30 September 2011 Ride: 9 Months

Today marks 9 continuous months of riding.  3 months to go. 

Pat Murray contacted me earlier in the week about riding together and it didn't occur to me until well after the ride was over that this was the 9 month mark; I should have been looking out for pictures to take that had "9" in them.

The morning started off on the bit nippy side and with a 10mph wind from the north.  But it was a beautiful
day.  I lead Pat on a twisting loop of roads in an effort to avoid the onslaught of motorcycles for Bikes, Blues & BBQ here in Fayetteville.  For the most part, we did a good job of avoiding them.  Neither of us seemed to be in any hurry or feeling the need to push very hard so we had a moderate pace. We did have a 1.5 mile challenging hill thrown in there for good measure.

 Picture of the one lane bridge across Lake Sequoyah, sideways.

Tomorrow morning I head with Rachel to Shreveport where she plays two soccer games.  I will get a bike ride in early in the morning but not sure about when I will be able to post.  And, Sunday, I may not ride until we get back from Shreveport around 9:00 or 10:00 at night.  It all depends if we can fit my bike into the folk's vehicle with whom we are riding.  I have been trying to come up with all sorts of ways to get my bike down there as I'll have at least a 3 hour block of time Sunday morning to ride.  We could take our vehicle, just Rachel and me, but it's hard to justify driving a vehicle with two people 6 hours just so I can ride a couple of hours, especially when we can carpool comfortably with another family.  But, such is the mind of a biking addict, and in the case a needs-to-ride-daily biking addict.



When I got home, I liked the reflection in the spoon on the counter. 

Today's Ride:  3hrs. 36mins.  42.68 miles  53°-69°   Miles YTD:  6,854.86

Today's number of miles per day needed to reach 9,000 miles by the end of the year: 23.32

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29 September 2011 Ride:

Back to the old routine of gearing up while it's still dark.  Out by 5:50, it's nice to get in 2 hours of riding and still have the whole day ahead.  A beautiful morning with bright stars when I first took off.  Saturn was shining brilliantly above.  I really need to get the telescope out and get a closer look.  The view of it's rings always takes my breath away.  I find it amazing that through my humble telescope I can clearly see the rings from an object that is, depending on the time of year, 3/4 to almost 1 billion miles away.

But, alas, all I have a picture of today is this humble Earthling whose body is a mere 8mm long.  It was perched on our kitchen cabinet last night.  I like how the enlargement reveals the eyes, something I could not see with my own naked eyes.  Who knows, perhaps it came here from Saturn!

Today's Ride:  2hrs 4mins.  25.05 miles.  63 degrees.  Miles YTD:  6,812.18.

A new stat.  Today's number of miles per day needed to reach 9,000 miles by the end of the year: 23.52

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28 September 2011 Ride: Fayetteville - Panama

Well, not quite.  This is totally out of the blue.  I was getting all set to do Shreveport - Fayetteville, leaving this coming Sunday after Rachel finished her soccer games down there.  Then, yesterday, Carol comes home and asks if we want to go to Panama.  We knew for awhile she was going on business but just assumed she going alone.  Alas, Rachel and I are headed there next week as well.  There won't be much road bike riding but I'm looking forward to riding in the rain forest on a well-established trail. 

Short posting today as it's been a busy day and I'm about to head off again.

A couple of pictures of Men at Work:

And, the building he was working on later that day:

Today's Ride:  1hr 59mins.  24.01 miles.  82 degrees.  Miles YTD:  6,787.13

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27 September 2011 Ride: Life

Most of these pictures are from yesterday, starting with this apparition in the skies by the airport.  Fortunately, it didn't interfere with any flights and we took off on schedule :-).

The atmospheric conditions from Arkansas to Georgia were such that it created a wide variety of cloud formations.  I'm not sure if I've ever seen such an array on one relatively short flight. 

 The cloud line zig-zagging back and forth is following the mighty Mississippi River below.

Like waves breaking slowly on the ocean.  A truly interesting phenomenon.

We arrived early at the cemetery and that gave me a chance to walk around the Jewish section and see what names I recognized from the days when I grew up in Atlanta.  They were several parents of friends but seeing the names of two people I went to elementary school with was a bit sobering.

The interesting thing about funerals is the joy that can be found there as well. Attending the funeral from Los Angeles, was the daughter of one of my cousins, someone I hadn't seen in 30 years.  We were never close and there was no reason to keep in touch all these years (though Sol certainly had and my aunt spoke with her every week).  It was a pleasure meeting here again, full grown with 3 children. 

Stacy, my aunt's granddaughter.

Awake at 5:00 this morning (4:00 CST), I caught a few winks on the plane.  I looked out the window in time to see that we were about to cross the Mississippi River (almost the exact same spot).  No "contrail" following the river today but just a few miles further a very interesting geological feature that I recognized.

Crowley's Ridge

Not the best of pictures, especially through a plane window, but I think one can still see the narrow green strip running through the middle of the landscape.  This is Crowley's Ridge that suddenly rises out of the farmland on the eastern side of Arkansas and runs about 200 miles.  It is a very interesting wooded and hilly area with lots of wildlife.  I had the pleasure to sample it on my bike ride from Arkansas to Georgia.  Traveling on I-40 one zips right through it without even knowing it.

A very sluggish ride this afternoon when I got back.  Managed to pick up the pace some.  Still thinking a lot about the close call Sunday.  And, this afternoon as I was beginning to work on this post, I saw on facebook a man my age who I first met when we were in a men's group together in the mid 1990s, passed away from a heart attack.  John Newman was very fit and trim, so it comes as quite a shock. 

Today's Ride: 2hrs 9mins.  25.01 miles.  75 degrees.  Miles YTD:  6,763.12

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26 September 2011 Ride: Whiteout.

With a 7:15AM flight to catch to Atlanta Monday morning, I decided to get up at 3:30AM to get in my ride.  My cousin Sol said he had a bike waiting for me at his house (even pumped up the tires with air), but with the funeral at 2:00 and people getting together afterward, I wanted to get the ride under my belt give my full attention to Sol and his father and the rest of the family.

It was a beautiful early morning and I could see the stars when I looked up.  But straight ahead there was a fog which only grew thicker the longer I rode. 

The above photo may not be a completely accurate way of how things looked, but it's nor far from it.  Visibility was only about 15-20 feet.  I tried dimming my headlamp but that didn't help and I even tried turning it off but then it was pitch black.  I guess I need to get a fog headlamp.  It was cool, however, to look up from time to time and clearly see the stars.

Monday's Ride:  61mins.  9.05 miles.  45 degrees.  Miles YTD:  6,738.10

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