79th outdoor ride of 2021

2021 mileage: 3266.3

This morning I went out to ride early (though not as early as I like), but first was met with a challenge. Monday, my mirror fell off the trike; yesterday I went to Wheels in Motion and bought a new one. When I went out at 7:30 this morning, I planned to attach it first, before riding.

However, upon opening the box (which appeared to have been already opened), I was dismayed to find the (severely wrinkled) instructions wrapped around the mounting hardware ... but no mirror! In desperation, I reexamined the old mirror (which I still had), and found a way to attach it. So I was able to ride today, but some of today's agenda will include a return trip to Wheels in Motion.

I rode the Platt/Packard Square (13.7 miles) in 1:35, beginning at 7:50 in 82° conditions. A light rain was falling during most of the rain ... nothing bothersome, but kind of refreshing actually. It put me in mind of the song A Little Fall of Rain from the musical Les Miz:

Don't you fret, M'sieur Marius

I don't feel any pain

A little fall of rain

Can hardly hurt me now

You're here, that's all I need to know

And you will keep me safe

And you will keep me close

And rain will make the flowers grow

But you will live, 'Ponine - dear God above

If I could close your wounds with words of love

Just hold me now, and let it be

Shelter me, comfort me

So don't you fret, M'sieur Marius

I don't feel any pain

A little fall of rain

Can hardly hurt me now

I'm here

That's all I need to know

And you will keep me safe (And I will stay with you)

('TIl you are sleeping) And you will keep me close

And rain (And rain)

Will make the flowers

Will make the flowers grow

Les Miz - A Little Fall of Rain

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78th outdoor ride of 2021 - Monday, June 28, 2021

2021 mileage: 3252.6

It was a great joy to be able to ride my own (recumbent) trike again today. Saturday we were traveling home, and I did not ride; yesterday I also took off, as I had to travel the hour to my brother's house to pick up my bike lock which he had driven home from Florida.

When I set off today, at 1:30, it was 84° and sunny, but much less humid than it was in Florida. It was a warm ride, but not disturbing, and I did the Packard/Platt Square (13.6 miles) in 1:37.

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77th outdoor ride of 2021 - Friday, June 25, 2021

2021 mileage: 3239.0

Coastal Wheels came again last evening and fixed the problem with the seat, so I launched off hopefully at 5:45 this morning (in 75° conditions), intending to ride 10 miles. But the excessive humidity combined with the difficulty of perching on a regular bike seat (as opposed to my recumbent 'recliner' style) and a blister developing on my foot due to my Crocs all combined to induce me to settle for a shorter ride.

I began by turning left (west) on Santa Rosa Blvd. (the 'main drag' here on Okaloosa Island), pleased to see once again today virtually no traffic at that hour, so that it was comfortable and safe to ride in the bike lane. I rode down to Eglin Air Force Base, and then, wheeling about to head east, went back past our condo and down to Highway 98, before turning and going back down to Eglin again and then returning 'home.' This gave me a ride of 5.7 miles in 44 minutes, which, as I say, was shorter than I had intended to do (and really paltry in light of my 20- or 30-mile rides at home) -- but in light of everything, including the equipment problems I've endured this week, it felt significant.

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76th outdoor ride of 2021 - Thursday, June 24, 2021

2021 mileage: 3233.3

This new day brought a new problem. I began at 5:30 in 80° air already thick with humidity. The visit by Coastal Wheels last evening brought substantial improvement to the steering (even though it was not perfect—I still drifted off the sidewalk and into a pole once).

HOWEVER. About half a mile into the ride, the seat emitted a loud, groaning metallic SCREECH, and canted backwards to come to rest at this charming angle.

Having no tools with me, I could do nothing, and so after a couple of minutes spent fruitlessly trying to see if I could adapt somehow, I turned around and made my way slowly back, being unable to ride comfortably (of course) or safely. This left me with a paltry ride of 1.4 miles in 17 minutes.

I tell myself, all I can do is keep trying my best—results are certainly not guaranteed.

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75th outdoor ride of 2021 - Wednesday, June 23, 2021

2021 mileage: 3231.9

Today, my first ride in Florida, presented a challenge. My rental trike, from Coastal Wheels, was delivered last evening ... and it has several issues. (1) The steering is very "loose" and wobbly. (2) The trike leans notably to the left. (3) The steering, in addition to the problematic wobbliness mentioned above, also pulls consistently to the left.

