It's hard for me to get a ride in when I have to go to work. Although if things keep going this way, riding too work isn't that far out of reach.

Today I worked from home and starting working really early so I could slide in a ride before it got too hot. I've been digging my latest route start-off, so began with that again, but then decided to try the PATH trolley trail and make a loop out of it. I figured it would be a shorter ride, but it wasn't that much shorter. Ended up being 9.27 miles. Not bad! This is the first time I've used a MUP. It was a short one and there were only a couple of pedestrians. So no problems. I don't think this leg of it gets that much traffic. Still it was nice to have a smooth riding surface as opposed to the bumpy dry creek bed looking mess I often deal with. :-)

I've noticed when riding that the first part of the ride is hard. But once I get going, I have more power on the hills and don't have to sit and spin as much to make it up. So far I've been pretty good at picking rides that feel like a decent workout but aren't too much. Riding is so much more motivating than going to the gym. I'm hard pressed to make 20 minutes on a stationary bike. So boring! Also, you can quit whenever you want. Just get off. When I'm out for a ride, I've gotta get home somehow!

A local group has a fun ride Sunday. I might try to do that. We'll see. I haven't ridden with people yet. I think the solitary nature of my rides is part of the appeal for me.

7/14
36.6 miles today. Humidity was 85% when I left and 63% when I got back. Temp in the high 70s to high 80s. It was beautiful day in sunny Central Florida. Very good ride today. No pictures of today's ride.

325.2 miles this month
3805 miles this year
122 ride days LY vs 121 ride days TY
3684 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 50.7% of my goal. I need to be @ 66.6% (5000 miles) by the end of August
259 miles ahead of last year at this date

I got the camera mounted on the road bike. All I needed was a zip tie, razor knife and a bit longer bolt & nut. Now I just need to figure out where I want to ride this evening ???

zzOtherlandzz, I really like the looks of your mount. It looks like the camera mounts very easily. I have to play around with my home made mount to get the camera tight so tomorrow I am going to make a few modifications to it.

Have you tried to take a video yet? I made one and it came out pretty good but it is so large (60mg) that it would take me 1/2 day to load it up to show.

The camera threads onto the mounting head the same way it does on a tripod. So it only takes a few seconds to actually unscrew the camera if you want to take it off of the bike and take a picture. I think I'm going to buy another one now that I have modified this one for the road bike. That way I'll have one for both bikes. Haven't tried a video yet, hmmm haven't even tried the video mode on the camera yet come to think of it. There is one really cool hill on the Gainesville Hawthorne trail that I might try that on tomorrow, if I make it to the trail. I used to upload videos to google and post links to them for things that I sold on ebay. I'll have to take a look at see what kind of size limits there are.

Well I got ready to go for my ride today at about 6pm or so, my usual time. And it really looked like it was going to start raining at some point during the ride. <sigh> So I didn't even take the camera with me after having it ready to go and mounted on the bike. That was a bit disappointing but I didn't want to get the camera all wet. As it turns out it never did rain, not even a sprinkle .... DOH!! Lots of thunder and dark clouds but no rain. OMG was it MUGGY though. The temp at the bank read 93 on my first pass & 91 on my second pass. I ended up riding 20.26 miles... So that put me at aprox 102 miles for the past 5 days.... First time in a LONG LONG time that i have ridden 100 miles in a week... let alone 5 days..... I was really tempted to stop at 17.5 ... for an even 100.... but I wanted to keep doing the 20 mile thing.... so I kept going... Glad I did..... :)

Tomorrow a friend that doesn't ride a whole lot wants to go on a ride with me.... Soooo not sure how long the ride will be.... and I know for sure it wont be at my normal pace (my normal pace is slow btw, but will be even slower tomorrow).... I never tell somebody no when they say they want to go for a ride with me.... If its not raining i'll set the camera up and take some pictures.

7/15
30.6 miles today.

