Chasing Ghosts and the Family that Vomits together...

If you got your maps from last time, you'll notice that Jackson is right next door to another small town, Cape Girardeau. And you may remember that I've been plunked away on a novel that Feature Cape Girardeau's Founder , Louis Lorimer , as a minor character.
So mom and I drove over on Friday. Mom had come down with the same stuff that my nephew had on Thursday, but felt better.
our first stop was old Lorimer cemetery. As you have have guessed, Our Hero has his final resting place here. It's also the final stop for Louis Houck, the regions railroad pioneer, and aouther what is consider the definitive History of early European Missouri (A Tip of the helmet occurs here to both Gentlemen). It also has quite a neat overlook of the Mississippi and a pretty cross.
Another things That I took a pic of , but didn't turn out was an Old tombstone that had the inscription weathered off. The association had placed a bronze plaque with the inscription(that had yet to be stolen). One other that reminded that I was in the "show me state" was the inscription: He had been killed in the Civil War, and the Unit Inscription was Company A; 5 th cavalry( or something close). if you're lost, take a quiz: What side did Missouri take in Civil War? A: Union or B: Confederacy. The answer is A. and B. I remember from family history it was common to omit the allegiances of units in case of brothers on opposite sides (as happened to the Lingos) or switching sides (as a certain gentleman from Hannibal before moving to California and encountering a jumping frog in Calaveras County (excuse me, but there's a Gentleman in a white suit with a Cigar at my door. He says we should have supper at the Claim Jumper)
we then downtown. One thing that we always went to do was to see the display windows at Hutson's Furniture store. It's not a spectacular as I remember it. It's also the location of Louis Lorimer's "red House", which is Currently occupied by Saint Vincent's (which is not the first Catholic Church west of the Mississippi).
There is a reconstruction of the Red house across main street. we going to visit, but it was closed with a sign that would be open Saturday.
So we briefly Braved the mall, and went home.
We going to invite my brother along on Saturday, but he was , you guessed it, sick. Undaunted , we went back and found that the Red house was still closed. Oh well, Louis l, you'll just have to be subject to my lie - err - imagination(Mr Clemens said we need to get going)
So I wandered along the riverfront. Took some photos of the river wall, a barge under the bridge,and of the Common pleas courthouse on the hill.
Sunday I went back to California. My sister was going to go along to stop at a mall, but she got sick. I got it on Monday.
what, no pink houses or John Mellencamp?

what John Mellencamp and I have in common

Well, do we have in common?
In case you haven't guessed , we are both from Small towns in the Midwest.
I took a vacation and flew back home to Jackson, Missouri. in case you don't know flying into rural America can be challenging, the nearest airport to Jackson, Cape Girardeau Regional, is only served by one airline (Great Lakes) with two flights a day to St. Louis.
When I booked my flight, neither flight made sense with the flight I was finding to Saint Louis- It's one of the more confusing airports I've been to. I would have to overnight in the big city . I tried getting a flight from LAX instead of ONT(la/Ontario) , but not deal.
So I decided to rent a car, about the same price.
Then I had my accident and decided the driving a strange car in a large city with one arm was not a good idea. So I called a shuttle bus service -even cheaper!
Then my brother and my nephew Chuck(not the navy seal) decided to pick me up.
I got into Saint Louis and found my mom and Chuck. Chuck had been sick, but we all went to Steak n Shake before heading home(yes, I like regional chains)
So we made it home and settled for the night.
Wednesday, I got before mom and got the paper
and a photo from her front door.
We started out on our rounds. We stopped her friend, Loretta, to drop something off. We found another of her friend, Shirley, there getting her hair done. This a surprise since she had fallen and broken her hip a month or so ago.
we then went across the street to what used to be Leonard's Feed. it still has iconic horse in the window and mural on the side, but the inside is... clean! I remarked to the lady that was running a gift shop there that was the first time I had seen it like that!
I then walked over to the courthouse lawn (Jackson is the seat Of Cape Girardeau County.) I thou a photo of the Gazebo and of one of my dad's old places of employment, Jones Drug.
We then headed over to the cemetery to pay our respects. I was thinking about John's songs (notice the headstone is for three bodies? That's probably where they'll bury me (Copyright John Mellencamp)
We then went to wal mart - The folk here could not believe that tamales came in a can from the Kelly Food company, so I had to get proof. Alas, Wal mart did not have Irish Tamales.
We then went home. My brother and sister in law came over the afternoon. We then went to to couple of historical sites
The first is Old McKendree Methodist church, which is the oldest standing Protestant House of worship west of the Mississippi. It said it was open from dawn to dusk, but my brother found a pad lock on the door. a theme to this trip.
mom then took us over to old bethel Baptist. which was the site of the First Protestant House of worship west of the Mississippi Unlike the Methodist, this building (the one with picnic tables) is a recreation. It was the first time i had been there, Growing up, I knew it was there, but was on private property with no easy access
(in case you're wondering the Presbyterians and Lutherans set up shop a county to the north, and the Episcopalians, being genteel city folk, wound up in Saint Louis)
Thursday , Thanksgiving day, I took a walk before we had the community thanksgiving service at my mom's church. I went uptown(it's on hill, so it can't be downtown) and got the neat photo of the Courthouse while standing in the middle of high street.(I remember thinking as child how busy and bustling uptown was.)
I then wandered down to take photo of the Current Baptist(red Brick) and Methodist (grey Stone)churches and took a photo of the high school.
All this reminiscing brought to mind my favorite of John's songs - check it out - maybe I can pass some of this on:

Confessions of a helmet Geek

whew, that was a lot of pictures!
As you can see, I bought yet another helmet. Why this one? It's an Ironman ILS. As you can see it has a built-in light for night riding. You usually wind up zip tie-ing a hiking light to do this, which sorta comprises the crash worthiness I wish it had a brighter color, but for $50, you're essentially getting a $25 helmet with $24 light built in. It seem ok here in the dark. QA - Seems OK, no carbon fiber, and the straps could be less stiff, but $50? The only other neat thing I noticed is that they have a little pie of foam to keep the buckle from digging in.
Now that you've fallen asleep.
I went for a walk. Not what I had planned, since I could not find sunscreen nor a store that sold it at 8am. It's a season item , even here in the land of endless summer.
Speaking of summer, it was 92 here.
Back to the walk. I was going to start at Milliken and walk the PET to It's a Grind. Without sunscreen I opted for less ambitious walk.I drove to It's a Grind, and walked the PET to Etiwanda and back. I took the usual Mountain pic, and some of the wind. Once I got to Etiwanda. I took one of the PE depot and walked down to where the Construction for the Extension to I=15 was taking place. I took a photo of some vineyards, and noted a hole in the Construction Fence. Did I sneak in? Who knows? I then walked back, and took some photos of the mural on the wall at the Fillippi winery before heading back for social hour. We noticed a smoke cloud to the Southwest appear. not good, as it was a massive wildfire. So I close the day by closing my permanent route that goes to the beach. It runs parallel to the 91 freeway, and form the aerial shots, the trail was burnt. I'll have to get back on the bike to check it out.
FHS,
Jana

Who tests the testers?

Today, I bought a new helmet. No I haven't succumbed to materialism.
The Helmet is a Specialized Propero , Now you may be wondering why I bought a Specialized, since the had to recall some helmets recently.
Therein hangs the tale, eh? as some of you know I'm a Software Quality Assurance Engineer. And yes, some things do slip by ms. anal-retentive.
The story lies in how how Specialized approached things.
Most helmet company rely on company called SEI to do QA for them, Specialized uses the Snell Memorial Foundation. the difference is that once a helmet is initially certified, SEI relys on the companies internal auditing, whereas Snell purchases samples at random and tests them. (see here) I recall when the recall happened that Snell found the problem ( a Subcontractor had used a cheaper grade of plastic for the buckle.) And I've seen "no one will notice if we do..." or "we need this by .... or else!" once too often. Plus it does have several neat features. I like the visor that doesn't need the holes, and the other thing I noticed is that Specialized recessed the Attachment plugs for the straps below the hardcover (totally covering them would be nicer, but more expensive)
And since i do riding a t night, i've been think about getting an ironman Ils helmet

