Celebrating Retirement and the People We Enjoy

 

Wow!  I can't believe it has been so long since I last wrote to you!  June 23, 2026 was my last post.  Boy, have we done a lot and enjoyed meeting up with a lot of friends since then!

I hope you have found a way to keep cool, this has been a record-breaking hot summer.  And we have survived a lot of smoke, but not as much as those in Canada and in the North East that are closer to the fires.   I look at the fire map and it looks like the whole country is on fire.  And it isn't just us, but poor Europe and other places too.

A while back (a month ago?) I started to upload pictures to blog, but then I ran out of time that day and I haven't reserved time since.  

Before I share with you our travels, I want to share with those of you who know folks from the Withlacoochee Trail or the Windermere neighborhood.  Because we were fortunate to be able to visit some of our biking buddies and a couple that must rate among the top-notch royalty in our group, Margaret and Zip Juhl.

I met Margaret and Zip when I first arrived on the Withlacoochee Trail in 2008.  Margaret is always friendly and welcoming.  She was my hero. When she turned 70 she was lifting weights, riding fast and always had a friendly smile and hello.  When George and I moved to Windermere, I began to see Margaret six days a week.  We would bike together, exercise at the club house together, and do Saturday breakfasts together.   She always had praise for me and kindness for George.

When George started to have trouble keeping up with the group as his dementia progressed, Zip would ride with him at the back and encouraged me to ride with my friends.  It was a lovely respite time for me and I will be forever grateful to him for that.

Margaret mentioned she would love to drive around Cedar Falls and visit the place where she grew up.  We looked at our truck and realized it would require Zip to climb three steps to get into it.  Steve suggested we rent a car that Zip could get into.  And that is what Steve did!  He is so generous and kind.   I am so blessed.

Of course, the street where Margaret grew up changed names and the house is no longer there. Margaret is 89 years old.  But she was able to identify the house that was across the street from her when she was growing up.  Mrs. Brown who lived there had flush toilets and was so nice to let Margaret and her siblings come use the toilet whenever they needed.  

In the last couple of years, Margaret and Zip had small strokes and Zip had a fall that required surgery.  Their family moved them out of Windermere and up to Iowa.  They are closer to family and in a place where they get meals and a bit of help.  We in Florida miss them terribly, and they miss all of us and the life they had to leave.  We are all still greiving and adjusting.  But it appears that they have made some new friends, and I hope that continues and they adjust and fall in love with their new home.

Growing old is challenging.  Especially for our spirits as we grieve what we have lost and struggle to focus on the good that we still have in our lives.  

And early retirement, at least for us, has been a kind of heaven.  We aren't looking forward to the next stage. 

***

Enough of that!  

I hope your July was full of good times.

While we were still in New York at Steve's house, I took a few days, borrowed his car, and I went south a bit on my own.  I aimed to check out the Woodstock Museum.  I rented a lovely room over an ice cream shop in downtown Saugerties, NY. Yes, I did enjoy some ice cream.

The downtown had painted dogs on tables.

Unfortunately the used book store with this sign was closed when I was there.

I went on a lovely walk to a waterfall in the Catskills.  I was enchanted by the women enjoying the cool waters at the falls.  I wasn't dressed to get wet, so I just waded a bit.  Then on my way back, I got on the wrong trails and had to use googlemaps to find my way to a road to get back to the car. My sciatica was not happy with me.

I discovered that the Woodstock Museum is only open Saturday and Sunday afternoons!  Steve said, of course, Hippie hours.  Ha ha.

I should have checked before I booked a room.  But I knew there would be other things to see in the area.  Steve had raved about the Norman Rockwell Museum.  I made a reservation for a motel over there, The Little Red Inn.  On my way I saw signs for a park.  I went in there and it was Fredrick Church's home and studio.  He was a landscape artist. 

I took the walking tour.

The bridge you see below, you could see from the house.  There is a pedestrian walkway that I had walked.  It connects this artists museum to another artists museum on the other side of the river.  The other artist was an art teacher.

