That’s Very Stubborn of You — a ride report.

 The title of this post is a quote.  It’s my brother’s response to my message to him that I had ridden my bike for 50 miles just 5 days before what I am calling a milestone birthday.  50 miles.  Of some significance is that if you convert that to kilometers, it’s my age.  A bit over, in fact.  I will let you do your own math, it’s good for your brain.  It’s been an interesting journey.  Hatched around a kitchen island and refined over bike rides and conversations with good friends in Florida in January.  It seemed within my abilities at the time.  I knew how to do that, certainly I had done it numerous times on back to back rides on TRAM.  20 years ago.  Looking back, my brain still knows how to do that.  Every other cell in my body had forgotten.  Starting from a base where 12 miles is a normal length ride for me, 50 is a long way away.  It’s a long way anyway.  Saturday, July 20, 2024 I set out to do my last training ride, what I called a taper ride, planning on 30 something miles.  My longest training ride had been 40.7 miles, and I had ridden that distance twice.  (Doctor’s orders.  I checked with her before I got too deep into this.). I wasn’t even on my lightest bike, but I knew that if I felt good at the end of this ride, I just might go for it.  Weather forecasts for my actual birthday were for humid and maybe rain.  Humidity is my kryptonite, as I am fond of saying.  

An early start from Quincy Park, north and west past the PSPS, along the north side of the Pigeon River then north and west again.  The old school house on Pierce, more north and west until barriers signaled construction.  South to Kirk Park for a longer rest stop.  Return to Quincy Park with a total of 33 miles, still feeling okay.  The Bike With No Name is a solid steed.  I meet my friend LH at Winstrom Park, she brings cherries and a peanut butter sandwich.  I take a long break and head out to finish off the remaining 17 miles.  It’s a bit of a blur, familiar roads, close to home.  A lot of head math.  I return to my car in Winstrom Park and have to ride a few circles around the parking lot to push my bike computer over the 50 miles.  Just barely.

That’s very stubborn of me.

How far north the sun sets on June 29.

 Sitting on the deck with the granddaughter at sunset after an evening watching episodes of Dr. Who with a neighbor.  It’s been about a week since the solstice.

Photos by LH.

June winds down.

 I’m still working on this birthday bike ride thing.  Progress has been slow, both endurance and speed have been diminished by the passing of time.  Or more honestly, by the lack of activity required to maintain those skills.  I’ve cursed the wind, my legs and my age quite frequently this month, but my geriatric body has also taken me and my bikes to some amazing places that I haven’t seen from the seat of a bicycle for years.  The old one room schoolhouse is north of Kirk Park by a couple of miles.

Port Sheldon Party Store is a frequent stop.

Kirk Park on my longest ride so far.

This guy keeps showing up in odd places.

My most striking take away from this venture is how long it takes to recover from big efforts.  I even talked to my doctor about how tired I am after long rides, and for how long.  She ran a bunch of blood tests, the result being that I am tired after a long ride because I took a long ride.  Sigh.

Long ride

 I haven’t ridden more than about 20 miles at a stretch for years.  Because I’m planning a longer ride around my birthday this year, I’ve been stretching out the length of a few of my rides.  This guy has moved since he was last featured here.  Which is mildly disturbing.

I’m not sure when I was last here on my bike.  It was my turn around spot.  I sat on a bench and ate half a banana before heading back.  Pretty tired legs, but no apparent harm was done.

Wish me luck.

May Winds Down

 It’s that weekend again —  the roar of the engines in the old brickyard, flags flying in yards, the unofficial start to summer.  Remembrance.  This post is a mix of photos from this month, moments I choose to find memorable.

Mother’s Day with the Grandkids at the ice cream shop near the girl’s house.

There’s a new donut shop in town called Sprinkles.  It’s pretty decent.

The camera in my iPhone sees more than my eye, amazing technology.  Northern Lights.

Biking is a focus of my days still, though it’s getting harder to recover than it used to.  Still….

Did I mention the new donut shop?  They also have cupcakes.  I haven’t tried them yet.

Back home again in …..

 Theoretically, I am done traveling for a while.  Since I am still waking up in the morning uncertain of where I am, that’s probably a good thing.  The Florida sun (I know, it’s the same one) has gotten too hot for my Nordic blood.  I do miss some things, however.  And some people. 

Not this guy.  He showed up on my first bike ride after getting back to Michigan.

Forget me nots next to my garage.  Michigan.

Sharks teeth from Stump Pass Beach.  Oddly fun to look for them.

