Calm before the storm

I'm getting a forced rest from cycling so far this week - dictated by the weather. So far it has been mainly gray and wet. I really could have ridden this evening since it wasn't raining, but the ground was very wet and the sky was very gray so I decided to walk instead. I'm still hoping to meet my pre-trip mileage goal of 3000 miles by next Monday. I believe it is possible, but it's really dependent on clearing weather.

From my Monday morning walk - before the gray overrode the blue sky

Late summer flowers

Pricing surprises

Sometimes I'm amazed at the prices for items in grocery stores. Well, maybe I should say a lot of the time...

I regularly shop at both a 'standard' grocery store and at Whole Foods. Produce tends to be better at Whole Foods, although it can be more expensive. But the two items with prices that really surprise me are actually cheaper at Whole Foods. Kashi Go Lean cereal is $2.50 at Whole Foods and between $3.50 and $3.69 at regular stores. And Luna Bars - my current favorite energy bar - are 99 cents each at Whole Foods, $1.39 each at grocery stores, and $1.25 each if you buy direct from Luna. Very interesting.

It really makes me wonder who sets the prices!

A visiting day

How nice that there was a conference in Portsmouth that my dad needed to attend. That means that I was able to have a nice visit with my folks not too far from home!

It was a beautiful day for wandering, sunny and comfortable. We started at some of the outlet stores in Kittery, enjoyed a nice lunch at an outdoor spot in Portsmouth, and then wandered around town for a bit. It was definitely an enjoyable day.

Hey mom - I think I finally got a picture of you that even you will like! This moose hat is priceless...

Disappearing sunlight

Why is it that the addition of more sunlight to each day as spring approaches seems slow, and the disappearance of sunlight as fall approaches seems fast? I'm enjoying what I believe are the last two weeks of the year for commuting to work by bike (OK, only 2 to 3 days a week, but still!). I'm leaving on September 7th for a 2-week vacation wandering around Prince Edward Island on my bike, and by the time I return there won't be enough daylight to support both a full day of work and my commute to work.

I just looked at the 'Sun and Moon' page on the National Weather Service's website, and the times they show for sunrise and sunset confirm my feeling that the daylight is in fact getting shorter quickly. On August 1st, possible hours of sunlight were 14:28, and by the end of August that has decreased to 13:12. When I'm back after my vacation, the sunlight has decreased to just over 12 hours - with a sunrise on September 22nd at 6:36 AM and a sunset at 6:42 PM. Considering that I usually leave for work on my bike at 6:30 and get home at about 7 PM, well I think it's back to a non-biking commute.

I'll enjoy the rest of this year's biking commute though. Here's hoping for decent weather for the next week and a half!

Fog, mist, wet!

This was definitely a good riding week, although there were times during my ride yesterday when I wasn't too sure about that! My choices for a ride destination yesterday were a loop in south coastal Maine, or a jaunt along the New Hampshire coast.

My desire for simplicity - as in not needing a map or cue sheets - plus an iffy weather forecast made me choose the close-to-home option, the New Hampshire coast. I drove to Salisbury, MA, thinking to try for a three-state day. That would have required riding through Portsmouth, NH and then heading over the bridge to Maine - but the weather conditions drove me to stop a little short of Portsmouth. It was still a 40-mile round trip, not bad at all even though I'd hoped to do 50.

It was gray and foggy when my bike and I left my car, and it seemed to get foggier as I progressed further along the coast. There wasn't much visibility out to sea, although it wasn't totally socked in, as in I could see the cars and the cars could see me. But it got grayer, and it started misting. I can't say that it was raining at all, but the mist was so heavy that I had to keep stopping to clear my glasses. I finally gave up and rode without them, something I never do! The bike was pretty trashed from the road gunk spraying up, and finally when the water was dripping off of my helmet I figured that it was time to turn around.

In spite of the conditions, it was a beautiful ride, and a good picture-taking day. My only regret is that I didn't manage a good close-up shot of the egrets that I kept seeing in the marshes on the non-ocean side of the road.

And yes, my bike did get a bath and re-lube as soon as we (the bike & I!) got home.

See what I mean by a bit foggy?

This is before my glasses got too water-splattered to see through. They were bad, but not too bad yet!

I just had to stop when I saw this bird party. They must have been having a party - or I guess they just like hanging out together!

More pictures from today can be found in my Along the New Hampshire Coast - 2005 smugmug gallery. The first page of the gallery is from a ride back in May; the rest is from today's ride.

What fun!

I was blown away - as in surprised, but very pleased - to find this entry in today's email newsletter from Adventure Cycling!

