Wrapping up Tram 2002

November ends today, I'm told.  I believe I promised to try to finish this story during NaBloPoMo.  At several points during the day today when I couldn't get the scanner and my computer to cooperate with each other, I nearly threw in the towel -- a fitting metaphor for the ride itself.  So here's the wrap up of day 5 of our first TRAM.

Day 5.  River Falls to Lake Elmo  40 miles

40 miles to go sounded like a piece of cake when we left River Falls on Friday.  We just had to ride the miles.  The first photo I have is of GZ and Santini at the confluence of the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers, about to cross from Wisconsin to Minnesota.  It was likely the first rest stop.

The high point of the ride that day, in a literal sense, was probably the town of Afton, MN.  (Afton Alps Ski Area is near there, for example.)  I believe that was the location of the second rest area, mostly because I have a photo of the four guys on our team standing in front of a sign that says "Afton City Hall." We were all back in our team shirts for our final day on our bikes.

The four brothers.  I love this photo.  We all rode together that day, and stopped to regroup outside of Lake Elmo.  Jim isn't in this photo (below), so it's a safe bet that he took it.

This next photo is team Santini e Fratelli crossing the finish line in Lake Elmo.  317 miles in 5 days.

GZ is there, hidden behind LH -- you can just see his helmet over her shoulder.   He dreamed this up and convinced the rest of us to do it, it wouldn't have happened otherwise.  To paraphrase the Pster, "without Gino, there is no biking."

317 miles is a long way.  Anyone who doesn't think so, hasn't done it lately.  I was ready for a little sit down, myself.  And I believe that sloppy joe's were provided (see photo below) before we loaded up our bikes, thanked our support teams, and headed for home.

This is the last photo in my little photo book from this epic family adventure.  They, our faithful staff, were never even close to woefully inadequate, and you can't ask for more than that. Looking back has been fun, though a little emotional at times. I'm glad I did my part to help preserve the story and the photos.  Carry on.

Penultimate November Day

Weather permitting, our tradition has been to walk to Tunnel Park on Thanksgiving weekend. The COTU hadn't been to the top of the dune since the platform was finished and the benches installed, plus they make good models for a blog photo. They are both wearing their winter coats, but no gloves or head coverings.  They're young, so I'm saying upper 30's?

Their Mom arrived for a visit in mid afternoon, fresh from doing some Christmas shopping.  She got some good bargains, but the rest of us stayed away from any contact with the retail crowds.  They have all since returned to their regular lives and our house is now ridiculously quiet. December looms.

Lemonade

The Grands climbed into the attic today and pulled out some things I haven't seen for a few years. We've decided to do a little bit of decorating this year for the Yule season.  I even ordered an outdoor Christmas arrangement from our landscaping person.

Christmas in Florida has always been pretty quiet, and I've never done much/any  decorating there.  We will not be there this year, and here I have been accumulating this kind of thing for 50 years or so.  The Advent Calendar is pretty old -- 30ish years, though the Nutcrackers are of a more recent vintage.  The attic is full of stuff that brought smiles of recognition to my Grandchildrens' faces.  We think we're going to have some fun with this.

Leftover Friday

8:00 am and the Physical Therapist, Amy, arrives.  Both she and JB are early risers.  She says he's making progress, and that she'll be back next Monday at 8:00 am.  JB and I load ourselves and Ruby 3.0 into the truck and head for the lab for yet another blood draw.  We're home by mid morning, and I'm already tuckered out.  I should have taken a walk, but I opt for a nap.  Later Oslo and the COTU arrive, bearing gifts of left over Thanksgiving feast from the other Grandmother.  JB tires pretty easily, but we manage a family portrait of sorts before the younger generations leave.  They'll be back tomorrow, with their positive energy.

The other Grandmother's leftovers make a tasty dinner-- there are walnuts in the cranberry sauce.

