3.31.2011 Ride: Short but Wet

Rain looked imminent, with the radar map showing a large of patch of green off to the west.  There was the opportunity to ride in the morning before the rains came but Carol was heading off to Manitoba for a business plan competition with one of her student teams and I wanted to be here so see her off.  The rain was supposed to stop later in the day but, then, Rachel had a soccer game.  Sure enough, when I did get out, within a few minutes it began to rain.  That was fine as I was geared up in rain pants and rain coat and riding on the mountain bike for stability. 
Getting some good pictures felt as if it would be a real challenge as I've been riding the neighborhood quite a bit lately.  I decided to take the Big Hill down and see if there might be something special there.  I passed some large scat on the road at first thinking it might be a bear's but on closer inspection I think it was just a large coyote's (not that I planned to take a picture of the scat, even if it was a bear's).  The chairs were still there and continue to bring a smile to my face every time I pass them. 

I thought it would be interesting to take a picture of the chairs at least once a month to document any changes that occur around them.

Heading down to the bottom of the road to the right, I stopped to capture a view through this log.  It was traipsing through the brush to get this picture that led me to the more interesting pictures of the day.  I mildly cursed the thorns that were grabbing at my rain pants when I realized I had my next subject.

Rachel and I have discussed why blackberry canes would have thorns in the first place since it seems as if a plant would want to make it easy for its fruit to be had.  I was thinking today that maybe the canes themselves were a tasty treat to some animals.

Riding in the rain felt nice and I was staying warm except for my hands.  The gloves I had on were windproof but not waterproof and they were getting soaked.  Also, it felt as if it was getting colder.  When I got back home, I saw that it had indeed dropped from 46 degrees when I left to 41 degrees.  And, it's not getting any warmer.  As I write this at 2:30 PM, it is down to 39.
But, cold hands and all, I had to stop and take a picture of this bag that has been caught on the barbed wire for some time now.  Today, however, it seemed to have straightened out so that the lettering could be easily read and provided what I thought was a bit more irony in litter.  I had already picked up my litter for today and decided to leave this one for a day or two more.

"SMART"

I'm looking forward to the next couple of days when the temperatures are supposed to be close to 70.

Today's Ride:  63mins.  7.85 miles.  46-41 degrees.  Steady light rain.  Miles YTD:  1,611.86

3.30.2011 Ride: Short but Sweet

Another March day, another day of watching the temperature gauge at 39 stubbornly climbing to 41 after two hours.  A high of 49 was in the forecast,  but the bones in the body didn't believe it.  I decided to venture out.  If I was going to ride another day in the cold and grey, I wanted it to be somewhere else than back and forth in my own neighborhood, as much as I love it. 
I drove 11 miles to the next county and parked where Hwy 45 and Hwy 295 met.  I rode 295 last summer and loved the remoteness. 

I figured I would have plenty of new photo ops.  And, I also knew I would be in for some good climbs.
It was still only 41 when I got on the bike but there was no wind and the air felt good.  I didn't have to ride long before I came upon my first shot. 
After this shed, the road climbed a bit and then descended down the first long, steep hill.






I had to almost screech on my brakes as I spotted the large weathered barn on my left at the bottom of the hill. 

It wasn't until I was home and downloading the pictures that I was able to see the remnants of the red paint. 

Just after the barn, the road began to climb again for a mile with some steep stretches thrown in.  Reaching the top, it was as beautiful as I remembered from last time.  Rolling green hills stretching way off into the distance.  Very quickly, the road descended again and just as quickly rolled back up.  At the bottom of the last hill, sat an old pick-up truck, its bed filled to the brim with aluminum cans.  I was tempted to stop and take a picture but I hesitate to pause at an abode with a yard full of discarded debris and a house in poor repair. 
Since time was short and I knew this would only be an hour ride, I planned to turn around at top of the next hill since it dropped for at least a mile on the other side.  When I reached the top, about 200 yards off to my left, I saw a dog spy me and start galloping across the pasture.  I turned to go back but there seemed to be something special about this dog and non-threatening.  I stopped and waited for him to catch up.  He was actually shy at first and I had to call him over.  He was very friendly and adorable and, as you can see, this picture caught him with a great look on his face.