VICARIOUS ARMCHAIR DREAM ADVENTURES...
...straight out of the Department of Redundancy Department. There's a mother lode of great tour journals ready for the reading at the Ride Registry section of Adventure Cycling's website. Take, for instance, a thirty-four-pager by Denise Goldberg detailing her 2003 trip to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The photos alone are worth the price of admission. In fact, if Denise's images of emerald-green hills and fields, quaint towns, and narrow, low-traffic roads don't make you want to go cycletouring on the wrong side of the road in Eire, then you must be immune to the travel bug.

Awesome - a link to my journal!

The case of the missing sock

...and yes, you did read that right, I said "sock", not "socks"!

The day dawned as a beautiful day for riding, with temperatures in the mid-50s for my commute in to work. After getting scared away from riding to work last week by the everyday forecast of afternoon thunderstorms, it felt really good to ride in this morning - even with the need for wearing knee warmers!

The interesting part came when I was getting ready to ride home again... When I get in to the office, I put my pannier under my desk and use it as a drying rack for my cycling clothes. Well, except for my socks, which I lay across my shoes. At one point in the afternoon I noticed that one sock was across my shoes and the other had moved to the floor - but not too far from my shoes. I picked it up and put it back on top of my cycling shoes. At that point, I still had a full pair of socks. Then came time to get ready to head for home. I grabbed my shorts and jersey and headed to the rest room to change into my cycling clothes. Back in my cube, I deposited my work clothes in my pannier, then went to put on my socks and shoes. At that point, there was only one sock on top of my shoes. I looked all over my cubicle, checked the trash, walked to the rest room (retracing my path) in case I had inadvertantly picked it up and dropped it somewhere. Nope! No where to be seen...

Luckily for my feet, I keep a pair of running shoes along with a pair of socks in my desk drawer for the times when I need an outside escape during the day.

I'd love to know what happened though. Hey, you silly sock - where are you hiding?

I wonder, is it possible...

...to hit 3000 miles on my bike for the year before I head off on my cycling vacation to Prince Edward Island?

I actually think it's a bit of a stretch, but I can dream, can't I? As of today, I have biked 2451 miles so far this year. 3000 is within sight, but that's 550 more miles in just 3 weeks. I leave for vacation after work on September 7th, and I plan to take the 6th & 7th as biking rest days. Hmmm...

Hot, hot, thunderstorms...

My riding (or lack of riding) this week was definitely dictated by the weather wizards. Forecasted thunderstorms every day stopped me from commuting to week by bike. I managed two after-work rides, but on Thursday and Friday the weather decided to go along with the forecasted rain.

Saturday dawned very hot and very humid - as in, the temperatures were in the 90's. That combined with high humidity helped me to change my plans of doing a 50-mile ride along the southern coast of Maine. Yup, I stayed close to home, and did small smaller loops so I could get home (relatively) easily if the heat started to get to me. I managed a 38-mile ride, and I was pretty soaked and pretty tired when I got home. It's amazing how much the heat changes things, isn't it? My riding time on Sunday was about 10 degrees cooler, but still pretty humid. Even so, I managed 43 miles on my purple bike.

I guess all things considered, I shouldn't be too unhappy with my mileage for the week. Yes, I want to make sure that I'm in good shape for my upcoming trip to Prince Edward Island. But really, I think I'm in decent shape now, and another 3 1/2 weeks of decent length rides should keep me ready!

Now? The rain has finally arrived, and I'm listening to the rain and the thunder. The temperature dropped a good 15 degrees very quickly when the rain arrived, and the forecast (after tomorrow, that is) is for dry and cooler weather for the week. Here's hoping...

On my walks this week I saw flowers in their summer slendor...

...and trees that didn't seem to understand that it was still hot, hot summer - with patches, sometimes small and sometimes large, of their autumn colors!

A sign of things to come

I find it hard to believe how fast the sunlight seems to retreat at the edges of the day. I've really noticed the loss of light as I'm riding in the evening - either completing my commute to work, or out for a short spin on those days when my car is the vehicle of choice for my commute.

My end-of-the-day road - the one right outside of my house - has a heavy tree cover, and even on sunny days I've noticed it feels much darker (than it has been) by 7 PM. We're still well over a month away from the autumn equinox. That's just the official "look the sunshine is getting shorter" notice, but I'm clearly noticing it now.

I guess I need to face up to the fact that my bicycle commute-to-work days will be over in just 3 short weeks. That takes me to the Labor Day weekend, and in middle of the following week I'll be off to Prince Edward Island for 2 glorious weeks of cycling. I think that when I return home there really won't be enough daylight to pull off a commute to work in full daylight. Bummer.

Loops & rollers

...and tired!