Thanksgiving 2015

It was not your typical Thanksgiving.  I took a walk around the neighborhood in the drizzle this morning, returning before the nurse's visit around 11:00.  OSLO called before she and the COTU left for their holiday dinner with the other Grandmother.  Then while JB napped I took another walk to Tunnel Park, hoping for some bloggable photos.  I'm sharing the best of the bunch.

I think "Dismal" works as a title for this one.  This evening my family called from Minnesota, reminding me that they love me, they're sorry and they forgive me.  That really does cover it all.  I loved it. Thank you.  It was good to hear your voices.  

The COTU Skyped with me this evening -- here TJ realizes I'm taking a photo of my computer with my phone and he's giving a "thumbs up" sign.   They'll be visiting us this weekend, and are likely to show up here again before BEDFAMM is over.  (Blog Every Day For A Month Month). 

The Bianchi Advantage goes to Cross Country Cycle

I could almost write this post by putting a link up to Gino's post from yesterday.  I haven't taken a bike ride in two full weeks, and expected the season to be over by now.  This past weekend's snow didn't help, life has been complicated, and my bicycling fitness level....sub par.

My major bicycling goal for the year was to ride more miles than I rode last year, and that happened a while back.  I also had a specific, pretty low round number in mind.  As of this morning I was 65 miles short of that goal.  In an ordinary year, I'd count on December miles in Florida to make up that deficit, but this has definitely not been an ordinary year, and we won't be in Florida in December.  There's a winter bike sitting in my garage, one that I don't mind if it gets covered in road salt and grit.  Plus I have the gear.  So while JB napped this afternoon, I took a bike ride.  I did not expect to find snow and ice, but there were a few patches of it on the bike path on James.

The bike shop was my turn around point.  I needed a new battery for my bicycle computer, and Laura was willing to sell me one.  I bought two pair of bike socks so she didn't charge me for installing the battery and setting up the computer with wheel and tire size.  So that's done.  I was overdressed for the temperatures -- upper 40's with a brisk breeze.  It was only 15 miles round trip, but it was a hard ride, especially toward the end. Rain moves in again tomorrow.

Yesterday I blogged about my camera....

One of the things I plan to do is to tell Jim's stories. I haven't figured out just how that all works out yet, but here's an odd coincidence. Yesterday I blogged about my camera, and a year ago today Jim blogged about his. And mine, as it turns out. So here is one of Jim's stories. It's a small one, but Jim deemed it worthy of telling once, and I repeat it here.

 "Sometime last weekend my new walk-around camera turned up missing. I searched all over the house thinking I had left it in the pocket of my parka. It wasn't to be found. I've only had it since February 6th of this year, but it takes pretty good pictures if I point it in the right direction. I like that camera. It's a lot like the one that Santini has been using, except mine is the silver body and not quite as fancy. I was beginning to think that I'd have to go buy another one just like it at Best Buy. Or maybe the gods were telling me to use my SLR camera more. But I had a couple of candidates for places it may have fallen out of my parka pocket. Fort Snelling and Wooddale, the places I play tennis. Today I visited Fort Snelling and their lost and found department. They had a lot of stuff - shirts, gloves, socks, and a fine assortment of water bottles - but no camera.

I drove to Wooddale and checked into an almost deserted facility. I asked the woman at the desk if I could check the lost and found. She asked what I was looking for and I described my hand-held camera. She had it at the desk. The lost is found. So I walked outside, lighthearted and took this next photo. It was getting ready to snow and there was a dark looking sky, but the day was much brighter than when I went into the building. "

I didn't transport his photo over to my blog, but you can click on the link above if you want to see it.

Speaking of sky, I took two walks today -- both of them to Tunnel Park.  The first one was via the streets, on the second one I walked up the beach.

The first two are from the morning walk.  In the spirit of this week, I am grateful that I live where these views are a part of my daily life.  If that's not nice, what is?