355.5 miles this month
3835 miles this year
122 ride days LY vs 122 ride days TY
3684 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 51% of my goal. I need to be @ 66.6% (5000 miles) by the end of August
290 miles ahead of last year at this date

Today’s ride as seen through the eyes of my bike

Today was cloudy and humid but the temps were not too bad, so I mounted the camera on the bike and headed out just to see what I could find. The first photo that I took was of a Gopher Turtle sitting at the entrance of his borrow. However the closer that I got to him the further he backed into his hole, so you will not see that photo.

The next thing that caught my eye was a small farm that had two little ponies that were very interested in what I was doing. Or perhaps they thought I had some food for them, anyway they had to come over and investigate me and the bike/camera. The next photo is the bike bridge over I-4 just north of Lake Mary. While Seminole County lacks in a lot of things they have done a good job on bridges and tunnels at major intersections along the trails. The next photo is the bridge over Lake Mary Blvd as I headed south on the Cross Seminole Trail. I went through two tunnels today but took no photos of them.

At this point I decided to head on south to Long Wood and ride around the historic area since I love history and old houses. Most of the old houses and buildings have been restored and are currently being used as offices and specialty shops. At the end of one street is the Long Wood Fire Dept. and behind the fire house I saw several Sand Hill Cranes looking for a mid morning snack. I really like these birds because they look so majestic when they are standing still and they make such a racket when they start screaming and when they are in the air they look like a long pencil with wings.

Well the thunder heads were gathering to the west so I figured I had better start for home before the rains came. As I was riding out of the district I spotted a very large beautiful home that was built around 1888, so I figured I would stop and take a picture. The drive way looked as if it had a small parking lot at the far end so I figured that it was some type of office like most of the others that I had seen, so down the drive way I went. Just as I got up to the house a car pulled into the area behind me and a women got out and started taking things from the car trunk. I asked her if she owned the house and she said that she did (boy did I feel stupid, it was a private residence). She was very nice and told me about the history of the house and said I could take all of the photos that I wanted to. I declined her offer except for the one photo shown here.

Today’s ride was about 30 miles in length but 100s of miles in enjoyment.

Very cool pics Slo Spoke.... And pretty funny about the woman pulling up in the driveway as your getting ready to take some pictures... LOL Sounds like something that would happen to me.

My plans did not quite work out today... Took my mom to the Doc office in Gainesville (she doesn't like to drive that far on her own anymore). By the time she got out of her appointment the clouds were rolling in, along with the thunder and lightning in the distance. We didn't even make it out of Gainesville on the way home and it was raining. The closer we got to home the harder it was raining. Sooooo NO ride for me today.... I'll try again tomorrow though!!!

Hope your Mom is OK. I am starting to like this camera mount deal although sometimes you don't get the photo that you wanted. (example: the roofs of the houses are cut off and only one horse got into the picture). Oh well it is what it is... right.

Thanks, she is okay was a scheduled checkup.

I like the pictures on the fly aspect of it, sure they may not be the "perfect" picture. But if you really want to show somebody what your seeing on a ride... its the way to go. So, so many times on rides I say to myself "I should stop and take a picture of that". But I never do because I don't want to break a rhythm, or get ate up by yellow flies (that happens more on the mountain bike), or its just toooo HOT to stop...

As I'm sitting here typing this I keep thinking of all the places that I have ridden and wanted to take pictures but never did... Makes me want to go ride them again just to take pictures. Which is a cool thing, more motivation = more riding for me .... :D

The wind was my friend today.... FINALLY!! :D Got out for a sort of morning ride today. I think I started riding at 9:30ish. I got the camera mounted on the road bike and took off. I got to my usual turn around spot at the "resting rock" and decided I wanted to keep riding. I didn't even stop at the resting rock... lol Slight headwind breeze not really much at all. I ended up riding south on SR19 south of Palatka towards the barge canal. This was my longest ride in a LONG time.. 32.63 miles. I got a nice tail wind all the way home from the resting rock (about 9 miles). About half way home I had to put the camera away because it started sprinkling. It never did rain, but it sure looked like it was going to.

Great ride.... felt good almost the whole way... Glad of the tail wind for the home stretch though....