Learning by experience, I was able largely to overcome issues 2 and 3 by leaning off to the right, and steering consistently to the right of where I wanted to go (much as one allows for break in a putt while golfing). Issue 1 was more difficult to address, and in the early going it caused me to bump into several objects such as poles -- but this was not a big deal, as I kept my speed very low. (At home I try to adhere [usually successfully] to a minimum average speed of 8 mph. This morning my average for the whole ride was about 5 mph, and under 4 for much of the first mile, while I learned what I was doing.)

Sunrise here today was at 5:45, and I began my ride at 5:35. I took this picture (looking north) from just outside the elevator on our 7th floor, before I headed down to get the trike.

I rode a total of 4.1 miles in about 50 minutes. First I went west as far as the perimeter of Eglin Air Force Base, but it was blocked off with a sign prohibiting further advance. 

So then I turned around and headed back, but I had failed to take sufficient care in noting my starting environment, and overshot it. This problem was solved by stopping, looking it up on my phone, and relying on Google Maps.

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Sunday, June 20, 2021 - Father's Day

2021 mileage: 3227.8

In advance of our departure tomorrow for a few days' vacation, I had hoped to ride both today and tomorrow. But schedule has forced me to change my plans.

Today, Michelle and I are making the drive of just over an hour to the house of her brother and family for the birthday celebration of our nephew Grant, who just turned 15 on Friday. That, coupled with last minute preparations for our trip, and packing, rules today out.

This picture shows Grant, with his Dad (Michelle's brother, Chip), and Michelle just after Grant's ninth birthday, in the summer of 2015.

Tomorrow, a 9:30 flight and the need to get to the airport very early due to TSA backups in getting through security, means that we'll be leaving home before 7:00 a.m. But I'm OK with the brief hiatus in riding. We're going to Florida, and I'm renting a trike (upright, not recumbent) through Coastal Wheels. It is being delivered early Tuesday, so I plan to do a ride that day as well as each of the next few days, before our return to Michigan next Saturday.

74th outdoor ride of 2021 - Saturday, June 19, 2021

2021 mileage: 3227.8

I didn't ride yesterday, having had a trying day. Since I rode my bike lock down to my brother's on Thursday for him to drive it to Florida for our trip next week, I didn't feel I should ride when Michelle was not home, in case I had problems somewhere. I'd hate to leave an expensive trike sitting unlocked somewhere.

So, I was going to wait for her to get home from her last school day of the year, and then ride later in the day. While she was gone, I took Uber to the Saline Great Clips, to get my hair cut in preparation for the trip. It went fine ... until I was done and ready to come home, and contacted Uber for my ride home, only to receive a message: "Sorry, Uber is currently unavailable in your area."

Not to be deterred, I figured I could get a taxi. But in this day, they seem to have passed largely into history. As contacting Michelle was not an option, and I was out of other options, I began walking toward home, going through a neighborhood I ride sometimes in order to be able to stay on sidewalks. I was wearing Crocs, a type of sandal that is certainly not designed for distance walking. I kept checking Uber, but kept receiving the same message, until I had walked 2 miles (and had only about 3 left to go to get home), by which point I was finally able to get an Uber.

By the time I got home (I had left at 8:30, and didn't make it home until almost 11:30), I was all in, and decided to let the walk suffice for the day, without riding.

Anyway, I was glad to be able to get back to riding today, and left at 6:45, in 69° cloud cover (it climbed to 71° during my ride),  and rode the Platt/Packard Square with an extra loop in our complex at the end, for 13.9 miles in 1:33.

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73rd outdoor ride of 2021 - Thursday, June 17, 2021

2021 mileage: 3213.9

Another nearly unbelievably great day to ride—when I began, about 9:15, I enjoyed bright sunshine, little to no wind, and low humidity, with a temperature of 66°. The temperature climbed to 76° during my ride, and everything else remained constant.

I rode the Packard/Platt Square (13.9 miles today, with a lap in our complex at the end), in a time of 1:35.

When I got home from dropping Michelle off at school, I had to change into my cycling shoes, so I turned the TV on for a minute—and the Today show was giving their first outdoor concert on the plaza wince the onset of COVID 15 months ago. This featured the British band Coldplay, which is one of the most famous bands in the world.

However, I had never heard them, and as immersed in music as I am, I felt this needed to be remedied, so during my ride I listened to the Spotify playlist "This Is Coldplay." All went fine for over a half hour, but then I stumbled upon a song replete with a prodigious amount of profanity, so I switched it over to my Devotional Music playlist to act as an aural and mental palate cleanser.