First Photos

I purchased a new camera a couple of years ago, a Nikon, plenty nice enough for my level of photography skills.  It goes with me most places, most of the time.  It's taken a few good photos, as well as many of the other kind.  Since today's events produced no photos, I put my camera's memory card into my computer and pulled up two of the first photos I took with it.  Here they are, as my obligatory photos for the day:

I have more memory cards, if necessary, I can do this again.

Supportive

The photo quality is pretty bad here -- I think my camera needed sunglasses, or something.  I took this facing the sun, which was low in the sky, late this afternoon as these three left to return to their scheduled responsibilities.  They're a source of great positive energy to us both.

JB has improved his mobility with the acquisition of this beauty:

It has been dubbed Ruby 3.0 -- my bike is Ruby 1.0, NCW's sewing machine is Ruby 2.0 (according to our count), and this is Ruby 3.0.  Four wheels, brakes operated from the handlebars, a black leather like seat -- and a lovely color. It even has a built in saddle bag.  It could use a water bottle holder, though.

Change is the natural order of things.

Snow arrived, and as usual for our first winter storm, the lake ate a bunch of the forecast for breakfast.  We got a couple of inches of the white stuff, a fraction of what was predicted.  The roads are still warm so the snow only stuck to the grass, at least near the lake.  Snow on the dune grass is always interesting, at least for a little while.  And yes, I know I need to take in the hose.  It isn't connected to anything, so I'm not bursting any pipes or faucets with my sloth.

The visiting nurse was late, so I was late picking up TJ to bring him back here for Grandpa duty, and I was thus late to the baby shower.  OSLO and the College Girl were two of the hostesses, the College Girl's cousin was the Mommy to Be, and a good time was had by all.

The college girl did the posters to match the patterns and themes her cousin had picked out for the baby boy due to arrive in January.  You can see just a bit through the windows that by mid afternoon there was some real measurable snow in Grand Haven.  Driving was fine, however.

The food was quite tasty, the decorations were well done, and it was good for me to get out and do something different for an afternoon.  I needed a break and this was a good way to get one.

Here's the College Girl with her cousin the Mommy to Be.  TJ did a good job keeping an eye on his Grandfather, who was having a pretty good day after a few that were not so good.  And the beat goes on.

A Storm Approaches

We're expecting our first snowfall of the season -- 20 days into November no one is surprised by that.  Inconvenienced, yes.  But not surprised.  The Home Health Care nurse who will come here to measure JB's vital signs tomorrow just called to see if she can come early in the day due to the weather predictions.  Caring for sick people in their own homes instead of in a hospital makes life more difficult for the care givers who have to venture out in winter storms, but JB much prefers being at home.  And the more or less daily visits from health care professionals leaves him feeling well cared for.  I've read that in some places doctors are Skyping with their patients in place of office visits.  We're not there yet, but I am comfortable with the level of care and attention he is receiving, as is he. It has occurred to both of us that much of his health care is currently being overseen by someone whose only training is in accounting -- not exactly a related field.  Still, the phone nurse (that appears to be an actual job description) says he's lucky to have me, a message I passed right along to him.

Another moment unlocked from the past through the magic of photography.  This picture makes me smile every time I see it.  It was such a special time.

What's on the other side of that dark cloud?

Here's an interesting coincidence.  Last year on November 19, Jimi posted some photos from the first TRAM.

Today was another odd day in our lives.  JB and I are trying to work our way through the aftermath of his hospital stay a week or so ago.  Today there was a trip to the lab for yet another set of blood tests, his 4th or 5th since returning home.  We also spent an hour and a half talking to an "intake" nurse about Home Health Care services.  Physical therapy will probably begin on Saturday.

Winds are awfully strong here again, I attempted a short walk this afternoon, but 40 mph winds are beyond my limits.  Snow is forecast for this weekend, with 3 to 6 inches of accumulation.   I'm willing to call the biking season over here.

Here's a photo taken yesterday when the current weather system was still hovering off to our west.