1st pic: The sign at the entrance to the Buckman Lock Trail Head.
2nd pic: Just a nice road leading over to SR19 (from SR20).
3rd pic: The gates leading into the Buckman Lock trail head picnic area.
4th pic: Where I took a rest... :D
5th pic: The now closed welcome center at the trail head. At least there is still drinkable water in the picnic area. Last time I checked the bathrooms were locked up though :(

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Got out for a lovely early ride this morning. Mid 70s and not as humid as I thought it would be after some storms last night.

Today I thought I'd head to downtown Decatur via East Lake, Oakhurst and Agnes Scott. On my first rides I worried about hills, but I'm finding that pretty much any hill around here is doable. There were only a couple of other cyclists out. Everyone was missing out! I took a couple of pictures in Decatur:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/...965435e434.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4119/...17a4f226ec.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/...e192925532.jpg

In Decatur there was a guy riding a bike around yelling. Schizophrenic maybe? Reminds me of San Francisco. Usually avoiding those folks is all you need to do. So far in all my rides, I haven't felt unsafe at any point. Hopefully that'll continue but I do keep on the lookout for problems.

I started back sort of the way I came and then kept making turns to extend my ride. It was so awesome I didn't want to stop!

No riding for me today. I snapped a derailleur cable (Shimano 6600 shifter) last week, and I've spent the last several days trying to get the new cable to work correctly. I got it inserted, but the shifter wasn't moving the cable. Finally I realized that the barrel head of the old cable was still trapped inside the ratchet mechanism and was jamming it. It was a *****, but I finally got the old cable piece out this morning, and now the new cable is installed and everything's working again. I went ahead and did some other minor maintenance while I had the bike down. I probably won't get to ride tomorrow either because I'm taking my daughter to an amusement park.

Rode 13 miles this morning with my wife @ 7:15am been averaging about 85 miles a week only back on the saddle for six weeks since 2000....

7/17 35 miles today. When I got home the heat index was 99* and my computer was reading 108 in direct sun light.

390.5 miles this month
3870 miles this year
122 ride days LY vs 123 ride days TY
3629 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 51.6% of my goal. I need to be @ 66.6% (5000 miles) by the end of August
325 miles ahead of last year at this date

Today’s ride thru the eyes of my bike…
I got out a little late today and the temp was already on its way to 85*. About a mile north of the SR 434 tunnel 3 deer jumped across the trail about 30 yards in front of me. I tried to get a picture of them but I think I had screwed the camera too far down on the mount and the bolt was interfering with the electronics inside the camera. I figured I had ruined the camera but when I took my break at Panera Bread I remounted it and it seems to be working fine.
Those deer sure would have made a nice photo.

I continued north on the International Parkway to the Rinehart bike bridge over I 4 then turned south at Rinehart Rd to the Cross Seminole Trail. This took me over to The Big Tree Park the home of The Senator and Lady Liberty.

The Senator is the largest Bald Cypress tree in the United States, located in Big Tree Park, Longwood, Florida. It is 125 feet (38 m) tall, with a trunk diameter of 17.5 feet (5.3 m).
The Seminole Indians and other

Native American Indians who lived throughout Central Florida used this tree as a landmark. In the late 1800s, the tree attracted visitors even though much of the surrounding land was swamp; reaching the tree was done by leaping from log to log. A walkway was later constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In 1925, a hurricane destroyed the top of the tree, reducing its original height of 165 feet (50 m) to its present height. The Senator is named for Senator M.O. Overstreet, who donated the tree and surrounding land to Seminole County for a park in 1927. In 1929, former president Calvin Coolidge visited The Senator and dedicated the site with a commemorative bronze plaque. The plaque and portions of an iron fence were stolen by vandals in 1945 and never recovered. Because of its unusual size, considerable controversy as to The Senator's true species has existed. In the 1950s, the tree was reclassified as a Pond Cypress, only to be reverted back to the classification of Bald Cypress some thirty years later.