On the grounds was this gazebo that was done more recently to replace a gazebo that no longer exists.  The outside is mirrors and the inside is carved with images from Church's more famous works.  It was pretty cool to step inside the gazebo.

I got to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum.  The stone carving below is done by one of his sons who is also an artist.

This time in NY was different.  Steve's mom passed away while we were riding the Gap trail.  All the time Steve (and sometimes me too) had spent visiting her, was no longer part of our NY time.  The family has agreed to have a service in the fall when everyone in the family can be there.

Steve's daughter is Erin. Her boyfriend, Matt's parents wanted to meet us.  Erin and Matt have been dating/together for about three years.  Same as Steve and I! We enjoyed a nice evening with them.

Steve treated his kids and me to a James Taylor concert!  How cool is that!  The concert was in Saratoga, NY.

Below is Kevin (Steve's son), Erin, Matt, me and Steve.

Steve and I went for a kayak/camping trip on Indian Lake in the Adirondaks.  It was absolutely lovely, and a great way to spend my 73rd birthday.

Steve also gave me this book for my birthday.  I have enjoyed it.  Each chapter talks about a different woman who influenced the history and direction of the United States.  I recommend it.

Steve bought a new truck while we were in NY.  His other truck was fine, but since we are traveling all over and towing, he wanted to make sure we wouldn't have many problems.  We have to have a 6.5 foot bed on the truck to haul our trikes.  So he had to order one from another dealer.  We were keeping our fingers crossed it would come in a few days before we left.  He arranged to get the cap taken off the old one and put on the new one just in time.

Last year we got to visit a few friends along the way.  But this year we are meeting up with a lot more.  

Leaving Steve's in mid July we went right to Christy and Mark's home in the Finger Lakes region of NY.  They are Steve's Florida neighbors.  We have traveled with them to the Caribbean and this fall we are going with them to Croatia!  

They have lots of blueberry bushes.  We enjoyed tasting beers and picking berries.

We then had some time near Port Erie, PA without friends nearby.  There we biked around Presque Isle.

We met up with Mark and Julie from our Florida bike group in Ohio. We were in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. There we shared a cabin near the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath trail.  The smoke from the Canada Fires burned our eyes sometimes but we were breathing ok so we kept rode anyway.  

The day we arrived we went for an interesting hike.

When we got back to the parking lot there was a rooster wandering and a ranger about to try to catch it.  Julie raises chickens so she and Mark lended a hand.

Julie and I in Akron.  It was strange to ride into town and see no one out on the streets.  Julie said it was like the time of COVID.  Spooky.

The vistas let us see how thick the smoke was.

The four of us met up with Withlacoochee Bicycle Riders, Frankie and Dennis, at their home in Indiana.  Steve and I camped at Indiana Dunes National Park.  We were able to bike the Calumet Trail with Dennis and Frankie right from our campsite.

Our last day at the dunes I didn't want to miss doing the "Three dunes challenge."  I took my time and did it!  Yay!

Each dunes had a name and at the top were the statistics.  It was a fun walk.

One night we went down to see the sunset and neither one of us brought our phones.  Due to the smoke, it was the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen.  Over the lake we could see the Chicago sky line.  Behind it the sky was bright red.  And while we watched the clouds created a hole above the city.  And we watched the red sun descend through that hole.  It was like the cover of a science fiction novel!  Awesome.

Here are some pictures we took on a different night.

We walked a trail in the park with Frankie and Dennis.  Julie and Mark couldn't do it because of a knee problem.  We ended up walking longer than we had planned, much of it on the slanted beach.  My sciatic nerve was complaining, but I wasn't hurting bad enough to need a car rescue.  Dennis is over 80 and did about nine miles! 

Between Indiana and Iowa, we stopped at a Corp of Engineer's campground by a lock and dam on the Mississippi River.   There I played hostess to a Sisters on the Fly event. 

