The Upcoming Year

Saddly, last Summer I was forced into doing quite a lot of office work. Long hours and a lot of traveling prevented me from getting to ride much at all. Thankfully, this summer is looking much more bicycle-friendly! The moment the weather begins to warm up, I have a lot of office-chair butt to work off, and fun new areas to explore on two wheels! Spring is showing it's first signs of coming around, so get ready for another round of Across the Land!

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira

Miles Traveled: 0 (Oh no!)

Final Destination: My Warm livingroom

Total this Summer: 0

Coasting to the Right

I can't believe the weekend is already over. It feels like it's Friday evening. Today's ride was like a dream, though. I decided to try coasting. So, I left my house with three objectives:
1) I wanted to be back home in about an hour.
2) I would only make right turns.
3) I would come home with something interesting.
Right turns worked out well. I had to allow myself to turn around upon hitting dead ends, and turn left in order to get home, but besides that, to the left it was! Doing this lead me onto some local, but strange new roads. On one of these roads I found my something interesting: bamboo. I put it in my pouch and road around with it. It still seemed healthy when I got home, so I potted it. Hopefully it'll root! And, thankfully, I got home around one hour from when I left, letting me see how my mother cooks fish cakes. Delicious!

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira

Miles Traveled: 12

Final Destination: Coasting

Total this Summer: 217.32

Coasting Records

I wasn't expecting to ride today. Originally I was going to wake up early and go to the archery range my father shoots at, and take a look around. The way he describes it seems beautiful. As per usual, I slept too late for all the fun, though. When he got back, he brought up the conversation we'd had over dinner last night about mountain versus road bikes, what tour bikes are, and the advantages of recumbent bikes. Because he only uses his recumbent bikes, we have a few bikes who've gone unused chilling out in the garage. They're all guy's bikes, but I'm manly enough to pull it off. Bwahahaha! So, the tally of nice new stuff today came up to: a nice new road bike, sweet cleats that click in super easy, and an outstanding ride up to the shrine to test it all out! I got whacked in the face with how nice this new bike is for me. I had no trouble finding the cleats (my other pair hadn't become "second nature" quite yet...I was still struggling with them.), I beet my speed record by getting up to a whopping 24 MPH on flat ground, and last but definitely not least, I tripled my coasting length record coming down the gradual hill back home from the shrine. I used to have to stop at the development, but a mix of favorable winds, putting more weight on the pedals, and using the curvature of the road let me actually make the turn onto the next road and keep going without a single rotation of the pedals until we hit the rather steep uphill that lurks white a ways from the shrine. Next time, I shall measure. Glee! Oh! And I hit 200 miles in total today. Go me!

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira-- It was a father, daughter ride!

Miles Traveled: 12.6

Final Destination: Lady of Our Island, round trip

Total this Summer: 205.32

Double the Fun

Working with children has it's downside: It's mentally and physically exhausting. So, it's cut into my number of cycling days dramatically. I did go out Wednesday, though. For ice cream and bubbles, of course! It was the same ride I tried to take years ago with my father, on my mountain bike. I remember being tired before I even got to the top of the road. After ice cream and on the way back, I was a whine-radio-station, angry, and exhausted. Needless to say, it was much, much easier now.

Last night, I fell asleep around 10pm. Thanks to that, I was up at 8, before my father left the house for his ride. So, today I attempted the long loop for the second time. We went around the trip the opposite way, making the HUGE downhill I enjoyed so much last time an intense, long, steep uphill. I had things to distract me from my exertion, though. Items on the side of the road: A lemon, roadkill turtle (I didn't know a turtle could get that flat...), eating pigeons, and a sneaker. Later in the ride there was also a young boy and his mother crossing the road. We stopped for them, and the young boy offered me a golf ball. I said no, but thank you, and continued to ride. He ran after me. Falling quickly behind my father, I continued to ride, and heard the mother calling for the boy. There were no intersections around, so he was safe and sound. So all in all, the ride went very well. Now it's rest time!

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira-- It was a father, daughter ride!

Participants today: Casmira-- It was a father, daughter ride!

Miles Traveled: 5.93

Miles Traveled: 26.8

Final Destination: Ice Cream!

Final Destination: Riverhead, Manorville, etc...

Total this Summer: 192.72

Neko Basu

Ahh, what fun. It was good and hot today, and I've got a ton of stuff I need to get done. Nothing can keep me from a nice joy ride, though! Lots of animals, both dead and alive, were on the side of the road today. Besides the dead ones, it was really pretty!

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira, Katya

Miles Traveled: 13.2

Final Destination: Lady of Our Island, round trip

Total this Summer: 159.99

Success!

I totally forgot to post after my last bike ride! Well, it was yesterday, and it was a lot of fun. The cleats didn't give me too much trouble, and I ended up having a lot of fun. Going uphill is a little easier with them, and I like playing around with being able to pull the petals up, too.

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira-- It was a father, daughter ride!

Miles Traveled: 13.2

Final Destination: Lady of Our Island, round trip

Total this Summer: 146.79

Clipping in for the Hill

I practiced with my cleats for the last time today, before I continue doing loops. I'm going to start over at the Shrine again, and if I'm feeling it with the new shoes and pedals, it's onwards, to the 27~ish mile loop again. Glee! Today's practice run almost hit double digits mile wise, so I'll consider it a ride, too. Bravo! The only time the cleats aggravated me was when my favorite big hill that my father's been trying to do 50mph on came... I'd stopped the bike at the top of the hill, and I didn't get my shoe back in the clip until half way down. I missed most the action stressing out over not having my foot right. Ahh well, it was a lot of fun. I reached speeds of 20mph+ today. Woah.

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira

Miles Traveled: 9

Final Destination: Riverhead

Total this Summer: 133.59