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Firstly, and most important, Bev and David enjoyed the trip. A lot of the misgivings that I had about the generator, camper, and reception were unfounded. Everyone seemed to like David. We found lots of folks to chat with and had a good week. The food was good. The rain dampened (pardon the pun) our fun for a couple of days but wasn't awful. In fact, it cooled things off a bit. My riding was surprising. I had no trouble climbing hills. I found my own fitness to be above most of the riders. There was this one fellow who had ridden across America who could not stay with me on hill climbs. Not that they were as severe as our local hills but I was gratified to be able to pull them easily. I was surprised to be able to complete 2 centuries that week. I've never ridden that far before. Having those rest stops to take some time make it very doable. After the rest and food at each one, it broke the ride down into four parts. So in effect I was riding 4 25 mile rides instead of a single

Here I am at home after this year's Florida Bike Safari. We had a pretty good time. David made the trip a lot more fun. He enjoyed himself and was popular with the crowd. I rode in two centuries. I surprised myself. Bev agrees that the food was good. I rode 67 miles Saturday, 100 miles Sunday, 40 miles Monday, 100 miles Tuesday and 57 miles Wednesday. I believe I have lost more weight. I have yet to weigh but feel lighter. Now I have to get some rest and go to work tomorrow morning early.

After a lot of losing weight and riding miles, I am prepared for this ride. I am in more than twice the shape I was in last year. Where last year I was dealing with a separation anxiety about David, this year he will be with us. I have a few more things to prepare this morning, then we are off.

I worked pretty hard today getting the air system on the truck. I am hoping the cool air intake will make a difference in towing the pop-up. I don't expect gas mileage but will hope for some torque. Failing that I think the next plan is to get a different ring and pinion go get it to pull harder. We will see! I have debated taking Bev's recumbent. I believe I will take it just in case. It is only a few more pounds. Not enough to worry over. That way if there is someone who will go for a short evening ride with her, she won't have any excuse. Also having the child carrier, I can take her on a little ride and have David along. I can ride him anyway. Tomorrow morning I will have to get busy and do some grass trimming. I have laid out my items that I need from the garage. I hope I remember it all. Bev will have lots of stuff packed. I hope we can haul it.

Well, at this point I've done all I can do to get us to the Bike Safari. Now whether or not we have a good time is entirely up to fate. I hope this isn't another Presley vacation! The long term forecast is for much warmer weather than last year. I had planned on taking the camper to offset the cold nights. Right now I'll be wishing for some air conditioning. I think if we leave around 9am, that should put us down there by 6pm after our stops and such. At that time I'll still have a little daylight to put up the camper. Who knows? If David sleeps or travels well maybe we get there sooner. Last time we were pretty late setting up. Then the heavy dews wet everything so much and then the cold made your hands so numb it was very difficult. The cool evenings ran you into some fleece pretty early. With the forecast highs in the 80's and lows in the 60's, there might be some need for a little heat in the camper. But if highs make the 90's like they have here then I

We assembled a picnic table this week. Having the mild evening temperatures has prompted us to have dinner outside a couple of times this week. Bev was excited about the table and suggested we get a watermelon from Walmart to break it in. David seems to enjoy it...

I finally got to make the ride up toward Cheaha that I have wanted to do for a long time. I had calculated on the ride up toward Cheaha being more uphill with the return ride being more downhill. Boy was I wrong. The climbs on the way back were much steeper. And the road was certainly rugged. I found it to be quite a bumpy road. Here is Paul on one of the downhill stretches.

Darn cold weather! I got up this morning to some cool north breezes. It made me decide to hike rather than bike. Next week I will do the pm rides for the bike club. In the mornings, if there is time, I will get in some climbing out toward Bull Gap. I need to do the climbs more than the long rides. I seem to be stronger on the hills than last year. Maybe it is the 35 lbs I have dropped. That is almost equal to 2 bikes. I also dropped about 7 or 8 from the new bike. Combined that puts me 42 pounds of weight saved which would be a substantial load to pull up the hill. Now I just need to train those leg muscles to pound out the climbs. The only way I see to do that is to just do hills! I need to remember some small but important things when I pack for the trip. I will need to be sure I have a wrench to change the tire with. I need to check the spare to make sure it holds air. I will need to pack the charger just in case. A long extension cord might be nice. Sunscreen and bug repel will be

Today I didn't have a lot of time for riding so I took the bike out on 148 to Bee Gum road and mounted up to ride up the final hill of Bull Gap. For some strange reason I got away from the house and left my helmet and water behind. I took the chance and rode without the helmet but that wasn't smart. It was just too far to go back for it. Not having water wasn't good either. I don't know why I left them. I had them both but decided at the last second to close the camper before I left. Maybe I was just distracted. Anyway, I got out on the road and rode up to the top of the mountain making the best speed I can remember. You have to also factor in that I hadn't ridden the other 10 miles out there but I was encouraged. Then I turned around and rode over 6 mile hill up to Big John road. From there I rode back over 6 mile hill and down to Bee Gum. I pedaled up to 30 mph on the way down to the car. Overall average speed. 15.5 which includes some pretty good hills. Not bad f

Looks like I might have a spot of that stomach stuff that David and Maw Maw came down with. I have not felt up to full strength today and have begun to have some diarrhea. I have taken some medication and hope that it isn't the rough stuff, just a quick bout of upset stomach. Tomorrow is a good day for me to get out and do something. I can't afford sickness when my own personal time is so limited. I will have to will myself well by morning.

Last week passed rather quickly. I rode a 24 miler Wednesday with Paul. He was getting a ride for Lisa and her friends ready and wanted to see how road 303 was. Actually it was a pretty good ride. Good road and scenery. That afternoon on the way back, Nikki called to say David was sick and vomiting. I tried my best to keep Mother from getting exposed but she came down with vomiting by Saturday morning. I slept on her extra bed that night in case she needed something. She didn't call me but later said she had trouble getting up. Before David got sick on Wednesday, I took him on a hike with Beverly. He seemed to love being in the woods. He was riding my shoulders when we came into the open above Bull Bluff. He said, "Wow!" We had brought crackers for him to munch and he sat on a rock and ate them just like a little man. We covered 2 miles and David probably walked a mile of it. The exercise is good from Grammy too. I got in 2 more good rides this week. I rode a 40 miler up