Strike Three

I've been trying to ride on of my permanent routes. I tried last August- it was too hot, I tried in April, too windy.
So I tried again last weekend.
I made it to Riverside just fine. got A payday, and then went down to Corona, and had a pre-package latte. I then road back up to Rancho.
And there the tail starts...
The next leg was to Azusa. The wind wasn't that bad, but going under the 57 Freeway, I had another blowout, which was aggravating. Thankfully, I was only a mile away from Incycle in San dimas.
I made to to the control in Azusa ok, and was soon pedaling back east. Things went well until I got hit by a car turning left in LaVerne.
While I didn't lose consciousness, the rest was a blur, between the spectators(which were nice enough to call the police and fire) and the Fire department, which insisted i was only bruised and sprained.
I called Tom and Mary Lou, who came and took me to San Antonio hospital. Their RX; a radial head fracture, with a splint that goes from the base of my fingers to my shoulder(maybe why I took so long to post). no bike for a couple of months
So, who know where my Journey will take me next? Maybe that Super Randonnuse medal isn't meant for me. I'm still trying to figure that out.
FHS,
Jana

Is your hero a zero?

One of my hobbies is writing creative fiction. Recently,I started doing some research with an eye toward describing the early years of my hometown,, Cape Girardeau, MO.
Cape Girardeau was founded in 1793 By Louis Lorimer. And you would think he would be Hero, right? Except when you get investigating and found that before was in Missouri, he was lived in Ohio and was known as Pierre Loramie. Ol' Pierre did a number of unamerican things about 10 year before he came to Cape, like kidnap Daniel Boone(There was a war on), had a Couple of unpleasant encounters with another legendary American, George Rogers Clark, and probably was friendly with some folks that would become big "foes" of America in the War of 1812: Tecumseh and his brother, The Prophet.
But at the same time, his Nephew. George Drouillard, was a big help of Mr. Clark's brother's big trip with Mr. Lewis.
So what to do? I'm big believer in the power of dreams. And heros. But at times, we sometimes place blinders on our dreams, or don't want to see our hero besmirched. History is written by the victors, as witnessed by the Cape floodwall murals - No Tecumesh - He apparently walked from Metropolis, IL to Cape on crutches - or George Drouillard- You would think that they would merit a panel.
and related to present - You may have noticed that I've blogged previously on the most people think that most cyclist are racers - Well there's more than that to the two wheel world - Although I think I've finally got my friends at church used to me showing up on my Rouibaix on Sunday mornings. And yes, not all of us are going to march in lockstep to the polling place in a month and vote for John McCain and proposition 8. or the versa.

Which is why I like it there - wider nets catch more fish.
So, remember that not everybody has the same dreams or ideas or history as you. who knows, maybe they'll fit you better than yours . :)
FHS,
Jana

Shirt, shoes, problems?

Inland Express 60 miles

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

This is a diffcult one for me to write.
When I fell on my last post, not only did I give a good case of road rash, but I but a good size blister on my thumb that popped. So I spent the lat two weeks getting healed up.
And I really wanted to do a brevet today. But the forecast was for strong winds and I didn't do a another suffer fest. So when Laura Armstrong offered me her ticket for the Riverside Bicycle Clubs Inland Express, I decided to do that.
Of course, the winds didn't show up. Maybe next weekend.
I drove down to Riverside. and since I was still debating between the 100 and the 50, I got there early. I decided to do the 50, which left some extra time to explore. I found a neat statute of Juan Bautista DeAnza and turned around when I got to the 60 freeway.
we started out the 50 mile ride with a little prayer. I got dropped by club mates almost immediately. I guess I got spoiled by the time I spent in Pennsylvania. We would have 30 folks show to do a 50 miler every Saturday, and we would stay together and regrouo, even though we varied in pace from 18 to 13 mph.
Anyway back to the ride! once I decided that I wasn't going to do the "racer" game (how does one "win" a century anyway?), I decided to start taking pictures! more fun!
This song exemplifies my approach to riding (Yes, I like Hillbilly music)
The route was a wander through the city of Riverside. Things went fine until I went over the line, so to speak into Grand Terrace. We were supposed to make several turns before we go to Barton Road, So when I got Barton , I turned left, oops!
once I realized I had made a wrong turn, I started heading north, since I knew the next section was on the northern section of the Santa Ana river trail. I didn't make to the river trail., but i did get back on track.
I pedaled down the river trail , got passed by some folks on ATV's, and stopped to take a picture of an egret without falling! Unfortunately, the bird flew away.
I got off the river trail ,and found that someone had rearranged all the route arrows. I climbed up through the Mt. Roubioux neighborhood, and headed back to the start:
So maybe I need to do this:

since it is 5 o'clock.
somewhere.
FHS ,
Jana