Totally Jammin'

The Grandson turned 17 today, and though it is hard to believe the number, we feel fortunate to have lived close enough to have made lots of good memories with him (and his sister, naturally.)  Here is an assortment of oldish photos that evoke some of those memories.

Happy Birthday, TJ!!

MS TRAM 2002 -- and then it rained

Day 4.  Wabasha to River Falls 63 miles

With 210 miles already on our legs from the first three days of riding, and just a bit more than 100 miles to go, we ran into our first rainy day.  Here's what my bike log says, "Along Mississippi in driving rain.  Lost support, missed a turn, missed a hill.  Darn."

Some of us were more optimistic than others when we left the Anderson House to ride across the bridge over the Mississippi into Wisconsin.  You can tell by how we are dressed.  It was mostly woefully inadequate for what the weather gods had in store for us.  But we'd pumped our tires and we were ready to go.

This was, I believe, the "Little House on the Prairie" rest stop, the first one.  We thought we were prepared for this kind of weather, though LH, Mark and Andy look like they're wearing plastic bags.  In fairness, my "water resistant" jacket was not really any better.  And we were still along the river, with a big, big climb yet to come to get up on top of the big river bluffs in Wisconsin.

Andy and LH at the Maiden Rock marker. To this day, I consider myself a biker, if for no other reason, than because I rode up Maiden Rock.  It's a brute.  (It is roughly 2 miles long, from research GZ did.  It rises 434 feet over 10,560 linear feet, an average grade of about 4.1%.  The road rises slowly from the river and then turns inland and begins to rise sharply.  There is a road which joins from the right where many (including the 5 of us) took a break.  This comes at about 1 mile and 920 feet of elevation.  This part of the climb, from where the road steepens to the side road is 160 feet of rise over 2640 feet, average grade of 6.1%.  The climb continues at about the same 6% rate for another half mile and then flattens somewhat.  Most of the middle mile is 6%.)

Posting this photo proves that I am not a vain person.  This is the point where Lynne and I threw in the towel (we desperately needed one) and called for back up.  And dry clothes.  Most importantly, a dry chamois.  Staff arrived (thanks, Staff!), and dry clothes were donned in the bathroom of a restaurant just off the main Tram route.  By the time we'd managed all of this, the TRAM workers had efficiently removed all of the route markings leading to the next rest stop.  At least the rain had stopped, and the five of us happily pedaled along for miles through some of the prettiest valleys in Wisconsin before we figured out that we were alone out there.  We had maps, and a friendly cyclist going the other direction confirmed that we were only a few miles off course and pointed the way to the next stop.  We had unwittingly taken a shorter, much much flatter route than the rest of the riders.  And had missed the biggest hill of the day (except for Maiden Rock, I'm reasonably sure.)   With the exception of GZ, who had ridden ahead somewhere around Maiden Rock, made all of the correct turns, and got to ride up that perfectly superfluous hill.  Darn.

We're nearing the end of this story. Here's a final photo from day 4, Andy with his support staff -- his lovely wife and two of his beautiful daughters.  It was a family adventure, after all.

Webster bike trip, 2006

In late June of this year, I took my daughter and my grandchildren on a bucket list trip.  I wanted them to see the old Anderson farm, and visit the old cemeteries.  That trip is documented on my other blog, here, here and here.  The last time I visited that area I was with Jim and GZ.  It was in July of 2006.  While looking through the old TRAM photos and bike log entries, I found a small notebook with a few scribbling about that trip.  For the sake of accuracy, I am transcribing them here just as I wrote them.  But first, here are the only three photos I found from that trip.

St. Paul, 2006.  Thursday July 13 -- 9 miles with Gene.  Too damn hot!

Saturday July 15 - 23 miles with Gene.  Yellow River Loop and Gandy Dancer Trail to Webster and back.  Along Yellow Lake (overlook) also nice at trestle over the river nearer town.  Rode around Webster -- 104 degrees eventually.  Visited Yellow Lake Lutheran Church.  Big  hill just before U on French Rd.

