a shifting error -- and ended up in the 11 in the back, middle ring in the front. And instantly felt that my shifting ability for the rear gears was completely gone. The gear shift lever flopped back and forth. So I turned and rode for home, riding what had become for all intents and purposes a single speed. Well, maybe a 3 speed since the front shifter still worked. I stopped a couple miles later and played with the right hand levers a bit, and it started to shift again. Weird. The rest of the trip home was uneventful and I was even confident enough to stop at Tunnel Park to take a photo of the trees in front of the dune. I have been meaning to take the Elite in to the bike shop for a while now -- to get a couple of adjustments made to the stem extender -- there is not enough cable to raise the extender or rotate the handle bars up where I want them. John (Laura's Dad) said that my shift lever problem may be very bad news -- they may have to replace the entire right hand shift mechanism. Bad news in the sense that it is expensive to do. So..... I left the Elite at the shop, stopped at the Bay to pick up the Ruby, and am now waiting to hear the extent of my bicycle woes.
Here is a link you might enjoy. And a link to pinpoint that location. And another to the closest weather station I can find. ( I know that it says South Carolina, but it is a different South Carolina.) It appears to be summer like there. Not here, but we are still getting nice sunsets. They have shifted quite a ways south of their usual July/August position.

Hard Ride

It was a little windy today. Another ride to the PSPS -- the woman who waited on me there congratulated me for still making the ride out there this late in October. Nice of her to notice.

Haunted Woods

I did a lot of walking this weekend. Lynne stopped by Saturday morning, and we braved the frosty early morning air, doing our usual circuit of all the Idlewood streets. Later, the COTU arrived for a visit, and took their grandmother (that would be me) for a couple of nice long walks. Last night, just after sunset, we did the big loop around Idlewood, and bravely walked right on by the vampires and werewolves that were gathering in groups in the shadows. It was fun.
Today we visited the Haunted Woods behind the fire station off of Perry Street. At least that is what the sign said. Oddly, we couldn't find any hint of anything even vaguely haunting. Not even a clown.
The girl COTU had three different camera devices with her. Her actual camera, her cell phone and her Ipod Touch. She took pictures from the graffiti covered observation tower with all three, just because she could.
Here's the classic 'taking my picture while I'm taking yours' photograph. If that isn't fun, what is?
It was a nice mild day to be color peeping (I swear, that's what they call it), and the leaves seem to be a bit past their peak, at least in this area. Lynne stopped by this evening, and we took another walk around the neighborhood, making for four walks in two days for me. Even without a bike ride this weekend, I feel adequately exercised.

Wanderings

It rained yesterday morning, a bit. The roads were damp and the light was bad for photos during all of my ride. I rode far enough to justify having geared up, but it just wasn't a good day to be out and about on a bicycle.
I saw a few turkeys at about mile 6.5, who seemed to have no fear of people at all. The little house is a school bus shelter for kids -- I've seen a few of them at the entrances to housing developments, but this one was at the end of a private drive.
At mile 7 there were police cars and fire trucks blocking the road as well as the bike path. I asked an officer if I could get through, and he said no. There had been a fatal accident at that intersection a while earlier, one of the cars had been pushed into a power pole, and they were waiting for the power company to arrive to determine if any of the wires were live. Three teenage girls in a white car had gone through a stop sign, and the 18 year old driver was killed when they were broadsided by an SUV. There are now three spots along my typical route from the beach to the PSPS that are the sites of fatal accidents. I turned and headed for home.
I tried again today. It was a brighter day, at least for a while, but cool and windy. In spite of the 20 mph wind, it was a much better -- and longer -- ride. I rode past the PSPS, where the leaves are a different color now than they were in August.
The wind was primarily from the west, making it a crosswind for most of my trip. I watched a class trip of young teens pull into the north boat launch on Pigeon Lake. They likely came down from Hemlock Crossing, and were paddling hard when they got under the bridge and got hit by the wind from the west.
I am including this photo of a bench today, partly because I like it, and it is different from my typical bench shots. It is also a way of saying 'hei' to the other person who regularly photographs benches and posts them to his blog. He's playing tennis tonight and enjoying another anniversary of the day a few decades back when Tommy got a baby brother.

Feels Like September

I took a ride Saturday morning before the COTU arrived to help me with my yard work. I stopped to take a picture, similar to the one below, of what I think is a sassafras leaf.
I had no memory card in my camera. So today I retraced my steps and got this photo.
It was a perfect September like day, not 10/10/10, but close enough. Fall colors change so fast that every ride is different. This maple is along the Riley path, near 168th, if memory serves.
I assume that it is okay to stray from the orange theme briefly -- the leaves on blueberry bushes turn reddish colors, and when they fall off, the stems are red, which make a striking contrast against the white snow. Which I am pretty sure is coming fairly soon, as hard as that is to believe on a day like today.
I turned around at Quincy Park, and on the return trip rode down Greenly for about a mile. I rode as slowly as I could, to make it last as long as possible.
I swung into Tunnel Park to photograph a couple of the orange leafed trees there -- these are along the entrance drive near the front gate.
This one is north of the volleyball courts. The sound of leaves rustling beneath my wheels has just begun. A few trees have dropped their leaves, but most of that will happen over the next couple of weeks. Usually, especially if we have a windy stretch, most of the leaves are gone by Halloween.

