North Florida Tour Pictures.....

 

Rozmo told me to throw something into the water to trick these geese (ducks?) into coming over to where I was. It didn't take them long to discover my chicanery, and they turned around and left. I think they were insulted that I threw a leaf into the water.  

 Rozmo bundled up at the Rose Garden in Thomasville, Georgia.

I felt obligated to take pictures of..... roses..... at the Rose Garden in the City of Roses. Besides, the more pictures I took, the longer I could delay getting back on the bike.

Our trusty tandem resting at the gazebo in the Rose Garden.

The view from our RV camping spot at the 4-H camp. I would love to go back there in warm weather. They had a high dive into the lake and a wonderful swimming area.

I love how it's hard to tell where the real trees end and the reflections begin. Doesn't this look warm? It wasn't.

I never get tired of seeing Spanish moss. I know it's just a fungus or something, but I think it looks beautiful hanging from the trees.

The sun coming up over the lake, shining through the tree branches and the Spanish moss.

Florida has more springs than any other region in the world. I know of at least three different ones named Blue Springs. They're all blue. Duh.

The water was so clear it was hard to get a good picture of it. At this part of the park, there were steps that led directly down into the water. I didn't test the temperature. I was afraid it might be warm and I would jump in. If it had been, I would still be there.

The reflection makes it hard to see just how beautiful the water really was.

Katydid and Rozmo taking pictures of the trees and the interesting root systems. I know it appears that Rozmo is peering into that trash can, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't.

Our home for the weekend. The propane furnace in the RV works GREAT, and for that I am truly, truly grateful.

This was the only other RV at the bike ride this weekend. This one made me feel like we have the "poor people" version of an RV. I wanted him to leave first today so I could see how he negotiated the sharp turn out of the gate, but Rozmo and Katydid guided me through. I didn't even have to back up.

Rozmo's bike and her "Life is Good" flag. There's a reason the flower has a dot in the middle of it. It has to do with our team name, Team Chi-Chis. She's going to write each team member's name in a petal.

The Tandemonium, loaded up and ready to head home. This will probably be our last organized ride until the spring.

This precious dog showed up at camp right before we got ready to leave. She had the most gorgeous fur. She had a similar color pattern to beagles, but her hair was long. She was so sweet, and she chased the ball. Then when I turned to go back to the RV, she jumped up and put her paws on my back. "I'm not finished here!" she seemed to say.

North Florida Tour Day 2.......

I would love to tell you that today was much better than yesterday as far as cycling goes.

I would love to, but I can't.

However, I'm also not going to go on and on whining about how MIS. ER. A. BLE. I was. ALL. DAY. LONG.

I'm just going to whine a little bit.

It was 36 degrees when we got up this morning. "It won't be so bad," I thought, "as long as the wind doesn't blow."

It did blow.

I guesstimated that yesterday's winds were around 15 mph. Today's had to be 20 mph. We did a loop ride, and I swear with my hand up that the winds were ALWAYS in our faces.

We left around 10:00. We made up our own route for the first part because the SHORT option for today was 68 miles. There was also the option of doing a century.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I would have been happy (well not HAPPY, but you know what I mean) to do around 30 miles, but I didn't want to seem like a wimp, so I said a 50-mile route would be fine with me.

We set out down Florida highway 53 to Madison, and it was an awesome route. I can't say for sure if there was a lot of traffic on that road, because there was so much pavement OUTSIDE the white line that it felt like we had our own bike lane. We stopped in Madison at a convenience store that is hands-down the neatest store I've ever been in. They had a "bee" theme for the whole store. There was a warning in the restroom that employees who didn't wash their hands would be "stung and _______" (I can't remember the second word). They had a separate little room that was the beer cooler, called the "beer hive." The lady behind the counter was super nice and even took a picture of the three of us.

We had packed sack lunches before we left this morning, and the ride organizer, Margaret, brought them to Blue Springs to a state park where there are springs and the water is ...... you guessed it, blue. I will try to post pictures in the next day or so, when I'm not dependent upon a cantankerous internet connect card. (My new definition of "roughing it": not having wifi.) We stayed at the lunch stop for over an hour because I simply could not face getting back on that bike.

The last town we went through was Pinetta, Florida, where all the street names start with "P": Petunia, Pennyroyal, Primrose, Poplar.

I try my best to remain upbeat and remind myself that no one held a gun to my head and MADE me go ride a bike in this weather, but sometimes my sour attitude wins the battle. It got so bad today that I started yelling at dogs. To the German Shepherd-looking dog that barked from his pen in his backyard, I yelled, "SHUT UP!" When a boxer-looking dog barked and charged at us from his yard, I pointed my finger at him and shouted, "YOU DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH ME TODAY!" Later when Rozmo was riding alongside us (that didn't happen a lot today), another dog barked from the confines of a fence, and once again I yelled, "SHUT UP!" Unfortunately Rozmo neither heard nor saw the dog, and when I yelled it almost startled her off her bike.

