Princess Ella And The Beautiful Flower

It was a beautiful day in the kingdom and the King, Queen, Princes and Princesses were enjoying the weather. While they conversed near the castle, Princess Ella wandered into the neighboring kingdom where an old fort intrigued her. It been years since the fort's inhabitants had occupied it, but it was in relatively good condition. Unfortunately, the fort was not under the watchful eye of the king. Having left the safety of the kingdom, Princess Ella was susceptible to the influence of evil forces that would do her harm.

As the King and his court enjoyed their conversation, Princess Ella returned to the kingdom proclaiming she had found a "beautiful flower". In reality, the 'beautiful flower' was a poisonous plant. The evil forces had transformed it's simple appearance of three green leaves into that of a beautiful flower. The King who saw with clarity that it was poisonous, revealed it for what it was. The ivy of poison was carefully removed from possession and she was whisked away and attended to. It was fortunate that the ivy of poison was identified as soon as it was, before it had a chance to poison the royal family.

Beer To Diet For?

Years ago I discovered a beverage out east not normally found in the midwest, Birch Beer. For those of you who might be concerned about my decline into alcoholism, not to worry. Birch Beer is similar to Root Beer. Many claim it tastes just like Root Beer. While it may be similar, there is a distinct difference. I've grown a liking for the beverage and when traveling out east, I attempt to purchase a few liters to bring back and enjoy here at home. My recent trip to Vermont was no exception. While there I went to the local grocery store with my cousin who, living in Vermont, was unfamiliar with Birch Beer. I wonder what beverages that are sold locally that are not sold in other geographic locations that I am unfamiliar with.

We found the soda aisle and wandered up and down it not spotting the desired Beer. Finally I spotted it and purchased three liters. Once back at my cousins, I chilled one for consumption later on. The other two were packed away for transportation back to Indiana.

Back in Indiana the Birch Beer was unpacked and as I was placing a liter in to the fridge, I noticed that the word Diet was on the bottle. Arrrggghhhh. One does not choose 'diet' on items that he considers an indulgence. Well, the bottle is still chilling waiting for that special moment when it will be poured into a glass and savored. The question is whether the diet version will live up to my expectations for an indulgence.

Birch Beer has been infrequently found in some local stores as a specialty soda with a price tag to match. It is also available in Shipshewana at Yoder's Red Barn Shoppes also at an price twice that out east.

Creemeed After Climbing Spruce Mountain

Spruce Mountain

Trail Length: 4.5 miles

Vertical rise: 1,340 feet

Difficulty: Moderate

For me, the hike up Spruce Mountain was a bit more than moderate and I've seen other posts on internet voicing the same sentiment. It was an enjoyable hike and the view from the fire tower at the top were excellent.

By the time we had completed the hike, my legs were moaning. On the way back from the hike we stopped at Bragg Farms and had a Maple Creemee. Creemee is the terminology used here to refer to soft serve ice cream. The maple flavor of the creemee came from 100% Vermont Maple Syrup. It was a delight.

Tour de Indiana

This is my first multi-day biking adventure. It started out with two people, grew to five, and then shrunk back down to the original two. John Gardner and myself will bike across Indiana west to east, a total of 182 miles, in 4 days. We've chosen a modest schedule with our most aggressive days being the middle two days at almost 60 miles each day.

Some friends have consented to be our "SAG wagon" for a few days. If you are interested in participating in this way one day this week, contact me. (You would meet us at pre-determined locations with nourishment that we provide. Then at the end of the day, you would help us retrieve our vehicle from the beginning of the day.)

I've included maps at the bottom of this post. You will probably want to "view larger map" in a new tab/window.

My intent is to update this post daily and include photos. The actual ride begins Tuesday in Iroqois IL and ends Friday just east of Monroeville IN.

Daily posts follow here

Day 1
Started out from Iroquois, IL about 10:30 EDT. This was about 3 miles west of the state line. The only parking that would have been available at the state line on our route was a cemetary. I think a city park was a better option. There was miles and miles of little traveled country roads. There was the occassional dog that asserted it's authority over the section of road in front of it's house. Cows and horses would pause their grazing to give us the once over. Road kill was also available to play road kill bingo; snake, frog, fox, bird, pheasant. The weather was pleasant, overcast and not hot. The wind though did occassionaly push back at us. We exceeded our daily target and actually biked 38 miles this day. When we checked in to the hotel, I realized that I should have put the sunscreen on at the beginning of the day. My legs and arms were a little red.

