Wednesday, March 08, 2006
This calls for a toast
(I would get out your favorite drinking mug and fill it up. This is going to be a L O O O N G post!)
Er, post. Um... yeah, that is what I meant. ;-)
(A pic of the grilled cheese sandwich Kim had the other night...)
(A pic of the grilled cheese sandwich Kim had the other night...)Since the weather here is a little bit less than sunny, and "Lost" is a re-run tonight, I figured that this was as good a time as any to make a post to my blog. Now then... where to begin?!?
Well, let's see... This weekend I went for a ride on one of the local trails and took some pictures. So let's look at some pics first...:
First of, some info about the ride : I decided to ride my other bike, WIP. The name stands for "Work In Progress" because it is the current bike that I use to indulge my 'bike tinkering' fixation. (Ask Kim, 'fixation' is putting it mildly...) I rode about 21 miles total (half on the trails and half on the city streets) in just under 2 hours (saddle time) with a maximum speed of 22 mph and an average speed of about 11 mph. Not the fastest or longest ride I have ever been on, but at the time it was well worth it. Now, on to the pictures:
This is one of the Tour de Lincoln sculptures. It is called "View From the Road." If you look closely, you can see that it is designed to resemble a pair of eyeglasses. You can see why I like it. ;-) It looks as though the intention of the creator was to make it out of steel and then let it 'age' naturally. That means that the brown color you see in the picture is actually rusted metal. Pretty neat, methinks.
After taking the above pic, I headed back over to the trail and headed south. I was aware of a relatively new section of trail that was opened up last year so I headed for it to see where it went.
Here you can see the new bridge that goes over 14th street (I think) south of Old Chaney Rd. It is one of many of the overpasses that you see while on the trail. It is nice that the planners here in Lincoln are willing to plan out the trails in such a way as to not always have to deal with city traffic. MUCH better than my old haunts, IMHO...
Further down the trail, I found a rather large YMCA and park. "Cool" I am thinking because I was curious about parts of town where I hadn't been yet
.
Here is a treat for my viewers from outside the US: These roundabouts are also popping up all over town in the newer construction developments. Yet again, the city planners are planning things well in order to make things a bit safer for folks in parks and other areas where people frequent.
One of the first things that I was was this star sculpture. It seems that these star sculpture are the "new thing" in outdoor sculpture this year as they are popping up all over town.
Oh, and this was neat too! Across from the roundabout, there is a man made lake and these geese where just sitting there enjoying the water and the sunny day too. They didn't seem to like me getting too close to them though, so I had to use the camera's zoom to get close enough to take pictures. Still, this one turned out pretty good. ;-) 
After I had taken all my pictures I got back on the road. Next thing I know, I am in a familliar part of town! It turns out that the trail heads down towards the general area of The Southpointe Mall. This is one of a couple of the big shopping areas in town and a place that Kim and I have been on many 0ccasions. In fact, we went there to see Shrek as one of our first dates here in Lincoln. ;-)
Anyway... Once I realised where I was, it was pretty easy to get back on track to head back home. 27th Street -the main street that passes by South Pointe- pretty much cuts Lincoln in half. All I had to do was follow that back up north and I would be home in no time.
Okay... pedal, pedal, pedal, and next thing I know I am on "O" street. That is one of the other bisecting streets here in town, and also the street where the above pictured "View From the Road" sculpture is located. So off I go up the street heading toward home when I see, off to my right, this other Tour de Lincoln sculpture:
This one is called Tour de Force and I must say that it is one of the neater
looking ones around town that I have seen of late. The wheels (see close up pic at right) are actually big pinwheels that move when the wind blows. Also, the colored bits of this sculpture are colored glass (maybe plastic) that act like stained glass windows when the sun is shining. (Look closely at the close up pic and you can almost see the blue shadow...) This in one of the more prominent Tour de Lincoln sculptures as you can probably guess...
After some more pedaling and a crossing of "O" street, I am back on the trail that started this whole adventure and almost home. It is always good to go for a ride in town, but almost as much good to be making the final leg of the journey back home. (Upright bicycle seats are not very forgiving of the out of shape back sides...)
Okay, got back home and said hello -and a few other cute things- to Kim and started to wind down. Pretty much didn't do much more than that. I did do a little bit of work on The Red Bicycle, but not much to really make a post out of. All that green I am working on looks like all that green I have already done so you aren't missing much... I can say that it is still coming along nicely. I won't lie to you: I am getting a little bit worn down with it. (Hence the lack of update posts.) But I am still enthusiastic about it. Just not overly much so at the moment. ;-)
Well, as usually happens I have blogged my brains out here. I get an idea and I can't hardly stop until I am then and then I am 'kaput' done! Oh well, that is what I get for not blogging very often: I want to tell everybody everything that I can think of. ;-)
Some final notes:
Lilli, I have almost maybe possibly decided to not make a decission on the charity ride right now. Most likely I will be doing a different ride for the SERTOMA club that day.
