Happy Halloween!

Here's a spOOky old iron gate to nooOOwhere to give you some chills!

It was once an entrance to a Gilded Age estate, but is now an overgrown remnant of the past. I bike by it pretty often.

October Wrap Up / 4,000 (and counting)

My year to date miles count is at 4,002.13. 4,000 miles was my mileage goal for the year and I’ve hit that milestone with 2 months to spare! Hmm, should I try for 5,000 this year? If the weather cooperates, I might do it. Last year’s totals (on my mtn bike) for November and December were 653.84 and 592.14 respectively, but it was a very mild year with little precipitation.

October was my best month so far this year. I rode 26 days and 659.80 miles total. I kept things interesting by alternating between my road and cx bikes. I did 10 solo rides, 16 rides with Jeff and 5 of those were group rides.

By now, you know I love charts! Here’s my current chart of mileage by month.

Sunny But Chilly

The excitment of a new bike has certainly not worn off yet! Today, we did 30 miles on the X6's and I was happy to have sunshine for taking pictures of Jeff. The blue jacket is new. It's the Pearl Izumi 'barrier' jacket and we got it Saturday along with the bike.





We played around on some gravel (just a parking lot by a boat landing).

Jeff can already dismount...carefully.

He rode through some sand that had drifted across the beach road, but I didn't manage to get it in the frame. I still like this shot ;)

A pretty marshy bit.

Jeff's X6 Debut Ride

As I've mentioned a few times before, Jeff's Cannondale X6 has been back ordered since September 15th. Well, last night our shop called with the happy news that his bike was in and built! We picked it up this morning! After a basic fitting, Jeff took a spin around the parking lot. He was so happy! If you look closely at this photo, you'll see the front wheel is off the pavement. He 'hopped' for the pic!

We went home and rode our matching bikes in lots of wind and some rain. I managed to snap a few more pics of Jeff without losing my balance in the wind. Sorry they are a little dark, the camera did not like the low light level.

10/27/07 Weekly Ride Report

Now that I have a 'winter' bike, I have no excuses not to ride in rain and wind! X6 can take the rain and is pretty stable in wind. During 7 days of riding, I got in 183.80 miles (my third best week so far this year). I got rained on during 3 of my rides, but the air temperature was warm, so it didn't feel too bad.

And, one more picture of X6 from my Tuesday ride when the sun appeared occasionally.

Scenic Diversions

Having the cx bike allows me to enjoy some scenic diversions from the paved bike routes like this short path to an overlook.

There is a little bridge over a deep, wave cut crevasse.

You get a great view of a beach from an outcropping of conglomerate rock.

X6 seemed to like the view too ;)

It's funny, from having the cx bike I've gotten used to just turning off the pavement on a whim and I did that last weekend...and then remembered I was on my road bike! Fortunately, I pedaled right across the stretch of grass and gravel, but I'll try not to do that to my skinny tires again.

Farms and Beaches, Sunday Group Ride

We met up with our newest group this morning for a 30 mile ride with midway coffee/snack stop. Here's part of the group climbing a hill by a beautiful farm.

This is Jeff pedaling past some potato fields that were harvested last weekend.

What I love about this beach is the way the cobbles are arranged in wave-like patterns.

Looking a little to the right from the last picture, you see this island and... standing stones? No, the druids didn't make it to New England! The stones are actually the ruins of a men's club that was washed away in the hurricane of '38.