Another day of playing on the bike

View LQQKing up the frozen Mississippi River from Eagle Point Park


Down at River View Park, looking at the Dubuque to Wisconsin Bridge. This park will be full of campers and campfires all summer long.



Here is a 2 mile hill, bike path. Was fun going up and more fun going down. Still have the studded snow tires on, reluctant to take them off, seems an ice patch can show up out of no where. I got to go out and play on the bike all afternoon. Went through 4 parks in town and had them all to myself. Rode along the Mississippi River saw several Eagles. Well back to work tomorrow, but got bills to pay and my bikecoholism to support.

"We do not stop playing because we are old, we grow old because we stop playing" -- George Bernard Shaw

A Day On A Bike

Left at 9:30 this morning. After about 5 miles my finger tips were froze. Thought about turning around and going back home and putting on my lobster gloves to replace my full finger biking gloves. Instead I opened a pack of chemical warmers and slipped them inside my gloves. After a hour or so they warmed up, and I warmed up, chemical warmers were removed. I put them in a zip lock back, hoping they would be good again for tomorrow's start.


Riding was going ok, snow was froze enough most the time I could ride on top. There was a lot of hard ice, weaving in and out of ruts, trying stay in a good line, I was averaging about 8 mph. After 3 hours and 25 miles I thought I should turn around, to make it a 6 hour ride. WRONG!! The trail was now thawing, and sloppy, pedaling got considerably harder. I did something on a bike I have never done before. I was riding down the center of the trail and my tire was breaking through the crust and spinning and weaving all over. So I thought I would ride up on the edge of the trail, it was like a curb of snow and I turned into to side of the trail to hop up on the edge, and hopefully it would be a firmer ride. Well my front tire kicked out against the snow bank and the bike went one way, and I flew the other way. In those circumstances you get about a 1/4 of a second to think about what your going to break. The funny part of it was I never landed on my b(_!_)TT. I landed on my feet and slid and hopped across the ice and remained standing. I'd love to see a clip of that episode.

There are people across this creek, snow boarders and skiers at Sundown Ski resort. Finally made it home with 7 hours of riding time. A good work out the snow on the return trip was soft and slushy and whipped my butt, it was all mule work. Was a starv'n Marvin when I got home, went on a feeding frenzy. Now it's brewski time. :-) I think tomorrow I will ride the paved streets of Dubuque.

Thanks for stopping in.

Dave

Happy Birthday Melissa

My daughter Melissa was born 29 years ago today. Born a preemie, 10 weeks early. Isn't she a cutie? Not only that but smart, National Merit Scholar, full ride at Iowa State, a chemical engineer, a wonderful, wife, mother and daughter. Yahooo.


Here we are proud papa, and daughter.



I will have to get a bigger picture of this, this is Melissa and her lil Cole. And in her honor I took the day off biking. Well ummm actually I was really pooped. :-)
Thanks for stopping in.
Dave

Same-O Out riding around after work, till darkness. Had fun riding around on pavement on the north side of town. Same side I live on, as well as my parents, and my sister and the hospital I was born in a long long time ago.

I came to this fork in the road and thought of something Yogi Berra once said. "When you come to a fork in the road take it"

So I am going to "make" myself take a day of from riding tomorrow. The plan is to try to store up a little energy for some weekend journeys. Yahooo!!

A guy at work asked me today if I am going to put my bike away when the weather gets nice and "normal people" start riding. Ha ha, He knows better.

"that proves you are unusual, "returned the scarecrow, 'and I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones. For the common folks are like the leaves of a tree, and live and die unnoticed" Frank Baum (The Land of Oz)

Have fun, be different.
Dave

Day, Sunset, and Night.

Rode in town after work. Saw the sun set, go down, and darkness all in one ride. People at work ask me how can you do this, it seems crazy to me. I figure, if you don't know, I'll never be able to explain it to you.


Sun going down, it was wind chill 9 degrees F out. My finger tips got cold with Bar Mitts removed.

A good lighting system (magicshine) makes riding in dark, reasonably safe, and a lotta fun. This light has 900 lumen's for 3 hours. I also have two blinking red lights on my back side, helps to keep 2 ton metal boxes on wheels from riding over the top of me.
So happy rides to you, and a good night.
Dave

The weather, the gravel, and the girls.

I got the extended forecast for Iowa today. LQQKs like we are going to have weather, whether we like it or not. After the first few snow falls this season I was enjoying the new style of riding, the challenges, the staying warm tricks, among many other changes. BUT!!!! Enough is enough, now I want the "speed" back, the sweat, the shorts, socks, shoes, and jersey rides.