Just as all good things must end, even the miserable ones drag themselves to a merciful death eventually. We limped back into camp around 4:20. Our total mileage for the day was 59 miles and change, and when Rozmo asked if we wanted to ride a loop around the lake to get 60, I almost took her head off. That loop around the lake was actually about 4 miles, and I'm not sure I would have survived it.

Dinner was wonderful, and the wine and music are still going at the pavilion next door to the RV. Katydid left first, then I sneaked away from the dancing, and Rozmo is still going strong. I have a sneaky suspicion the wine has a lot to do with it.

I won't say I will NEVER do this ride again, because we tend to have short memories when it comes to cycling. We always THINK we had a good time. And it has been a good time with Rozmo and Katydid, and laughing with the other folks on the ride. But I don't think I will pre-register for this ride in the future. I will wait until the Monday before it and see what the weather forecast says.

If it's going to be 80 degrees with no wind in North Florida the first weekend in November, count me there. Otherwise you will find me home with Hubby and Gus, watching football and eating nachos.

45 + 15 + 64 = 1...........

45 degrees + 15 mph winds + 64 miles = 1 miserable day on a bicycle

If we hadn't already pre-registered for this ride, I swear I wouldn't have come.

I had on way more clothes than I like to bike in, and it wasn't quite enough. I wore tights, snow ski socks, my enclosed cycling shoes that look like kayaks on my feet, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a cycling jersey, a jacket, ear warmers, a neck warmer, and two pairs of gloves.

By the end of the day I was able to shed one pair of gloves, the neck warmer, and the ear warmers.

The wind NEVER relented, and it was ALWAYS a head wind. Today's route was different from most that we have done. We usually do a loop ride, but this time it was from one town in South Georgia to another town, then back by the same route.

It may have been a blessing in disguise that the computer on the front of the tandem wasn't working. (The GPS is on the back so Katydid can keep up with our mileage too.) I had no idea how far we had gone, and I told Katydid not to tell me. Of course when we got to the turn-around point and had lunch, I knew we had 32 miles to go back. I also knew when we got to Boston (who knew there was a Boston, Georgia?) that we had 18 miles left. After leaving there and riding for a while, I had convinced myself that the church should be right around the next corner when Katydid slipped up and said, "I don't think my feet can stand another 6 miles."

I almost burst into tears.

On a positive note (because I insist there must be one somewhere), the route was very rural and we didn't have to contend with traffic much at all. 

But it was cold. And windy. And long.

I would love to post pictures, but my connect card internet keeps kicking me off. I'm too tired to fight with it.

If you'll excuse me now, I'm going to suck my thumb.

Surprise, Surprise.....

I love surprises!

After a HELLACIOUS day (why do those ALWAYS come when you're trying to dash out early so you can leave town for a long weekend? Payback?), I just barely had time to change clothes and pack the few remaining belongings that I had not already put in the RV for our weekend bicycling trip. Seriously, I don't think a single article of clothing is left in my house. We brought it all with us.

Hubby? I think we're going to need a bigger RV.

There was a package on the table, though, and it was addressed to me, and I couldn't go away for the weekend leaving an unopened package on the table.

I hadn't ordered anything. Not this week anyway.

It's too early for my Gym Dogs t-shirt to be here.

I haven't left anything behind at a hotel lately, so it couldn't be something someone returned.

It was even better than any of that.

It was a completely, totally, 100%, bonafide, genuine SURPRISE!

My blogging pal Maggie sent me a beautiful yellow cap that she knitted herself. Amazingly enough, she had to have mailed this BEFORE I whined and whined about how cold it was going to be this weekend.

As you can see, she also sent me an eyemask. How could she have known that we have parked the RV in a church parking lot (more on that later) DIRECTLY UNDER A SECURITY LIGHT?

I think it's a special kind of bloggers' telepathy.

The ride this weekend is in North Florida. But Friday's ride has a remote start back across the Georgia border, so we were going to have to arrive at the campground in the dark tonight, park the RV, get up tomorrow morning, drive north to a church in Georgia, ride our bikes approximately 50 miles, then go BACK to the campground. Not much of a problem for people who have regular vehicles.

RV people? Not so easy.

We decided to cut out the middle man and just "camp" at the church tonight. We'll be here in the morning when the other riders arrive, then we'll get to the campground in the daylight tomorrow afternoon. We'll miss breakfast tomorrow morning at the campground, but it would take DAYS to eat everything Rozmo brought. We will not go hungry.