Located 40 feet (12 m) from The Senator is another old cypress in the same Big Tree Park named Lady Liberty. It is 89 feet (27 m) high 10 feet (3.0 m) in diameter, and is estimated to be 2000 years old and one of the oldest tree's in the world.

After a stop to see The Senator and Lady Liberty I headed on out the CST to another of our fine bridges that crosses SR 17/92. I can get up to about 35 mph on the down ramp but you need to have both hands on the bars so I opted to slow down and take a picture or two. If you try real hard you can visualize yourself in the yellow jersey screaming down some of the switch backs in France. (well that may be a stretch):lol::lol::lol::lol:

The photo with all of the high power poles shows good use of the power Company right of way but it is not the most photogenic area. For some reason this is a good area to see armadillos but none were out today for some reason.

Photo #7 is what I see as I exit my favorite tunnel under SR 434.
I hope you enjoyed my ride.

<sigh> ..... I didn't make it out for a ride today.... The rest of my life got in the way... DOH!! But after seeing Abracapocus's pictures & Slo Spoke's I really want to go ride someplace a bit more scenic ...

So that I can go for a ride tomorrow I'm going to try and do tonight, what I normally would put off until tomorrow.

Some very cool pictures by both of you....

Part of the Florida trail that runs near where I live (took a pic of the entrance to part of the trail) has the 8th largest cypress tree in Florida... Of all the times I have ridden that part of the trail I have never went down the branch of the trail to see the tree. <puts that on the list of places to ride again> ...

Longest ride yet this morning, 15 miles! And also within a couple of miles of my office, so a bike commute is definitely looking possible. The temperature was again a comfortable mid 70s, but the humidity was 97%. Sounds terrible but it didn't bother me at all.

My destination today was Piedmont Park. My pace was a little slower on the way there because I stopped to take some pictures. This is Krog Tunnel. It takes me under the MARTA and train tracks. The graffiti on it changes frequently, so frequently that I missed the piece I wanted to share. A couple of days ago it had wheels painted on each side. The upper left said 4 wheels bad, the upper right 2 wheels good. Oh well, you get the point.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4079/...ace1f29d37.jpg

And here's part of the skyline this morning. The clouds were hanging a bit low.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/...40803a20df.jpg

I rode to and from the park through the Old Fourth Ward which can be a bit dicey. There were a few people out and about, but no one causing trouble. There was a guy in a wheelchair that yelled encouragement to me. Something like "that's a great way to get around, you go!"

At the park, I rode through until I got to the lake and took a water break there. There were ducks and geese around, and this guy. A blue heron maybe?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4119/...d9fcfc53ea.jpg

And then a couple more shots of the lake:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4120/...d80463b893.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/...53c5239b39.jpg

Saw a few other cyclists out and about. It seems like the rule around here is more people ride Sunday morning than Saturday. A couple of miles from home I ended up behind a small group ride. I couldn't make out their jerseys. Something like Nanimals Atlanta?

I can tell I'm starting to wear myself out on these longer rides. This morning I had my breakfast smoothie before the ride rather than after and I think it helped. Back to the work week, so it'll probably be a couple of days before I squeeze in another ride. :-(

7/18 42.4 miles today.

432.9 miles this month
3912 miles this year
122 ride days LY vs 124 ride days TY
3587 miles needed to hit 2010 goal (7500 miles)
I am @ 52% of my goal. I need to be @ 66.6% (5000 miles) by the end of August
367 miles ahead of last year at this date

Today’s ride as seen thru the eyes of my bike:

Although I got a late start (9:00 am) this morning and the temp was well on its way to 90+ degrees again today but I felt great and pretty strong. I felt good enough to pass my usual stop at Panera Bread for coffee and a bagel (mistake # 1). My destination and goal was to do about 45 miles and visit a small war memorial park on Lake Monroe in Sanford FL. They have been restoring the downtown area of Sanford as well so I thought this would be a good way to see the progress. I went north on the SWT (Seminole Wekiva Trail) for about 10 miles then jumped over on International Parkway for about 5 more miles then took Wilson Road to SR 17/92. Once on 17/92 as it is called here in Orlando I started east with Sanford about 5/6 miles away.

