Just found this really cool video on the main page of the MS150 website: and it was made by one of my teammates! I had no idea. It's really great, it's part slideshow and part video, with a nifty song as the soundtrack. If you want an idea of what the ride is like, this rider's-eye view comes pretty close. (Ignore the occasional candid shot of me looking like a total doofus; I wasn't awake yet and EVERYONE was snapping photos so you kind of got used to ignoring them unless they called out your name.) Enjoy!

So this is a little late, but better late than never. I wanted to blog about my ride in the MS150 Pedal to the Point on August 15th. I raised, with the addition of a check I just received (thank you Sue R!), $1,235 for multiple sclerosis research. I am very proud of that; it is my highest ever total in donations in the four years since I started riding with Patti's Paladins. (The photo above is me next to Patti Substelny, our team Champion and my friend. She's our number one cheerleader and a fantastic cook!) Due to my six-week recovery from a sprained/bruised ankle this summer, I didn't get in very much riding training, so I was really out of shape for the ride. Therefore I kept it short and sweet to avoid stressing myself out, and rode only the first leg of the ride, for a total of 33.33 miles.

The day began at 6am as they always do, early enough for our team to gather and pick up shirts or our nifty new team rainjackets from our team captains, Rick and Rebecca, and to take our team photo. By 7am we were off!


The view from within the mass of bikers waiting at the start. The bright yellow jersey on the right is Chad, one of our team members, wearing our Paladins "knight on a tricycle" logo. My blue jersey has this on the back too.

We had perfect weather, sunny and I think it went up to 85 that day so a little hot but not too bad. As usual, because I didn't have a ride buddy, I rode the whole thing pretty much by myself. My team members are way faster than me; there's a reason I have a turtle mascot as my bike bell! But I had a secret weapon this time to stave off boredom: I wore one earpiece and listened to an audiobook on Playaway (preloaded digital MP3 player, available at a library near you :-) Yes, I admit it, I cheated a little--I am just not good at solitary long distance riding, my brain drives me crazy. Sometimes on these rides I can hook up with someone from somewhere who rides at my speed, and we have a little conversation before they move on to pass me, but frankly, even if I'd had a ride partner, I couldn't talk much at all because I was conserving my energy and would have only huffed and puffed more if I tried to talk. But with a book I could keep my mind occupied just enough to be less aware of my aches and pains and still be plenty focused on the roads and my surroundings. (I know better than to cut off my sense of hearing while riding.) It's the same thing I do in the barn when I feed the horses, if there's no good NPR show on at the time. So I cruised along quite nicely and my ankle didn't give me any trouble. (My quadriceps did, but that's another story :-) Seen along the way:


A luxury vehicle: a tandem bike with seatbacks!



I thought these helmet covers were very funny and clever. I saw several of them, so I assume that the Cleveland Clinic sponsors a team in the ride. They kind of gave me the creeps, too, thinking about an exposed brain...ewww...

I met up with my sister-in-law Mel at the lunch stop--


here is the army of volunteers making sandwiches nonstop for the over 1,000 riders. They probably are there every year, but this is the first time I've noticed them! They make a variety of sandwiches and are very much appreciated.
After lunch, Mel and I said goodbye to team members continuing on the ride, and hopped a bus back to the start. Then, home to a shower and a long nap. I actually slept for four or five hours that afternoon, I really was bushed just from that (relatively) short ride. This was the shortest I've ever ridden on the MS150 and I still feel a little guilty about not riding more, even though I know I would have regretted the pain and recovery later. But I gave it my best effort and figured there was no sense in killing myself when I wasn't well prepared for it.

Our team's total right now is over $32,000, which is fantastically awesome! At one point we were the third-highest team in fundraising, I'm not sure where we stand now. We have a team dinner coming up in October at Patti's house, where we'll swap stories and pictures and plan for next year's ride. And I intend to keep doing it, barring any injuries. I want to extend a really heartfelt THANK YOU to all of my friends and acquaintances who donated money on my behalf for this cause; and to my coworkers and barn visitors who kept buying candy bars from me all summer long! You really helped me make a difference.

OK so that's a lame attempt to Psychify my entry title. :-)
1. I rode my bike today, first time out since the Unfortunate Misstep. Went three miles around the farm, just to see how it felt and I wanted to avoid traffic for now. No problems! No pain. I just have to remember to put my left foot down when I stop, or it might get a little painful. So I think I'm good to go on part of the Pedal to the Point next week. (The problem, of course, is that I lost a month of training and so my thighs are way out of shape.) My plan is to start out doing the 30-mile stretch to lunch, and if I feel good enough I'll try to complete the whole 75 mile day. But that's just tentative, I don't want to overdo it.

2. Just watched the season premiere of Psych on USA, and laughed myself to pieces when there was a reference to my alltime favorite show. :-D grin grin grin! And loved seeing Cary Elwes as the bad guy. Mmmmm. Quite dapper.

3. Only one more summer teen program to do, tomorrow night's outdoor Battle of the Bands, (oh well, and also the judging and displaying of the teen photo contest) and then I can relax a wee bit, not feel so stressed--it's been a heck of a summer, I overbooked myself with lots of programs with lots of stuff to coordinate and then the stupid ankle making it all that much more difficult. I need a vacation!

That's all I can think of for now. Good night!

