Hi,
I love chocolate.
I love flowers.
I love riding my trike.
Today I got all three!!!
First, let me tell you about yesterday...
Friday, September 13, 2019
I went to get my morning coffee and some wifi at the Hub Coffee Shop in Xenia, Ohio on Friday morning.
The shop is housed in the spam place as Toward Independence and One Bistro.
I think there is some kind of fundraising hand shake because I learned they are also running the Chocolate Ride happening on Saturday. All the funds from the Chocolate ride go directly to help people with developmental disabilities gain the skills they need to live more independently.
They also have a box for collecting donations of women's feminine hygiene products. Gosh, I never thought about that need for women without incomes!
I got a call from Linda Tolly. She is the trike rider I met on the ride on Thursday and who invited me to dinner at her on on Thursday evening.
She said she had time until later today and would like to come pick me up and drive around and show me some things about the area. Nice!
I packed up my computer stuff and headed back to my campsite.
She took me to Yellow Springs. I love Yellow Springs, it is kind of a hippy town with coffee shops and co-ops, and Antioc University.
I think that Linda had the idea I had never been there and so she had all this fun stuff she was going to show me. Only I had spent several days camping outside of Yellow Springs with Regis and Cindy a few years ago. We had also bike in the area here right after I got my trike in 2008.
I felt for Linda, what a bummer to have the new person already be familiar with everything you want to introduce them too. Sorry Linda!
One thing I did see that was new to me, was the local theater. It serves wine and beer!
And I had never been to Peaches, where we had lunch on the patio.
Instead of walking around looking in the shops more after lunch, we went to a Glen. She took me to a different section of it. And we walked a while until our hips began to start aching. Then we turned around.
We saw this purple flower cluster and I thought someone had dropped their feather boa.
When we got a closer look it looked like a cluster of daffodils.
Linda wanted to introduce me to Young's Dairy. I have been there too, but was thrilled to go again. It was bustling, but Linda explained it was slow compared to what it will be like at the peak of fall colors.
Linda was getting ready for a motor cycle trip with a bunch of young men for the weekend. So she took off to finish getting ready.
I sat and read. IT WAS HOT! I sat in the shade, there was a breeze, but it was like sitting in a dryer on low. I wet my shirt in the bathroom and my hair.
At 6:30 it finally started getting a bit easier to handle. I climbed on the trike. I thought about going to get a beer and listen to music, but then thought a woman alone walking into a bar... I didn't want to give out any wrong impression.
Instead I decided to ride up the Little Miami Trail in the opposite direction that I went with the Ohio Trike Group. This direction will actually take me back toward Yellow Springs.
I passed some signs that seemed to say there was plenty to do in Xenia this weekend.
I stopped at one location because I heard a screeching noise... Like a rusty wheel on a big machine. It turned out to be thousands of birds in the trees above my head. I tried to get a video of them, but they were too far and the light too dim. Is it starlings that are gathering for their southern migration?
The light got lower in the sky, but I was having too much fun to turn around. The wind was at my back.
I figured if I persisted I could make it to Yellow Springs... or close to the edge of town anyway. I remembered there was a garden there along the trail honoring the contributions of women to society. I set that as my goal.
I arrived at the garden just as the sun tucked behind the distant trees.
I got off my trike to quickly catch some pictures before I started pedaling back.
By the time I got through the garden, my trike was a distant dot on the trail. I rushed to it, turned on my lights, and started pedaling back to Xenia.
It was down hill! I made a point not to smile, my face was being spattered by little bugs.
At one place I saw a women taking pictures at the sky.
"What do you see?" I asked.
"Dragon Flies," she said. She told me that she saw on the news there was a mass of dragon flies being picked up by radar. They usually come before a storm. We surmised they might have been escaping the winds of Hurricane Dorian... or the hurricane behind it.
I arrived at my campsite in time to see the full orange moon coming up in the East. Friday the 13th and a full moon.
