Thanksgiving Week

It was a great week full of lots of good stuff. Started out with a bunch of appointments at work but since I like all my clients it is fun to work. Once Thursday got here it was raining; this is the first time in years it rained on Thanksgiving. It was perfect because this year we only had 17 people for dinner instead of the usual 25- 30+. So other than missing the traditional morning bike ride the day went well.
We had a visitor from Bristol England join us, his name is Paul and he just finished a ride from Canada to Mexico then across the country. (He is featured in this weeks video)


On Friday Michael, Paul and I paddled up the Silver River. It is a 4-5 mile upstream paddle with plenty of wildlife along the way. We saw plenty of Gators as we enjoyed a gorgeous day.



Friday night we got 4 tickets given to us for the Florida/ FSU basketball game. Saturday AM I met some friends for breakfast and 200+ motorcycle ride towards Daytona.


FLORIDA 45 Florida State 12
It is rumored that Tim Tebow Stiff Armed this Car

Hiking and Mountain biking

This week was a good one- a full week of work with good rides on Monday and Wednesday from 4:15 till dark. Then Friday it was too cold to ride so we took Pepper and heading to the woods for a nice hike. We ended up walking about 6 miles through Marshall Swamp.

Pepper loved running thru the woods... she does a great job off lead and still loves to run. She stays close but runs and enjoys the woods.

Along the way we had some fun on downed trees and such. By the two pictures you can see the one of us was not sure this was a good idea.



Today(Saturday) I went for a 30 mile off road ride with a friend John Borowski. He is 14 years younger so he causes me to work hard. We covered the 30 miles at an average speed of 11.7 mph. I am training fo ra 50 mile off road endurance event on January 19th.


IDIDARIDE XIV
January 19, 2008
White Springs, Florida
IDIDARIDE XIV is a bicycle challenge ride. It is an off-road endurance ride through woodlands along the Suwannee River.

Something new this week VIDEO. Click on the arrow in the pic below and watch a brief portion of the ride.

rides a homecoming a prom a party and a close call

Well this week I had two great rides in the woods on the Mountain Bike. The picture of my bike over I-75 is taken from the Land Bridge over interstate it is at the midway point of a 20+ mile ride. It is a tri use bridge (walkers bikes equestrian)
On Friday I had to go to Daytona for an appointment with a client whose husband recently died. Bernice went with me and we took the Harley. After the appointment we headed to the coast to a favorite restaurant called High Tides. We had some excellent fish with a nice sea breeze and the pounding surf right outside the window.
We then headed North to Flager along the coast before heading inland to Ocala.

Once home we headed out to take pictures of Derek and Amy before they went to homecoming. They had a nice time with dinner and then off to the dance.


At this point Bernice and I headed to a 50th Anniversary party for some long time clients of mine Craig & Mary Ehle. CONGRATULATIONS!!
I found out via Email that My Dad was named King of the Prom at the Moose in Johnstown - Way to go Dad.

Well the fact that I am writing this is evidence I am OK. I was hit today by a Harley going 50 mph while riding my bicycle. I was making a left hand turn checked my mirror and a head check I made the turn and WHAM He tried to go by me on the left. He hit my left hand and front wheel. I somehow with God's protection came out with only sore hand and a ruined front wheel. The Harley kept going. But I feel fortunate to be alive and uninjured for the most part.

Woods, Magic, Road

This was the first week to be back in the woods on the bicycle. Each year as the temps drop and the time changes I either switch or partially switch back to the mountain bike for a few months. I ride at the Santos Trails http://www.omba.org/ Great Trails.
As is often the case you never know what you might run into the Florida wilderness. I have seen up close Rattlesnakes and Alligators. This week it was SPIDERS. There are tons of banana spiders out there but as long as you are not the first one on the trails. The big one below was spotted as I tried to balance the camera to take a photo of myself. The glove pictured with it is an Extra Large.


I was asked what I ride off road. It is a Specialized S Works Epic with XTR front to back and a Fox Terra Logic front fork.



Other happenings this week: I was in Orlando for some meetings and saw the most amazing magician at the hotel I was staying at. It was David Blaine type street magic. Also had a very nice Road ride Saturday AM. Bernice and I did 51 miles north of town. The Gator game was enjoyable and also squeezed in a couple rides on the Yamaha too.