I began to look more seriously for my one piece of litter to pick up.  The Coke can with a heart caught my eye as there seemed to be a bit of irony in 1) a Coke can having a heart on it in the first place and 2) a Coke can with a heart as litter.  I was hit with more irony as I went to pick it up and brown liquid came out from the cigarette and chewing tobacco juice(?) inside the can.  Sorry, this can stayed on the ground and I picked up two beer cans just down the road.

Driving out the extra miles was just what I needed for my ride today.  Though still on the tired side this morning from dealing with a stomach ailment, I didn't feel weary at all on my ride and wished it could have been longer.

The picture of the tree trunk is rather interesting since it's hard to judge from the picture its true height.  I would say it's about 20 feet high, though it looks as if I might be holding up a large stick and getting a close-up.










Coming back down the hill, I had to get one more shot of the barn from a different angle.

When I reached the van, I still had five minutes of riding time, so I crossed Hwy 45 and rode on for a couple of minutes. 

Who knew what I would find in just 2 minutes.  Sure enough, I came across this small house that actually had a small chimney (not visible in picture).  On closer inspection, one can see that this very modest home once had electricity as the remnant of an electrical cord is visible between the two windows.  There were a couple of other similar smaller structures very close to this one.  And, off to the right, was the foundation of a larger building.

Getting on my bike to leave, a crown jewel of litter:  Crown Royal with its bag lying right next to it. 

A short but very revitalizing bike ride today. 








Today's Ride:  61mins.  9.14 miles.  41 degrees.  Miles YTD: 1,604.01

3.29.2011 Ride: The Cruelest Month

Of course, it all depends where one lives.  For T.S. Eliot, it was April.  When I lived in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, it was May when the snows would melt, the mud-soaked ground would show, begin to dry and then it would snow again, just enough to turn the ground to mud all over. Here, in NW Arkansas, it seems to be March, where, even if the weather may not be that bad, the up and down of the days, dreary and wet, warm and sunny, takes its emotional toll as if we are living in a bi-polar climate. 
I was feeling particularly low this morning as I made my way out to ride after a morning of rain.  But as I stepped outside with my bike, I paused a moment to look around and remembered my old refrain of seeking beauty.  No matter what the weather, I love being outside.  I allowed all the stress of the morning to melt away and, indeed, found beauty in the day lillies that were springing out of the ground at the end of the parking pad.  I had dug those up from some wet areas in the woods last year and transplanted them.

I didn't have to ride much further before I had another small smile. Several years ago, I took a handful of maple seedlings, the kind that when dropped hover down to the ground like little helicopters, from our friends' house whose maple tree must be a 100 years old.  I took some of those seedlings and planted them in cups, three of which I put in the ground.  One has survived.  It's about  thirty feet tall now and has its own little helicopters.  I still get continually amazed at the beauty of a tree growing from such a small seed.

Because of the wet conditions, I was back on the mountain bike, riding slowly, not in any hurry.  I have spied this angle of the barn in the picture for quite some time.  Today seemed like a good time to get it.  To do so, I had to scramble over barbed wire and a gate and walk into the middle of the horse pasture.  There was only one lone white horse when I walked across.  She watched me as I made my way to get in position.  I took a few shots, then slowly turned around as I thought I heard something behind me.  Sure enough, less than an arm's length away, the white mare had come to check me out. I thought of taking a picture but I wanted to experience the moment.  She let me pet her a couple of times and then she sauntered off to be with the other horses.

Half a picture taken:  On my next-to-last leg of the ride today in the neighborhood, I saw a blue jay fly from the ground up into a tree.  As it did so, something white dropped.  When I got closer, I saw it was a white plastic fork.  Odd nesting material, I thought.  I let the fork be, in case the jay wanted to make another stab at taking it.  But when I returned on the final leg, the fork was still there.  I looked up in the tree and no jay was to be seen so I figured the fork was fair game and would make an interesting piece-of-litter-for-the-day story.