Last night my Bike MS team held a fundraiser at a bar/restaurant called The Red Onion. We charged $20 admission and for that you got all-you-can-eat wings and beer and pop. Then there was a 50/50 raffle and baskets o' prizes raffled off too. We ended up raising over $1,000 for our team. Pretty nifty! I took a couple of pictures of us hanging out, before the karaoke started. (At which point I was really too tired to stay, had an hour drive home, but I was sorry I missed the singing fun. Er. Or maybe not.)

I laughed at the sign they put up: it was nice to see us on there but it made it look like it was a "psychic fundraiser" :-) So, in that case, we all already knew how much money we were going to raise and who would win the prizes, eh? Ha ha! Anyway, good times to end a long day of working at my library where we are still on pins and needles about impending budget cuts.

I had another really full weekend, one of those times where you need a weekend to recover from your weekend? :-) I managed to cram in: book discussion group at a bookstore, going to the movies, going to a hot air balloon festival, attending a graduation party and a horse show, riding my bike on a 20-mile ride, AND spending a few hours catching up on tv shows with friends. In addition to the usual horse duties. Whew! I am amazed that it all went off without a hitch; the timing was pretty good. And thank heavens for caffeine.

Friday night I went to Rollie's

( teen book discussion group meeting )I have more of a review of these two books on my goodreads.com page.

Saturday around noon I went to see ( Night At The Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian )

Went straight from the theater to pick up my friend Amy and drive an hour and a half down south to ( see the 2th annual Coshocton balloon festival )


This mosaic was made entirely of bottlecaps and lids! cool huh?


A first for me: seeing two identical balloons go up simultaneously. They eventually drifted apart, but for a few minutes they were a tandem. Very nifty.



I love it when there are enough balloons in the air at the same time that they make cool patterns. And I also enjoyed seeing some new balloons that don't come to Ravenna, like the black "Pancho's" balloon at the right. Some of these balloons came from other states or from down in Cincinnati, and so forth, according to the announcer whose every fifth word I could just about understand. [Cue sound clip from Charlie Brown: "Mwuh wah wah mwah mwah"]

So that was Saturday's events. On Sunday, I crammed another 4 things in to my day. First was a ( horse show )




I took some shots of my friend Sandy's friend Becky as she handed out ribbons to winners, so that Becky can use them in her judicial campaign; one of them happened to be our horse Baby Girl ("BG," registered name She's a Calamity) who won her class. :-) So I wasn't just there to enjoy my horses but also as an unofficial campaign publicity photographer, in a way. That was different! And the two meshed in this shot.



This is PrimeTime Player ("Primer" around the barn), an Arab who is leased by a young girl at the barn for showmanship classes and riding, but who is being ridden here by her owner (I think). He was just gorgeous to watch.


And this is Tanya, the horse, with Lisa, the rider, after they won a ribbon. Another Arabian, and I just love this head shot of her, even though the composition's not the best. Beeyootiful.




I went from the horse show up to Cleveland Heights (45 min drive) to ( ride my bike )

Here's my teammates charging over the bridge at the Shaker Lake park.


And this is the cutest little Canada gosling, enjoying the snacks at the lakeshore with his parents.

So, to wrap up, which I always seem to have the hardest time doing in these things, I got in a good ride, we had homemade fruit smoothies afterwards, then I drove home to clean up and attend a high school graduation party for the teen daughter of a library colleague, whom I've watched grow up these past several years as she attended teen programs and then got a job working at the library. These occasions always get me to remembering my own high school years, ugh, bittersweet as that can be. Then back home to feed horses, then over to Karen's house where I collapsed on her easy chair to watch the final three episodes of Dollhouse with her and Diana. Wow! Great ending to a great season, but it's going to be hard to wait til fall for the resolution! (Anyone out there watching it too? We need to talk. Wasn't Alan Tudyk amazing?!)

 

Just got back from a 30 mile Patti's Paladins training bike ride. Whew! Much farther than I usually go this early in the season, but I've gotta get my rear in gear sometime, so it might as well be now. Kevin and Lisa and the other Kevin arranged the ride, mapping it out for us with as few hills as possible (kind of impossible in this area but they did their best), all around Twinsburg to Aurora and by a nature preserve. What they couldn't plan for was the WIND! Good grief was it windy. Makes it much harder to ride. Beautiful sunny skies, just gorgeous, but also chilly--the high today is supposed to be 60, but it was 45 degrees when we started and only got up to 52 when we'd ended. Brrr. This lake was our halfway point, at a very nice little park called Sunny Lake Park. Along the way we saw lots of farmland, houses (much of it was through suburbs or higher traffic roads), the wetlands nature preserve which I would have loved to walk through, and a couple of alpaca farms.


They're pretty popular around here as an income animal--people sell their wool and also the animals for breeding. (Do they make good sheep-guard animals like llamas do? I'm not sure) So of course I had to stop and take a photo of some. They're so cute! And I think these had been recently shorn of wool, because they really looked extra skinny. I left my big camera at home so I only have the cellphone pics, or I would have taken closeups of their cute fuzzy heads.


