A Little Rain, A Little Sun & Some Sustainable Energy

After watching the Tour de France this morning, the rain showers moved in but that didn't dampen our plans of visiting the Sustainable Dunn activities going on in Menomonie. Our son and his co-worker Doug were manning a table for the Bubbling Springs Solar water heater company they both work for.

The guy that has the Green Remodeling small business made his own trailer that hooks up to his road bike.

I haven't seen him bike to the park, but I'm assuming he did biked his way to the park this morning to set up his portable booth.



I think it's really great that families come out to energy fairs on their bicycles!

This gal was taking advantage of the farmer's market also going on in the park. Cool hand bag!

After the energy fair, the bike man and our son decided to go trout fishing. I had my mountain bike in the car and decided I wanted to ride the Red Cedar trail. I was prepared for rain, but my main mission was to do a good leg workout. Before I departed on my way, the boys reminded me that I needed to average a 16-18 mph pace.

Took a few opportunities to snap some picture along the way. Here's a shot of the Red Cedar River

It turned out that the weather was cooperating this afternoon, so I decided to ride the extra miles to Durand, WI. Tried to push all the way, no stopping along the way.....42 miles today and averaged 13 mph. I rode 14-15 mph going to Durand, but the trail going back to Menomonie is a 1-2% upgrade, so I struggled to keep my pace in the windy conditions this afternoon. It was a good workout, especially by myself. Burned 1,800 calories....yes! Ice cream tonight!!!!

Cycle Art

Sometimes you just need to see a smiley face to boost your attitude (Montana).

Normal day at work, but didn't commute by bicycle this morning because I woke up to thunder and light rain. No major storms, but just didn't feel comfortable biking to work with storms looming in the distant. Tomorrow is another day.

Friends Along the Way

Is this "cookie monster"? No, it's just Bill enjoying a chocolate chip cookie!

After our 67 mile mountain climb, we all sat around and relaxed....sisters Nancy & Jean and Tom from the United Kingdom off to the right.


Eli was over-joyed that Paige served warm chocolate chip cookies after dinner!



Catering staff....sorry I can't remember names, but these two were awesome. They feed us well, thanks to the cooking staff.


My favorite couple from South Dakota....Shelia and Leon put in many mountain bike miles to prepare for this trip.

Yeah, that's me. I slowly kept peddling up the mountain. As you can see it was cool and light drizzle that turned to rain later on.

The bike man....the mountain climb was a challenge for him.

Notice the single track...now notice the drop-off to the right. Part of that single track I walked.

Just a kitty friend I met in the campground. What a beautiful Seal Point.

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Woke up early today and did a morning bike ride at 6:45 am . A cool morning with a little fog, but a beautiful ride with low traffic and no breeze. I was happy to average a 14 mph pace all by myself!

Blooms 'Vs' Thunderstorms

The Caladiums (Elephant Ears/Heart of Jesus/Angle Wings) are finally blooming in our yard.

And my favorite Lily is blooming as well

This salmon-colored Lily is plentiful in our garden

Once again thunderstorms tonight after work, so I'm enjoying a quiet cool night at home. At least the bike man got his bicycle ride in late this afternoon. Next week he'll be back to his lake monitoring during the week, so he's trying to catch up on his riding miles before he leaves.

I've already been contacted by the fitness center about when I want to start teaching cycling class again. Not really interested in starting too early since September is a nice month to still get long bike rides in. It looks like I will be able to teach at least one class, but possibly two. Right now my main focus is "outdoors." Winter comes too fast in Wisconsin....well, maybe not as fast as if we lived in Alaska.

Another Travel Treasure

Here's a purchase I made in Seeley, Montana. A nice pair of rose quartz earrings with a small garnet bead. I know just the person who will receive these pretty little earrings!

Storms are brewing tonight after work, so opted not to ride my bicycle. Will spend the night getting my Montana photographs together. I hope to post all the photos on flickr.com, so will let everyone know when I actually do that.

New Chili/Soup Bowls

This is one of our purchases from Whitefish, Montana. We were surprised to find these beautiful soup bowls.....something we've been talking about buying for quite some time now because we eat a lot of soup & chili at our house. To make things simple, we just had the bowls shipped to our house. I made a few other purchases, which I will post later on.

Bike man and I spent all day doing laundry, paying bills, answering voice mail, putting away camping gear, cleaning out the car, reading emails, reading blogs and trying to catch up on regular mail. Ah...we finally got done with everything by mid afternoon. Even made a loaf of GrapeNuts bread in the bread machine. Now it's starting to feel more like home sweet home.

The sun & 70 some degree weather is perfect today, so we went for a quick 20 mile ride around Tainter Lake late in the afternoon. Holy cow, something happened when I was out west biking in the mountains. I must have conditioned myself more than I realized. Today, I attacked every hill by standing and cranking up each one. I noticed my heart rate has actually dropped as well. In just that short amount of time being out in Montana and riding in higher elevation and cycling those mountains, it really made a difference in my bike riding today. I also had the best time ever for riding the Tainter Lake route. Now I understand why athletes go out to Colorado to train in the higher elevations...it really does make a difference. Guess this means more hills for me if I want to keep my conditioning level up.

This was my last day of vacation, and I savored every single minute of it. Tomorrow is back to the real world.

PS. I miss my biking friends, Shelia, Leon, Gail, Wilson, Phil, Karen, Nancy, Jean, Marilyn, Spike, Eli, Steve, Russ, Tom, Mike, Greg, Paul, Milan, Ann, and Scott. I'm so glad I got to spend time with them on our group ride.

Home Sweet Home

I was so glad to see the welcome to Wisconsin highway sign this afternoon. In Montana and North Dakota traffic was almost nothing, but not so when we crossed into Minnesota near Fargo/Moorhead. Traffic today was awful, or maybe it's just that I'm used to the cowboys and farm trucks.

Coming from Fargo & Moorhead, the lakes are plentiful, and so are the ducks and water birds. I saw pelicans, geese, lots of ducks and blue herons.

Right outside of Albany, MN a time trial was taking place. Not sure which bike association was sponoring this TT, but it was fun to get a quick glimpse of the cyclists.

It's such a good feeling to be home and in my familar place. Tonight I actually cooked for the first time in about 10 days....wow! There's nothing better than a freshly grilled hamburger with lots of onions and cheddar cheese.

One more day of vacation and then it's back to work.