About a mile down the road I passed the Central FL Zoo, and since I had never been to this zoo (I have lived in this area for over 15 years) I decided to just ride in and take a look.

It is called The Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens and they have opened The Zoom Air Adventure Park at the Zoo. Zoom Air Adventures is an aerial adventure course that will allow you to explore the tree tops from an animal’s perspective. Families can “Zoom” from tree to tree using rope bridges, zip lines, suspended disks and a variety of unique systems for this exciting addition to the Zoo. Guests will immerse themselves in the canopy of the forest, much like an animal would pass through the trees and view the world.

From there it was on down 17/92 with the lake on my left, the view was beautiful. I was still feeling great when I got to the War Memorial Park so I peddled around and read the markers and took a few pictures. The restored area is only a couple of blocks away so it was off to see what had been done in that area.

At this point I was still feeling good so I headed for home (temp was now in the mid to high 90 degree area). I stopped at a 7-11 and got a couple of snacks and refilled my camelback but that turned out to not be enough. I was about .5 miles from my favorite Panera Bread and I bonked completely. My legs were cramping really bad and I thought I was going to have to call the wife to come and pick me up. I struggled on to Panera and got inside to cool off and get some liquid and call my daughter to see how many miles she had rode in the morning. I sat there for a while to get my body temp a little cooler and I thought I could make it home (another mistake). I got about a mile down the trail and the legs were so tight I could not turn the crank over. For the next 9 miles it was ride a half a mile walk a half a mile. With about 6 miles to go I gave up and called the wife but she was out and didn’t get the message, so I had to bit the bullet and forged ahead (that was one looooong 9 miles ride/walk).

About the time that I got a mile from the house the wife got my message and started frantically calling me to see what was wrong. I assured her that I was going to make it, after all I had gone this far another mile could not kill me. At least I hopped it wouldn’t. I hope you enjoy what my bike saw today as I really paid a price for them.

Note to self: Don’t plan a bike ride tomorrow.

Part one Photos
Photo #1 Central Fl Zoo entrance
Photo #2 An accident waiting to happen on a narrow 2 lane road. Cars were moving into my lane to get passed this gentleman.
Photo #3 People on the Air Zoom
Photo #4 When the zoo abandons this RR line it will be converted to a Rail Trail

wow, I am so envious of all the pictures!! I have to get hubby to figure out a way to hook my camera to the bike.
This weekend we went to Tomoka State Park for the weekend. Not many miles but we rode around the park the whole time. My knee is feeling pretty good after the cortisone shot but this too shall pass. At least I am able to ride again. Surgery is scheduled for mid August so I hope to ride every weekend as much as possible until then. Also doing the spinner at the gym too. Here's a picture from our weekend.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=160379

LindaN
http://www.bikeforums.net/images/misc/pencil.png

Part two photos:

Photo # 1 View along Lake Monroe
Photo # 2 War Memorial Park
Photo # 3 This use to be the Sanford fire dept.
Photo # 4 Park area in the center of town
Photo # 5 More War Memorial Park
Photo # 6 Bike path along the Lake shore

Slo Spoke.... Sounds like you had a "memorable ride"... ugggg. Some great pictures though!!! Ohhhh and don't you just love the folks that ride the wrong way.... ugggg Or whats worse is when somebody is riding towards you going the wrong way and you have to go out into the lane to miss THEM...

I did manage to get out for a ride on Sunday, I went to the Gainesville Hawthorne trail. I stopped on the way to the trail to get some batteries for the camera. And before I was done with my ride they were already dead (or at least not alive enough to make the camera work). Before the ride today I changed the settings from 6mp to 12mp... and that was a mistake. A lot of the pictures came out blurry and not in focus. Maybe I can mess with the shutter speed.

Had a great ride, its the first time I have ridden the whole trail (out & back) in probably 2 years. Ended up riding 30.26 miles. Not really that many people out on the trail today. I did see a guy on one of those bikes you peddle with your arms, he was on the biggest hill on the trail. I was inspired by him, kept thinking if he can do it I have NOTHING to complain about going up the hills.