Went out and rode tonight till dark, I live on the north edge of town with offers roads, and gravel, trail, and rolling cemetaries. all close by. My legs were telling me they need more rest then I have been willing to give them, I just wanted to get out and pedal, as always. I pedaled up to ma and pa's for visit. My brother Mark and wife Sheri came up from Florida to live with ma and pa for a spell to help them out. So very sweet of them.

Oh LQQK, the girls (mother and daughter) are enjoying knitting and chocolates. I don't have the patience for knitting but do for chocolates.

Over and out, and thanks for stopping.

Dave

Just a Sunday ride

This is the Veteran's Memorial that was built last year along the river. Thank you all vets that I have freedom because of the sacrifices all you made.


A Bridge crossing over one of the Mississippi sloughs. Single file only here.



One of the Cemeteries in my neighborhood. I went riding all over today on my CX. Through 3 parks, along the River, rolling through cemeteries, I had fun. Came home and cooked chicken with rice and veggies.

These ice patches had the potential of ruining your day, or longer, did not want to slide out on one and break a few body parts. It would be the forced time off the bike time that would be the most painful. Still keeping the Nokian Studs on the bike.


These grave sights look like giant chess pieces. I rode by fast so they could not capture me.
Well glad you stopped by. Hope your day went well.
Dave

Oh Goodie more snow today

My bike froze itself into a single speed gear on today's ride. Rode for 5 hours didn't have the "zip" but none the less it was a good ride, would have liked to ride longer but the legs didn't have the gas, so I thought I better listen to them and not dig myself into an exhaustion hole. Forecast is for 12"s more of snow tomorrow. Seems it has been a long winter, well the good side of this is I kept my bik'n "legs" and got plenty of rides in this winter. Tomorrow a winter storm is supposed to start about noon. I'll have to get out early and ride tomorrow and see the storm come in while on a bike. :-)
Oh and check out my honey's Esty site and check out all the homemade things for sale she made.
And thanks for stopping in.

Dave

Bik'n Bar

Riding in the Grave Yard.

Riding around the grave yards in the neighborhood. It's a nice way to pedal, didn't run into one car, lots of curves and rolling hills. That was day 6 for riding in town. Tomorrow a "forced" day off, and then this weekend hope to ground and pound out in the country trails. Yahooooo.

Guess what I did tonight?

Nope, guess again. OK give up? I went bicycling. Didn't ride over one speck of ice out on the pavement. Could take the studs off, I suppose. That makes 5 days in a row. All the rides have been "short" 60-90 minutes with lots of all out effort on hills. Plans are to ride again tomorrow, then tell myself, to take Friday off, to store up some energy, remove some lactic acid, and do some longer riding this weekend. Pack up some food, drink, and ride out on snow mobile trails.
Last year at this time, riding time was zilch, nada, nothing. I had to work for 10 weeks, 10 plus hours a day, 7 days a week. Was installing modern control systems, and automating a large power plant boiler that was originally was built in the 1950s. Was fun and challenging, but it took biking time away, glad that doesn't happen often. I am convinced our play is more important then our work. I believe in working hard, and playing harder.

"Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you become the person you are meant to be" Dr. George Sheehan.

So don't forget to play, and enjoy.
Thanks for stopping in.
Dave

Setting Sun viewed from a bike.

View from a bike, setting sun. I have Eagle Point park all to myself again, as usual this time of year. Beautiful up here riding on Bluffs above the Mississippi River. 164 acres all to myself. I don't have to head home have a good lighting system on my bike. I still have the studs on my Treck XO2 CX bike, would like to put on some rubber tires and not make so much noise like the studs make on pavement but I do run into an occasional ice patch. There isn't going to be any significant thawing occurring in the 10 day forecast. That's OK as long as I can get outdoors and ride. Which I will. Really hope to do some serious bicycle riding out on the snowmobile trails this weekend.
Everybody at work is getting in "the biggest loser" contest, to see who can loose the most weight by Labor Day Weekend. 20 dollars apiece. I am in it, not to try to win, but would work out perfect for me, to lose some pounds. There is the Colesburg gravel race Labor Day weekend I would like to enter, and like any biker knows any weight loss really helps you power up hills. Besides this old carcass could stand to lose a few.
Thanks for stopping in, peace and happy and safe rides to you.
Dave

Riding into Dark

Enjoyed the ride todaynight. I have this 5 mile loop through 2 cemeteries, a private nuns home, and city streets, with rolling hills, did 5 loops. Was misting out. Didn't realize the mist was starting to freeze on the pavement. When I stopped to walk through the cemetery gate I was slipping and sliding. My bike studs, like always, hooked up well on the slippery streets. Stopped over at Ma-Pa's for a few minutes. Mom is feeling better, but pretty much chair ridden, with now a cracked vertebra. But always loves to chat, about you, and not her. A class act.
I need to have everything ready so I can rocket out the door after work. But the days are long enough now I can get an outdoor ride after work. :-) Now every day a little bit warmer, a little longer day.