Here we go.  A gulf beach on a hot day.  I like beaches. this is near Englewood.

Out my back door.  Not Michigan.

The Mucky Duck, a restaurant on Sanibel.  Very similar to the South Beach restaurant on Gasparilla.

Myakka River State Park

 My neighbors are also my good friends here, and a big part of the reason I stay through the end of April is to do some things with them that we have talked about but haven’t had time to do.  Venice Beach was one, a road trip to a fairly dark sky place to watch shooting stars (they were probably fireflies, but whatever), free pie Monday, the list goes on.  Wednesday we got up early to do some bird watching and alligator sighting at the Myakka River State Park, near Sarasota.  It’s a great spot.  A few photos, all of them taken by my next door neighbor who has a great camera and more camera skills than I have ever had.

Delivered unto Caesar

 There must be a better way to do this than the way I am currently doing it.  Flying back to Michigan to organize and pay state and federal taxes, then returning to Florida for two weeks to close things up there sounded like an okay plan 4 years ago — Ah, well.  I’ll figure it out.  It’s been a busy winter in Florida, so a few quiet weeks there actually sounds pretty good.  

I spent some time with my grandkids and daughter over the weekend.  I had missed the girl’s birthday earlier this month and hadn’t seen her house since she’d done some painting and actually moved in.  She has a sign hanging on her living room wall, a gift from her step sister.  It made me laugh.

Random photos out my back doors.

April…. What comes after March.

 Time scrams.  March was challenging, but my time, my space and my life are once again mine.  Life lessons learned, proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks.  The lesson, by the way, is “be careful what you volunteer for.”  Self inflicted, mostly.  Moving on…..

I’m still in Florida, my final return to the northern ocean is planned for early May.  I will also do my little commuting trick and return north for a week to do taxes and take care of some things.  Take one of my bikes in to the shop, stuff like that.  See some family.

There is a sketchy plan for a bike ride in the works, something to mark the milestone birthday coming up this summer.  Measurements likely to be in metric units.  Yesterday I took a longish ride, in two parts—stopping at the house to refill my water bottle and change my layers as the day warmed up.  Felix just has one water bottle cage.  Felix?  An fx3 from the Trek shop here.

Orange bike bling, pedals and water bottle cage.   At the new resort in town, a fancy place for tourists.

A longish ride, requiring something like 3 naps to recover from.  Overall, successful for a ride of that length this early in the year.  Previous long ride was 17, about 3 weeks ago.

Sunset through the bougainvilleas.

Weird Week

 Sometimes I use this blog to record things that I want to remember, lest time blur my recollection of events.  This week has been a strange one, I’m sure there are lessons I can take from this, though it’s not immediately clear just what those are.  One of them currently feels like “I’m too old for this.”

Also, if one is using diet and exercise to control a serious disease, and one is not watching her diet all that much, and she doesn’t exercise—at all, she isn’t really controlling her disease.  This has not been a fun week, as one of my guests has spent the week in our local hospital with the flu and very low blood oxygen levels.  How she will get back to her home in Michigan is still unknown as I write this.  

The Girl in Florida

 She arrived Thursday, with time enough left in the day to get to Fisherman’s Village for a late supper.  It’s a short visit, but we’re doing most of the traditional stuff.  It’s good to have her here.

Today we will try for Gasparilla Island, tomorrow she heads back home.

March is off and running.

 I’m getting ready for more guests at the southern ranch.  My beloved granddaughter arrives Thursday for a long weekend, she will overlap with 3 of my friends and neighbors from Michigan.  The usual suspects (L and J) and a recent widow.  It’s less of a strange mix than it sounds — we’ve all known each other for decades.  My house, which feels plenty big enough for one person, will be stretched to its limits, I suspect.  I also predict that this will be fine.  Meanwhile, Florida provides interesting stuff outside.  A few photos.

Last night, around 11 pm, there was a launch of 4 astronauts to the space station from Cape Kennedy.  I watched it from my neighbor’s dock.  My neighbor took this photo and in spite of the light pollution, it was quite visible from here.  Very cool.  And while we were waiting for lift off, we were visited by a dolphin, right next to the dock.  Also cool.

Said dock visible in the background.  Said neighbors are on the dock, but blurry.  As it should be.

Jake, a blue heron.  Possibility a great blue.

A dolphin sighting a few nights ago, also from the end of said dock.

Sunsets have been cloudy this week, but are clearly moving back to the north rapidly.