Down to the Rapture

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(loveit @ Apr 5 2007, 07:02 PM) [snapback]418518[/snapback]</div>

I am doing fine, thanks for asking.

I ride every night with my wife, an average of five miles.

I find the weather in July and August to be fine, as long as I have A/C. Otherwise...I am not so sure it would be fine.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Apr 5 2007, 09:44 PM) [snapback]418579[/snapback]</div>

Cool! Do they have rails to trails in most states? And is there a website for it?


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TJandGENESIS @ Apr 6 2007, 04:45 AM) [snapback]418696[/snapback]</div>

Well, that's great. How long does it take to do about 5 miles?

I remember years ago up on Mackinaw Island on the tandems, it took us about an hour or so to ride around the entire island which was 10 miles I believe. It's beautiful up in Michigan in the summer time. No humidity, and it's daylight out until about 10 p.m. because it's so far north.

Right now I am just riding in the neighborhood getting my bike legs, what's left of them, :lol: , back in shape. I know that I don't do anywhere near 5 miles.

Have a great Easter, and fabulous weekend with the family and wife!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(loveit @ Apr 6 2007, 10:35 AM) [snapback]418877[/snapback]</div>

Right here

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(loveit @ Apr 6 2007, 10:35 AM) [snapback]418877[/snapback]</div>

The average "just loafing along" speed is from 8-10MPH, so 5 miles would take 30-37 minutes to complete (not counting stops at stop lights or for ice cream along the way).

I'm surprised your bike shop didn't sell you a computer with the your bike - they're not that expensive ($20-50) and they tell you your speed, how far you've gone - even your heartrate if you get one with a heartrate monitor. I highly recommend getting one next time you take your bike to the shop for service. Having one gives you benchmarks against which you can gauge your improvement, set targets, etc.

After awhile you'll find that 12-14MPH will become your average speed (if you keep riding actively) - and that 5 miles will feel so brief a distance you'll feel you haven't even got warmed up doing only 5 - that 20 will feel about right for a light exercise ride, and 30-40 miles for a decent workout.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(loveit @ Apr 6 2007, 10:35 AM) [snapback]418877[/snapback]</div>

Mackinaw Island is terrific! We took a carriage tour and I clicked away like mad photographing the fall colors and the victorian architecture, always keeping the horses drawing our carriage in the frame for context and picturesqueness. It wasn't until we got the pictures back from the lab that I saw my mistake: in trying to capture the maximum scenery I'd used the wide angle lens the entire time, and so had the most beautiful set of pictures of horses' asses ever captured on film - they dominated every picture!

Mark Baird
Alameda CA

 

oh, a bike computer is such a must! i can tell if i'm slacking off by watching my average speed. and, there's a ton of other helpful information available on most- time, trip distance, average speed, etc. also, it helps for planning tune-ups.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Apr 6 2007, 03:21 PM) [snapback]418991[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, I love mine.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Apr 6 2007, 01:59 PM) [snapback]418943[/snapback]</div>

That's funny! The horses rear ends! :lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh well, we learn from our mistakes. Makes for an interesting topic, the horses rear ends!

My dad worked for Kodak for 43 years before retiring. Kodak didn't really keep up with the times and they had lots of foreign competition; but that's a moot point now.

I don't have a digital camera yet but one of these days I might, it's just a matter of when. At least I have a computer!

There's some really beautiful scenery in the Thumb area, the Upper Pennisula, the UP, as they call it. The Paradise area has Tahquamenon Falls. It means Little Niagara because they are waterfalls and it's gorgeous! You can row a boat to the island and walk along the trail to the overlook on the falls. There is so much tannin seeping into the water from the nearby trees that when the sunlight hits the falls it looks like a rainbow with all the colors!

You won't have any problems rowing and no fear of drowning.

Thanks for the suggestion about the computer for the bike. I will keep that in mind. More than likely I will purchase one sometime early this summer after I get going on the bike.

Thanks for the link. I put it in under my favorites so I can go back to it.

Gotta go!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TJandGENESIS @ Apr 6 2007, 04:45 AM) [snapback]418696[/snapback]</div>

Well, have a great Easter and a great weekend!

 

you guys make me so homesick, talking about places up north

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(loveit @ Apr 6 2007, 04:30 PM) [snapback]419028[/snapback]</div>

Thanks! I just finished the first of seven services this weekend. As I am preaching at one church, and helping at another...busy time.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Apr 6 2007, 05:27 PM) [snapback]419068[/snapback]</div>

Hey Galaxee, there are some beautiful places down south. My daughter went to Methodist Asbury College for one year in Wilmore, Kentucky several years ago and it's gorgeous!

Also, North Carolina has some beautiful places too. Try the Smokies! (the Smokey Mountains).

There is so much to do and see all over our country. Besides, you may be only passing through NC for a season, whether short or long.

Each state has their uniqueness about them. Discover what NC has and go for it! Live today as if it were going to be your last. Make the most of it, and really enjoy your friends and loved ones.

You can always take day, and weekend trips. I know life can get really hectic at times and money can be really tight, but I know that you are smart and you will figure a way where it seems impossible.

Good Luck to you!

Have a great day Galaxee!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(loveit @ Apr 7 2007, 04:23 AM) [snapback]419308[/snapback]</div>

My first memories of the mountains were the Smokies.. I haven't been there for about 40 years.... those memories always carried me through till I finally moved to Washington State and built a home fully hydroelectric powered with full modern conveinences.... TV, clothes and dish washer, refrig, freezer, clothes dryer, computer, remote phone system.. my closest neighbor was 5 miles away... he was the last guy with electricity and was a bear hunter..... very nice memories.. but I now prefer the warmer climates....

Although my Son has a Gary Fisher Joshua F4 with full suspension....I myself never got into biking.. but rather quite aggressive hiking.... I do love motorized dirt bikes for adventureing.

 

Bumping this thread just to say: I miss TJ.

 

^ Right, like we all believe that. </sarcasm>

 

TJ was a good man! He believed in all the god stuff, but he was not pompous or judgmental about it. And his Christian beliefs brought him to a liberal humanitarian world view. He opposed pretty much everything the conservatives on this board stand for, excepting only the belief that Jesus was the christ. On many issues he was closer to the atheists than to the Christians. And as far as I can remember, he never wrote an insulting word to anyone.

Yes, we liberals and atheists miss him.

 

Does anyone know what happened to him?

 

He passed away. I believe he had multiple conditions arising from diabetes, but I am not sure of that. He posted about his medical travails as his condition deteriorated.

 

I to miss TJ, he was a great window for me into US culture.
If only the USA had a single payer universal health care system.

 

Yep, if we'd had a single-payer system, TJ might be alive now.

 

I don't know TJ but if we had a system as mentioned above TJ may have never existed.

 

Two or so years ago I was in the parking lot of my local Tom Thumb barely west of Lewisville and chatted very briefly with a guy in a Prius doing my hypermiling evangelism. A day or two later I realized it must have been TJ.

 

Why do you say that?