Then we ended the ride (pretty much--only 4 more miles to go back to our cars or homes) at the Twinsburg Fire Station where they hold a weekly all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast til 1:30pm. We got there at noon and chowed down, mmmm! They were light and fluffy and there was sausage. It was really hard to get going again after a 45 minute leisurely rest, though...ugh...especially with a long hill right after the stop. I sure got a workout today, and I have to thank Lisa, Kevin and Kevin for being willing to slow their pace for me, and for stopping so frequently at the tops of hills to wait for this slowpoke to putt putt her way up to the top. Sigh. I made it, but they could have ridden rings around me and not been winded. (The one Kevin has ridden across the country, and has even ridden a bike TO GUATEMALA from here!! I am so not worthy to be next to his spokes...)

Animals observed on the trip: a great blue heron, red tailed hawk, and osprey all flew overhead or beside us. Roadkill seen: turtle :-( and possum :-( among others unrecognizable. Traffic wasn't too bad since it was a Sunday, but it was still a lot of single file riding with cars whizzing past. Short stretch on bike path was most enjoyable. We'll have to do this again sometime!

I'm a published photographer! Three of my photos have been put in an actual book! Yippee! Ahem. I'm calm. The book is called "Pedaling To Lunch: Bike Rides and Bites in Northeast Ohio," by Stan Purdum. (more info here or on Amazon.com) A few months ago I was contacted by Dan Von Holten, research assistant for the University of Akron Press. He was working on this book, had found some of my biking photos on my Flickr page and wanted to know (a)did I have any more shots and (b) could he have permission to use some of them in the book? Does a pig roll in the mud?! Heck yeah I said he could use them. :-D In return they sent me a complimentary copy of the book, which just arrived this week and which I have been not-so-subtly carrying around with me just to take it out and look at it every now and then. Teehee.... The photos are reproduced in black and white, so for color versions you can of course go to Flickr :-) but they look pretty decent if I say so myself. (They used one of bikers waving to the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad cars as they pass; a sign in Burton talking about the first telephone station there; and one of bikes crossing a bridge in the CVNP.) It's a really nice book of bike rides all over the region, which all have a midpoint stop at a good place to eat. It's full of Ohio history and is nicely written, complete with maps and biking tips. (I already want to see if my MS150 team is willing to try some of these for training rides.) And I'm not just saying all of that because it has the BEST ILLUSTRATIONS EVER. :-D haha! In fact we're looking into booking the author to give a biking talk/book signing at our library soon. (Does this mean I get to sign copies of the book too? Haha just kidding!) But this is way cooler than the only other time I had a brush with book photography--they paid me for the use of my photo but ended up not using it in the book. So I have a photocopy of the check, anyway. Okay, enough bragging, back to uploading more Rolex photos, which I totally forgot I hadn't finished doing ages ago (sorry!).

Having blogged the other day here about how I was planning to join Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, for a tiny part of his Ride Across America, I have to say that it was as much fun as I had anticipated, and then some. I drove down to Columbus on the night of Tuesday Apr. 28, late, to stay over at a friend's apt so that I would be more refreshed in the morning than if I'd undertaken the 2 hour drive in the wee morning hours. Had planned to leave at 9pm after my library closed and I got off work; however, we were hosting the fantastic teen fantasy author Tamora Pierce that night, and I was in charge of the building, so I had to stay until she signed her very last autograph--at 10pm! (Plus I was enjoying everything she said, because she's such a wonderful funny brilliant person, so I hated to wrap it up until everyone had their chance to talk to her. I will have to blog about her visit later, if I can remember any of the witty things she said. I took many photos--including of her tattoos!) So, at 8am we assembled at the GNC parking lot, and about 40 cold overcast minutes later, Phil's trailer arrived.



He autographed his book, No Opportunity Wasted, which I had brought with me, or whatever folks wanted signed. He looked so tired, poor guy. The day before he'd been riding from Lima, Ohio in the pouring rain, and had a really bad fall at railroad tracks. So that's why he has the bandage on his face, and during my visit with him he just couldn't stop talking about how awful that track crossing was.



(Here I am grimacing at his descriptions of the fall)
I also tried one of the NOW One Square Meal bars that Phil sponsors and that GNC sells; they're "fueling" his ride. It wasn't bad; I didn't detect much of the supposed Apricot flavor, and it was pretty chewy. they were out of Raspberry, and at one point Phil joked when pointing out his helpers that the bike driver guy "keeps eating all of the raspberry OSM bars!"

After my brief talk with Phil and autograph session (during which I met a very nice man named Rich or Rick? who runs a bike shop in Columbus and who graciously volunteered to take my picture for me--and he took a bunch of them while we were talking, that was terrific of him! He should be contacting me soon and I'll send him copies to put on his shop website.) I spent the next 2 hours chatting with Phil's dad John, Scotty "mumbastic" Shelly the cameraman, and other show fans.



Scotty was amazing, he films The Amazing Race with Phil when he's not filming Phil's bike ride, while riding a motorcycle backwards, and we had all kinds of questions for him, some of which he couldn't answer because they were too technical--I wanted to know things like how they coordinate so that Phil knows where the teams are and if a team is coming to his pit stop yet, and are there really only 1 cameraman and 1 soundman with each team? They get so much footage of taxis leaving and stuff like that, I wonder how they manage to do it and still get IN the taxi before it leaves. But Scotty can't reveal the nuts and bolts of producing the show, because it's kind of a trade secret. The girls next to me when I was talking to him actually asked him WHO WON THE RACE?! As if he would tell us that!! He just shrugged with an eloquent lift of the eyebrows that I wish I'd gotten a picture of.


