Life on a Tandem

Monday, June 13, 2022

Amelia Island Trail, Florida

June 1, 2022

14 miles

Amelia Island is north of Jacksonville Beach where we are staying. Loaded up the bike early and drove to the island. Parked at Peter's Point Parking. Very nice parking lot with nice bathrooms and a lovely access to the beach.

The trail took us back west just a tad bit before turning south and hugging Florida's A1A highway. The trail in town was curvy, crossed lots of streets and very tree covered. It was very beautiful riding under the spanish moss draped live oaks. The trail also is very actively used. After 4 miles we were out of town and the trail was straighter. When we hit the 7 mile mark it was on an old bridge that parallels the current bridge. Many people were fishing off the bridge. At the south end of the bridge we came to a chain link fence blocking the rest of the trail. We found out later it is because part of the trail has collapsed . We could have biked on the road but didn't want to cross on a bridge in the narrow bike lane with vehicles. Florida drivers don't have a very friendly reputation regarding bicyclists.

It was a very short and pleasant ride for us. Afterwards we ate lunch alfresco at Palms Fish Camp. Delicious shrimp and fish baskets and bread pudding for dessert.

Tallahassee-St. Marks Trail, Florida

May 29, 2022

32 miles

Wide, smooth, straight and flat all describe this trail. These are all attributes of a great trail. We got out early to ride before the Florida heat and humidity got too bad and it was definitely a great decision. It was a calm, beautiful morning and the trail wasn't busy yet on this holiday weekend. We were pleasantly surprised at the road crossings it was the cars who had the stop signs and not us. It made crossing roads so much smoother!

Interesting situation upon arriving at the trailhead this morning. When we pulled into the parking lot there were two men outside of a car about two spaces away from us and their trunk was open. As we were unloading and preparing our bike we heard quite a bit of screaming. I looked over and one man had crawled into the trunk of the car and was pretending to be in distress. Then a few minutes later, even though he was just steps from the bathroom facilities, he urinated on the back tire of his car. Then both men got into the car and just sat there. As we rode off on our bicycle I was both glad to get away from them but also concerned about what they might do after we left. It was all very strange.

Tanglefoot Trail, Pontotoc, Mississippi

May 27-28, 2022

50 miles

Arrived at the Bodock B&B late afternoon. The innkeepers are lovely people and great hosts. They live next door and have turned the old homestead into a B&B. No one else was staying so Clay and I had the whole place to ourselves. Our whole stay was Southern Hospitality at it's finest, including the cheese grits served at breakfast and the fresh gardenia in the bathroom.

After checking in we rode north on the Tanglefoot trail. Fifteen miles out and turned around and came back. An interesting thing about this trail is we saw many golf carts. One cart had a man and woman and the man had a sheriff's badge on his t-shirt. We learned from our host that they patrol the trail. The others we saw we don't know what they were doing. Possibly going for an evening ride or going to dinner at one of the towns along the trail??? Maybe they are saving gas by going in the golf carts instead of driving their vehicles. It's so unusual because motorized vehicles aren't supposed to be on the trails.

The trailheads were also called whistle stops and had nice facilities with bike repair stations and pumps. Most also had benches or picnic tables and flowerbeds or hanging baskets of flowers.

After breakfast Saturday morning we rode south on the trail 10 miles, turned around and came back. There were more people on the trail this morning compared to yesterday. Also, more golf carts. It was a gorgeous morning and a great way to start our day! Thanks to retired judge Toby Winston and his beautiful wife Jane for letting us have a late checkout so we could clean up after the ride. Next stop....Tallahassee, Florida.

Southwest Missouri Tandem Rally

June 4-6, 2021

141 miles

This was an impromptu mini vacation. Our friends, Mike and Shanna Cooke from Oklahoma City, asked if we would be interested in riding this with them. We have not seen them for many, many years and we both do a lot of tandem riding. Springfield, Missouri is about the half way point between us.

We arrived Thursday night and did a pre ride with the Springbike club there in Springfield. The Rally started the next day and we did a ride each of the three days. Being in the Ozarks, it was very hilly. Our legs are not used to hills so it was a struggle for me. There were 41 tandems and we were quite the site starting our rides in the mornings. We were even featured on one of the news stations.

We met many new friends from lots of different states and met several couples from the St. Louis area. All the different tandems were very impressive and it was fun to see them all. Our rest stops included a local winery which served us a large variety of crackers, cheese and fruit, and Fantastic Caverns where we had a picnic lunch.

Storage room for the 41 tandems

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Home from the Bike Surgeon

August 25, 2021

As most of you know we had an incident earlier this month. We were on our way to meet some friends for a mini vacation which included some bike riding among other things. We were about an hour from home traveling 70 miles an hour on interstate 64 in Illinois. All of a sudden our bike and bike rack came off the top of our car. It was truly a miracle that no cars were by us at the time. And, the strangest thing is, as it slid off our car, it hit the back bike tire and fell upright and slid across the traffic lanes staying upright the whole time. It came to a halt in the passing lane of the interstate. Clay was able to jump out of our car and get to the bike before it was hit by other cars. We really feel that God's hand of protection was on us that day!