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72nd outdoor ride of 2021 - Wednesday, June 16, 2021

2021 mileage: 3200.0

What a SPECTACULAR day for a ride today! When I began around 12:30, it was 68° and brightly sunny, with no wind to speak of and low humidity, and the temperature climbed to 72° during my ride. It could not have been more picturesque, and I got this picture of a portion of the trail.

I hauled the trike back over to Hudson Mills Metropark (Dexter), like yesterday. But today, I took with me a map of the park that I had found online and printed, in order to be able to find the trail connecting the park and the village of Dexter. This proved to be a good plan, and when I got to Dexter, I first took this selfie at the park just as you enter town. 

Then I rode down past Creekside Intermediate School (where I've enjoyed watching my 8-year-old grandson Danny play several baseball games this spring, in order to add slightly to my mileage.

Several stretches of the trail reminded me of riding them with my daughter Christy, and Danny and his sister Izzy last September 5 (though at that time we rode out from Dexter toward Hudson Mills, turning around well before we reached the park). Here is a picture of us riding last fall (me flanked by my dear grandchildren Danny and Izzy, (taken by Christy).

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71st outdoor ride of 2021 - Tuesday, June 15, 2021

2021 mileage: 3187.2

Today was another adventurous day in my riding life. I decided to haul my trike to Hudson Mills Metropark, slightly north of Dexter, and ride there. This had been the site of my first ever trike ride, on May 2, 2015, at a time when I was looking significantly more juvenile than I do now.

I had hoped to ride from the park along the trail that connects it to the town of Dexter, and in fact had even considered trying for consecutive round trips, as I was thinking it was a roughly 10-mile round trip from the park to town.

However, it had been a number of years since I had ridden at Hudson Mills, and I had forgotten that its layout includes a roughly 3-mile paved loop down near where I parked, from which you can only access the spur to Dexter by an unmarked branch. Not remembering that, I kept circling the loop, and was beginning to catch on, as one bridge kept looking awfully familiar ... but then it was clinched for me when I passed a group of older women walking, and one asked me, "How far do you ride?" I stopped, and turned my palms up and shrugged, to which she replied, "Oh, you don't know, eh ... you just ride fast! Well, I wondered since you've passed us three times now!"

Before this, I had already long since cut back mentally from my thought of doing two round trips to only one, and then, as Dexter was still nowhere in sight, at 14.8 miles, I turned around and figured I'd just ride back to the car. But 20 minutes later, I was still not making substantial progress, so I began to pray for God to give me clarity and help me understand what was happening. I also typed a note on my phone explaining my situation and concluding that I seemed to be lost and confused and wondering whether they could point me back to Hudson Mills—but I hadn't the opportunity to show it to anyone. A short while later, I recognized a loop at the end of the area where I had parked, and then I turned my eyes slightly and was delighted to see our black Honda (which we call Rhonda, for the rhyme 😎).

At any rate, I had a 17.3-mile (mostly circular) ride—splendid 72° sunshine—in 1:55.

The nicest feature of the day was when I arrived at the park and had to buy an entrance permit, and told her, "Annual," she gave me the senior pricing of $29 rather than the regular pricing of $40 without even asking my age! (???) 

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70th outdoor ride of 2021 - Monday, June 14, 2021

2021 mileage: 3169.9

We are supposed to get some rain later today, but by beginning at 10:30 a.m., I was able to fit in quite a good ride (a 20.4-mile round trip to Baker Rd., in 2:19).

I'm happy, too, that as my mileage continues to accumulate, my average per day needed to make my goal of 5000 for the year continues to decrease. On New Year's Day, that figure stood at 13.74, and after today's ride it is down to 9.15.

I reached another milestone (of sorts) on today's ride, too—now, there remain just 200 days in the year.

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69th outdoor ride of 2021 - Sunday, June 13, 2021 a

2021 mileage: 3149.5

This morning I began my ride just a couple of minutes before 7:00 a.m., in clear, pale 68° early sunshine, and went smoothly around the 13.7 miles of the Platt/Packard Square, blessedly without experiencing a repeat of yesterday's tire problem.

On the way out, a little over 4 miles into the ride (at about 6:25 a.m.), I got this picture from the trail beside Textile Rd., just west of State Rd.

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68th outdoor ride of 2021 - Saturday, June 12, 2021

2021 mileage: 3135.8

Today was a HUGE joy, since (like back on May 2) I rode with my daughter Christy. She brought her bike over, and we set out at 7:30, to ride a bit farther this time. We did the Packard/Platt Square, except modifying the northeast corner of it so we could ride past Pheasant Run Apartments, where Michelle and I used to live (1993-2004) and Christy and brother John visited us many times. This gave us a ride of 13.6 miles (in 1:29), and led her to say that she felt like she had done the Tour de France.

