Author: bikeral2000

This has been a very busy day for me.   I tho’t I was going to have an easy day and lie around a bit.  Ha!  Fat chance.

My brother asked me if I’d unload the wagon of wood that we gathered yesterday while he did other chores.  Sure.  What could I say.  Two hours later I was drenched and could barely peel my clothes off.  And I was working slowly so as not to get hot.  High 80’s by the time I got done.

And Stef wanted her houseplants replanted.  No biggy.  Easy job but it was hot.  I also had promised yesterday that I’d pick all the tomatoes and corn and shuck it.  Got all those jobs done but it was blistering hot.

Then I got a ride to Richmond to pick up my bike and rode home this evening.  I had new tires and new brakes ( boy did I ever.  Didn’t know my others were so worn.)  So good to get back on the bike but I felt like I had lost some of my bike strength.  I haven’t ridden for 10 days.  Still cruised along but with more effort.

So the theme of today was hot, hot, hot.  Sorry but that’s all I can say.  I wouldn’t live here if you paid me.  Just plain miserable every day.  I feel sorry for my brother having to work in this climate.  Not healthy, I’m sure.

One thing about Ohio, it has poison ivy everywhere.  I tho’t I was being careful and washing off after working in the wood, but, alas, I have a bunch.  So irritating.

18.0 miles today.    3770.2 total

What a day.  I am whipped.  Woke up at usual 4:30am but it is dark outside.  So I lay there and listen to the clock go off every 15 minutes.  Sun doesn’t come up til after 7.

I stayed at my nephew’s again last nite and we froze corn again.  Fun time.

Once I eat breakfast. I am off to the garden at my nephew’s to weed.

My brother showed up early and I only got an hour and a half of weeding done but I made great progress.

We worked in the wood all day.  Just before noon I was losing steam and really slowing down.  Ate an energy bar and made it but my foot really hurt.  I didn’t know why but when I got home and took my shoes off, I had two bruised toenails which I will lose and a blister.  I had foot surgery last November and my toes are longer now so my shoes are causing major stress on my longer toes.  Darn it.  These were my garden shoes last summer and they were fine and now they are too small.  So I have decided to wear my sandals which is not the best when working with logs but I have no other option.

My brother and I both decided that working in this heat is not fun so we probably won’t work in the wood tomorrow.  Fine by me.

This is one of the wagons we loaded today.  It was much more fun when I worked in Jan a year and a half ago.  Not hot.

Had corn out of the garden for supper.  So good.  Really need to go to bed.

I stayed all night with my nephew’s family and was out at sunrise pulling weeds in their garden.  Got rained out after an hour and a half and it rained really hard so no wood gathering again today.  When I got back to the farm, the rain had stopped so I finished pulling weeds in the flower bed until I couldn’t stand the heat.  It showered a couple times so it took me til afternoon to get done.  I must say it looks pretty good now.

After work, my nephew stopped in and got more corn so I went home with him again to help Cathy.  I’ll stay the night  and try to finish my weed pulling job here tomorrow morning.

Always plenty to do.

I forgot to mention yesterday that the firewood we hauled home was not the normal 18″ logs.  They were 4-5 foot logs, many of them 6-8 inches in diameter.

My body is rebelling today.  I am sore everywhere.  Fortunately, it is too hot to have to do that again today.  We will wait til it cools off a bit.

I got a ride with my sister-in-law, Stef, to Richmond, Indiana, this morning to get my bike tuned up.  New tires, brakes, etc.  I should get it back by Friday.

I also did some much needed shopping to replace what I was low on such as batteries, toiletries, etc.  Ready to go again.

While I was gone, Phil worked on building a gate.  After lunch, I supervised him finishing the job.  Just kidding.  We talked between hammer strokes.

Once my nephew, BJ, got off work, he pulled sweet corn from my brother’s patch.  I went home with him to help Cathy freeze it.  So I spent 2 hours or more shucking the corn and she cut if off the cob.  Then I cooked and boxed it for the freezer.  We finished after 10pm.  I love to do that kind of work.  We didn’t quit til the job was done.

I’m staying the night and plan to weed in her garden early before it gets hot.  That’s a joke as it has been in the 70″s when we get up.  And very muggy.  But I promised so will work til I can’t stand it.

Having a great time. Every day is different on the farm.

Wow, am I ever out of shape for working on the farm.  I am so tired tonite.  Every muscle is complaining.  Bike riding is so easy compared to this.

While Phil did the morning chores, I pulled weeds in the front flower bed.  I did that in June when I was here just for fun and when I got here Sat, it was requested that I do it again.  I made a dent but have lots more to do.

It was very hot today, prob 90 or close to it and very humid.  My clothes were so wet that I had a hard time getting them off.  Absolutely miserable weather to have to do hard labor in.

We gathered firewood from piles that had been stacked since two winters ago when I was here.  We load the bobcat, then haul it to a farm wagon, and then unload it on the wood pile.

We gather the wood from three miles away.  By three o’clock, I was starting to wind down and got slower and slower.  I’m really disappointed in myself but I will blame the heat for part of it.