Today's Ride:  60mins.  10 miles.  45 degrees.  Damp.  Miles YTD:  1,594.87

3.28.2001 Ride: Ahh! Massage.

Yessiree.  It was a beautiful day, especially after the dreary one we had yesterday.  And, within 3 miles, the ride really perked up.  I pulled over and had myself a 6 pack.  Within a couple of minutes, I was on my way again, feeling mighty fine.
I believe I must have stumbled upon the sacred Smirnoff dumping grounds.  I found all these bottles within 20 feet on each other and as I rode off I saw several more within fifty feet.  Since I had both panniers with me, I had no trouble taking the lot. 
I was on my way to get a massage with three stops along the way: grocer, bank and wine store.

John Ray: My very excellent massage therapist.

I kept imagining getting into an accident and the police going through my bags: 6 empty Smirnoff bottles, cheese, mushrooms and carrots and a good bottle of wine.  It would surely have them scratching their heads.
I had my own little moment of wonder as I was riding in.  At one point I looked down at my watch and it read 12:22:22 and the miles I had ridden so far was 2.2.  It seemed as if there should be something mystical about that moment.  I wanted to stop and look around, mark the spot.  Surely, the aligning of all those numbers must mean something.  Perhaps a  message from aliens from outer space. If so, I was incapable of deciphering it.  The last time I had a number moment like that was about 35 years ago.  I had stopped to get gas and my odometer was showing almost all 7s.  When the gas stopped, it read $7.77 (this was when gas was $0.30 a gallon).  I gazed intently around at my surroundings, looking for some kind of aligning of the planets.  Alas, there was nothing that I could see.  Just a freak occurrence when the same number showed itself repeatedly.  Still, it's rather fun and special when it happens.

After all my stops, my bags weighed in at 22 pounds (as I found out later).  Not a tremendous amount of weight but enough for a respectable workout.  I certainly had to be careful as I took curves and corners as I needed a much wider berth.  The ride to my message therapist went well and the massage was great as it had been a while since the last one. 
Walking away from John's place, I spied this black cat perched on the arm of a chair.  He/she seemed to be very regal and confident,  A wise ol' owl-cat.

Getting close to home, I was approaching a spot where I knew two aggressive dogs resided.  There was the one you see pictured and the other was a 100-120 pound rottweiler. They both barked aggressively, but the rottweiler seemed to be trained not to leave the yard.  The other dog would come out but has never really attacked me, just barked aggressively.  I slowed down as I neared and sweet-talked to the pit bull mix as she came near.  She would calm down some but I never quite gained the confidence to actually go down to a squatting position and call her over.  When I snapped the picture she was barking rather constantly but as you can see I captured her during a sweet micro-moment.  A moment later, her owner called her and she disappeared to the back of the house.  Maybe next time I will befriend her.



The return ride home went smoothly and I was home just in time to prepare dinner. No, the bottle of wine wasn't for dinner but for my friend John who looked after our dog Lupe while we were gone.  Looks like a good wine and I probably should have bought a bottle for ourselves.

A picture not taken:  On the bike trail at one point, I saw a great blue heron perched in a tree and then fly off.  I watched it grow smaller in the sky as the trail approached the crossing of a small creek.  Off to the left, in the creek bed, I saw movement; it was a great blue flying low between the banks and underneath a thick canopy of trees.  A moment later, another heron emerged from the low bridge I was crossing, following the other.  Very cool watching the second bird emerge and glimpsing an aerial view of its wingspan. 


Today's Ride: 2hrs. 35mins.  28.05 miles.  46-57 degrees.  Miles YTD: 1,584.87

3.27.2011 Ride: The Journeys We Take

Due to the chance of rain, I took the mountain bike which works fine but makes my butt sore after an hour of riding on it.  And, looking ahead to the road trip in mid-April, I took along both rear pannier bags. I headed for the bike trail again, feeling like I wanted interaction, even if it were of the quick "hello" variety while passing another bicyclist or walker.  Though, I thought I was going to be hard pressed to see anyone given that the temperature was in the mid 30s and it looked as if it might rain at any minute. I came across a bicyclist right off and tried to catch up with him to take his picture.  But, my cargo-laden mountain bike was no match for his trim road bike and he quickly pulled away from me.
It certainly was a melancholy day.  Downtown was even quieter than yesterday but there were more people on the trail than I expected.