Home sweet home. I see my son Joshua standing in the door way watching. So when he came out with super dog Pitty I snapped their picture, ha ha.

Riding about town.

Old cemetery blocks from my house. Saw graves from the 1880's Rode up and down the hills past 1000's of grave sights.

This view over the Mississippi river is 5 minutes from my house. It is where Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin meet.

Bicycle path down by the river

Lock and dam # 11 on the Mississippi River. Had thoughts of riding out on the ice, but though Brrrrr, if ice broke. Today was fun riding, again felt fast, on CX and pavement. Rode through Eagle point park, saw eagles on the river. Rode through old cemeteries and River view park. Rode up to my parents house and visited, rode downtown, rode on in town bike trails. Up and down hills, made the quads scream, and beg for mercy, the hurt felt good. Had lunch at my house with Daughter, son in law, and grandson. Now it's back to work for the week. Hope I can get outside and ride after work some of the days this week, daylight is limited yet.

Hope your weekend was fun, if it wasn't, sorry, and try to change that. :-)

Dave

Old eyes, and young eyes.

My eyes and grandson Cole's eyes. Cole came to visit this weekend and even brought his parents with him. Wasn't that nice? I wonder about all the things he will see with those eyes and hope this generation will do better with what they see, then mine and previous generations did. Did two separate rides today, between schedules, both on pavement. Felt good, felt fast, even though I still have the winter studs on the Cycle cross, hit some high numbers on the heart rate. Didn't need the studded snow tires for 95% of the ride, but it was those 5% of glare ice that I felt a lot better with the studly fellows. Riding rollers in the basement all week so this was refreshing. Tomorrow thinking about ground and pound, or in other wards, the snowy trails.



That is Wiscosin over the tops of the pine trees, there is the Mississippi river between me and the cheesers. :-)

Lots of hills in my area. I like em. Good work out climbing them and fun flying down them.

Thanks for stopping in, hope you had some fun today too.

"THE RACE" or Walter Mitty wake up.

...I didn't want to let up. I had put to much into this. I could see the leaders at every long straight away then they would disappear around the corner. I was slowly gaining, shortening the gap. There was three of them. There was around 140 behind me, I paid the price to be here. The pace was harder, my heart rate higher, the pain more intense, then anything I have ever done. I was determined to catch them. This was going to be a showdown, this is Leadville 100. Lance this is my race, not yours, I earned it. Get out of my way.

The next thing I hear is "dad are you going to cook anything for supper, or tell me where you hid the George Foreman grill at." I was on my bike rollers, 40 minutes into a planned 45 minute, high heart rate run.

So I say, "Caleb I got 5 minutes left, hold on, and wait, the GF grill is to hard to clean, I'll cook burgers."

Tomorrow the "tour" and I can win it.

Up north visiting with the Cole Man

St Paul's future mayor Mr Cole.

Doing the 9:00 to 5:00 in the saddle

Rode into the small farming town of Farley Iowa. Men in spandex pants, Neon bright jackets and funny shoes are peculiar to those folks.

Ice sickles and bicycles.

My bike was playing hide and go seek with me.

Pedaling on the snow.

Somewhere out there.

Rear View
Rode from 9:00 in the morning to 5:00 p.m. Feel zonked now, but is a good feeling. Probably averaged only 8 mph, snow and ice sliding around. I followed a set bike tracks for 20 miles on a snow mobile trail. Wanted to see who it was. Who ever it was was hauling butt, with only about a 38 CC tire. Could see many places where tires were sliding out. Never did see the owner of those tracks.
Was 33 degrees F the entire trip. Started out cold, got warm, then chilled again towards the end.
Rides like this really burn up the energy, makes eating even more fun afterwards. My plan was to trash my legs today, with no riding the next two days being I will be up in St Paul chill'n with the baby grandson Sir Cole and family.
Well thanks for stopping in, hope you had fun today too.
Dave