Sunday, April 12, 2015

Mas rides

Saturday DavidC and I did a single-speed roam ride, finished off with refreshments. It was a good day:



Sunday PJ and I hit the Seneca/Cherokee trails for a bit. It was an equally good day. I didn't want to stop, but yard work called. Sunday was as good a day as one could ask, except for right now at 11.18 when the wife is working on putting on clean sheets even though I have to work nice and early tomorrow. Ah, married life. The Jones is craptastic on trails. So good.




Maysville-Lexington

The wife was visiting her mother in Maysville, so I undertook a quest, a 3/4 hundy from M to L on Friday.

Key Pike, road on which wife's childhood home resides via her father. #Hilly

Intersection of May's Lick, farm-to-market town and one-time capitol of asparagus. Now, it's a little sleepy.

Flag indicates stiff wind from the SW. I happened to be traveling towards the SW. It made for an interesting day.

Always wanted to capture this vista. Nice.

Down Old 68, which is looking worse for the wear, but also means it's devoid of cars.

Up Old 68 and it's 13%. Someone might have removed road shoes and socks. Might have, but there is no picture proof.

Old 68 bridge across Licking River.


Somewhere in Nicholas Co., which kicked my ass. Lack of pictures prove that I got tired along this stretch.

Downtown Middlesburg. I ate Combos and drank some water and planned my escape.

Gusanitos muertos. Muchos.

Pictures sort of disappear at this point, along with my form. I encountered many hills and the continuous headwind. It challenged me.

This is at "The Rock Grille", which I'm pretty sure is a Christian grill and ice cream place. The food was damn good, Praise Jesus!! I wanted to bail here, but it was only 15miles to a Lexington pick-up point, so I put my head down an rode, with the leftovers of the chocoPB shake in tow. I didn't finish it, but it was the best part of the day.

I beat the wife/son to our friend's house and semi-passed out on their porch, 72 miles under the belt, all in a driving headwind. It was the longest day since last summer and maybe the hardest day in a couple years. I'm *really* glad I did it. #cycling







Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Post-Apocalypse

I've got the post-winter/tennis/work/need-adventure blues. I need to get OUT, but the rain this week and last is making that difficult. We finished last week with a flash flood and 7" of rain on Friday, and Monday and Tuesday of this Spring Break week is more of the same on a smaller scale. Blah.

WEDNESDAY

Google Auto-awesome having fun with flooded portion of fav birding spot Caperton Swamp.

The Cox Park path was very, very problematic. What I took as some occasional dry spots was a solid 1" and deeper of mud, which clogged up everything on the bike.

Eva Bandman Cyclocross Course also a problem.

Butchertown Greenway an even bigger problem.

I drowned my sorrows in a cup o' joe and an egg biscuit, which is my new fav breakfast item in town. Yum!

SUNDAY

I got out Easter morning to take a look at the damage of Friday's mess. This picnic table in Beargrass Creek seems to be incorrectly placed.

Another found item, a recycling bin along Beargrass Trail. The address indicated that the bin cam travelled around 2.5 miles through Cherokee Park flooding to be deposited along the Trail.

I whiled away some time at Please & Thank You with coffee and my first egg biscuit.

SATURDAY

Patrick and I got out for an hour Saturday morning under sunny skies but in brisk conditions. Can't have it all. First time for him crossing the ped bridge.

There was a sportsball game Saturday in Indianapolis. My/Our team lost. It still hurts. I'm trying to reassess my relationship to sportsball, as in reality it has no bearing on life, but again it does. The heart remains heavy.

FRIDAY

Friday provided us two loop-de-loops to contend with, the rain and the fire, in this case from a building fire at the enormous GE complex in the center of the county. This is what it looked like from outside the coffee shop, and understand that the fire was about 5 miles away, and this plume is about 3 miles south. Sinister stuff.

The rain was the other caustic agent in play. First they called for a school delay, and amid preparations, they cancelled school because so many roads were impassable and flooded. By late afternoon it had stopped raining so I went out and took a look.

While passing through Seneca Gardens I spied a noisy hawk gliding to and fro. Later I listened to some calls and my guess is a Red-shouldered Hawk, which are pretty common. The screech was quite distinctive.

Cherokee Park. You can see the "No Net Trail" just below the road. Below that is supposed to be a field and a road. Not Friday. If you look carefully far left behind the diagonal branch you can find a surprise.

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Another surprise, a little easier to spy. Tough luck.

Intersection befouled. The valley road is one of the busiest in the city for cycling and running. Alas.

I guess you can see why they cancelled school is other county roads were in a comparable shape. No safe, and not much fun for cycling.


Alabama Sky Day 3 Vistas

We began Day 3 with a basic breakfast at the restaurant, again better than camp cooking a salt bomb,and bundled up for a long descent in th...