Bike Garage

I was on the weary side today and I'm sure the weather contributed to that.  It's days like these where it seems to take forever to get ready and, where I don't think twice when it does rain but know that I just need to push on, that I think about the comment from my friend Will in San Francisco. He asked if I had thought about the fact that my father, a Holocaust survivor, to escape his imprisonment in Siberia, walked 31 days through the wilderness to Yakutk and my own "journey" to ride every day.  I have indeed thought about this comparison and I especially thought about it when I took my solo 925 miles ride from Arkansas to Georgia back in 2009. 
I still don't really know the answer.  It is a fascinating question why we take the journeys we do.  I was reading in a magazine yesterday about a woman named Savage who felt compelled to cross first the Atlantic, then the Pacific and is now crossing the Indian Ocean, solo.  Would I feel compelled to bike as much as I do if my father did not do his walk?  Certainly doesn't seem as cut and dry as that. 

I know I am driven to ride every day not only to be able to say that I have ridden every day of 2011 but also because I never know where this journey will take me.  Almost every time I ride, thanks in large part to taking pictures for the blog, there is something new; the ride is definitely much more than pedaling at least 60 minutes every day and then being done with it.  So, even if my father's walk has somehow compelled me to take this journey, then it is certainly a wondrous gift that he has passed on.

These red cups were actually a welcome litter sight.  On such a dreary day, they added a bit of festiveness. This pick-up was a 2 for 1 as I didn't realize at first that there were two cups stacked together.  I picked up a third red cup just down the trail from these.







Today's Ride:  72mins.  11 miles.  36 degrees.  Light rain for 10 minutes.  Miles YTD:  1,556.82

3.26.2011 Ride: Wearing Purple for Epilepsy Awareness Day

Debby Winters asked on facebook today to wear purple for Epilepsy Awareness Day.  I didn't have anything purple I could wear while biking, especially on this wet and chilly day but I did make this sign which I pinned to my CamelBak.

I thought I would make the theme of the day purple.  Fortunately, this being spring, there were plenty of purple flowers.  But, I knew trying to find litter that was purple would be a challenge.

I decided to start on the bike trail, though, I realized that given the 40 degree temperature, there wouldn't be much activity.

So, once I hit the Steele Creek Rd area, I went on the surface roads and made my way to Gregg St. where I gave plenty of cars a chance to see my sign.

The trash was indeed a problem.  Purple is perhaps my favorite color but certainly not the color of choice for marketing.

Ah!  What's this? That looks purple.  In the photo it looks as if it might be some mangled piece of bloody flesh but it's actually a Sam's flyer.  And, the only reason it's purple is that the blue and red colors ran to form purple.  I'm good with that.

I stayed on Gregg till Sycamore and then headed over to Leverett. Still not happy with my sign exposure and my one piece of purple litter, I decided to head over to Dickson, downtown Fayetteville, where, surely, there would be more activity.  Maybe I could even find a person wearing purple.  To my dismay, downtown was very quiet (and still no more purple trash). 

I circled around the block to Highroller Bicyclery and they didn't let me down giving me two photo ops. I spied this purple bike through the window.

And, coming out of the store, there was Curious George riding his bike with a bit of purple on his wheels.

It was time to head back and any more sign exposure would have to be done on the trail.

I came across Pam, whom I work with at Community Meals.  She may not be wearing purple, but I knew she walked the trail a lot and I've been waiting to cross paths so that I could take her picture. But, as I think about it, I met her at Community Meals at St. Paul's, which is an Episcopalian church.  As I recall, purple is a color used within the church.  So, there you have the purple connection with Pam.

And, finally, the litterers and the admen did not let me down.  I came across this bag just after talking with Pam.