I say I played hostess, but I didnt organize anything but evening campfires.   I told the gals, whatever they wanted to do, just make it happen.

Steve was the only Mr. to attend.  They were fine with it.  

One woman organized a kayak ride. We went kayaking on the Rock River.   The shuttle bus had the seats taken out and lawn chairs in it.  

It was a long kayak, but we were all glad we did it.

Another woman asked who wanted to ride the trail right from the campground.  Of course we went and ended up riding 30 miles.

Right along the trail were a bunch of statues placed like the painting, Sunday in the Park.

A woman organized a honey tasting.  It was just like a wine tasting.  We cleared our palates with soda crackers.

On into Iowa, we camped at another COE campgroud, Bob Shetler, near Des Moines.  We were delighted to be able to see Ruth Glick and Bill Hamilton and Bob Nase while we spent nine days in the Des Moines, IA area.  

Bob took us biking on the High Trestle Trail.  The trestle is like a piece of art that you bike through.  I took a video.  

We saw tons of stickers all over from Raggbrai riders.  This is a ride across Iowa that happens every year.  There are over 10,000 riders, I think.  It is like a whole town of people biking through small towns with less than 10,000 in population. 

Ruth and Bill took us on the Raccoon Trail.  They also had us over for a lovely dinner. Thank you Ruth and Bill! 

Bill had on a corn shirt at dinner and then told us the story.  At Raggbrai one year he saw a guy wearing a collared shirt with corn cobs all over it.   "Where did you get that shirt," Bill asked him.   Bill ordered a shirt.  Two years later he is watching Raggbrai riders go by and there is the guy in the same shirt.  And Bill was wearing his shirt.   So they got their picture taken together.  What fun people, I am proud to call them my friends.

We later found the perfect pants to wear with the shirt, Bill.  We stopped at the Field of Dreams.

Here are pictures from.our ride with Bill and Ruth.

They showed us this rock memorial.  An artist is doing them all over to honor veterans.  This one had a family of five sons who served.  I think three of them were lost to war.

I have a friend, Jim, from my Waukesha biking days that lives near Des Moines.  His wife passed less than two years ago.  We managed to get together with him and that was awesome.  He has great kids and they are going to Kay and Jim's favorite place in the fall with him, Trempeleau, Wisconsin.

While in the Des Moines area, I wanted to do the whole Raccoon Valley Trail that loops, but the days were hot.  In fact, so hot, that we ended up spending two nights in a nice motel in Ankeny.  We walked to the movie theater and ate popcorn and watched the Odyssey in a theater with reclining chairs that vibrated with the base sounds.  It wasn't cooling off enough at night.  We felt amazed that people were sleeping in tents in our campground.

We got to do a few rides on our own in the Des Moines area.  There are trails everywhere.  I could bike right from our campground to Anytime fitness all on trails.

One of the rides took us right by the botanical gardens.  We went in.

Ralph from our Florida bike friends mentioned stopping at Captains for a cold one.  And we did.

In the restroom were more stickers.  I like the voice activated paper towel sticker.

Our last day in Des Moines we visited downtown and the farmers market.  I made a video.

We saw the capitol in the distance and we couldn't resist walking to it to get a closer look.

The pictures in the arches in the picture above are mosaics.

The capital was very impressive.

That brings us up to today.  We are in Madison, Wisconsin, where we will bike with Julie and Mark again!  

We will also visit with my son and his wife on Saturday. 

And we will see my biking buddy from Waukesha, WI, Kathi.

Julie recommended a massage person in Madison for my sciatic pain.  I have an appointment for Friday.

We are so lucky to have people in so many places.  People that want to ride with us and spend time with us.

Guess what!  Madison recycles!.  We had a shower full of recycling.  We could get rid of cans but that was it.  Not any of the places since we left NY recycled.  I was very happy to see the recycle bin at William Lunney Lake Farm Campground near Madison, WI.

These are the golden years.  We are embracing them.