Here are just a few shots from the trail....

pic 3 & 6 is actually a little offshoot of the trial that goes under SR20 near Gainesville.
pic 7 .... is just under the bridge, they used to rent canoes there, not sure if they still do or not...


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Today I went to my requisite loop today which includes Astoria Park in Astoria, Queens. There are many ways to get there and I think I take a different way every time. I use the Cyclemeter app on my phone and it does a rudimentary job of gathering ride information. Comparing the figures with my CatEye computer shows that it consistently logs shorter distances and longer times although it does have a map and an altimeter. I recently joined MapMyRide and have found a pretty nice long ride up the Hudson in Jersey. So far I have done my longest rides by going into Manhattan and doing laps in Central Park but I do most of my daily riding in the immediate neighborhood and that limits my distances. I'm training for a century in September so I'm looking to start doing some longer and longer rides.

I test-rode a bike today (a Cannondale Carbon Six 5) at a LBS that I hadn't visited before. I thought the bike felt great and the upgraded Ultegra RD was noticeably smoother over the 105s I had tried on the Tarmac Elite and the Madone 4.5 at my usual shop. It's a 52 though and despite it being my usual 'competitive fit' sizing choice, it felt a little short. The Spec and Trek are both 54 and they have felt the best to me so far. The Trek fits like a glove. The Spec feels slightly longer and I think a slight saddle adjustment would fix it but it's still quite comfy to me. The crank on the Cannondale and in general the entire groupo felt smooth as silk. It has a BB30 BB but the stock crank doesn't use it. I have been pretty set on the Spec but this kinda throws a wrench into things.

Anyhow, I went back and home and started my ride. Here are the numbers from my CatEye computer.

distance: 12.99 miles
ride time: 1:01:33
average speed: 12.8 mph

Here's a picture I took at the end of the ride before heading home.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._3448863_n.jpg
View of Hells Gate Bridge from Astoria Park

yesterday evening, about 38 miles. Nice ride, but felt "off" - maybe it was not having ridden in a week, plus the virus I had most of last week. Sorta ran out of juice near the end, got hungry around mile 25 but didn't bring any granola bars or anything... photo

Haven't been able to post in several days but I have been riding. 30 miles last Friday, 15 miles Saturday and 15 miles sunday. Planning on going on a faster more "serious" ride this afternoon. Still loving the new bike, which has about 170 mkiles on it already.

zzOtherlandzz, good pictures, I want to come up and ride that trail sometime with my daughter. Our goal is to ride all of Floridas trails..
I am using a Sony Cyber Shot 3.2 mega pixel camera and I am thinking about upgrading to a higher mega pixel camera. I would like to have a larger view finder and a possible remote shutter button (I guess they still make cameras with one).

How are you feeling after yesterday's ride? I think the last leg cramp I had was while walking the road bike home on the dirt road the last 1/2 mile last week... Seems like calves want to cramp more when I get off the bike and walk for any distance. I guess that's probably because the soles don't bend... I dunno....

It Is a pretty cool trail with only a few intersections none of them being that busy. And If you start at the Hawthorne end and ride to G.Ville there are a couple of connector trails that will take you into G.ville.... Where there is all kinds of places to stop off for lunch or a snack. And most of the roads in G.ville are bike friendly so you can pretty much go all over.

I can't wait for them to finish the paving on the Palatka Lake Butler trail from Grandin to Keystone Heights. They say it should be done in about 2 more months. That will make about 10 miles of paved trail + another 6 miles of paved trail from Keystone Heights up to Golds Head State Park. And the best thing.... the pavement will start about 7 miles from my house ..... :) :D

I think your camera takes great pictures. I know what your saying about the remote shutter button though. I didn't really like taking my hand off the bar trying to hit the button while going down hill yesterday. Those guys on the tour are crazy.... NO HANDS getting drinks, eating zipping up..... uggg not for me..