Phil's Dad, nicknamed "Diesel" on the ride, was sweet as can be. I bought one of the commemorative Ride t-shirts from him--even got to step up into the Airstream trailer!--and spent a few minutes talking about his favorite subject of tumbleweeds (if you follow the video blogs on philridesacrossamerica.com you can learn more about this and other details--on the blog Phil always calls Scotty "scotty mumbastic" and I had thought that was his last name, but it's a nickname they picked up from a song!) and how he really does have one preserved in the van, to take out when they reach NYC. The photo of him on the phone is from when he was setting up a meeting with an old friend he hadn't seen in decades who lives in the area. It was funny, a lot of the fans there acted even more elated to see Phil's Dad than they did to see Phil! When they arrived, everyone asked Phil, Where's your Dad? and he had to point him out. There was a woman who had Phil sign an Amazing Race card that her husband made for the surprise 40th birthday Race he threw for her. What a cool family; they all participated and had to do all kinds of tasks related to the number 40. Several kids were there, either pulled out of school for the day or on their way to school in a hurry after getting a photo with him. And I was surprised at the number (2) of babies present--one family wanted the whole family in the shot with him!

After the meet and greet, it was time to ride. I had woken up to the annoying realization that I only had jeans with me, because I had packed in such a hurry that I left my padded bike shorts at home. I was rather irked at this--the jeans are warmer, and it was nippy at 50 or so, but I really like my padding on bike rides, thank you very much. :-) Well, when this came up in conversation with the MS Society staffers, one of them volunteered to drive over to their office and get a pair of shorts for me to use! It was so sweet of her. I was totally fine with using my jeans, I knew I wasn't going to go very far and it *was* cold, but I realized it would be much nicer to have shorts. So kudos to her; wouldn't even let me give them back as a loan or give her money for them. I told her I'd be sure to wear them at some point during the Pedal to the Point so that she'd see I was definitely using them. :-)


And here is a photo of me in the shorts--not that I look at all good in them, sigh--as we set out together. Phil is on his bike just out of frame to the right. So, we set out, and it was immediately apparent to me that I was probably not going to get very far before I fell behind. We had to ride on a very busy 4 lane boulevard, lots of traffic and red lights, and sure enough, after only a short way I got stuck at a red light while Phil and his group of 4 or 5 pro riders made it through on yellow. Before I could catch up--and I mean up, we were on a hill--there was another red light, and so after only 2.5 miles I could no longer see them. Grrr. I didn't have a route map, so I had no idea where they had gone, had I been able to catch up. I persevered and went on for 5 miles by myself before I turned around, just so that I could have the satisfaction of having gone 10 miles for the day. It was rough riding back; I found a bike trail that was very nice but that ended abruptly, with no warning, but after that it was traffic again. And this time by myself, presenting a much less visible target to cars and having to cross over onramps for state highways and four lanes of traffic and such, it was a harrowing last five miles for me. When I returned to the parking lot I saw Brad Hunt there, pulling in after getting a lift back from his few miles riding with Phil. I just had to take the opportunity to talk to him and take a picture--he was on the Amazing Race this season! As half of the Brad and Victoria team from Columbus Ohio. They were eliminated in the third leg, I believe, but still, wow, an actual Racer! I just had to surprise my friend redpimpernel by calling her and having Brad talk to her a bit. (

cannellfan , I would have had him call you too but I knew you were at work at the time, and I didn't have your number; sorry about that!) He and I talked a bit about the show, the audition process, how his wife had been auditioning for Survivor but when she sent in a photo of the two of them they got a call that they were wanted for TAR. And how the cameraman and sound guy that follow each team around, really keep up a steady stream of questions to the racers, to encourage them to talk to the camera--"Where do you think you are now? Do you think any other teams are ahead of you? Can't this taxi go any faster? Who do you think is in first place?" etc. He said it is really intimidating til you get used to it, and that it might have contributed a little to why they got eliminated: at the pit stops they really grill racers as they do their interviews with them, and they were being asked why they weren't so competitive, did they ever expect to win a leg of the race? Why bother racing? etc. SO they decided to try to get a jump on another team, and it backfired on them. (I don't remember that episode so I can't fill in the details.)



Getting a surprise kiss from Brad. My first meeting with any kind of reality show contestant. :-) We took a straight shot and then he said I needed one more, and totally surprised me with the smackeroo. It was too funny! He was a big flirt. I was rooting for them on the race because they were an Ohio team, too bad they didn't go farther in the Race.

So when I was on the phone with redpimpernel , who incidentally lives totally in another state from me, I said I was going to see if I could catch up to Phil in my car and take a nice photo of him riding as seen from the front, with the trailer and motorcycle behind him. So she told me she had the ride website up, and where he was at that moment riding. He has this cool GPS tracking thing on the site, automatically updated every ten minutes, and for the next 2 hours I drove through the winding back country roads as Red gave me updates via cell phone. It was better than having Onstar! We chatted about other stuff too, it was almost like having a passenger, but mostly I would tell her what crossroads I was approaching and she would let me know where to turn next to keep on the trail of Phil. It was great fun. (I did this hands-free, by the way, not holding the phone, don't worry!) At one point we had to backtrack because the site wasn't updating fast enough and I overshot him. Well eventually I found the trailer, in the rain, but no Phil!