Which reminds me. After my last post talking about being scared by noises at night, my friend Debra posted a cartoon on facebook. It is a picture of Freddy... you know the guy with the chainsaw and the ice-hockey mask. You are looking over his shoulder as he looks at a list entitled "Favorite Things". Checked off are: "At the window; Behind the door; and Outside the tent."
Ha ha, thanks for the laugh Debra.
I had a hard time sleeping, not because of fear. But the wind! I made that tent slap and flap so loudly. Dang it bothered me! I was trying to sleep with my tent cot inside the tent incase it rained.
I finally moved the tent cot out far from the flapping tent, so I didn't have to listen to the annoying, inconsistent flapping.
I can't believe it but yesterday I was making plans to bike to Dayton today. I had forgotten all about the Chocolate Ride.
When I arrived there weren't many bikers and I saw no trikers. I was disappointed in that, but happy that the heat of yesterday had lifted and it was a cool morning, so much so that I was wondering if I should put on a jacket.
This is the first annual Chocolate ride. So if it looks good, mark your calendars and join in the fun next year. Yummy!
About 7 miles into the ride I stopped at a chocolate stop and up behind me came a woman on a Catrike 700 and a Bachetta! I quickly introduced myself. Riding buddies! Yeah. We had a great time.
Adrian and Chris... can you guess which is which?
Chris is an author! Science Fiction and Thriller type. You may have heard of him, I think his writers name is Kit Bradley or was it Bradford, or Branson... shoot. And I didn't get his card!
He used to be 400 lbs! He has lost 170lbs since taking up bicycling. When he can't ride outside he rides on his trainer with a computer trainer that has him biking mountains all over the world.
They even stopped when I wanted to stop and take pictures of the morning glories growing up the corn stalks.
Later we we saw some kittens by the trail. Usually the cats on the trail dash away when you approach. This little grey kitty ran toward us!
So I stopped and the kitten was so friendly!
Its sister (or brother) was friendly too, just it took her/him longer to get up and come over to us. Fun!
It turns out that Chris and Adrian have four cats. They are cat people too.
More later... the coffee shop is closing in five minutes!
I love chocolate.
I love flowers.
I love riding my trike.
Today I got all three!!!
First, let me tell you about yesterday...
Yellow Springs Times Two
Friday, September 13, 2019
I went to get my morning coffee and some wifi at the Hub Coffee Shop in Xenia, Ohio on Friday morning.
The shop is housed in the spam place as Toward Independence and One Bistro.
I think there is some kind of fundraising hand shake because I learned they are also running the Chocolate Ride happening on Saturday. All the funds from the Chocolate ride go directly to help people with developmental disabilities gain the skills they need to live more independently.
They also have a box for collecting donations of women's feminine hygiene products. Gosh, I never thought about that need for women without incomes!
I got a call from Linda Tolly. She is the trike rider I met on the ride on Thursday and who invited me to dinner at her on on Thursday evening.
She said she had time until later today and would like to come pick me up and drive around and show me some things about the area. Nice!
I packed up my computer stuff and headed back to my campsite.
She took me to Yellow Springs. I love Yellow Springs, it is kind of a hippy town with coffee shops and co-ops, and Antioc University.
I think that Linda had the idea I had never been there and so she had all this fun stuff she was going to show me. Only I had spent several days camping outside of Yellow Springs with Regis and Cindy a few years ago. We had also bike in the area here right after I got my trike in 2008.
I felt for Linda, what a bummer to have the new person already be familiar with everything you want to introduce them too. Sorry Linda!
One thing I did see that was new to me, was the local theater. It serves wine and beer!
And I had never been to Peaches, where we had lunch on the patio.
We saw this purple flower cluster and I thought someone had dropped their feather boa.
When we got a closer look it looked like a cluster of daffodils.
Linda wanted to introduce me to Young's Dairy. I have been there too, but was thrilled to go again. It was bustling, but Linda explained it was slow compared to what it will be like at the peak of fall colors.
Linda was getting ready for a motor cycle trip with a bunch of young men for the weekend. So she took off to finish getting ready.
