Connections

Riding a bike is best done in the company of others. Half the time I ride it is usually with a group, mostly the Insane Bike Posse. Riding is safer and more fun with others. Yes the people I ride with may be a little odd but that is probably true of most serious bikers. 

I am amazed at all the connections that I have made through biking. Besides the Princeton Freewheelers I'm also a member of the Jersey Shore Touring Society(JSTS) and Philadelphia Bike Club(PBC). I joined JSTS when I moved so I had a club closer to where I live. I probably ride with them once a month during the warmer seasons. It's been a year since I joined the club and am starting to get to know some of them. 

Last Saturday I went on a club with JSTS. It was a 40 mile ride at a B pace. There were 8 people on the ride and I recognized a couple of them. At the rest stop, which was at Roy's, I ran into Statler and Waldorf who were on their own ride since they didn't think they could do Laura's longer 60 mile ride. So I was on a JSTS ride talking to people from PFW who know most of the Posse. It was a meeting of my many connections.

Saturday night we went to a party at a friends house in our community. There were about 20 people there most of them I knew but I also met a few new people. The community I live in is a true community in the sense that most people here respects each other and work to make the community a good place to live. There are a lot of active clubs and events and a lot of chances for social interactions. 

We don't attend a most of the parties or events but are a member of some of the clubs. This past Wednesday the veterans club ran a trip to the Battleship NJ. I had always wanted to take a tour of the ship so I went along. It was a well organized trip. The club rented a bus that drove us to and from Camden and arranged for a complete tour of the ship. We got to see everything from the main bridge all the way down to the boilers in the lower decks of the engine room. The engineer in me really loved seeing the mechanical workings of this complicated ship. It was also fun taking the tour with some veterans who shared some interesting stories from their time in the service. You can see some pictures of the ship here.

Although I only knew a couple people in the veterans club they ended up being a very fun an welcoming bunch of people so I now have a couple new connections to people in the community.

For a person who shy's away from social interactions I'm amazed by all the connections that I have made and continue to make. I'm glad I have made these connections as I know they help my mental well being and hope my interaction with people help them as well.

Is It Wednesday or Saturday

 

I am still adjusting to having Wednesday's off. One of the good things about having an extra day off a week is that I can take advantage of good weather. This past Wednesday was a perfect spring day so I organized a ride with the posse down to Pemberton. This was a longer ride than the usual Wednesday ride to take advantage of the weather. It felt like a Saturday ride as we almost had the full crew since Laura took a day off and joined us. 

It was a perfect day for a flat ride and even though we had a strong head wind on the way back we ended up with a good average. I was actually hot at the end of the ride and which has me looking forward to the warmer weather. 

This Saturday threaten rain that never came so I ended up doing a short solo ride. If I knew it wasn't going to rain I might of done a longer ride but since I did a long ride on Wednesday it didn't really matter. 

So this week was flipped flopped when I did my long ride and short ride so Wednesday felt like Saturday and Saturday felt like Wednesday. It doesn't really matter but I can now see how people that are retired lose track of what day it is because their routine has changed and what day of the week it is no longer matters.

When is a Porta John an ATM and other Musings from our Wednesday Rides

 

So I'm not a retired person but I play one when I'm off on Wednesdays since I only work 4 days a week now. On Wednesday I usually try to get a ride in if the weather is good enough. As the weather has gotten a little warmer some of the retired members of the posse are leading rides on Wednesday so I join then when I can. Last week I led a ride out of Allentown and had all the the retired members plus Laura who had the day off. 

This week Ricky decided to lead which I think is the first time he led. It was a good route from Thompson Park. 

The Wednesday rides tend to be in the 35 mile range but may get longer in the summer. About 5 miles into the ride somebody needed a bathroom so we pulled into a park with a porta john. As we rode up the driveway somebody working under the covered picnic area was yelling at us. We didn't understand him but it sounded like he was saying ATM. As we pulled up to the Porta John with the door open we saw that it was empty. Apparently someone took the porta john house and removed the JOHN part so it could serve as a cover for an ATM. Never saw that before but no problem we found a usable one down the road. 