My (Very) Short Mountain Biking Career

First, here's my contribution to the 'orange tree' theme. It's the maple tree at the beach, and it is dropping its leaves pretty quickly.
Next, I had planned to ride out to Hemlock Crossing Park today to check out the fall colors there. It is northeast of here, and the wind was from the southwest and predicted to get brisk by afternoon. (It has.) So I opted for something very different. I thought I'd ride the off road trails at Keppel and Riley Parks. Keppel Park is just 1.5 miles from here, so I rode it first.
I don't have a 'real' mountain bike, but I do have fat, knobby tires on my old silver Bianchi hybrid. (TRAM I.) Rigid fork, but that should work. The path started out pretty mellow, mostly hard packed dirt. It's a small loop, with some 'single track' spurs joining it here and there. I followed one and it took me back to a clearing under some power lines, full of deep sand. I retraced my steps back to the main loop. Another spur took me up and over a hill, with a view of 'real' mountain biking terrain on the back side -- downed trees across the trail, lots of exposed tree roots -- again I retraced my path back to the main loop.
I thought I'd find plenty of color to photograph back in the woods, and though it was pretty -- in fact, really pretty -- there wasn't much color. There were a couple of pine benches, though, and I soon found myself back out at the log cabin where the woods loop began. On to Riley Park.
I've walked the woods here a time or two, and thought I remembered smooth double track, mostly. Apparently my memory is flawed. I took the main loop, thinking it would be the easiest to follow. Though the park is less than a mile on each side, so the chances of getting seriously lost were remote. It started out through some pine trees, where I was careful to pick a line where my handlebars didn't hit the tree on either side.
If you look carefully at the trees on the left, you can see a red dot that marks the main trail through the woods. Still not a lot of color, but so far I was enjoying it. The wind doesn't penetrate the woods and is much less of a factor than it is out on the road.
Things deteriorated pretty rapidly from there. I came to a fairly steep, sandy hill filled with tree roots. I chose what mountain bikers call a hike-a-bike, but what I call 'get off and push.' Also, at this point I hadn't seen a red dot for a while and I wasn't sure I was still on the main trail. This photo doesn't show it too well, but the downhill is through tree roots, with a sand pit at the bottom. Then uphill along a pine needle laden path. There were lots of spurs and Y's in the trail, but usually I would find a red dot eventually and mostly followed what I think was the main trail.
It did eventually loop back to the bridge I had crossed at the beginning of my trail ride. I took a photo of the dragonfly(?) because I thought it looked a little radioactive. (Riley Park is our local Superfund site, formerly known as a toxic waste site.)
It turned out to be a much different experience that I had envisioned. On the upside, there was not much wind, and my chances of getting hit by a truck were small. On the downside, there was a lot of bike pushing -- actually, I rode quite a bit of the uphill, it was the downhills, with the roots and the sand pits at the bottom that made me nervous. And the possibility of falling, which always exists on a bike, seemed more likely than on the road. I definitely worked up a sweat during my admittedly short rides through the two wooded areas, but I'm not likely to repeat the experience. Well, maybe one more time, just to see if I can find my way around the full outside loop. But that it would be it. Still, something different to do on a bike. In an odd way, it was fun.

Fall Colors

Blue, red and orange? Fall colors? Well, they were some of the predominant colors on my last couple of (chilly) bike rides.
Bowerman's will be open until Halloween, for now it is open Wednesday through Saturday. They advertise apples, cider and pumpkins for sale in their blue building.
There's a lot of blue going on at the state park -- this table/bench, the water, the sky.
The snow fences are up. There are a lot fewer of them this year than I remember from other years. Lots of blue sky and water here -- a deeper blue than in the summer, at least to my eye.
A little of the traditional red.
And an orange tree. I was almost home before I found one that I could call an orange tree. I found no grapefruit trees at all.

First October Ride

50 degrees can feel pretty cold. In April, 50 was my cut off point for riding -- and it was just barely 50 today when I layered up and rode. For years my base layer has been a Nike dri-fit shirt, but I have a new Under Armor base layer that I like even better. Today I donned a long sleeve jersey and a jacket, wind stopper tights, wool socks, heavy gloves and .... a balaclava. Call me a wimp, but riding north into a cold north wind was just too hard on my delicate face.
The sun was out but provided little in the way of warmth. Biking produces its own wind chill, and eventually even my multiple layers couldn't keep the creeping fingers of cold from crawling up my spine.
Warmer weather is forecast for the week ahead, so I didn't push it. The ride was a little shy of two hours, but I called it good enough. I dreamed about Ruby last night -- not sure exactly what that means. I haven't ridden her for quite a while, she's just not comfortable to ride any more. The Elite has a stem extender on it, a necessary piece of equipment to make it comfortable enough to ride. Maybe it is time to get one installed on Ruby, too. GOINFS.