Today's Purple Ride:  1hr 22mins.  14 miles.  41 degrees. Misty,  Miles YTD: 1,545.82

3.25.2011 Ride: Tea for Two

A lower layer of fast moving clouds against the backdrop of the more stationary upper layer of clouds made for a very interesting canvas on my early morning walk.

I like the subtle pastels and sense of calm in contrast the very dark shroud in the upper right.

What I find fascinating about these images is that they were taken within a 1 -2 minute span of time in different parts of the sky. 

As I was preparing to get ready to do the ride this morning, Rachel asked if I wanted to do something together.  I asked her if she would like to ride together.  She paused, thinking about it.  I said we could ride on the bike trail to that tea room restaurant, have something to eat and head back.  She was game.

We drove to the Botanical Gardens, which would make for about a 20 mile round trip.








Rachel spied this graffiti inside the tunnel of the trail that passes beneath the Interstate.  She thought it was a rather ironic thing to spray paint on the wall.









We didn't have tea but we did have a very nice late lunch at The Trail Side Cafe.  I meant to get a picture of Rachel standing in front, but Carol called that she was about to get on a flight, which meant we had to hoof it back so that I could go pick her up.  Thus, I completely forgot about the picture.

But still, we made a point of stopping for the one piece of litter pick up.

We debated whether this cup counted as one or three pieces since it also had a straw and a lid.  For good measure, I also picked up a Bic lighter.

Hanging loose in the tunnel.

Back at the Botanical Gardens after a very enjoyable outing together.

Today's Ride: 2hrs. 11mins.  21.34 miles.  57 degrees.  Miles YTD: 1,531.82

3.24.2011 Ride: Many Thanks and Acknowledgements

Sunrise. 7th floor garden area. Sol's condo.

Back home.  And, does it ever feel good to be here. The last 6 days are a blur.  There were definitely high points but the whole pace was way too frenetic.


This will be a short posting today as Rachel and I are eager to plop down in front of the TV and watch some I Love Lucy.  Carol stayed behind to help get Frnaces' finances in order among other things. Hopefully, she will be back tomorrow.

Preston, Amber & Aaron

Flying stand-by can be risky business.  Our flight today had lots of availability, so we looked to be in good shape.  However, when we arrived at the airport, the flight was delayed a half-hour.  Not a big deal, but I didn't have a good feeling.  Though, it gave me an opportunity to meet Preston who was sitting two seats down from me in the gate area.  I asked him what was the large group he was with and they turned out to be the debate team from the University of Louisville.  They were returning from a national tournament up in Binghamton, NY.  His team finished an impressive 3rd.  And, more impressively, Amber won first place in the novice division.  I really enjoyed meeting them and I talked in length with Preston.
Our departure kept getting dragged out but eventually we did leave at 1:15, 2 1/4 hours past our original scheduled time. Well, at least I would still get back in time to ride in daylight.

A beautiful day when we arrived in Fayetteville. Getting back on Southern Comfort was definitely nice but I was tired.  I was looking to take a picture that reflected how much I was glad to be home.  When we left, our daffodils were budding.  Now home, they were in full bloom.  What is especially nice about these bulbs is that they came from Carol's mom and, if I'm not mistaken, they may have even started with Carol's grandmother.

One of the things that I like where we live is that most of the yards, old pastures, are left in there natural state. Thus, even though the lawns are cut, an array of various low growing flowers bloom throughout the season.  Right now, one of my favorites are these purplish clusters that spread through the fields.  They seem to suggest a secret world among the grasses.





I have a lot of thanks to give out.
Thanks to Gus, Walter's neighbor, for letting me use his bike.
Thank you again, Walter, for schlepping the bike in your car down to Inman when you were feeling terrible.
Thanks to Jim & Teresa, Frances' neighbor across the street who do a great job of looking in on Frances and for letting me use Jim's bike.

A big thanks to Sol & Jim for the use of their condo.  That was great.

A big thank you to Joanna Brotman for her pledge. That is VERY much appreciated.

And, while I am at it, a special thanks to Carol for all she does and makes possible.  And, to David and Rachel for being such great kids.

Today's Ride: 63mins.  11.03 miles.  55 degrees.  Miles YTD:  1,510.48