Sunday July 16 -- Hot early, out of Yellow Lake Lodge.  13.5 miles.  Still too damn hot.  Yellow River loop.

2006 -  On the way to Yellow Lake:  Jim - how do you get from Webster to Yellow Lake?  (Construction on 35).  Gene -- FF & U  (county roads).  Jim -- Bite me.  Think about it a while -

---------------

3 cemetery tour--
   Webster
    Oakland - on C
    Spooner (Sorry Bastard?) -- Gross-father left his family for 28 years, returned -- unmarked grave.

What else?

   Rednecks and off road vehicles
   Meat raffle
   fish fry

Tuesday -- 16.7 miles to Mississippi River and return. 7-9 am with Gene -- Cooler
Also Tuesday -- pretty ugly trip home, assuming I eventually get there -- sat on the plane for 30 to 45 minutes w/o AC -- then sat in the airport for who knows how long?  and then a gate change, just for fun.

Last night at Jim's with Nancy Gomulak and her Norsk hubby Terje was fun --

  9.0 Thursday
23.0 Saturday
13.5 Sunday
16.7 Tuesday
-------
62.2 miles total for the six day trip -- interesting -- but OK really.  Too damn hot, really.

Grands

The Centers of the Universe spent some time with us this weekend.  They have busy lives, and it's a little bit unusual for them to both be here at the same time.  We think that they are tag teaming us -- the Grandson one weekend, followed by the College Girl the next.  The weather was mild enough for an evening walk last night, and we saw a spectacular sunset.  Today the two of them posed with their Grandfather, who doesn't get much face time on my blog.  The boy will turn 17 this week, and it seemed like a good time to document the passage of time with a group photo.

I dug into my recent archives for the photo below.  As we were returning from our road trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota early this summer, I got a phone call from a friend.  We were in Manitowoc at the time, waiting to get on the ferry.  Her granddaughter was visiting her from France -- she is about six months younger than our College Girl, and they have been friends since they were quite young.  We settled on a time, and a day or so later I took this photo -- to document the passage of time.

Grandchildren have a way of broadening your world.

No Words

Storms of November

We've had two days of high winds here, enough that they've closed the piers on Lake Michigan from South Haven as far north as Muskegon.  Maybe further.

Yesterday, every time I tried to open the door between the house the deck, the wind nearly ripped it out of my hands.  Today the wind was enough lighter that I took a short trip to the beach to view the stormy seas up close.  It was pretty interesting.

We all know how to cook fish.

Since returning home from his stay in Holland Hospital, JB has a new set of dietary restrictions.  Specifically, he is on a very low sodium diet.  Two days spent preparing his food and counting grams has been instructive, and it turns out that if you cook all of your own food from scratch, sodium is a relatively easy thing to control.  Tonight's dinner, for example, was based on the old family recipe for Jim's fish, but with a twist.  Feta cheese has a lot of sodium in it -- but it provides a lot of flavor.  So my approach was to use a couple of tablespoons of feta along with a Roma tomato and a handful of baby bella mushrooms for the topping.

Here's the mixture ready to go on the tilapia.  Just enough feta for flavor.

I stir fried a carrot and some broccoli, based on Emmy's recipe for kale and carrots.  I didn't have the courage to add garlic, though.  I wasn't sure how it would work with broccoli.  It turned out quite well without it.

I think Jimi would approve of the changes -- and it paired quite well with the carrots and broccoli.

Last Ride North

I knew I was pushing the season when I rode up to the front of the PSPS and saw a big sign saying "Welcome Hunters."  I should pay more attention.  As a general rule I don't ride in the woods north of about Riley during this time of year.  It's fair to say that my focus has not been the best.

This is an unusual angle -- I'm standing at the back edge of the building.  It looks like something is going to happen here.  New landscaping, building or parking lot expansion?  Information that will probably have to wait for spring.