National Bike Month: Day 23

Lilacs everywhere!

I saw so many lilacs on my 20 mile ride today! It was a beautiful day to ride; not too hot and not to cold. Perfect. I managed to get lost once or twice, but I found more lilacs that way! I also found this great eagle carving:

Isn't he great!

He looks so real too!

20.16

Miles Today: 20.16
Total Miles 2013: 411.5
Total Miles National Bike Month: 250.41
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 250.41
Days in a row: 53

Backyard Birds: Baltimore Orioles pay a visit!

I have a growing passion for feeding birds and bird watching in general. To that end I added a couple of bird feeders to our backyard. I also decided to put out some citrus hoping to attract Baltimore Orioles, and I did!  In these pictures the male is eating the tangerine in the tree and the female is snacking on suet. 

National Bike Month: Day 12

This is why there is a road by my home called Egret Boulevard. 

The plan for today's bike ride was that I would ride Ursula to Jerry's Schwinn and leave her to be repaired. (There was also a planned stop to return a library book.) Then once I was fairly close to Jerry’s I would call Rodney and he would meet me and drive me home. 

This plan worked out fairly well and gave me the following map. I purposely took a circuitous route to add miles to my ride. It was another cool day with strong winds at times, but I powered through.

14.47 Miles

 

Crooked Lake Branch of the Anoka County Library.

 

What I thought was my final destination: Jerry's Schwinn. 

Here is where my plans changed. It turns out that Ursula only needed to have her chain lubed. I did not need to leave her at the shop! Woot! So, from the shop Rodney and I went to Dino's for lunch and from there I started my second bike ride.

Falafel Sandwich and Tabouli form Dino's.

After that I was back on the road. Below is my map for my ride home. I was so bummed when I realized I only needed another half mile to be at 300 miles this year! I will be saving that for tomorrow!

10.83 Miles

Miles Today: 25.3
Total Miles 2013: 299.56
Total Miles National Bike Month: 142.37
Total Miles for National Bike Challenge: 142.37
National Bike Challenge Local Position: 13^th  (out of 386 riders.)
      ~ I am in 2^rd place for women riders in Minnesota!*~
National Bike Challenge National Position: 828^th (out of 17490 riders)
      ~I am in 106^th place for women Nationally.*~
Days in a row: 42

*This number will change as people enter mileage. It is my position at the time I entered my miles for the day. 

30 Days of Biking: Day 8

Theme of the Day: Lost on an Easter Morning*

A glorious Easter morning in Bunker Hills Regional Park.

I rode 12.00 miles today. Which is great, but I only planned to ride 6 miles today. I set off from my house with the intention of just riding up to Bunker Hills and back. It all started off well. The sky was blue and birds where calling from all directions. I rode up to Bunker Hills and my first issue was that I wanted to go in from a side trail that I thought was up the road from where I was, but it wasn't there. I ended up a bit lost in a residential area, but it did not take me too long to find the trail.

View April 8, 2012 in a larger map
Then I set off into the park. I did not want to take the big hills that I had the last time I went up there, so I took a different trail. That is when things went wrong. I should have turned around when I was no longer sure where I was, but I thought I could just circle round to my usual trail.

Hmmm...I should have saw this as  a sign to turn back!

It was not a long tunnel, but the hill leading up to it was steep

Have you ever heard the old saying, “There are two seasons in Minnesota: Winter and Road Construction?” Well my path was thwarted by road construction today. Main Street has been under construction for what feels like years now. I knew it was there, but I did not think I would not be able to take a bike across it. I was quite wrong about that. I needed to turn around and retrace much of my route to get home. Now that I can look at a bigger map I can see how I could have gotten home easier. I should have just gone down Hanson when I was by it, but I thought I could take a trail back to 121^st. (Well, I could have, but I turned on the wrong road.) 

I would not have seen this Egret if I had gone the right way. 

Nor would I have seen this turkey. Actually I saw him twice, because
I had to turn back around  about 200 yards after seeing him. 

I was so frustrated at one point I almost called Rodney to come and get me. I even had to stop a nice Hmong couple and ask directions. They were very nice and pointed the way back to Bunker Hills. I was not amused by having to go all the way back, but what could I do? I just started pedaling. You can imagine how relieved I was to finally see my house. And just as I pulled up to the garage my My Tracks app announced that I had gone 12.00 miles. 12 miles! A new record! 

After I had showered Rodney and I put together an “Easter Brunch” of sweet rolls (from The BakersWife), deviled eggs, shrimp cocktails and caffè breves. It was a great end to long morning!

Easter Brunch

*I think that theme sounds like a title for a poem. So here is a bad poem about my ride:

Lost on an Easter Morning

Easter morning dawned glorious and blue

As I set out on the trails I thought I knew

Twists and hills and streams passed as I

Followed wind and bird and sky

Blue winged angels swooped and twittered

While brown rabbits twitched and skittered

Calling the way if only I could see

That I was not where I should be

Happy Easter Everyone!

30 Days of Biking

In The Backyard

Look who I saw nibbling bird seed this morning! Isn't he cute? I give the birds (and the squirrels like it or not) food every day or so. We see this guy out there about once a day. Occasionally we see the female too. He looks so big because it was  -12° or so when I took these photos, so all of his feathers are all poofed out to keep warm.

Walk: April 2, 2010

Today I walked 4.2 miles. That was a bit too far. I did find some interesting things to take pictures of though. Do you see those dandelions up there? Dandelions on the second of April! Crazy! I loved the drawing of the Easter Bunny. I found it drawn in chalk on a driveway along my route. I loved, loved, loved the bird's nest in the lower left corner. It was just laying on the ground.  The Dora flag in the tree I just found a bit creepy and the McDonald bag was just sad. 

Walk: March 29, 2010

Today I walked to the Post Office as my daily walk. It ended up being a 3.76 mile (6.05k) walk. I am beginning to think that I might have to change from 5k per day to 5 miles per day. Though, I have to admit my walk today really tired me out.

I truly hate crossing the intersection I show above. It is not at all pedestrian friendly. It is at an odd angle and drivers seem extra annoyed that you might try to walk across. Actually my entire walk was not very pedestrian friendly. What I find truly annoying is the lack of sidewalks (sadly I can say this about all of my walks). I did have sidewalks while walking down Foley Boulevard to the Post Office, but not always on both sides of the road. So I have to cross from the right side and back again to get to the Post Office. Then on the way home I took some back streets and I don't believe I had any sidewalks from that point forward.

About the other pictures: I was very excited to find the lion statue! There were actually two of them on either side of a driveway. This one was in better light. I thought the bear was cute. I don't know that I would have it in my yard, but it is cute. Mind you, I do often tell Rodney that I want to get a big statue of a bull (or possibly a dinosaur) to put in the front yard. Just think how easy it would be to get a pizza delivered! As always there are pictures of birds, nests and plants. I like birds, nests and plants, so expect to see a lot of them!

Walk: March 26, 2010

I did not see much new on my walk today, but I did record this video of a cardinal. I know it is not the best video, but the sound is very good. I actually saw quite a few cardinals today, maybe three or four.

My new walking goal is to walk a 5k per day. That might sound ambitious, but it is really only three miles and 188 yards. I can do that. Okay, today I only walked 2.77 miles, but it was freaking cold out today. Besides I only need to add about half a mile to my route to reach my goal. My plan is to walk 5k five days per week, I am going to refer to it as 5k/5d.

Walk: March 23, 2010

It was a walk full of birds and more garbage than need be.