It was a good riding week last week, but it has left me with the need for a rest day. I managed 193 miles on my bike, which would be light mileage if I were on a tour and riding full time. When it is combined with a full work week, that's a lot of miles! Looking at the weather forecast for this week, it appears that today is going to be the best commuting to work by bike day, but my body is insisting on a rest. Of course that doesn't mean I won't ride at all today - energy permitting, I may take a short spin after work. But it does mean that I drove my blue car to work today instead of making my body do the work!

The weekend? Somehow it seemed that I never stood still, between riding and other activities. Saturday's ride was a series of loops close to home. I started out with the intent of riding to Lowell and back again, but somehow my bike kept turning in other directions. I managed the same distance that I'd planned, just without a destination.

Yesterday I rode with Robyn and Steve, starting from their house and heading towards Groton. There is some beautiful riding in that area, and they really know the back roads so our ride was mainly on little quiet two-lane roads. It included a fabulous section of rollers, short relatively steep hills (for this area anyway) that you could fly down and use momentum to carry you almost back up to the top again. Nice!

Toward the end of our ride we were stopped by a freight train. The crossing signal started flashing red just as Steve arrived at the railroad crossing. He could have made it across safely, but Robyn & I were far enough back that we needed to stop, so Steve waited for us. Funny thing, as the train slowly approached the crossing, the engineer started blowing the whistle. I know that is necessary, but it was amazingly loud. So loud that I was standing there with my hands over my ears... The engineer looked out at us as the train passed by, smiled, and threw his hands up in the air in apology for the noise. And that definitely made me laugh...

Here's hoping that the weather cooperates and awards me with a couple of ride-to-work good weather days this week.

A vacation decision

Rather than follow my normal vacation planning habit of planning more than 1 trip (for the year) at the same time, I deliberately waited until the successful completion of my first bicycling vacation this year. I wanted to make sure I was really back to myself again...

While I'm still cycling at a slower speed than I was pre-crash, I really do feel like I am back. My trip to Maine at the end of June definitely was a successful tour, and while I haven't been actively planning a second tour for this year, I have been tossing some ideas around in my head. Rather than travel across the Atlantic or to the western half of the country, I've decided on a tour a little closer to home. Remember, I said "a little"!

My choice? I'm going to head to Prince Edward Island in September. I'll be taking 2 weeks off, which will give me 11 days for the biking part of my trip. As far as I can tell, the bridge to PEI is about 600 miles from here, and I'm going to drive to the start of my trip.

I'm going to go back to basics in a sense because I'm not going to plan each day in advance. I believe I should be able to find B&Bs and hotels there without too much difficulty, so it will be a credit-card tour - no camping this time. And my intention is to ride around the island. All I have to decide now is the general direction - clockwise or counterclockwise!

Missing road signs

Or maybe is should say deliberately missing road signs!

I've lived in the Boston area for 20 years now and I think I will never get used to the lack of signs on our local roads. What signs? You know, those signs that are supposed to show both the name of the cross-street and the name of the street that you are traveling on. For some reason, many (if not most) of the streets here are marked with the name of the minor cross street, but not the name of the major road. So unless you already know what road you are traveling on, figuring out where you are can be a real mystery.

I usually get along OK, but in my (bicycle) commute to work over the last 2 days I've been exploring some variations to my route. I have to say that although I really wasn't sure that the roads I was wandering down would connect anywhere reasonable to get to my final destination, they were pleasant for riding. And surprise, surprise! They got me where I wanted to be - success!

Visiting Bailey

Oh, and my folks too!

I headed to upstate New York for the weekend to visit with my mom & dad, and of course to visit with the family's new addition, Bailey the dachshund who absolutely runs the household. He definitely gets his way, but he brings a lot of love and he makes everyone smile.

He has definitely attached himself to (our) mom. If she leaves the house without him he continuously searches for her. If she is not in the same room with him, he goes looking for her. And he has clearly shown that he wants to travel with her no matter what! His typical behavior after his morning walk is to head straight for the car because he figures she is heading out to run errand - and he want to go too. If she insists on heading into the house, Bailey will put his chest down on the ground and refuse to walk. And if she manages to convince him he needs to go in the house (and sometimes that convincing involves picking him up and carrying him), then as soon as he is relieved of his leash he runs upstairs and hides. It's a good thing he is well loved because his wacky behavior could upset anyone who didn't feel that he is part of the family!

Visiting Bailey is definitely a source of smiles!

Dad with Bailey in his arms... priceless!

And here's mom too - her shadow at least - walking along with Bailey

I find it amazing that my little camera could actually capture this flower gone to seed. Beautiful...