[My only glimpse of the ride in progress.] Phil usually rides right in front of the trailer, and there wasn't any bike or motorbike either, which worried me. I thought maybe Phil was hurt and inside the trailer, but they couldn't fit the motorbike in there too. So I followed them for another several miles, and this is where we realized the GPS monitor must be inside the trailer and not on Phil himself...

Eventually I just had to answer the call of nature, forget the trailer. But I couldn't ever pass the trailer because we were on curvy hilly 2 lane roads (1 lane ea. direction) in the boonies, in the rain. And it was very frustrating. Finally Red directed me to the next little excuse for a town, where as I pulled up, I saw the trailer pulling up, too. And there was Phil's bike!


And the cameraman's bike! Phil was eating in a little restaurant. Turns out they had gotten separated from Dad and the trailer, and Phil's cell phone wasn't getting reception so he couldn't tell him where he was sooner. I was just glad I'd found a place with a working bathroom, but once I was done I listened a little to the guys as they ate and looked at maps. I offered my driving services in case they needed help, esp. since (as Red reminded me) they usually have locals drive their film editor on ahead to the next stop so that he can work on editing the website video blog footage during the ride. But they were fine, and I felt like I was intruding so I wished them luck and left. What a fun ending to a fun day, with a little serendipity.

I realized I was fairly close to Coshocton, Ohio, where (1) I could get on I-77 and zoom north very easily to get home, and (2) the Coshocton Library has an awesome teen librarian, RoseMary Honnold, who's a friend of mine. I had never seen her library, and I love to visit libraries when I travel. So on a whim, not expecting any results, I sent a text to her on Facebook via my phone (because I don't have her phone number and because I know she's usually on Facebook!)--lo and behold, she was at work and she would love to see me. So that was way cool--I ended my drive through central Ohio with a library tour and some time with a friend. Then how's this for timing? She told me that she was retiring and the next day was her last day at work!! So I am really glad I was able to stop in and see her where she worked. She's also done a ton of work for teen librarianship in general and our professional organizations, she's now editing the Voice of Youth Advocates journal, and it was really an honor to see where she made it all happen. Plus, I got to see this cool sculpture:



Here's a link to my Phil Rides Across America set on Flickr. Eventually I'll upload the other photos I took at Coschocton Public Library, and there will be a set of those for anyone vaguely interested in libraries. :-) I got a couple of good ideas there that I hope we can implement. I always benefit from library visits, even on vacation.

Phil ends his Ride Across America tomorrow, and The Amazing Race season finale is Sunday, so it will be neat to see them both end successfully. I think he's amazing for doing this; he's raised over $300,000 for MS research which is fantastic. I will be happy if I reach my personal goal of $1,000 this summer. And I won't nearly kill myself riding over 3,000 miles to do it, that's for sure! He's in such great shape. Oh, one more link: to redpimpernel's journal entry for a really great description of the day from her vantage point. She describes it so much better and funnier than I can. And sorry this is so late, but I've been writing this for a couple of days, I keep getting interrupted or sidetracked or too tired, it's pathetic.

 

In honor of the "Friday Five" or "Fabulous Friday" posts several of my friends make to LJ, here's one for Tuesday:
*I just watched the Most. Fab. Episode. Ever. of my new fave show, "Castle" (Home Is Where the Heart Stops)--Castle and Beckett go undercover at a swanky charity ball. Dancing! Witty dialogue! Beckett adorably embarrassed! Castle in a tux! This ep had it all! Oh, and a mystery, but who cares about that part...when we have Castle in a tux, and fencing with his smart cute daughter, and bantering with his mom; even the detectives were funny, rattling off all their names for "perps" to Castle.
*It's supposed to be a rainy set of 4 days, but I see blue sky and sunshine! Ha ha! Take THAT, weather gods!
*My copy of Phil Keoghan's book arrived in the mail, so I'm ready for the autographing part of my PhilSighting next week.
*I had a good bike ride on Sunday, dodging raindrops. Just a local jaunt down the street and back, 4 miles total, but I am determined to conquer this particular street because it is curvy and hilly. One of those that's really fun to drive on--you don't even notice the rises in a car-- but not so much for pedalpower.
*We got the weather report from Lexington and it's going to be sunny and 75 this weekend for Rolex Three Day Event! Yay! Road trip is ON! And I need good horse news like that to counteract the awful news about those poor polo ponies being poisoned in Florida over the weekend, just horrible; closer to home, several abused horses were taken away from a local farm and put in a sanctuary farm, so they'll finally get some good food and hooftrimming and humane treatment. That was nasty. And, finally, saddest, yesterday we put down two of our resident horses, Zany and Cameo. They weren't terribly old but they were never in good shape. One was blind in one eye and really a danger to others, and the other had lung and leg issues that never could be fixed. They were rescues here to the Home for Aged and Infirm Horses (just kidding about the title, but sometimes it seems that way, as our owners are a soft touch). Anyway, gosh, that was a downer ending. Let me find one more Terrific Tuesday thing to end on.
*I am currently enjoying reading a bunch of Tamora Pierce books because our library is going to host her for a signing next week. Woo hoo! Can't wait. She's terrific, and her books are fun. By now the characters feel like old friends, as I've been zipping through the whole Circle Opens Quartet and on to the other two about the mages, Melting Stones and The Will of the Empress. Her newest, Bloodhound, continues Beka Cooper's story and I like those because they're great mysteries too.
Have a great day everyone!