Phil decided that tomorrow’s heat forecast is just too hot to be working that hard so no firewood work.  Yeah!  I need to recover.

I am so tired that I came straight to bed immediately after our 8:30 dinner.  It’s been a long day.

Boy did I sleep good last night.  I did go to bed at 7 and soon fell asleep.  Best night’s sleep I’ve had in months.  Slept clear through til 4:30.  More than 4-5 hours sleep in one night is good for me so this is highly unusual.  I think the body needs some rest.

Did laundry and reorganized a few things for the next trip. Have to rethink clothes since I’ll be riding in high elevation in Oct.

I had to call Verizon to cancel my international phone plan and I called six times before I ever got to a real person.  I was not a happy camper but the job is done, I hope.

My nephew and his family came for a  picnic lunch and we had a great time.  Showed them my maps of where I’d been.  My brother just shakes his head and says he doesn’t understand how I can do what I do.  (He is four years younger than me).  I say to him I don’t know how he does what he does. (He is a farmer and works really hard in 90 degree heat and super high humidity.  I would melt into a puddle.)  So we are all different.  But he and his son support me and that is important . The rest of my family think I”m nuts.  Their problem.

So tomorrow I’ll be working in this heat and hope like heck I don’t melt into a puddle.  Til then.

Do not disturb sign on our Jag hotel.

What a sleepless night.  I had to get up at 3 am for a 5:45 am flight.  I didn’t sleep a wink.

And flying is always traumatic for me and this one more so than usual because I had all my gear and a bike box.  I had a trolley but the doors weren’t wide enough to go through so you had the be creative with wheels that didn’t cooperate.

Then I couldn’t get the kiosk machine to work.  Had to get help.  I’m such a dork with computers.

They wouldn’t check my bags at the counter like all the other people.  Had to maneuver through crowds to the oversize section where they took stuff out of my bike box to x-Ray.  Then they just handed it back to me to put back in the box.  I was told they would supply tape but they didn’t.  Fortunately. I brought my own but it was the principal of the matter.  Good thing I’m always prepared.

First leg of the flight was ok.  Got in on time and ready to leave on time for the second leg.  Taxied out a ways and the pilot stopped and turned off the engine.  We had been grounded due to lightning in our flight path.  Fortunately, it was only for a half hour, not the hour they first said, so we did make it to Detroit in time to catch the third and final leg.

Before we left Detroit, the captain said we’d be flying through and around  several thunderstorms.  Not my idea of a good time.  Yuk!!!  And this time the plane was small, only had 48 seats for passengers but only 12 people on board.  I asked the stewardess why so many empty seats and she said the bad weather delayed lots of flights so people weren’t there to board.  I ended up getting home on time.  Long day and I’m really tired.

Got to the farm and soon changed clothes to help with chores.  Ready for bed and it’s only 7 pm.

No Wi-Fi at the hotel last night or today while flying.  Sending lots of pics, I hope.  Not much to say except we had to say our goodbyes to new friends.  Sad.  Some of us did walk around downtown to kill time.

Some of the ‘ponds’ on the drive from the ferry to St. John’s the other day.

Famous local beer in St. John’s.  Pretty good.

St. John’s court house.  Pretty impressive.

Our hotel in St. John’s was called the Jag Boutique and it was named after Mic Jagger.  All the photos were of groups from his time and all the music played in the hotel was from the 60’s and 70’s.  Really a neat hotel.  And so fancy.  We even had a dental floss dispenser hung on the wall in the bathroom.  Out best hotel on the whole trip.

Late afternoon, Kendy and I got a taxi, picked up my boxed bike, and headed to a hotel close to the airport.  Walked around some more to kill time.  I had no idea St. John’s was so big

Out taxi driver said 250,000 plus people live here.  Big hills separate parts of the town so you can’t see the whole thing.  We are 10 miles from downtown and we never left town.  I was surprised.

No Wi-Fi on the ferry yesterday.

Last night we all had a sleepong berth on our 16 hr ferry ride.  Our room had to be the noisiest of all rooms.  We were right above the door that slammed all night long when people went out on the deck.  Even at 2 in the morning.  Plus the boat swayed all night long and was very disturbing.  At one point, Kendy and I were both awake and just laid there and laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.  We got very little sleep, unfortunately.  So Glad we didn’t have to ride our bikes today.

We woke to foggy skies that cleated, then fogged over again.

It was a very cloudy drive to st. John’s but very beautiful.  I’ll try to put a few photos on tomorrow’s blog.  Lots of ponds, some of which I tho’t should have been called lakes.

We ate our last lunch together. Bummer.

I left my bike at a bike shop to be packed for the plane because I don’t trust myself to do it correctly.  All the other cyclists packed their own bikes while I sat around and watched.

Soon to be flying home to Ohio.

It was one of those hurry up and wait days.  We had to check out at 10 but not get to the ferry til 3:00.  Just sat around reading and killing time.

These are pictures as we leave North Sydney.