If I had been walking on my own, I would be calling this a pretty pink flower. But luckily I was walking with my mom (and Bailey too, of course!), and she was able to tell me that this is a sweet pea. After the flower dies there will be what looks like a pea pod hanging from the plant. And my crazy mom actually asked her mom to taste one many years ago. Apparently they don't taste like our favorite vegetable, peas in the pod!

Hot, humid, rain, relief!

It was a week filled with many weather changes, which means it wasn't a great week for commuting to work by bike. The threat of rain on Monday and Wednesday convinced me to drive to work, but I rode on Tuesday even though I knew that the ride home would be very hot and humid. Wednesday evening brought a wild storm; I wish I had run outside to attempt to capture images of that very black sky, but instead I was making sure that the windows that were taking the brunt of the force of the wind was closed. I intended to ride to work today, but when I first went outside in the morning it was like walking through a wall of water. I did manage a decent after-work ride though, aided by the fact that the power at the office went off at 3:30. With the power company estimating that the earliest we would have power would be 6:30, it seemed like a good time to head home!

And this was certainly the week for power outages. I lost power at home during the storm last night - it was off from 7:30 until 1 AM. Unfortunately the smoke detectors in my house beep when the power goes out and beep when it comes back on again too, so I was awakened with the return of the power at 1 in the morning. Oh well, it was a good time to reset the clocks before falling asleep again.

The weather now? I really wish it would stay like this for weeks - or even months! The temperature today was in the low to mid-70s, with overnight temperatures cooler than that - and no humidity. I think I would be very happy living in a place that had this type of temperature year round.

Morning clouds on a day that was supposed to bring rain, but that left dry roads for an evening ride

...and a beautiful floral greeting along the side of the road on the same morning

A cool evening later in the week, wonderful wispy clouds

Camera & bicycle, companions for the weekend

It turned out to be a beautiful weekend for wandering on my bike, sunny, reasonably warm, and much less humid. I managed to get in a 40 mile ride on Saturday and a 41 mile ride on Sunday, and they were really just wandering rides. I didn't have a destination in mind, but I did have a camera with me. Sometimes I carry a camera and take few pictures, but this time the normal sights of the area just jumped out at me. Time to wander & take pictures...

A beautiful purple blossom, a perfect match to my bike!

It's funny, I've ridden down this road many times, and I've never had a side-of-the-road conversation with any cattle before. Hey cow 406, how's your day going?

This owl wizard was clearly guarding the house...

This horse & pony were enjoying their feast of grass. They were on the lawn of the house where I assume that they live; I guess no one there needs to cut the grass!

You're right - that's me, riding down the road...

Afternoon delight!

As I was riding home this afternoon, I saw a woman ahead of me on the road walking what I thought was a very large dog. I was on a very quiet road at the time - quiet in that it doesn't carry much traffic, not quiet in that there is constant road noise from I-93 which runs parallel to it.

It turns out that it wasn't a dog that was walking with her - it was a donkey! A great reason to smile...

I carry my camera with me so much of the time, and yet it hasn't made its way into my commute to work stuff. That would have been a priceless photo, but for now it will have to be a photo in my imagination.

A morning rant

Maybe I'm being overly conservative, but I don't think so. I think I'm being safe...

I rode to work this morning, and I was stopped at a red light with a line of cars when another cyclist rode up next to me, said good morning, and then promptly blasted through the red light. After the light changed, he was still ahead of me, and I could see that he was quickly approaching another red light. This time he turned right at the light, pulled a U-turn, and turned back onto the original road, circumventing the stop light.

It really annoys me when I see things like this because it makes it harder for all cyclists when some cyclists take it upon themselves to ignore the law. The vehicle code in all 50 states considers a bicycle a vehicle, subject to all of the laws pertaining to moving vehicles on the roadway. Tell me, how much time do you think this guy would have lost if he had stopped for the lights? And who would have been at fault if he had an interaction with a motor vehicle?

Following the Tour de France

...virtually, that is!

I've been spoiled over the last 2 weeks (and the rest of this one) by having an amazing cycling race to follow. I think I'm going to have withdrawal symptoms next week when there is no longer a bicycle race to watch every night. But then again, I'll no longer have to make a decision about going to sleep in time to get a reasonable night's rest to support an early morning ride to work, or staying up to watch the end of the stage!

Images of cyclists... helmets, that is! (Photo courtesy of the official Tour de France web site at http://www.letour.fr)

Hawk, resting

Amazing. You remember the hawk I saw as I was riding home from work last Friday? Well, I saw him again today. (OK, I know, it might have been a different bird.) As I drove up route 125, in about the same spot as Friday's sighting, I looked up to see a silhouette of a hawk in the trees.

I wonder if I wander down that way with a camera in hand if I'll ever be able to capture (a photo of) this beautiful but probably elusive character.