We were grateful for the support that Steve Matteson provided. Thanks to him we had Subway for lunch and a ride back to our vehicle which was an hour away by car. Steve caught the excitement of participating in our Tour de Indiana ride. At supper we began talking 'hypothetically' about how we would arrange things if he were to join us the following day and ride with us. By the end of supper we had worked out all the details of how we would handle the ride with three riders and no support vehicle meeting us at pre-designated points. (Steve had heard that tomorrow holds some rain in the forecast and that Pastor John was not feeling the excitement of riding support under such conditions.) Tomorrow Steve joins us for the remainder of the ride.

Tomorrow's target destination is Denver.


Day2
We got started about 10:00 today just south east of Rensellaer. Shortly after starting the ride, I got a call from John Gregory who was riding support today. He was in Buffalo and would drive out meet us about 10 miles into the ride. He met us again in Buffalo and he then went to scout out finding us some lunch and bringing it out to us. Out here, there is very little to choose from. He finally found a little Dairy Queen type place and waited 17 minutes while they prepared the fried chicken. It was still quite hot when he finally caught up with us. Thanks John.

The afternoon ride was accompanied by fighter jets flying overhead for much of the time. The huge sound they created made it difficult to spot where they were since they were so much further ahead of the sound.

While stopped for a break in Fletcher, we met a biker riding east to west from Cleavland OH to Muscatine IA. He was biking solo and putting in an average of 80 miles per day.



Today's roadkill included possum, deer, raccoon and skunk. At one point we kicked up a deer along side the road.

After riding 40 miles, we began to get into some 'rollers'. One of earlier ones felt like the initial climb on a roller coaster. It got the best of me, and even having dropped the bike down into the lower gears, my legs were screaming out. I dismounted and walked the last bit of it.

All day we had been fighting a head wind. The west to east route was chosen to take advantage of prevailing winds which seemed to have abandoned us on this ride.

I learned some biking phrases today; pull, sucking wheel. Here is how they might be used in a sentence. "Steve was pulling for Harold while he was sucking wheel." Pulling for someone is riding lead and providing a wind break allowing the following rider(s) to take advantage of the draft created. Sucking wheel is someone who is riding too close the rider in front of him. Actually, I didn't suck any wheel today. For the most part, a was a little further back from John and Steve. That is until we got into a downhill mode. Physics gives me the advantage on a downhill.

Just after achieving 24.5 mph on one of the rollers, the riding day ended in Denver at about 5:30. John Gardner gave me the keys to his van. Steve strapped our two bikes to his bike rack and we took off for an hours drive back to get the van from where we started that day. John on the other hand rode his bike an additional 15 miles to the Holiday Inn Express where we were spending the night. The worst part of the trip is the two hours at the beginning and end of the day to move vehicles. If we had someone who was with us whose sole responsibility was to drive the vehicle with the bikes, we would free up 4 hours a day. This moving vehicles 'sucks wheel'. The good news; the hotel has a spa pool. The bad news; it's currently out of order.

Thursday breaking from trek due to weather. Will resume in a few days.

Day 3
Finally back on the route. Unfortunately, by the time we got down here and parked our car at the end point, Salamonie Dam, and drove back to Denver, it was 2:00 in the afternoon. Today's ride was fairly short, 30 miles, but it had a slight head wind and numerous 'rollers'. Rollers is some more cycling jargon which refers to hilly terrain. There was no incline that whopped me, but I did get the gears down really low. On one downhilll, I exceeded 25 mph. The last part of the ride took us through the Salamonie Forest. It was a beautiful shaded ride full of rollers.

The only significant roadkill today was Bambi which was in the forest. We did see other deer today two crossing highways and one in a field.

Many thanks to Barb today who sagged for us. Sagging is not a lot of fun, but we bikers really appreciate it. Thanks for giving up a day to help us out Barb. You did a great job.

Steve will join up with us for the final day and the longest day. We are looking at just about 60 miles to finish up. At the moment, my odometer reads 124.75 miles for the trip. Tomorrow, the ride will be relatively flat, but the wind will again be out of the east. What's up with that? We chose west to east because of the prevailing winds. No such luck.