Yesterday I got out my bicycle for the first time since autumn (oh who am I kidding, since late summer!) and rode around the block a few times to get the kinks out. Whew. First I had to dust off the cobwebs, literally (someday I want to live in a normal house again, with normal sized dustbunnies and no Cobwebs From H@ll). I went for a couple of miles--my odometer said I had ridden for exactly 5 miles, but I wonder if it's very accurate--in a nice neighborhood next to the farm that has only a couple of gently sloping roads, no really bad hills. It's quiet there in the evening, close to sunset, traffic was light, and only a couple of kids were out riding scooters so I didn't have an audience as I huffed and puffed my way around the block. And back around the block. And down the block some more. Very boring ride, but so much easier than schlepping the bike in my car to the bike trail that I use for longer training rides. I am still irked at how long it always takes me to get ready for a ride, from putting on the right clothes and shoes, to stretching my muscles, to filling the water bottle (when I remember to!), to making sure I have helmet, gloves, sunglasses, ID, phone, keys, and later on sunscreen. And camera, if it's a long ride to someplace pretty. I always end up making at least one trip back upstairs to get something I left behind. I remember when I was a kid, how I just hopped on the bike and away I went! But of course, back then I wasn't worried about falling off, or getting stuck with no phone, or pulling a hamstring. Sigh. But anyway, it was good to feel comfortable on the bike again after only a couple of minutes; they say "it's just like riding a bike" to mean that old habits are easy to pick up again, but I still have that frozen moment of fear the first time I get on the bike, where I am worried I will have forgotten how to shift gears or how to manage the pedal cages or something. Not being an athletic sort of person who does a lot of physical activities, it is a pleasant sensation to get that comfortable feeling again so quickly. (Of course, it helped that I got off the bike long before my muscles could start to protest!)

All of this is a prelude to saying that I will be training for the Pedal to the Point MS150 ride again this year, with my team Patti's Paladins. But before that big event in August, later this month I am going to ride a short ride down in Columbus Ohio--with a television celebrity! Phil Keoghan, the host ofThe Amazing Race, is riding his own personal Bike MS across the entire country from California to New York. 100 miles a day, over 3600 miles total. Whoa. As you know I like that show a lot and I think Phil is a great guy, and there's the whole benefit MS angle--how cool is he for doing this huge marathon ride?! So later this month he crosses Ohio--he's in Nebraska or somewhere as I type this--and he's invited anyone who wants to ride along some of the journey with him. Plus he's doing appearances and book signings at GMC stores (he wrote a book a couple of years ago about his "No Opportunity Wasted" philosophy, an inspirational get-off-your-duff and do your "life list" kind of book), since they're cosponsoring his ride. You can read all the details and watch his entertaining Ride Blog videos at philridesacrossamerica.com/index.html I just hope I can keep up with him for the few miles I am going to try riding. Even this far into his ride I'm sure he is much more fit than I am. (He's ridden parts of this ride at speeds up to 50 mph!!) But I can't pass this up, it's so cool! You'll hear more about it after I do it. I heard about this from my friend cannellfan , who joined Phil on part of his Nebraska leg today. Go Scott!!

...and I made it halfway! This year I fully intended to ride both days, 150 miles total, but by the last grueling 10 mile stretch on Saturday, I had had enough. I didn't have any serious injuries, but I had a serious case of numb toes and saddle bruises and screaming quadriceps. Plus the headwinds kept getting stronger, or so it seemed anyway. So after completing the 75 miles of Day One, I called it a ride and did not go back to the starting line on Sunday. Plus, I had a little bit of incentive to do something else fun on Sunday--my sister-in-law (who couldn't ride this year due to mono) and her family were all staying at Kalahari Water Resort overnight Sat. to play in the water all day Sunday! tee hee. How could I pass up playing in the pool with my adorable niece? So, I'll blog about that later, but this entry is all about the ride and my great teammates on the Paladins. here is our team photo from bright and early in the morning.


And here are more team members getting ready for the start. We were the Number One fundraising team last year, so we got to be the first to leave, along with all of the Top Riders (yellow numbers), who raised at least $1,000. We have several of them, including the ninth highest and the eleventh highest fundraisers, go us!! (I have raised $673 so far, with a couple of weeks left to get in last minute donations. Not bad, I guess.)

We had a great ride, really, the weather was in the 70's for the first part of the day. It only got hot much later. We had sunny skies and okay, yes, those pesky headwinds, but in general it was great riding weather. I started out with a couple of teammates and also Kathy, my niece's Nana (Mel's mom), and we turned out to be well suited as riding partners.



(here she is on the right) Our abilities were similar, so one didn't outpace the other. (You may remember from previous posts on these rides how I hate to ride all by myself, especially when I'm having to really test myself on a long ride.) Unfortunately, this being Kathy's first MS150 and longest ride attempt so far, she succumbed to a leg injury before the last rest stop. So she was "Sagged" (got a ride in a SAG or Support And Gear vehicle) to the finish line and I met up with fellow Paladins Ann and Iris at that last stop.



