My Sunday Ride - August 24 rides

[mimitabby]

I had to go to Kinko's downtown today, so I decided to make it a ride instead of an annoying car drive and parking hassle.
here are photos from my way home.


First: the Jose Rizal Bridge taking me back up the hill


Next the Japanese-American detention camp memorial
and Cavaletta, my bike


And finally, one of the pleasures of bike riding, being able to go where cars cannot

[mudmucker]

One day last winter I bought store-bought strawberries. I didn't have time to make a gourmet type dessert, and I wanted a simple fruity dessert to go against a very rich seafood gratin I was making. I bought the grocery storer strawberries to make a simple shortcake. NEVER AGAIN will I do this and buy that kind of fruit in a grocery store. This summer I vowed I would resurrect my habit of freezing/canning all the summertime goodness around me. In June I went to the valley and froze 10 quarts of strawberries.

Yesterday I took Old Red (see Old Red thread) and went to the farm that is about 1 mile from the house. You can pick your own peaches here. They are normally $2/lb if you take them out of the bin, and they are $1/lb if you pick your own. I went out to the peach tree orchard and quickly picked 18 lbs. of peaches and divided them up between the panniers and rode home. They are absolutely beautiful, and so delicious and sweet.

This morning I canned 6 pints. Then, I went for a beautiful ride on the carbon fiber, about 25 miles in the wonderful New England sunshine.

Right now I'm getting ready to can another 5-6 quarts. I'm trying to capture every drop of peach I can get my hands on. When the snow is flying this January, I will open one of these up and smile.

The fruits of my labor, pun intended.

[Fredwina]

no pics today
I went down to Mira Loma before church. I was doing good and was going to further than I had planned until I realized that getting back to church involved about 800 feet of elevation gain. I got about 2 minutes late, which was wasn't
Went to mass, led the bible study, and the made a side trip to Claremont before coming home. A great day!

[Blueberry]

Yay mudmucker!! What a beautiful post And lovely fruits of your labor - great photo

Mimi- Love the photos!! Your bike is a Davidson, no? (Starting to plan for my next bike...which involves lots of drooling at bikes)

CA

[mimitabby]

yep, it's a Davidson and I'm happy to announce that I chose the correct time of day to ride, it's pouring now!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Wonderful pictures, Mimi and Mudmucker!!

Orange peaches, orange bike....all glowing in the sun!

[shootingstar]

yep, it's a Davidson and I'm happy to announce that I chose the correct time of day to ride, it's pouring now!

Yea, the rain came from Vancouver. It was never sun today in Vancouver, compared to your earlier pics today in Seattle.

Today we walked 12 kms. round trip to and from market in the rain. Usually a walk in our area, makes me more aware of the lush summer flowers and vegetation vs. whizzing by on bike.

[Crankin]

We rode from our house into Harvard Center, by way of Oak Hill. The general store there has reopened, but they had nothing to eat, except hot dogs. So, we sat on the "bench" on the town green and ate our Luna Bars. The first 2 photos are from here. I like the one of the street sign, because it says the names of the 2 places I have lived around here. It was really nice out, but when we left here, it got cloudy and a little cool. We made our way to Bolton, crossed Rt. 117 and found the porta potties were gone, since the last time I did this ride. The rest of the pictures are from Bolton, on one of the prettiest roads in the area. The horse was refusing to get in the trailer, no matter what the people did. When we got back to Rt. 117, we decided to book it to West Acton for lunch. We had been taking it pretty easy, but I knew the cafe closed at 2 and we got there at 1:30. But, it was closed . So, no gourmet sandwich or coffee. We went to a pizza place and shared a turkey sub and then biked the 6.5 miles home, including the last 2 hills.
When we got back we went to Cycle Loft to pick up my new bars. When we were there, we took the last picture, which is a photo of a photo from the 2000 NEBC team. If you look on the right, about 3/4 way up the top, you will see a very handsome, young man with a big smile. That's my son, Scott when he was 15.
40.7 miles

[Dogmama]

20 miles in a monster headwind - both ways.

I would have taken pictures, but the heat coming from the pavement melted my camera. OK, not really. But you ladies are making me very jealous. It's still 100 degrees in southern AZ.

[chicagogal]

I thought that this weekend was going to be a cycling disaster. The forecast was for thunderstorms pretty much all day saturday and great weather sunday. However, "my" bike path that I ALWAYS ride on b/c it is beautiful, the perfect length, and starts a block from my apt was in use for a triathlon (that I wasn't participating in). This meant that I was going to have to find an alternative plan for sunday, so I recruited my tennis partner to join me on a route that I hadn't mapped out yet and had never been on before.

Lucky for me, however, the rain never came, and I got a great ~40mi ride in on saturday and clocked it in as faster than my usual ride. The weather was great and I was feeling really good after a day off.

Then this morning I met up with my tennis partner who is in great shape b/c she plays nearly every sport under the sun. However, she doesn't bike more than a few miles at a time, and that is on a small mountain bike with thick knobbed tires and all the "wrong" gear combinations. She tried to get slicks from her LBS yesterday afternoon but they were going to take 2d to get them on and my LBS could do them right away but only if she got the bike there in 10min - so she had no choice but to ride with the old tires.

We found an amazing bike path along the north branch of the chicago river. I will definitely be going back there! It's a 20mi trail (40mi out and back) totally in the shade, with a freshly paved incredibly smooth surface making for an exhilaratingly fast ride. The only problems are a) lack of water stations b) too many tight curves (especially for a fast ride). However, the trail wasn't very crowded, so even the tight curves were not too scary.

The lack of water thing was an issue. I am used to water fountains nearly every quarter mile on my usual path so we didn't bring enough water for a path that has, like, none. (For those who want to use this trail, it turns out there is no water in the north section, but reportedly, some on the south section.

My friend was struggling with her sub-optimal bike, and her lack of experience, and she could tell that I was getting frustrated. She voluntarily let me drop her under the condition that I came back to get her. So I went ahead and added a little loop to the top of the ride. I would have ridden further out, but the no water thing was becoming an issue.

I met up with my friend, took a short snack break, and then went ahead again and this time came back with water! The trail crossed a couple of big streets and at one crossing there was a gas station! Of course when I went back with the water, I had to climb a steep hill (no we don't have hills in chicago, this was man-made) for the 3rd time and just as I descended there was my friend! So I had to immediately turn around and do the hill again - hill repeats were not in the plan for the day, but I survived.

In the end, my friend did about 16mi and I did ~23 (hard to count without a computer and b/c of all the turning around). It was a shorter than usual ride for me, but having gotten my long ride in yesterday that was fine. The most important thing is that I discovered a really great new trail that I definitely want to try again, but next time with more water on board!

Another problem with the trail is access. It is pretty far from my house on not-so-nice roads, so the bike has to be transported there by car. W/o a bike rack this was probably the most challenging part of the whole experience. I'll just have to pick one up before we lose the good weather.

Unfortunately, no pics - next time.