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

Ghostly!

Just letting all our zero readers know that, no, I haven't disappeared. My father put cleated pedals on my bike, and the weather's been awful since, so I haven't gotten the chance to get used to them in order to feel secure enough to ride on my own. Soon I'll be clipping in and out like a breeze, and I won't be getting wet in the process, promise!

~Casmira

Highways and Hills

My father took me on his loop today. Oh my am I tired. I feel like going to a Chinese buffet or something, and seeing how much I can down in order to continue this day of extremes. It was a really nice ride, though. I've got to do the shrine a couple of times again before I go out and do that again, but I made it home. I can walk, too. We passed some really beautiful places as well. It made the ride seem so much shorter! And bravo, for hitting the 100 mile mark and beyond!


~Casmira

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

Miles Traveled: 26.8

Final Destination: Riverhead, Manorville, etc...

Total this Summer: 124.59

Sun B Gone

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. My father bought me a pair of Cacoons. They're sun glasses that go over your prescription glasses. They stopped the draft so well. Today's ride was twice as enjoyable because of it. To top it off, it seems like every time we make this ride, it gets shorter. He says familiarly causes it. People were at the Shrine, too (it was a Sunday,) so we didn't even have our big break in the middle. On the way down from the shrine, I hit the breaks a little too hard. I felt my back wheel lift and little, but I'd slowed down enough to be able to just let off the break and prevent meeting the cement in an unfriendly way. No harm done, and lots of fun had. Makes me want to go further! But that last long ride really blew my wind out. Oh, and we passed a mother and daughter on horses! How nice! They were huge and brown. I felt so small on my bike next to them. I absolutely love horses. Here's to another great ride!

~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: 97.79

Roller Coaster on Two Wheels

It's thundering outside. Hopefully my computer doesn't explode. But for now I'm going to sit back, relax after a long day's cycling, and listen to the weather as I sketch all this down. Today was a lot of fun, and there was a camera involved. I took Katya to see the Shrine. We stopped for sandwiches on the way, and sat around looking over the land and the ocean in the distance for quite a while before deciding to try the part of the loop my father had shown me. It was only about a 2 mile addition, but those hills were mighty hills. On the way back, those hills were sloping down. What a thrill! On the hardest gear, peddling was still ridiculously simple. The way back was a blast, and when we approached our houses, we decided to tack on a few extra miles on the back roads. We didn't go too far, and it was very flat, but I could suddenly feel the strain after what we'd already done. I'm happy though; today was so nice, even with the crazy winds.

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira, Katya

Miles Traveled: 22.09

Final Destination: Lady of Our Island and Beyond, round trip

Total this Summer: 84.59

Filling the Quota

My father woke me up early again to do the same loop for the third time. Next time we go out, I believe we're going a bit further. However much I want to just keep riding, I'm going to take people's word for it and start slow. Going there was especially hard today. I'd been out late the night before with friends, we started early, it's almost all uphill on the way there, and the wind was against us. Around the halfway mark, I once again got something in my eye. I had to stop at the side of the road because I was watering up. It flushed out much quicker then last time though. It must have filled the thing in my eye quote for the day too, because I got to look out over the ocean again today instead of a pool in my palm. Thankfully on the way back, it was downhill with the wind, and I was mostly woken up. Ahh, speed. Such sweet bliss. Oh, and I breached 50 miles for the summer! Probably by the time I hit the top of my street today, I'd already done it. How nice! Now let's get us to 100.

~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: 62.5

Chimes of Victory

I woke up this morning to my father kicking the foot of my bed. It was bike time, when normally I'd be falling asleep (though, that's just because I'm prone to a nocturnal nature, making 8:30am into the weeeeeee hours of the morning.) We made the climb up to the Lady, again. I had something in my eye, so we got to sit and listen to the bells chiming for the Sunday service as I tried blinking into water cupped in my hand from my water bottle. The bells were still playing their tune when we left. On the way back, I got a refreshing taste of the cycling connection:
Guy passing by the other way: HiiiIIIiiiiIIIiiii~!!!!
Me: *laughs* Hiii~!
*a minute later*
Me: Did you know him, Dad?
Father: Nope. He probably saw your jersey and recognized you as a cyclist.
Me: It's nice, they're so friendly.
Father: Yeah, that and the fact that he's probably high as a balloon on endorphins.
The way back also yielded me, on flat land, a whopping 21MPH. That's right cars, watch out, you'll be facing me on two wheels on the Nascar track, next!

~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: 49.3

Bravo, Lady!

Katya and I had our distance ride planned today, but things were canceled. I still wanted to go out, so my father offered to take me to a shrine about 6 miles from our house. It's up on the top of a huge hill, so it was pretty crazy cycling to the top and looking down over the island. Even highways looked like measly residential stuff through all the trees. It was really beautiful, with the ocean in the distance. Coming back was nice, too. A lot was a gentle downhill slope, so it took half the amount of energy despite being tired already and against the wind. It was my first ride in my jersey and shorts, too. It made the ride a lot more tolerable!

~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: 36.1

Makeup and Mangos

I wanted ice cream all day. I wanted to get out on my bike too, and fresh eggs and half priced makeup sounded like good incentive. I called Katya, and did what I love to do. Spend money. Today was a series of loops. Go east, pick up eggs, return home. Go west, buy mangoes, and proceed back to the starting point via a series of twists and turns in the form of an adventure. It was really pretty, and we both had a nice time. It was our longest run so far this summer, and I don't feel the least bit sore, either. I'd be rearing to go tomorrow if not for my poor butt. That seat's hard! I won't be doing any rearing until Thursday, when her and I break out of our near-by habits and go get lost out east on our bikes, in a fun attempt to simply see how far we can go. I'm looking forward to that! The weather is supposed to be nice, so it seems like an ideal day! Just like today was.

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira, Katya

Miles Traveled: 12

Final Destination: Mangoes for $1

Total this Summer: 22.9

An All Day Escapade

Once again, a late night post. Today was a lot of fun. It was more of a joy adventure then a ride, but who says the two need to be separated? We rode around, stopping at the beaches along a street. We collected some nice shells, saw some non-local birds, and once night fell we bought sushi and brought it down to a closed restaurant. They light their deck and leave tables out at night, so we had a high-class, beach front dinner. Needless to say, we didn't exactly have to wait on line because we didn't have a reservation. Ahh, wheels!

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira, Adam

Miles Traveled: 4

Final Destination: The Beaches

Total this Summer: 10.9

Day One

Seeing as it's 3:30, it's technically not the first day we went out on the road anymore. But, it was a good first day out. For two girls who haven't been very active, 6.9 miles is a good start. Today we were just visiting a friend, but coming up soon we're going to take our first length test. Since it's still the beginning of summer, we're going to choose a nice day and ride as far out east as we can. We'll have someone come pick us up when we can't go any further. At the end of the summer, we'll do the same. Hopefully the end of the island will be far enough away for us. Here's to the start of a summer of biking, traveling, working, and dreams.

~Casmira

Participants today: Casmira, Katya

Miles Traveled: 6.9

Final Destination: Next town over, round trip