Odds and Ends

I haven't posted in a while because I been busy. After my bike vacation I went on my usually family vacation to Cape Cod. I usually bring my bike up on vacation and do a few rides. Cape Cod has a really nice rail trail and if you combine that with some of the back roads you can find some good rides past lighthouses and scenic beaches. This year I left the bike home and did a little hiking instead. We stay by the town of Wellfleet which is one of the natural harbors there and they have a cool hike on one of the peninsulas at the edge of the harbor. It's about 5 miles, mostly in sand, around the marshlands and beaches. It was a very scenic walk with a lot of cool dunes along the beach. You can see my pictures HERE from the walk as well as a whale watch and aquarium we visited. Although I have been to Cape Cod 10 or 15 times I always find something new so it is always a good vacation.

The project that has kept me busy after I got back my vacation is our bedroom remodel. I wanted to just paint the ceiling because of a leak we had 6 months ago and it is one of those projects that sort of snowballed into a full bedroom replacement. The rug was15 years old and wasn't that good to begin with so we decided to replace that while we were painting. Our bed has also seen better days so we might as well replace that. And while we're at it the furniture in the room is over 30 years old and would look like crap next to a new bed and rug so what's a few more dollars while we at it. So between moving the old bed upstairs as well as some of the furniture then doing the painting and generally cleaning up the room before all the new stuff arrived it has been a bit of work but it should look really nice when its done.

Between vacation and the remodel I have managed to get a few rides in. Before the Cape Cod vacation I did my annual Lake Nockimixon ride. It was a good ride except for the fact that the ranger in Peace Valley woke up a little lake and didn't open any of the parking area's so we had to park in a near by school. There was also Jacks derailleur which somehow ended up being bent into the spokes of his back wheel in the first mile so he couldn't come with us. The main thing that made me happy about the ride this year was I made up the short but steep 20% grade this year with out having to stop because my front wheel was coming off the ground.

I also did the Ride for McBride again this year after the vacation. It was much nicer this year since it didn't rain. I did the 50 mile loop with Laura and crew and you can read about the details on her blog. 

I didn't put any rides in the book for Sept or Oct but will probably being doing some ad hoc rides. Not sure where I'll be going but there is still time to get some interesting rides in before the winter cold sets in.