On the way home (between Platt Rd. and Marsh Park, with about five and a miles left to go), I experienced another flat in my left front tire (the same one that gave me problems this week that Dan Cogan helped me out with), and I told Christy, "I can TRY to change it?" She asked, "What other option do you have?" I said, "I could text Michelle and have her come get me." Putting a determined look on her face, she said, "LET'S DO THIS!"

I got the early part done OK (getting the old tube out of the tire, and the new one inserted), but was challenged at getting the tire securely back onto the wheel. I'm not at all certain I could have gotten it done all alone—maybe, maybe not—but as a team we were able to work together to do my first tire repair during a ride without the assistance of a "real" cyclist (like Dan).

Christy got a couple of pictures during the process —

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67th outdoor ride of 2021 - Friday, June 11, 2021

 2021 mileage: 3122.2

I decided to stay home and work on music stuff this morning rather than doing an early ride, knowing that would put me in line for a hot ride midday. And that's exactly what played out.

When I began my ride at 11:00, it was brightly sunny and 81°, The only favorable thing was that the high humidity we had yesterday has moved out.

Consequently, I scaled back to just ride a round trip to Marsh Park (10.2 miles), in 1:04, by the end of which the temperature had climbed to 84° and was still on the way up.

Looking forward to another ride with my daughter Christy tomorrow, as we rode together also on May 2. That day we did a 10-mile ride (to Marsh Park and back) and it nearly did her in, but she wants to try a little longer tomorrow. I will only hope I can keep up with her youth and vigor. 😎

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66th outdoor ride of 2021 - Thursday, June 10, 2021

2021 mileage: 3112.0

Today was yet another adventure-filled one in my riding life.

I started at 5:45 (sunrise was at 5:58), hoping to get in a good ride to Matthei (31+ miles) before it heated up too much. However,  when I rolled my trike out of the garage, I was dismayed to hear the left front tire (the wheel the dealer just replaced for me) flapping -- flat. This may well have been just a case of age, as it had been on there for quite a while.

Anyway, I came in and worked for a while to allow the light to increase a bit, and then went back out about 7:00 and changed the tube. I was wary, as I am still a mechanical neophyte even at this rather basic task for cyclists ... but it seemed to go OK, so I set off around 7:30, and breezed through the first 5 miles at quite a good rate of speed.

Then, though, when I got to Marsh Park, I saw that that same tire had gone flat again. I texted my good friend Dan Cogan, who has helped me with numerous mechanical issues (it's tempting to say "countless")—frequently, but not exclusively, flats. He lives not far from the park, and was soon there to help. As I told him via a note I typed on my phone, having already changed it once this morning, I was concerned that I was screwing something up, and I only had one spare tube with me.

My wife Michelle, who was raised Catholic, refers to Dan as Saint Dan, for his many kind and helpful efforts on my behalf. (Dan and I get a chuckle out of this, though, as he is Jewish.) He dug right in, and soon had it changed. With his eagle eyes (in contrast to mine—Michelle calls me Blindo, and I agree that it fits), Dan soon found the hole in my old tube, but was unable to figure out what had caused it. Given this, and my single spare tube, as well as the way the day was heating up, I decided to settle for simply getting home successfully, without going any farther ... this gave me a ride of 10.2 miles, in 1:05.

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65th outdoor ride of 2021 - Wednesday, June 9, 2021

2021 mileage: 3101.7

After Saturday's ride to Matthei, when I had trouble with my wheel, I had to take the trike to the dealer in Dearborn and leave it there. I just got it back late yesterday afternoon, so my riding has been nonexistent in recent days,

This morning, however, I got myself out at 8:45 in 75° sunshine and rode the Packard/Platt Square (13.6 miles) in 1:24.

Today's ride also put me over a new mileage milestone for the year (3100), although it seems relatively insignificant in light of hitting 3000 on the last day of May. Yet I know it is one more significant step on my way to 4000, and my year's goal of 5000l

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64th outdoor ride of 2021 - Saturday, June 5, 2021

2021 mileage: 3088.1

I had hoped to ride a round trip to Matthei Botanical Gardens today for the second straight day ... but instead was sidelined with a Saturday surprise.

I set off at 6:15, under 57° clear skies, and the early part of the ride went very smoothly. I got this picture just under a mile into it, at 6:20, near the intersection of Lohr Rd. and Ellsworth Rd., looking to the east.