We helped each other get through the last gritty 10 miles, which are always the hardest not just because they're the last 10, but because they're on a heavily trafficked road where we have to stay single file on the berm. After miles of open country roads next to corn fields with few cars, you get lulled into riding two or three abreast and talking as you ride; I find it stressful to have to single up and have such a tiny space in which to ride without going off the edge of the pavement or being hit by a car. Ack.
Anyway, yay for Ann and Iris, who were also doing their first MS150--they were awesome!! (They felt they'd been slightly misled, however, because they'd heard that "There's only one hill" on the ride. Wellll, yeah, one really big steep hill. But, compared to their flat Chicago training rides, we have a few rolling hills even out in the cornfields of northwestern Ohio. Oops!)

The last rest stop was the prettiest: a field full of sunflowers greeted us, and I couldn't resist stopping to take photos. They cheered me up as much as the bananas and Gatorade did! :-)

So, it was the usual tough ride, but not so bad that I won't try it again next year. Maybe I can get my fundraising act together and start sooner, get more donations. That's always the second hardest part. I'm really just pleased I made over the $500 mark, and also that I didn't pull a muscle or have a cramp or get in an accident on the bike. So, after a couple weeks recovery, I might feel like getting back on the bike and doing some fall rides. For now I'm happy to stay on my feet. Later, I'll post my water adventure park pictures...see ya!

Today I went on my last Pedal to the Point training ride with the team, before the big ride next weekend. (Wow, how time flies!) Because I had to go to work later, I chose the shortest (15 mile) option. We had breakfast first as a team, which is always fun; Patti's famous blueberry pancakes from scratch, mmmm. Beautiful gorgeous weather, cool--it was down to 59 degrees this morning!--sunny, scattered clouds as we're due for a rainstorm later on today. The ride through neighborhoods and down a busy divided 4 lane artery was just demanding enough, that I felt I was getting a good workout but I was not having to kill myself. There was a gradual incline of a few degrees, and a headwind in places, so it wasn't easy sailing until we hit the couple of steep downhills. Cruising 22 mph, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! (I'm always terrified of big downhills, tend to brake a lot to keep from going at "car speeds" as I call them; all I can picture in my head is me wiping out horribly, so that's a real good incentive to keep from speeding too much. But I like the feel of the wind, that's for sure!) I was pleased that Rebecca, our team's co-captain, came on the ride with us. It's the first time in a while I've gotten to ride with her, and it means she's totally gotten over her fear of riding in traffic since her sideswiping accident a few months ago. (Those pesky car sideview mirrors can be quite lethal when they pass by too close) I also met some team members who were new to me, that was nice. The day of the ride when all 40 or 50 of us (we have a HUGE team!) are together, it's hard to make acquaintances.

There's still time to pledge if you'd like to make a donation and show your support of my efforts and cause: my personal MS Bike150 page. Thank you!! My next mention of biking will be after the event (although possibly also *during* the MS150, since I can send texts to LJ. But not from my bike. :-)

Happy July Fourth everyone! I had a fantastic, albeit very energetic and lengthy, July Fourth holiday yesterday. As you see here, I rode my bike to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. But that was already halfway through the day! First, after the usual wee morning hours horse feeding, I drove to Cleveland Heights for breakfast with my bike team. Patti made us wonderful French toast, on Italian bread, with Canadian Bacon, for an international July 4. :-)



Then we set out on the first of two rides, with Patti as our Pace Car for the start (see Flickr photo of her driving her scooter!) First, a 15 mile ride in the neighborhood and to the park bike trail in nearby Shaker Heights. That was enjoyable, until I began to notice that instead of being in the first group of 5 or 6 bikes, I kept being passed up by other teammates. And it was getting harder to pedal.... Turned out we were on a very gradual incline of a few degrees, not enough to *look* like a hill, but enough of a grade that it became a real challenge to keep up my speed of 15mph. No way Jose. Eventually we hit some awesome downhills through the park, on a very curvy and shady wooded trail. It was a nice workout. (I'm curious to see the footage we shot of the ride: our co captain wore a Helmet Cam the whole time!)

And that would have been enough for most people, but oh no, not the Paladins!! We need to get in our miles. So after a brief rest and recharge back at Patti's house, we set out on our second ride, another 15 (ended up 20 mile) ride, but north this time, through Rockefeller Park and MLK drive--picturesque woodsy biking trail--and then urban he**--the torn up city streets of Cleveland, under heavy construction in some parts. We ended up along the lakefront, where we were buffeted by winds as we rode along the shore to end up at the Rock Hall. Whew. If it wasn't a hill, which we encountered on our way back (you have to go about 200 feet back uphill from the lakeshore to get to the "Heights'--they ain't called that for no reason!), it was headwinds for a few miles. Suffice to say it seemed like a lot more than 20 miles total by the time I finished. Oy.



This is the view from just off the bike path at the rocks and waves along the lakeshore.

But having made it back, we got to stuff our faces with really good food at our team picnic. Ahhhh. And my brother had shown up with my niece, whom I saw for about 2 minutes in between her frenzied playing with other kids all over the house and yard... Okay. First half of day done. THEN, because I love a good party and want to see all of my friends whenever I can, I scarfed some Aleve, ignored my body's clamoring for a serious NAP and drove about 15 minutes from there to Euclid, further towards the lake, for a Fourth gaming party with my scifi club gang that ended with fireworks on the back porch! Yay! (Professional fireworks, sent up by the city.)