(Uh......God? Sorry about stealing your electricity. I would leave something in the offering plate if you didn't have to lock your doors these days. And I can explain about the bloody marys in your parking lot. Really I can.)

No matter what the weather does this weekend, my head will most certainly not be cold thanks to my blogging pal Maggie.

I love surprises!

Now if the weather can surprise us and jump up there in the 70's tomorrow, it will be just fine with me. I'll get plenty of wear out of my new Maggie-made hat this winter.

Stupid Weather.....

After such beautiful weather last weekend, it has been rainy and COLD here for the past two days. The high is supposed to be higher than the 50's in the South.

To make it worse, Rozmo, Katydid and I are headed out for another 3-day bicycling event tomorrow afternoon. We are headed to Florida, but the cold weather is supposed to FOLLOW US there.

Crap.

I have some cold-weather cycling gear, but not a lot because I generally avoid cold-weather cycling. Period. I have a huge duffel bag packed with stuff for this weekend, and I just keep cramming more stuff in it. The lows are supposed to be in the 30's and the highs MIGHT reach the 60's. Sixty sounds warm, but considering it doesn't get there until we are usually finished riding for the day, we might have a couple of miserable mornings. We won't freeze, since we aren't tent camping (who DOES that in November?), and the RV has a very nice furnace. But there are only so many articles of clothing one can put on to ride a bicycle. I was so worried about packing warm clothes that I nearly forgot to pack my cycling shoes. And underwear.

We haven't done this ride before, but not many people signed up for it. Around 35, I think. More may show up and register on-site, but considering the weather I doubt it. I won't be surprised if a few people just don't show up at all and say screw the $130 fee. If it's as cold as they say it's going to be, I'm sure there will be moments when I would pay ANOTHER $130 just to go home.

There is a ride over in Charleston that I've done twice, and I'd like to do it again someday. One year it was very chilly and rainy, and the rest stops on this particular route compete for the best theme, the best food, the best atmosphere. My hands-down favorite food at a rest stop that year was chicken noodle soup.

Chicken. Noodle. Soup. At a rest stop. On a bicycle ride.

I thought I had died and gone straight to heaven.

That warm soup, the salty taste, the friendly church folks serving it..... It doesn't get much better than that. I'll have to harbor thoughts of that soup when we're riding this weekend.

I wouldn't mind the weather so much if we could just count on it being one thing or the other for more than three or four days. Hubby has a fire going in the wood stove tonight, and I am absolutely positive that we will have to run the air conditioner at least once more.

And for that I won't complain a bit.

Keep working on the list of the 50 new things I need to do next year. I have LOVED some of your suggestions so far. You guys are the bestest!

I Need Your Help......

I am a list-maker, planner, goal-setter extraordinaire. I don't claim to check off all the items on the list, meet all the goals, or keep the plans intact from beginning to end, but I like to start with a list/plan/goal at the very least.

Case in point: I set a cycling goal for the year back in January. I neglected to get serious about it, however, until October. Now I'm killing myself (not literally, of course, but you get the idea) to meet the goal. And it's still doable, but I'm going to have to change my attitude about cold-weather cycling.

Or maybe just edit my goal. Now there's an idea.

But here is what this particular drivel blog post is really about:

Next year I will be 50 years old, and while I would like not to dwell on that insidious number at all, I have decided that I would like to try 50 NEW things next year to celebrate my 50 years on this earth.

I would like some help from you picking out those 50 things. It doesn't matter if you are one of the faithful ones who read my blog every day (thank you, thank you, thank you), if you read it only occasionally (what's up with THAT? I'm not important to you?), or if this is your first visit here ever (please don't be too afraid to come back).

I don't have any rules, and this isn't any contest, because unlike SOME PEOPLE, I don't have sponsors who send me a gazillion dollars every month to bribe my readers reward my readers for coming back time and time again.

The 50 things do, however, need to be reasonable.

The first one of you who says "cook a meal" or "clean your house" will be sent immediately to time out. You will be joined there shortly by Hubby, who will say the exact same thing(s) when I tell him of my 50-year thing. (Is it a goal? Project? Proof of insanity?)

This isn't exactly a bucket list, mainly because that one's already been beat to death.

The 50 things don't have to be adventurous, death-defying acts. I have, after all, already jumped out of an airplane 66 times and lived to tell about it. To whoever just whispered, "You might try jumping WITHOUT a parachute," I HEARD THAT, and it hurts my feelings.

It would be okay to put bungee-jumping on the list, because it's something I've always wanted to do, but to be perfectly honest I may have lost my nerve.

It has to be something I have some control over, so it would be a waste to put "win the lottery" as one of the 50 things. If I do win the lottery, I expect to double the list. At least.

