Biking 4

We thought we had identified a beautiful ride for me as we drove around last night. However, it was up and down and up and down when I got to it this morning. I did not get out of first gear in more than an hour. Exhausting. The good part however was that I could actually walk the bike up about 4 hills which I know I would not even have attempted a month ago.  So I ended up just biking down the sidewalk beside the main road. It was a much, much easier ride. All I saw was strip mall America, but considering how little I have experienced that in the past 40 years, it was reasonably interesting. Tomorrow I will bike for a few hours and then end up at our good friends the Hilburns from Panama. (She is making me muffins!) We will go to church with them on Saturday and then go over to our good friends the Bremers from Panama and go to church with them on Sunday, before heading north.

Biking 3

Done with the third day of this biking trip. Different from the other days. I was not on a bike trail, but rather back back back roads. They were like the logging roads back home in MN. And these were FL logging roads. We saw logging trucks with huge loads of long, very straight trees on back. They are pine trees with long needles and very very rough bark. I biked through forests of these trees. I wonder what kind they are? Slightly large pine cones, not very large trees, but tall, tall. They also seem to grow in swamps or at least close to swamps.  I saw very little wildlife, which seems strange to me because it really is not settled areas: no houses, etc. But it was the middle of a very hot day and any wildlife was probably sleeping. It was probably only silly me out in the sun. I did hear some plopping into the swamps now and then. Most of it smaller bodies, but once it was obviously a very large something going into the water, a little unnerving. There also were 4 inch long grassho

Biking 2

It is not really enjoyable biking along beside a major road, even if there is a bike trail provided. I figured that out this morning. So I crossed a bike trail that really was not necessarily heading towards Orlando (East), but that is a well known trail: Suncoast Bike Trail. I took it for 3 hours, while Rick tracked me at crossroads, and then he delivered me to the hotel. Much nicer. Live and learn. Four hours of biking all together. It is hard to describe how good it feels to be moving without pain. Walking has been difficult for almost a year now, but biking is non-weight bearing, and I can just move. (Albeit rather slowly. I used to bike about 10 miles an hour. Now I bike a miserable about 5-7 miles an hour, but it is moving without pain, and very enjoyable.) It is hot hot hot here. Within a few minutes my clothes are soaked, but I have lived in tropical countries most of my adult  life and can tolerate that. The bike trails as opposed to the roads beside highways also has better s

Biking 1

I will try to let you bike with me to Orlando....just because. We revised our plans. We decided that we really did not need to push as hard as we would have had to in order to cover the 30-50 miles a day necessary. So we are leapfrogging. I will bike for an hour or two, while Rick drives, and then we will switch. This turns it into a lazy, easy, laid back fun trip. We started an evening early: tonight. Boy was it different biking in the cool evening, rather than the hot hot noon day that I have been. Still as drenched as if I were sitting in a bathtub, but  more comfortable. We mumbled around having left at 6 this evening. Beautiful bike trails. Herons, Sandhill cranes (did you know that they screech, birds almost as tall as I am.) Swamps that I thought about alligators as I traipsed past...but that was rather silly of me. Turtles in the middle of the road. I almost took off on the trail that took me far away from the roads and out of touch from Rick but it was already 8 p.m. , and w

Biking from Tampa to Orlando

It has been a very, very busy summer so far. Rick’s hernia repair went well. He is still restricted from heavy lifting for another week, but that is all. He had both sides repaired and one hernia was rather large, but it was done laparoscopically and virtually painless. Earlier the same day, (June 19) I had a gel injection in my knee. That has helped some with the pain and I have been able to walk without my cane at times now for the first time in 6 months. Three days after the treatments we met with all of our kids and grandkids and spent a week together in the Poconos. What fun. Memories. Then we drove Peace down to her home in Florida. We are giving Peace Lasik eye repair for her 29 th birthday. That will happen tomorrow. We also suffered enough from the heat driving from PA to FL without AC, that we traded in our beloved RV van and got a Caravan that has plenty of room to sleep in, but not all the amenities that our Econoline did. (Of all the material things I have ever owned I