Day 4
What was originally planned to be a short day, turned out to be the longest day. To finish the ride we needed to put in 60 plus miles today. Moving vehicles was going to chew up 4 plus hours, the drive home another 2 plus hours. The ride itself was 6 hours peddling time averaging just over 12 mph.

The day started at 5:45 am when we arose and took nourishment. It was 8:00 by the time we were on the bikes at Salomonie Dam. Today's ride was fairly level, although there were times I got the gears down pretty low to climb some hills. The wind was once again out of the east and we were riding right into it. By 11:00 we had reached Zanesville which was what I considered the halfway point of today's ride. I stayed with the bikes in Zanesville under the shade of a tree while John and Steve repositioned the vehicles. While resting, I head some talking and looked up to see three motorized wheel chairs with a gaggle of kids, one with a blue mohak, coming into town up the main road. An interesting site to say the least.

It was about 5:30 when we finally concluded the ride on the Indiana and Ohio state line.

Today's roadkill included a ripe deer, a snake, a frog not yet flattened, a racoon, various birds and numerous unidentifiable critters.

Steve and John are already talking another major ride. Me, this ride has satisfied me for awhile. A few day trips, fine. But, a multi day mega mile trip...ask me next year.



Day 1 & 2 (You will need to zoom out to see full map)

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Day 3 & 4 (You will need to zoom out to see full map)

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National Do Not day

The first Friday in June, National Doughnut Day. But for me, it was National Do Not day. It was mid morning and I was getting a little craving for a doughnut and was just about ready to walk over to Stone's Bakery and get me a cake doughnut when the phone rang. "Hi, this is Amy from Get Fit Get Healthy." She was making a followup call to see how I was doing on my goals that I had set months before. After reviewing my failure to meet my goals and what I could do to make more progress toward my wellness goals, my desire to get a doughnut was still there, but I knew that for me it was "do not" get that doughnut. So, I walked down the hall with my water bottle and filled it up. Drinking more water and eating less doughnuts will help me move towards my goal of loosing a few pounds.

Night at the Newseum

It was an evening gala held at Washington DC's Newseum, a museum dedicated to news. It began with hundreds of individuals bused to the Newseum to dine, dance and enjoy the museum exclusively for their entertainment. For starters, I enjoyed a variety of exquisite food, along with my bottle of Dansani water that I brought with me. (It was a cash bar for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages including $4 water.) This was followed by taping a newscast. Then meandering around the museum.

As the evening approached it's end I searched for the exit so that I could board the buses that were heading back to the hotel. The words "Group Exit" appeared at the end of the room. I was with a group and I wanted to exit. Despite no one else heading that direction, I continued on past three wait staff who paid no attention to me. The large steel doors opened easily as I pushed against them. As the door closed behind me, I realized that I was now in a deserted gift shop. The doors I came through were not intended to be opened from this side. I searched around and realized that the only other exit had been closed. Calling out for assistance would be futile with the loud music blaring from the other side of the doors. Visions of being held hostage here until the morning employees came to open the gift shop plaqued me. Feeling helpless, I turned again to the huge steel doors and was able to slip a finger or two between them. With no good grasp, I had to rely solely on the friction my fingers had against the door. It slowly yielded to the point I was able to get my fingers on the other side of the door and pull it open.

I now am thankful that I will be spending the evening on a bed instead of on a floor.

Visit of the Turk

The kingdom of Heir-Olde has been quiet for many risings of the moon. The king was honored to have a visit from the Turk who was traveling from the west. The king proclaimed loudly the presence of the Turk to those in his kingdom. The Turk not wanting to be delayed in his journey continued with haste off to the southern lands and then off to the east.

Moles have again invaded the kingdom and have ravaged it while trying to stay hidden from the eyes of the king. Boldly they approached the castle of the king. The king revealed the doings of one of the moles and entered in combat with him personally and was victorious over his foe. The sentry was again posted in the south east region of the kingdom where he captured and held for execution another mole from the south as well as terminating the life of a third. Their remains returned to the border as a warning to others.

As the kingdom comes to life and it's green bounty pushes forth, the king wishes only for peace.

Thus it is recorded in the allegories of our leader.