I sat and read. IT WAS HOT! I sat in the shade, there was a breeze, but it was like sitting in a dryer on low. I wet my shirt in the bathroom and my hair.
At 6:30 it finally started getting a bit easier to handle. I climbed on the trike. I thought about going to get a beer and listen to music, but then thought a woman alone walking into a bar... I didn't want to give out any wrong impression.
Instead I decided to ride up the Little Miami Trail in the opposite direction that I went with the Ohio Trike Group. This direction will actually take me back toward Yellow Springs.
I passed some signs that seemed to say there was plenty to do in Xenia this weekend.
I stopped at one location because I heard a screeching noise... Like a rusty wheel on a big machine. It turned out to be thousands of birds in the trees above my head. I tried to get a video of them, but they were too far and the light too dim. Is it starlings that are gathering for their southern migration?
The light got lower in the sky, but I was having too much fun to turn around. The wind was at my back.
I figured if I persisted I could make it to Yellow Springs... or close to the edge of town anyway. I remembered there was a garden there along the trail honoring the contributions of women to society. I set that as my goal.
I arrived at the garden just as the sun tucked behind the distant trees.
I got off my trike to quickly catch some pictures before I started pedaling back.
By the time I got through the garden, my trike was a distant dot on the trail. I rushed to it, turned on my lights, and started pedaling back to Xenia.
At one place I saw a women taking pictures at the sky.
"What do you see?" I asked.
"Dragon Flies," she said. She told me that she saw on the news there was a mass of dragon flies being picked up by radar. They usually come before a storm. We surmised they might have been escaping the winds of Hurricane Dorian... or the hurricane behind it.
I arrived at my campsite in time to see the full orange moon coming up in the East. Friday the 13th and a full moon.
Which reminds me. After my last post talking about being scared by noises at night, my friend Debra posted a cartoon on facebook. It is a picture of Freddy... you know the guy with the chainsaw and the ice-hockey mask. You are looking over his shoulder as he looks at a list entitled "Favorite Things". Checked off are: "At the window; Behind the door; and Outside the tent."
Ha ha, thanks for the laugh Debra.
I had a hard time sleeping, not because of fear. But the wind! I made that tent slap and flap so loudly. Dang it bothered me! I was trying to sleep with my tent cot inside the tent incase it rained.
I finally moved the tent cot out far from the flapping tent, so I didn't have to listen to the annoying, inconsistent flapping.
Chocolate, Flowers and Triking with Folks
Saturday, September 14, 2019I can't believe it but yesterday I was making plans to bike to Dayton today. I had forgotten all about the Chocolate Ride.
When I arrived there weren't many bikers and I saw no trikers. I was disappointed in that, but happy that the heat of yesterday had lifted and it was a cool morning, so much so that I was wondering if I should put on a jacket.
This is the first annual Chocolate ride. So if it looks good, mark your calendars and join in the fun next year. Yummy!
About 7 miles into the ride I stopped at a chocolate stop and up behind me came a woman on a Catrike 700 and a Bachetta! I quickly introduced myself. Riding buddies! Yeah. We had a great time.
Adrian and Chris... can you guess which is which?
Chris is an author! Science Fiction and Thriller type. You may have heard of him, I think his writers name is Kit Bradley or was it Bradford, or Branson... shoot. And I didn't get his card!
He used to be 400 lbs! He has lost 170lbs since taking up bicycling. When he can't ride outside he rides on his trainer with a computer trainer that has him biking mountains all over the world.
They even stopped when I wanted to stop and take pictures of the morning glories growing up the corn stalks.
Later we we saw some kittens by the trail. Usually the cats on the trail dash away when you approach. This little grey kitty ran toward us!
So I stopped and the kitten was so friendly!
Its sister (or brother) was friendly too, just it took her/him longer to get up and come over to us. Fun!
It turns out that Chris and Adrian have four cats. They are cat people too.
More later... the coffee shop is closing in five minutes!
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