Packing the Pannier

The panniers are finally packed for our first bike tour of 2009. Tomorrow evening we are headed down to Maryland to bike the C&O Canal trail. We will be parking at the visitor center in Williamsport then biking down to Washington DC and back.

Since I so often Google for lists of things to pack - just to make sure I didn't forget something I decided to post my packing list. The following list has been printed and packed for the trip. This should make the job of finding what we need much easier.

Fitnio

The iPhone has a number of fitness applications. Many are free so I've been giving them a shot. Today before my ride I opened Fitnio and clicked on the bike. Two simple clicks. It then began tracking my mileage and calories. I thought this was pretty cool.When I got home I was pleased to see it was accurate. Then it suggested that I log onto the web site associated with it. Sure, why not. It gave me a map of my ride along with stats for each mile and elevation! More data to play with!!

Who is watching?

This blog was started our of curiosity for blogging, then it became a good way to keep track of our bike tours. Eventually it morphed into a great way for my sister and I to keep up communication.

Eventually I added Sitemeter to observe traffic and see how many countries I could get to hit my site, just for kicks.Now I'm very curious, someone recently has been reading this blog that I work with. I don't know who. Sitemeter shows they are on the network for the company I work for. I wonder if they will leave a comment? =)

I feel like Benjamin Button

Today was my birthday and I had a wonderful day!

Pre-20's I dreaded birthdays. In my 20's I was indifferent to them. When I turned 30 they were OK and every year since they have gotten better.

When I walked into work this morning my cube was decorated with balloons and a banner. Then I got a talking card. The Charlie Brown teacher was telling me something important - I didn't catch it. Then another co-worker brought in cupcakes and my friends sang a lovely rendition of "Happy Birthday". After work my husband took me to dinner and then to Pet Palace to pick up a gift.

A perfect day! Who could ask for more? =)

Mud, Snow, and Ice

The 2009 biking season has begun!!

Saturday March 7th warmed up to 59º! We threw the bikes on the back on the car and drove to Tobyhanna State Park for our first ride of the season. The trail started with deep snow but cleared up after the first hill.
The rest of the trail was a mix of mud and ice patches. This was my first ride on ice since the "mishap" last summer so I was excited to ride through most of the patches without incident.

This year we have a number of long weekends planned and hope to get in quite a few tours.

OBX

December in the Outer Banks is great. Most businesses are closed for the season because no one is around. This is great for bikers, very little traffic on the road and great hotel prices!


The ride from Nags Head up to Corolla and back was very quiet and relaxing.

Next we rode down to Hatteras and took the free ferry to Ocracoke. It was a long beautiful beach ride.

Warning!

Never tie a scarf around your handlebars. It might get caught in the front wheel and your face would end up looking like this! Doesn't look too bad, but it hurt for quite some time. =) I face planted within the first 5 miles of our ride, but had to finish the 68 miles we scheduled for that day. I caught up on Jill's blog last night and was pumped for a long ride!

This was our final ride for 2008. We finished with 2,276 miles! What a fun year!

The Weight of Snow

Trin got up many times throughout the night to the sound of footsteps all around the house. The sound of slamming doors was disconcerting, for him anyway, I slept through most of it.We woke up to six inches of white – our first snow fall of the year. The trees are crying from the weight of heavy wet clinging snow. They are relieved only by the occasional breeze that releases the weighted white coating. It hits the ground sounding like running heavy weights.

I stood on our back porch listening to the thunder of trees breaking followed by the waterfall of snow pounding the ground leaving a cloud of white mist to settle.A tree in the back yard was doing a back bend over the house. Trin donned a helmet and planned his attack. He used a log to hit the lower trunk of the tree, giving it enough vibration to loosen some of the snow. Each ram brought the tree up about an inch. It is now upright; I think it will make it through this storm.The road is closed, so we can not drive to work and our internet connection is not working so we can not work from home. Vacation day! Trin can enjoy his new heated toilet seat - he just installed it last night. And I’ll finish my book! Every hour or so we check out the latest crash to see what tree nearly missed our house. So far huge branches have fallen on every side; some have shaken the house, but no major damage yet. More firewood for the winter! =)