It was cloudy 50 degree day with some mist so it wasn't the best weather for a ride but I felt strong and we moved along at a good pace even into an unusual east head wind. 

These ride may not be as adventurest as our weekend rides but it is a nice way to break up the week. I may not post about many of them but since our most prolific blogger is on hiatus I figured I'd try to post more often.

 

Windy Day

With the forecast with rain for Saturday and a warm but windy day for Sunday I put together an off the books ride for Sunday. I originally had 4 people but ended up with only 2 others beside myself. 

Since it was going to be blowing at 15-20 mile from the west I planned to go into the wind from MCP towards Princeton so we would have a tail wind on the way back. We did this route which had a couple of my unusual features. We started out on the Trolley line path for a little while before heading through Plainsboro and through College park to get to Kingston. The goal was to get to the Blawenburg Bistro since Jim likes that place and wants it to stay open I figured I would give them some business. I thought about trying some how to hook up with Jim's ride but it would have been hard to time since we started an hour earlier than his ride and our routes were a lot different. 

We stopped at the Bistro which does have a good selection of baked goods. Jim asked me to make sure I left his group some. I can assure you that there was plenty left when we departed so I hope he had a good stop. 

It is spring which means I need to start getting in shape for the season ahead. Although I tried to keep the route relatively easy I did add a couple of hills to try and get my hill legs working. 

The wind grew stronger as we were riding so when we turned back towards home we had a good tail wind to push us home. At the end I felt better than last week so I hope the trend continues.

On a completely different subject because of the rain on Saturday I was able to finish my latest project. As I reported in this post I got some live edge walnut a couple of months ago. I finally used some of it for a plant stand. When we moved we didn't need my wife's old desk as the office in the new house had a built in one.

So I repurposed it as a plant stand by an empty spot we had by a window. 

I built a frame and then pieced the walnut into the frame. The wood I got was really rough so it took a lot of sanding to get it looking good enough to use. 

To bring out the beauty of the wood and protect it from the water that will drip off the plants and be spilled on them I put some deep coat epoxy on it. 

I filled to spaces between the different pieces of walnut with blue sand and glass beads. This was to reduce the amount of epoxy I needed to fill the gaps and coat the wood because epoxy is expensive. The sand and beads actually look pretty good with the wood in the epoxy. This it the first time I tried to create a piece like this. I'm happy with the way it came out but it was a lot of work. There is a lot more to creating an epoxy table then mixing the epoxy and pouring it in. I learned a lot from this project that I will apply to the next one I do. I have 3 more piece of walnut so now I just have to decide what I will do for my next project.

Spring is Here!

After spending a couple weeks in Florida where is was in the 80s it was a little tough to come back to NJ where is has been in the 40s. Luckily last Saturday it warmed up into the upper 50s. I managed to convince most of the Insane Posse to follow me out of Etra Park for a 42 mile ride. Here is the route. 

Although it was warm it was a little windy but it felt good to be out riding again after being off the bike for almost 3 weeks. It was also good to catch up with everybody and talk about my vacation. By the end of the ride I was feeling the effect of not being on the bike and was a little worn out. 

Spring officially arrived on Monday so that means the weather is getting warmer and there shouldn't be much chance of snow so I should be able to get out more and start build some miles. This past Wednesday I decided to do a solo ride on the Henry Hudson trail. I started from Freehold and headed out the Keyport and back on this route. 

The Henry Hudson trail is paved so I used my road bike. It was an overcast day but warm. The trail was mostly empty so it was a relaxing easy ride. The trail does cross a number of streets where you have to slow down and check for traffic. I know some people find this annoying but I was in no hurry so I didn't mind it. The trail is not completely finished so there is one part that you have to take to the streets. There are a couple of streets you can take to get back to the trail. I didn't like the way I took last time so tried a different route which was much better. This also brought me by a garden center which was obviously ready for Easter.