(This was taken in June but you can see how we transport our bike)

After the accident, taking everything apart to fit in the trunk.

You can see how bent the back wheel is.

Now we had the problem of how would we transport the damaged bike and bike rack to a place for repairs. We had to unload the trunk of our Honda Civic, lay down the back seat, take both tires off the bike, shove it in the trunk as far as it would go. Pile the tires, rack and our luggage in on top and around the bike. Of course the bike didn't fit all the way in so we had to bungee cord the trunk lid down. Luckily the bike store we use for service was between us and our house, so we didn't have to go all the way back home. We left the bike with the Bike Surgeon and continued on our vacation, which now looked a lot different since we didn't have our bike.

We had to cut out one bike ride in Kentucky but we were able to rent single bikes (their tandem rentals we broken and they are having trouble getting parts to fix them) on our planned ride in Ohio.

Little Miami Bike Trail, Ohio

As it turns out, there wasn't much damage to our bike. We had to replace the back wheel and tire and the handlebar tape on my my handlebars. (We figure we did that damage when we were shoving it in the trunk) Ironically those are the two things we had done earlier this summer. We feel really blessed that we still have our trusty tandem bike! Ready for more adventures but nervous about transporting it now. We'll have to use our truck as the bike rack is toast!

Saturday, May 22, 2021

KATY Trail 2021

May 16-21, 2021

KATY Trail 6-day fully supported Tour

Clinton, Missouri to St. Charles, Missouri

235 miles

Happy 20th birthday to our bike! Before our bicycling vacation we took our bike in for a complete go over to make sure it was trail worthy. Several items needed to be fixed and we have gotten to the magic age that many parts are no longer available. Had to have some things custom built. It's sad to say but we may be looking at replacing our bike sooner rather than later.

Before leaving, the 6 day weather forecast was not looking good. High percentage of rain forecasted every day of the trip. Since I am a fair weather rider, this had me concerned.

We met our group at the KATY Trail parking lot in St. Charles, Missouri. Including the 2 tour guides we had 4 men and 4 women on this trip. Three of the women are named Kathy/Cathy. It makes it very easy for everyone to remember the womens' names but it is very confusing when someone asks a question to one of the Kathys.

The first day was the hardest because of the weather. And, as stated above, since I am a fair weather rider I can confidently say it was the worst weather day I have ever bicycled in! We got over 4 inches of rain and we were drenched and covered with mud by the time we arrived at the hotel for the evening. The hotel had a water hose on the side of the building to wash everything down. There was quite a line as we weren't the only tour group staying there that night. For the rest of the trip most days we had some sprinkles or light rain but it never lasted long. We were very fortunate for that!

By the way, when we arrived at the Clinton trailhead to start the trip, Clay found a painted rock. We picked it up and kept it. Look what it says...... So guess who we are blaming for the rain!

This is the fourth time for us to ride the complete trail and it was the first time that we are staying in Jefferson City and Hermann because both are on the South side of the Missouri River and we have never crossed on our bike. Both now have very nice protected bike lanes over the river. In Jefferson City three of our grandkids were waiting in the hotel parking lot for us to arrive. We had a great visit with them!

Crossroads Bike Tours did a fantastic job, we were very spoiled all trip long. All the lodgings were fantastic and the food was superb! Already want to ride the KATY Trail again!

Friday, August 14, 2020

2020 Ohio Bike Trip

August 10-13, 2020

Stayed in Xenia, Ohio

Little Miami Scenic Trail (North from Xenia) 20 miles
Creekside Trail 29 miles
Little Miami Scenic Trail (South from Xenia) 33.2 miles
Ohio to Erie Trail 62 miles

One lane covered bridge that went over the Little Miami Scenic Trail

We decided to stay in a VRBO because we felt it was safer in regards to the Corona Virus. We could do our own meals and do laundry as needed. It was a perfect solution for this vacation. Xenia is basically a hub for five main bike trails and we could easily access all of them from the house.

We were able to ride parts of three trails and the complete Creekside Trail while we were there. We rode three days and two consecutive days we rode metric centuries (100k or 62.14 miles). That was a new record for us.

The weather was perfect. In the 70's and 80's with light wind. Some days were pretty cloudy which gave us some sun protection. The trails did have many sections of tree coverage but there were also some that were along farm lands that were more out in the open. We went through some quaint towns along the trails. Would have liked to do some more exploring but because of COVID-19 there wasn't much to explore and some places weren't even open. This reminded me a lot of the KATY trail in Missouri but these trails were paved and not limestone. These trails rank up in my top 5 Trails that we have ridden. What a gem this area was. Thank you Ohio for some great biking!