Then as I neared Matthei, when I was about a mile from my turnaround point, it seemed to me to be riding harder than usual. I looked down, and the left wheel seemed to me to be badly out of true—that is, a wheel that is out of true (usually caused by spokes with incorrect tension) will become deformed and lose its perfect roundness, manifesting in a wobble as it rolls rather than a smooth roll.

When I have had a wheel out of true in the past, cycling-savvy friends have cautioned me against riding on it. So when I got to Matthei, I texted Michelle to briefly explain my dilemma and ask if she could pick me up. I hated to do this, at a bit past 8:00, knowing that she'd still be asleep. She was, however, a trooper, and threw on some clothes and came for me immediately.

Once we got her back home so she could return to bed, I put the rack on the car and went back to pick up the trike and take it on to the dealer in Dearborn. The technician who spoke with me emitted a WOW when he saw it, and told me that it would probably be Monday before they could even look at it, but just from a cursory glance he could tell that it was quite bad, and might not be able to be trued, but might need a whole new wheel. When I typed out a note to ask what would cause that, he said he couldn't be sure exactly, but it looked as if I might have hit something hard. However, this has not occurred.

The one thing that occurs to me is that Michelle has asked me to keep my riding off the road, and some of the walks near us are in quite ghastly shape, so I wonder whether the repeated jostling there may have caused a problem. But it is curious to me that it was fine through my long ride yesterday, and during the early part of today. Anyway, in the end, I'm grateful that things came out as well as they did.

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63rd outdoor ride of 2021 - Friday, June 4, 2021

2021 mileage: 3072.5

After taking yesterday off in order to spend more time composing, today I got out early in order to beat the heat that's moving in (mid eighties this afternoon, and upper eighties tomorrow). Leaving at 6:30, I enjoyed a delightful temperature of 64° (which rose to 76° during my ride), and rode a round trip to Matthei (32.2 miles in 3:29).

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62nd outdoor ride of 2021 - Wednesday, June 2, 2021

 2021 mileage: 3040.3

Today, with a slightly cramped schedule, I settled for a little baby ride, just doing a single round trip to Marsh Park (10.2 miles), in 1:05. It's cooled off some (67°) and was cloudy, but still very comfortable riding.

As I rode I listened to a playlist ol songs from the sixties that I created recently, inspired by my acquisition of an amusing shirt on the iconic Simon and Garfunkel song:

The Sound of Silence

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61st outdoor ride of 2021 - Tuesday, June 1, 2021

 2021 mileage: 3030.1

I had not been able to ride since Saturday. Sunday I had planned to clean my chain, but was unable to get it done due to mechanical issues, and then yesterday i was stil out of luck, so I rode on our stationary bike inside.

Today I figured I'd take one more crack at the chain, being well rested and with good weather and good lighting (midday) -- and to my surprise, it worked! So I should be good on that issue for the next few weeks.

However, the ride itself presented a challenge. Just less than a mile into it, shortly after I had turned from the sidewalk parallel to Lohr Rd. to the right, onto the one that parallels Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. and leads onto the bridge up and over I-94 ... my chain came off in front and got into a tangled mess around the crank. God knew I needed assistance, and He graciously provided it.  As I knelt beside the trike, which I had turned over on its side, and was trying my best to make sense of the mess, a pickup pulled up beside me, and a man called out his window, "You need help?" I turned my palms up and shrugged, and must have looked pretty helpless, because he pulled his truck ahead and then came back to assist me.

He certainly looked every bit the stereotypically mechanically adept person (rather than, say, a fellow academician 😎)—he looked to be about thirtyish, and was dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt with boots, and was smoking a cigarette. He knelt down beside me, and after I showed him my card, he knew better than to question me, so he began to work on it, talking to himself. "Oh, I see ... the chain's all wound around the crank ... well, this goes under here, and if we spin the rear wheel to gain a little slack, and feed it through here ..." Inside of 5 minutes, he had me all straightened out and then gave me a hearty handshake and a one-armed hug, and then insisted on pushing to help me get started up that sizable hill for the bridge over I-94.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, and I completed the Packard/Platt Square (13.7 miles) in 1:32 ... except that after the chain problem, I forgot to restart MapMyRide for just over a quarter mile, so it measured me slightly short.

At the end of the ride, I was also blessed by seeing my friend Doug Franklin, coming south on the Lohr/Textile Greenway back toward his home in Saline, as I was heading north toward my home.

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