Trippin' with Susan Straley

 Hello, A special shout out to the three guys that advised me through the purchase of my Ford Truck in May, Jim, Bill and Regis. On July 26th I drove East two hours to Freier's Truck Toppers in Appleton, WI, to get the topper put on the bed of Big Blue.  I had ordered the topper in May.  When I pulled into the parking lot, I could see the blue Leer topper already waiting in the garage for me. They found a place for me to sit and wait and plug in my computer.  The chair they gave me was damp, and the inside of the shelter was covered in old spider webs.    I didn't care!  I had more than one line of cell service! I turned on my computer and started to check email and upload a picture or two to this blog.   The owner had told me on the phone the process would take two hours.  But I just got done checking email and my bank account and I had just begun to write to you and bam!  They were done! Dang!  I had been looking forward to spending some time with net access!   After paying a

 I decided to bike to some water falls.  When I googled waterfalls near me, there were quite a few.  It appeared the closest one in the cluster was Kakabika Falls near Watersmeet and White City. I packed up last night and then put my bike bags in the van so I could get an early start.  Google said the falls was 44 miles away and then I have to bike to a campsite which is another 12 miles. This morning I was up and loading the bike by 6:00 a.m. a bit nervous.  I am used to using googlemaps for getting around.  But what happens if I need to re-configure my route and I don't have cell service?  I don't have a paper map, and if I did, even the detail maps don't tell me what roads are passable or bike friendly. Last night I made a turn-by-turn list for me to follow.   First I moved the van to make it harder to steal Lilac if some bad person was so inclined.  I almost knocked over the bike!   Starting from the campground I couldn’t get around doing some miles on Hwy 51.  A

It is nice to be in one place.  No days spent packing up and driving to the next place.     Physical Training   I have mapped out a nice nine-mile route that I ride my bike on several mornings a week.  Eventually I will add weight and practice the hilly route loaded.     I am training my body for the 300 plus mile tour I will be doing in September with friend Joan.  We will be riding the Allegheny Gap Trail and the C&O trail.  The C&O Trail has some very rough surfaces, so I am training on my two-wheel bicycle.  Since I arrived in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, I have not even removed my recumbent tricycle from the van! I set some physical goals for myself and went to meet with a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness.  Sydney is a slim young woman with a physical training degree and a cheerleader inside her.   I told her I wanted to be able to jump up onto something.  I told her that I was afraid to even jump onto a rug for fear of catching my toe.  Well, I guess that was negative self-