Recumbent Riders do it Feet First
What a lovely day to get blown up and down the West Orange Trail!
Myhra, Rick, Sheila, Larry, Deanne and I celebrated Sheila's birthday today with a wonderful ride up and down wind and finished it off with lunch at the new Thai restaurant in the ole Winter Garden Hotel.
Happy Birthday, Sheila!
Photos are in the gallery.
O\vo~
Posted by Bruce on Sunday, January 24, 2010 0 Submit your Comments
Once again, for the second time this year, recumbents from all over descended upon Inverness and filled up the parking lot at the Central Motel. Better weather was simply not to be found and bright colors where everywhere as folks assembled for group photos before the mass start.
There was a particularly unusual, nearly magical feeling to behold when a certain specially equipped, tandem recumbent passed us and lit off a bubble machine, scattering hundreds of bubbles along and filling the trail. What a Hoot!
Withlacoochee Rally 11-14-09 from Bob Emmerich on Vimeo.
Posted by Bruce on Saturday, November 14, 2009 1 Submit your Comments
Let's do what we can to honor the International Day of Climate Action by meeting up at the Nature Coast State Trail, Trenton Trailhead on October 24th at 9:00 AM.
We'll ride 350 deci-miles (35 miles) and call attention to the significance of the number as a goal for everyone, everywhere.
Hope to see you there!
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As it happened, ride time in Trenton this morning found Mark and I staring out into the rain from the old railroad platform. Sandra called to say she was on her way, but I advised her to turn back... Penny had SMS'd she wasn't up to it... just wasn't a good morning to launch.
After we called it "a wash", I sneaked in a nap and then pedaled my 350 deci-miles this afternoon over to Branford and back. Not exactly what I had planned, but a bad day riding trumps a good day at work every time. I had really hoped to make a little more of a statement or contribute a little more to the cause of Climate Action. Alas! At least my television was off the whole time I was riding.
O\vo~
Posted by Bruce on Saturday, October 17, 2009 0 Submit your Comments
Even though rain was virtually assured, our group rode grinning into a very light breeze, just enough to make it comfortable and watched almost cloudless skies switch our focus. We became more concerned about exposure and heat than any possibility of rain, but it was easy to press on having been advised there was iced watermelon waiting for us.
Sheila, Larry, Myhra, Rick, Sandra, Phil and I started south just about on schedule after making a few hardware adjustments. Larry took over my trike and Rick and Myhra have new Trice Ts. Mark joined us about four miles into the ride and then we began the deviation. Guided more or less by whim, there were three side steps made where we examined or used facilities and just looked about.
We managed to get by the grazing gopher tortoise and the law enforcement vehicles and enjoyed a fairly quick ride down to Inverness where I heard shouts from the shade that sound like, "Where WHERE you?!" To my surprise Mei, Don, Bobbie, and Ron had completed the same trip, looking for us all the while, and must have passed while we were "off trail"! They had gotten off to a little later start and just missed us.
With the entire group together now, Don and Mei tell us about the watermelon they have brought. That generated its own mental tailwind and we sailed back to the north end. Discussing lunch, Mark says there is a Coach's Pub in Dunnellon, so that was settled and the entire group retired to the pub for a real nice lunch.
Photos are in the Gallery.
34 miles and smiles
O\vo~
Posted by Bruce on Saturday, August 08, 2009 1 Submit your Comments
Today's ride was organized by David Von Stein of Middleburg and was attended by folks from the Central and North Florida Recumbent Riders groups, Mark and friends from Catrike, as well as Feet First. Mike, from Atlantic Beach, got us all off to a healthy start by laying out some beautiful, ice cold, fresh fruit in the shade which hit the spot on a very warm morning.
All our gadgets had assured us a 70% chance of rain, so we were somewhat surprised by the weather staying clear for the entire ride.
There were a few mechanical problems, including flats, flips, and bound binders, but the group pulled together to overcome and made it back to Dianne's Old Time Barbeque in Hawthorne for feasting on air conditioning and barbeque.
Thanks, David, for putting this together!
Photos are in the Gallery. Special thanks to Mary Hayhurst for the additonal photos.
31 miles and smiles (and almost as many riders!)
O\vo~
Posted by Bruce on Saturday, August 01, 2009 1 Submit your Comments
Getting real close to being too hot to ride, we complained, as we tried to decide just how far to ride this morning. We met up in Trenton and mustered our intentions just enough to get rolling and feel the cool breeze of evaporation settle over us. Later it seemed that we might have actually been pedaling into a slight headwind, as it assisted us on our return trip.
We rode out across the Suwannee River before meeting other riders going the opposite direction. The surprising thing was that the majority of them were also recumbent riders.
Once we ran out of the shade things really began to warm up and stopping did not seem to help much. Having other plans for later in the day, our group reached a split decision, Mark, Don, and Mei turned back and Sandra and I continued on to Cross City. We encoutered a couple on horseback coming into Cross City alongside the trail as we turned around and made for our rest stop at the Dairy Queen. The Brownie Batter Blizzard had to be consumed outside because the air conditioning in the DQ was simply too big a contrast to our exercise environment.
Photos are in the Gallery and the map of the ride is on the Trails Guide.
40 miles and smiles
O\vo~
Posted by Bruce on Saturday, July 25, 2009 0 Submit your Comments
Almost as much fun as riding a trail is sharing one with someone who's not yet seen it. Don and Mei joined us in Baldwin for their first trip on this particular trail and Deanne and I enjoyed showing them around. First, we took in the two miles to the west end and then turned about to head toward Jacksonville.
The first day in quite some time with a reduced chance of rain seemed to really bring folks out. There were riders of all types cruising along in both directions, about the busiest I remember ever seeing it. At one point Mei and I chased up to a pace line that had just passed us and hung on to the back for a mile or so, surprising the head first riders somewhat.
Apparently due to all the rain we have been having, there is some fairly serious erosion of the trail surface edges in a few places, but evidence suggests maintenance crews have the situation well under control. Otherwise the overall condition of the trail was excellent, as usual.
We took in a visit to the park about midway where the Harvey House and all the carefully planted oak trees are, including a roll along the boardwalk through the piney woods. This is all back behind the trailside restroom facilities. There was the hint of an isolated shower looming as we turned around at the Jacksonville trailhead and some sprinkles followed us downwind back to Baldwin.
No trip to Baldwin is complete without a stop at Everybody's Restaurant, so we stopped in to find it was "Chicken Day!" The special on Saturdays is their terrific fried chicken. And it "...is served with not one, not two, but three sides of your choosing for only $7.10!", we overheard the ever-engaging waitress announce to a neighboring table.
Photos are in the Gallery and the map of the ride is on the Trails Guide.
32 miles and smiles
O\vo~
Posted by Bruce on Saturday, July 11, 2009 0 Submit your Comments