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.

riding, walks, a BEAR, and a Chicken

This week was a quiet one. Bernice was gone almost the whole time; she was in North Georgia with her supposed friend Cheryl(more on that in a minute.) Derek and I held down the fort and did quite well with both the housekeeping and meals end of things. Riding was somewhat limited due to pesky rain (which we need - so I dare not complain).

Activities this week were divided between work, some riding, lots of dog walking,and housekeeping. The dog & I had some late night early morning walks which both of us seemed to enjoy.

I did also have two nice long phone calls with friends: Tim from Tennessee and
Darrell from California it was good to catch up with both of them. The only bad thing about having friends scattered around the country is you do not get to see them as often as you would like to.

Bernice had fun hiking in North Georgia with Cheryl. But Cheryls true colors were revealed last Thursday. They had just read up on bear saftey and how you should stick togehter, act BIG, walk away slowly without turning your back. Well the two of them encounterd a bearon the trail. Cheryl TOOK OFF SCREAMING--- YIKES!!! Luckily the bear did not eat my lovely wife. (the above Bear is not the one they saw)(for those of you who followed us this summer Cheryl was the Heckeler in my Blog)

They had a chance to have lunch with Uncle Bob from the bike trip.
He seems to show up and eat whenever we are in the area. This time he was with the lovely Sherry, his bride who hails originally from Chattanooga, TN. They had a LOOOOONG lunch that lasted till after 4:pm (from a 12:30 start) He tends to chew his food rather methodiclly due to his advanced age and weak digestive system.



He was inducted into the "Brotherhood of the Chicken"

For those of you who do not know this is normally given while accomplishing a particularly arduous task requiring perseverance to complete. I got mine while riding accross the country.. well Bob got his for having to endure a 3 hour lunch with Cheryl.

The century(100 mile ride) went very well. I finished in 5 hours and 5 minutes with an average speed of just under 20 mph. This is one of my best centuries in a number of years. I was able to meet up with some friends form Ocala and meet some new friends from Alabama; together we enjoyed the scenic back roads of north central Florida. The day was topped off by some good Gator football with a win over the 8th ranked Kentucky team.

I enjoyed a short ride Friday morning before steping astride the Yamaha FZ6 and heading to Daytona.It is Biketoberfest there and the bikers were out in number. I had planned to hit High Tides in FLagler for lunch but so did about 300 other motorcyclist and since they can seat maybe 50 on a good day I headed down the coast and would eat later. The ride along A1A was great; nice surf, cool breeze, and lots of Bikes to look at. I ended up with over 200 miles by the time I returned to Ocala. The pic (above) is not of me.

The other news this week was that Michael got his first new vehicle. A 2007 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner SR5... very nice truck. He was excited with the purchase and learned some lessons on car buying as I would provide counsel but made him do all the negotiating and such. He says he is really begining to enjoy the truck as he becomes more proficient on the use of a clutch. This is his first vehicle that is standard shifting.

Bernice is enjoying this week in North Georgia with her friend Cheryl so Derek & I are holding down the home front.

This week a half century and next week a century

- On Wednesday this past week I crossed the half century mark and next week I will ride a century.

To clarify – this week I turned 50 years old and this coming Saturday I am riding the Santa Fe Century (any 100 mile ride is called a century).

On turning 50 – no big deal; physically I feel great – no aches and pains (yet). I do need my reading glasses more often these days but that is pretty normal. Mentally I feel about like a teenager – meaning I still like to catch some air while skiing or riding the mountain bike. So I guess I will refer back to my old quote on aging. “Aging is inevitable, maturity is a choice – there is no future in growing up.”
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Reflections on 50 in no particualar order:
27 years married to my sweetheart
2 great sons who I am very proud of
a faith that is srong and vibrant
a business that is blessed abundantly by GOD
many goals accomplished and many yet to do
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This week I said goodbye to a good friend who is moving away. My buddy Jeff has left Ocala and is transitioning to Pennsylvania (job related)..
I knew this was coming for several years just did not know when. Thank goodness for cell phones and email this shrinks the distance. Never easy to have good friends move away – Tim, Cullie and now Jeff are 3 that come to mind in the last few years
Well my upcoming trip to Georgia got cancelled. My friend Bruce can not get the time off due to recent use of vacation to visit his Mom who has been in failing health. This means a week without my sweetie as she is still going with her friend (Bruce’s wife) for a week to the mountains.
Some have asked how my sister is doing with her fight with cancer- she had a pretty decent week this week and is in good spirits. This week she has a week off from Chemo and just has a transfusion on tap. Keep her in your prayers.

Dahlonega day 4

We had the picture perfect day he in North Georgia---blue skies and sunny. We covered 315 miles and rode in the states of Georgia and Tennessee. JImmy was a happy camper because of the sun--he still wore his knee high rubber Mullet boots.
We had delighful weather and blue skies. Heading first to Ellajay GA to pick up our tour leader for the day David - from Oppenheimer who has a second house in Ellajay. From then we went to Occee and Telico Plains. From there we did a stretch of the Cherahola Skyway and then on to Suches, Wolfpen Gap, Hogpen Gap and back to Dahlonega.

We had a great lunch along side the river by the Cherahola.

All in all an excellent trip --- we head home in the morning

Dahlonega Day 3

Well today started in the rain and it rained most of the day. That said we still logged 215 miles.... the first pic is of a friend named Mark or Cags or Elvis depending on who is talking to or about him.
He asked me to feature him since his Mom supposed to check my site.

Though is was raining the traction was not bad at all and we were able to make the best of the day. After all we had come to North Georgia to ride not sit in a hotel.
You can tell by Jim's pose that it is important to stay focused while riding in the rain and critical you do not get on it too soon coming out of a turn
Sonny the ride organizer had a problem with a tire that wore out during the trip. Amazingly he found a replacement at Bubba's lawnmower & rental shop in Clayton Georgia--- hence the big smile after the ride was over.
Here you can see our boy Mark, ELvis or Cags caught in a private moment with his new girlfriend ... I did not catch her name but it was said she was Gene Simons sister.

dahlonega trip day 2

Today we covered 291 miles and hit a limited amount of rain, which was not bad considering there was a 60% chance. I stayed dry thanks to good clothes. We headed to Blairsville and then on to the Nantahla gorge and up to Robinsville and then on to the dragon. I had a great uncrowded down & back run on the dragon.
From there we ran the Cherahola Skyway some nice twisties and sweepers The smokies were at their finest with smokelike fog all day.

I had a great time after the ride when I met Uncle Bob from my cross country bicycle trip for dinner. He drove nearly an hour today to have a most excellent dinner with me in Dahlonega. It was good to see him again. I count him as a true family friend and really enjoyed catching up with him again.

Well tomorrow is another day of riding ... take care dont forgget to leave a comment

Dahlonega Motorcycle trip Day 1

We left Ocala at 5:30am with the bikes in the trailer and headed north arriving in Dahlonega about 1:00pm. We checked in, changed, unloaded the bikes and headed out.


We rode to Suches, Wolfpen gap, Clingmans dome and Blairsville at total of 91 miles. The weather was spotty rain -- then rain --- then clear.


On the way Back from Blairsville we stopped for coffee and pie and a place called the Butcher the Baker and the Candymaker. It was very good pie as the smile on Jims face shows.