Changes in attitudes

Ok, I'll admit i've neglecting this. For a whole week!
I've been out doing some rides I haven't done in a while. Friday , I did Glendora Mountain road. At least part of it:

It was little different on the bent. I didn't have to stop and take panting breaks, but legs did get sore, plus I wanted to go home and do some errands
Sunday, I did another ride that I haven't done in a while:

It's good to to have the confidence to do these rides on my recumbent. but what about those crazy long distance rides of yore?
Well, as my friend Liesel (the 747 pilot) said, 'you've got a life outside the bike'. It's true,I've found fun learn about new computer stuff (not to mentioned continued employment). I've found fun and (and maybe a new career, Hah!) writing. and its hard to do those things with doing 12 hour bicycle rides every other weekends. so it's adios to Paris Brest Paris and hola to:
It was a dark and stormy night along the Father of Water. Lame Horse cursed his long knife , Ben, for forgetting to leave a canoe on this bank. Just then , Rabbi Lieberman rode by on his lay down horse. He knew then he had too much firewater...

Time trip

These are still from last week
The other town of my Childhood is Cape Girardeau, MO is river two, of course some times the river get a little close,like at the themis st. flood wall

The flood wall has murals on it:

let's walk up to Main:

and then to Spanish and the common pleas courthouse:

can I make it up the steps?

actually , I think that was the first time I ever walked up the steps
On the backside/Lormier st are the the two Civil War monuments. The Granite one is the Confederate, and the fountain is Union(Missouri was represented in both governments and had troops on both sides

Since I had flat Lion along, I walked another block:

I came back by the original murals, Those on the Southeast Missourian building:


and another Cape Landmark, the N'orleans. Rush Limbaugh III (aka "Radio Rush") once recommend this to some who wanted an "affordable" place to eat (I was forced to listen to his show). which is ok, if your idea of affordable is $20 a person. It's now out of business. The KFVS building (12 stories - "Tallest Building between Saint Louis and Memphis") is in the background

I finally walked down Broadway. This gate was open, I'm standing next to the Old Bucker- Ragsdale Store - where we went to get fancy duds.!

this old bailing was the headquarter of another of my Heroes, Louis Houck:


Google insisted on putting this last even thought it isn't. an omen?

le nouveau francais

One of my reason for coming back was to do a little research for my fiction.
We stopped in the little town of Kaskaskia, Illinois. This town is odd in that it is now on the west bank of the Mississippi. The river changed course and went through the middle of town. it's most important because on July 4, 1778, George Rogers Clark and his troops to the town from the British and told the mainly French citizens of the Franco-American alliance(which had nothing to do with spaghetti) The bell was rung by Fr Pierre Gibualt (doesn't ring a bell? look him up)

the only thing left of the town is the Catholic Church. It was rebuilt after the flood of 1844 which wiped out the town, but subsequent floods have made it a ghost town:

a big street leaving the town:
]
we then went on to Saint Genevieve, which was founded in the 1700. this is the Bolduc house from 1780:


Maybe I should move back:

we then went to the Gibourd house,which is from 1806:

The flags of New Spain, New France, and the US (what happened to the Osage?)

we then ended up the day at the Amoureux house, it's owned by the State of Missouri, and dates from 1760:

It was a great day , I had not been to Sainte gen (at least the historic houses, since high school, and this gave some new insights

going home

Since the Lord has been good to me, I took another trip home.
one of the things we do at St. Marks is have a Flat lion photo contest. we take a paper lion and photograph it on our travels:

From 7-8-2010

I was at the Ontario airport, some neat stuff:

George Chaffey founder of ontario:

My first flight of the day was to Dallas:

we had a little rain, but then I flew into Saint Louis:

It was dark by the time I got to Cape,
Saturday Morning, I rented a Dodge Avenger. great car, unless you want to back up:

I went to old McKendree chapel:


and then went to the Mall with Mom. we ran into my Brother there:

Mom and I then went on to the Lorimer house museum, it's closed during the winter:



I bought a replica British Guniea coin as a keepsake, and then we took off to Illinois and the Thebes Courthouse. This is where Dred Scott won his freedom, but lost it on appeal. The river (Mississippi) is in the Background:

and from the Missouri side

The Emerson Bridge. The River is in flood stage:

Variety is the spice of life

I decide to do a ride I hadn't done since I switched to a recumbent: Lytle Creek Road.
Starting out is fairly easy:

No Mud slides today:

I was going to turn around at the campground, but I was feeling ,So I pushed one. it was worth it:

But all things must end:

nice hidden spring:

and I said hello to my friends:

and they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, but what about a video:

Sunday, I did another ride I hadn't done in a while:



It like more fun than just taking the rail trail. Although I need to stop making so many videos

video Killed the bicycle Star

The Rev Kieth Yamamoto approached me as I was leaving church a couple of week ago.
"Jana" he said "have you ever thought about getting a video camera? Id like you to shoot a video of your ride into the church"
And thus a seed was born. I've been working overtime, and put the money to good use by purchasing a Vholdr contourHD camcorder. Most of my friends have GoPro heros, but I went with the VHoldR for couple of reasons. First, the Vholdr is bit more compact. yes I know, I ride a recumbent (the uber-geeky bike), but hey aero counts! The VHoldr also uses a rechargeable battery vs the Go Pro AAA's (gotta be green), and the Vholdr came with editing software(a plus for an editing newbie).
Well, the editing software uses an old verison of Java and SQLite it won't run with modern software! arrgh! Rather spend a couple of hours futzing with my classpath, I downloaded a free copy of videopad Viola! Video editing
Now on to Saturday:

I started out with Camcorder in my bag. The SD card it ships with (another plus for Vholdr: it comes with SD card, whereas GoPro makes you go buy one)will only record 2 hours in standard mode, so we'll have to rely on stills:

From 6-19-2010

From 6-19-2010

From 6-19-2010

I went up to Lytle Creek Road. I had a litte bit of June Gloom going back:

From 6-19-2010

when I got back to the coffee shop: I put the Vholr on my helmet and took off:

I did take a little break with Brent and Mike:

and did some errands on the way home:

Sunday, I decided to do a challenging ride:


Since I had been shooting snippets and editing them together, I tried the HD mode:

pretty good, eh?
I shot some more on the way home:

just what I need - another expensive hobby!

2 rides, one day

I went down to see the RAAM start today
I started off in San Juan Capistrano:

From 6-12-2010

I cruised by the mission church

I was going to take the bike path to San Clemente, but there was a nice construction crane parked on it. so I took the main highway
I met my buds there, Tony and Glenn:

and Ron

Ron is a slow rider, and he lives in San Francisco, so i held back. Granted this was interesting, if frustrating on my Part
Nice Ocean view:

we eventually got to the end of Camp Pendleton:

and what we came for: The start of Race across America, or RAAM:

I wandered around the oceanside pier

and found Chris and Isabella:

Yes, they do go across America:

I found my friend Bernie

as well as my friend Dana:

I also have a facebook friend who is racing, but I forgot about until I glanced at the Racers and saw him. That's being human
I don't think he's doing RAAM:

I did get a souvenir before heading back:

I cam back through Pendleton, but without Ron. Enjoyed being able to open it up, and the traffic was very light. Almost like a different ride
You don't see this sign everyday:

a lot of the time, you are on the old Us 101:

I thought this was a neat contrast between the old 101 and the new 5:

and I did find some swallows. The new had reported that the swallows had nested at a Country Club this year.

a long day, but a pleasant one, and a chance to ind luge my Walter Mitty-ish Fantasies, what else could you ask for?