I had a grand time, played some fun games like Labyrinth, Go Mental, Taboo, and a new one called Seismic where you set up roads leading out of San Andreas--but watch out for earthquakes, they destroy your highways and take away your points! It was interesting. I ate a lot more, of course, and at the end of the day I practiced taking fireworks photos, but I didn't really like how they turned out. There was no way to avoid the telephone wires and trees in the way. But I fiddled with settings and got some interesting colors.
Tonight I went to see fireworks in Kent, and I'll upload those photos tomorrow, see how they turned out.

I hope all of you had a spectacular July Fourth too, and Happy Independence Day to you!

Tonight while riding a short ride through the neighborhood I encountered two wild birds, which I have seen before but never been able to identify. I thought they were "peahens" but upon looking that up discovered it was female peacocks, and these weren't them. They are gray and round, with short necks, white underbellies. The one time I didn't ride with my camera in my bike bag, darn it. (If you look at this cell phone picture on Flickr you'll see the Note I put on it, a box around the bird--it's on the driveway) Somewhere in my disorganized apartment I have a proper photo of one from a few years ago, that I saw walking on the side of the road every day while I was driving to work and finally captured on film. But I have no idea how to locate that picture right now. Saturday at work I'll try looking through some proper bird books to see what it is. I don't think it's a grouse, quail or a pheasant either. Grrr. It's going to bother me all night! Oh Red, queen of all things zoological, might you know off the top of your head? :-)

Yesterday I went on a Patti's Paladins training ride through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, on the towpath from Sagamore Hills to Merriman Valley. I think it was about 20 miles round trip. We had a wonderful time: Dana led the ride, with his girlfriend Bea, brother Adrian, and two friends Lori and Barb--whom I recognized from when I used to hike regularly with my "rent a dog" SanBan in a local hiking club. I hadn't seen them in years! The weather was absolutely perfect--60's warming up to about 72 degrees, sunshine and a cool breeze. And it was a nice leisurely ride, for a change; with Dana leading we went at a nice pace and he was very accomodating to this perpetual shutterbug, willing to stop frequently while I took picture after picture, or to ride slowly so I could quickly catch up to the group. We ended up in the Merriman Valley, which is a busy shopping and dining area that is right off the park, where we had a lovely lunch outdoors at the Valley Cafe. (see other photos) Scrumptious! The towpath trail is a lot of fun, you travel through the shady woods and alongside the old canalbed (you are literally riding on what used to be the path the mules walked when they pulled canal boats along the Ohio and Erie canal in the 1840's), passing historic canal locks and former dry good stores that have been fixed up as visitor centers or exhibits, and there is a lot of wildlife in the park, too. Usually we see a lot of turtles on logs in the water, but since it was getting close to noon when we were there, most animals were hiding away the hot part of the day. Saw a great big fat goose taking a nap, and lots of birds I was too slow to catch on film (I know, on pixels, but I really liked that expression. I hate that digital has done away with my cliches!). I was enchanted with the light purple and white flowers we saw everywhere. I learned that they are an invasive species, a type of phlox called Dame's Rocket----which is rapidly spreading in a lot of places and can shade out other wildflowers. Too bad, because it sure is pretty!

I just had a marvelous day, good company, lots of good conversation, beautiful scenery and exercise to boot. Hopefully the next ride we'll have more of the Paladins along too.

Today I rode on my MS150 team's first official team training ride for the 2008 season. Here you see the 12 intrepid riders who made it out for today's fun. (And I am realizing I should just stay out of the photo when I'm wearing tight biking gear; I'm the tubby in blue in the center. Sigh.) We had fun messing with my self-timer feature, which I used to know how to use but couldn't get to work. So I hailed a passing hiker and he took the shot: using the self-timer! It turned out I had turned ON the feature, but had forgotten that to use it you have to press the shutter. So Hiker Guy presses the shutter and is wondering why the picture isn't snapping; meanwhile we're all standing there like idiots staring into a flashing white light on the front of the camera: the self-timer is going! Doh!

The temp. was 40 degrees when we began riding, nice and chilly but much colder when you're zooming along at 10-15 mph. By the time we finished, an hour later (we just went out for a 12 mile ride on a bike trail in the park), it was more like 50-something, and the sun was shining quite nicely. By noon we got to 65 today, yay!! Spring!! Anyway, I did pretty well for a first time out; the spinning classes are definitely helping. Normally I would have had very very sore legs and butt, but none of that today. And despite the stiff headwind on the return leg, I sorta kept up with the pack, though it was a tough haul for me. I didn't get caught flatfooted on the couple hilly bridges we went over, at least I managed that okay. It's weird to be on the bike again after months of using a spinning cycle, where all I have to do is pedal and maybe turn a knob on the frame. I don't use my arms or hands much at all in the gym. But of course in the outdoors I have to shift and brake and steer and etc, and oh gosh, watch out for slow pedestrians and cars and stuff! Gack. You can't get as far into the "zone" on a real bike. :-) (I tend to get into a rhythm in the gym and totally space out to the music) But whatever, it was beautiful weather. We saw two redtailed hawks, geese, robins, and many redwinged blackbirds, which I was dying to stop and photograph but couldn't. This particular path runs between the river and the canal, so there are lots of waterbirds too. Now if I can just manage to keep going to spinning class AND riding outside, I might actually make headway on getting in better shape for sure. Stay tuned!