The trail goes all the way to Sandy Hook but I stopped at Keyport and headed down to the bay  for a look at Sandy Hook and the Verrazano Bridge before heading back. 

I'm sure there will still be a few cold days of riding ahead but I'm glad spring has arrived and I can look forward to some warmer and longer rides. 

Winter Get Away

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My wife and I have been thinking about getting away to a warm place during winter but have not had a chance to do it over the past few years. A couple of weeks ago we finally did it. For the past couple weeks we have been in Florida. We drove instead of flying because our trip was open ended as we had no definite plans or date we needed to return. We spend two days driving down to Florida and found a condo in Cocoa beach to stay at for a few days. 

I got some good sunrise pictures from our condo. 

It was on the beach not far from Cape Kennedy which meant we got a chance to see a launch. There were two launches scheduled while we were in Cocoa beach. The first one was to send four astronauts to the international space station. I actually drove 10 miles to view the launch from a place I could see the launchpad. 

The launch was scheduled for 2am so I had to stay up late to see it.  Unfortunately 2 mins before the launch there was a problem with the ignition system so the launch was scrubbed. Fortunately the next day there was a satellite launch that went off without a problem. We were able to see it from the beach where we were staying. Although we couldn't see the actual launch pad we saw the flash when it launched and followed as it went over head.

In order to really get a good picture of a rocket in flight going over 1000 mph you need a large telephoto lens and a radar guided camera. However with a little luck I go a reasonable picture with my camera.

Besides seeing the rocket streak through the air I also felt and heard it as it went by and rattled the building.

With my binoculars I was actually able to see the first stage separation and ignition of the second stage. I'm glad I got a chance to see an launch in person it was as cool as expected.

After 3 days of  Cocoa beach we headed south. Since it is spring training time for baseball we were able to take in a Met's game before heading to Hollywood Florida just north of Miami. Our original plan was to go down to the Keys but we could not find a good place to stay and some of the stuff we wanted to do was north of Miami any way. We spent 3 days in a penthouse condo on the beach.

Which had amazing views of the sunset.

Besides hanging out on the beach we also checked out some gardens and safari parks. I really enjoyed the flamingos. The way the strut around, honk and play with each other are cool and makes for some good pictures.

We also fed some lorikets which climbed all over us. 

From Hollywood Florida we started on our way home stopping at Hilton Head on the way back. Amazingly we had only 15 mins of rain on the entire two week trip and that while we were in the car on our way back. It was nice to feel the warm humid air in the middle of the winter. It actually hit close to 90 a couple of days so it was almost too hot.

I was able to work part of the time we were away so I won't have to burn a lot of vacation days which worked out as my wife was fine hanging out on the beach while I worked. This vacation was a good get away and something we might do again if we want to get away from the cold in the winter months.

Winter Beach Rides

The past couple of weeks as I try to make it through the winter weather I have been doing rides along and to the beach. Last weekend I used the Edgar Felix path from Allaire to get to Manasquan and back on the mountain bike. It's a good ride for a cold day and I even spent some time exploring the Allaire village by bike. 

My Wednesdays off have been coinciding with warm weather so I been able to get some 30 something mile rides in to supplement my weekend ride. This is definitely increasing my winter mileage and hopefully will keep me in better shape for spring. 

This weekend I did a one way trip to Avon to check on our place. We try to go there few times in the winter to make sure the heat still works and the roof is still on. 

Although I have done these rides to the shore a lot I still like them as they are relatively easy and I always seem to find something new along the way. The picture up top is a tree that someone turned into a dolphin totem pole. It's not particularly good but is was something worth stopping for a picture on the way to the beach. 

This winter has been on the warmer side with out any snow but now that it is towards the end of February I'm hoping for an early spring and and some warmer weather to ride in.