It can't be something I would have to quit my job to do, like hike the Appalachian Trail or ride all the way across the country on my bicycle, completely self-supported and all alone. Although I wouldn't mind giving either of those a try, I cannot retire until the following year. Perhaps hiking PART of the Appalachian Trail would be okay, since it ends (begins?) in Georgia.

It can't be something that I can't control, like getting a book published. Although that has been a dream of mine since I was 12 years old (and I hope my writing has improved somewhat in that time), just because my sisters and I think it's a fabulous book doesn't mean anyone else will. You might say I should at least FINISH the book, and that would be reasonable. I don't want the list to become homework, though.

I want the list to be things I haven't done before, so it can't be something like crochet an afghan. Not even using a pattern I've never used before. I rarely use the same pattern twice, so that's cheating. It might be reasonable to say "knit an afghan," because I've never tried knitting.

It can't be something completely ridiculous like "wear a Florida Gators t-shirt," because plain and simple, that ain't gonna happen.

The list can't have anything to do with body piercings or tattoos.

It could mention shaving my legs, but let's not waste one of the 50 precious things on such mundane things. 

It needs to be something I haven't done before, so killing off an imaginary friend is out. Been there, done that.

Ditto skinny dipping. With a huge man wearing a life jacket. Please just shoot me now.

For reasons obvious to anyone who has read this blog, the list should NOT include anything to do with knocking out a wall in our house. We are running out of walls, and frankly I don't know that my marriage could survive another renovation project.

I would prefer that items on the list not turn into lifetime commitments, like getting another cat. Or a gerbil. Or a ferret. Or a snake. Or any other animal.

Ditto adopting a baby.

It is fine to suggest exotic travel destinations, but keep in mind the fact that I don't have an unlimited budget, and it is difficult to get Hubby out of his comfort zone (read: recliner) for more than two nights at a time. I am also limited to travel that can be accomplished within the constraints of the school year calendar and not interfere with bike rides, trips to the casino, gymnastics competitions, football games, baseball games, and Sisters' Saturdays.

Don't bother suggesting expensive things like "buy a Rolls-Royce." I don't do cars anyway, and unless you can guarantee that I WILL win the lottery, I can't accomplish that on my own. 

So I need your help. What would you suggest for one of the 50 new things I should do/accomplish next year? Please please please please leave me a comment with a suggestion (or two or three or ten or fifty). I will post the list in a future blog and not make you read through all the comments. Don't worry that someone else might have already suggested it; just throw it out there. Don't worry if it's something I've already done. I have an excellent editor who will simply leave it off the list and send you a rejection slip explain the circumstances under which I have already done that particular thing.

I can't wait to see what you come up with. Now get busy!

Status Update.....

Lest all three of you think I've given up on my quest to lose weight and become more physically fit, I thought I would update you on the situation.

As of this morning, I have lost 15 pounds. That seems like a depressingly small number when I think back to the time when I first joined Weight Watchers. I lost almost 15 pounds in the first two weeks alone.

Then I remember that when I first joined Weight Watchers, I was just 32 years old instead of pushing 50.

I have stuck to my eating plan for the most part, but I have stopped logging in to the WW website (and paying them money every month for the privilege of entering the weight that I see on MY SCALE every Monday). I don't eat chocolate after lunch every day, and I don't miss it. Much.

I very rarely drink beer anymore, and I don't miss it. Much.

I'm trying to remind myself that losing weight is best done slowly, because the likelihood is greater that the weight will actually STAY off. I'm also trying to celebrate the small successes.

Today I wore these slacks to school.

They are very casual slacks, sort of like carpenter's pants with the pockets on the side. But they most assuredly CANNOT BE carpenter's pants because they are made by Ralph Lauren. They have little gold studs or brads on them, and they SNAP instead of button.

They snap.

That's why I haven't worn them in two years. I couldn't snap them. The last time I forced myself to wear these pants, I could just barely snap them, and I spent about sixteen hours out of my work day SNAPPING THEM OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I thought I had put these pants in the goodwill pile, because I fully intended to get rid of them. I didn't think I would ever be able to wear them again.

Today the only time I had to snap them was when I went to the bathroom.

TMI? Sorry.

I also wore this blouse today.

The make-up stain wasn't there when I wore it, though. I got that on there pulling it off over my head. Carefully, so as not to get make-up on it. It was also nicely ironed when I wore it, but apparently I curled up into a ball under my desk at some point during the day and got it all wrinkled.

The last time I wore this blouse my belly made it stick out and it looked like a maternity top. It didn't help matters that the fabric has a little stretch to it. Stretch it did.......alllllllllllllllllllll the way out there.

Today it actually hung like I think it was supposed to.

I'd like to lose 35 more pounds, but I'll settle for 25.

I've still got a long way to go. But any progress is good progress.

I may even find a whole new wardrobe in the back of my closet.