FLYBYU, good luck on the 9 speed upgrades to your Burley. I can understand why you don't like the grip shifters; too many moving parts for my taste. I tend to go for Ultegra bar end shifters myself, but that is a personal preference thing. Happy trails to you!
To everybody else, happy trails, happy stitches, and happy day to you and yours! See you next time...
Well, let's see... This weekend I went for a ride on one of the local trails and took some pictures. So let's look at some pics first...:
First of, some info about the ride : I decided to ride my other bike, WIP. The name stands for "Work In Progress" because it is the current bike that I use to indulge my 'bike tinkering' fixation. (Ask Kim, 'fixation' is putting it mildly...) I rode about 21 miles total (half on the trails and half on the city streets) in just under 2 hours (saddle time) with a maximum speed of 22 mph and an average speed of about 11 mph. Not the fastest or longest ride I have ever been on, but at the time it was well worth it. Now, on to the pictures:
This is one of the Tour de Lincoln sculptures. It is called "View From the Road." If you look closely, you can see that it is designed to resemble a pair of eyeglasses. You can see why I like it. ;-) It looks as though the intention of the creator was to make it out of steel and then let it 'age' naturally. That means that the brown color you see in the picture is actually rusted metal. Pretty neat, methinks.After taking the above pic, I headed back over to the trail and headed south. I was aware of a relatively new section of trail that was opened up last year so I headed for it to see where it went.
Here you can see the new bridge that goes over 14th street (I think) south of Old Chaney Rd. It is one of many of the overpasses that you see while on the trail. It is nice that the planners here in Lincoln are willing to plan out the trails in such a way as to not always have to deal with city traffic. MUCH better than my old haunts, IMHO...Further down the trail, I found a rather large YMCA and park. "Cool" I am thinking because I was curious about parts of town where I hadn't been yet
.
Here is a treat for my viewers from outside the US: These roundabouts are also popping up all over town in the newer construction developments. Yet again, the city planners are planning things well in order to make things a bit safer for folks in parks and other areas where people frequent.One of the first things that I was was this star sculpture. It seems that these star sculpture are the "new thing" in outdoor sculpture this year as they are popping up all over town.
After I had taken all my pictures I got back on the road. Next thing I know, I am in a familliar part of town! It turns out that the trail heads down towards the general area of The Southpointe Mall. This is one of a couple of the big shopping areas in town and a place that Kim and I have been on many 0ccasions. In fact, we went there to see Shrek as one of our first dates here in Lincoln. ;-)
Anyway... Once I realised where I was, it was pretty easy to get back on track to head back home. 27th Street -the main street that passes by South Pointe- pretty much cuts Lincoln in half. All I had to do was follow that back up north and I would be home in no time.
Okay... pedal, pedal, pedal, and next thing I know I am on "O" street. That is one of the other bisecting streets here in town, and also the street where the above pictured "View From the Road" sculpture is located. So off I go up the street heading toward home when I see, off to my right, this other Tour de Lincoln sculpture:
This one is called Tour de Force and I must say that it is one of the neater looking ones around town that I have seen of late. The wheels (see close up pic at right) are actually big pinwheels that move when the wind blows. Also, the colored bits of this sculpture are colored glass (maybe plastic) that act like stained glass windows when the sun is shining. (Look closely at the close up pic and you can almost see the blue shadow...) This in one of the more prominent Tour de Lincoln sculptures as you can probably guess...After some more pedaling and a crossing of "O" street, I am back on the trail that started this whole adventure and almost home. It is always good to go for a ride in town, but almost as much good to be making the final leg of the journey back home. (Upright bicycle seats are not very forgiving of the out of shape back sides...)
Okay, got back home and said hello -and a few other cute things- to Kim and started to wind down. Pretty much didn't do much more than that. I did do a little bit of work on The Red Bicycle, but not much to really make a post out of. All that green I am working on looks like all that green I have already done so you aren't missing much... I can say that it is still coming along nicely. I won't lie to you: I am getting a little bit worn down with it. (Hence the lack of update posts.) But I am still enthusiastic about it. Just not overly much so at the moment. ;-)
Well, as usually happens I have blogged my brains out here. I get an idea and I can't hardly stop until I am then and then I am 'kaput' done! Oh well, that is what I get for not blogging very often: I want to tell everybody everything that I can think of. ;-)
Some final notes:
Lilli, I have almost maybe possibly decided to not make a decission on the charity ride right now. Most likely I will be doing a different ride for the SERTOMA club that day.
FLYBYU, good luck on the 9 speed upgrades to your Burley. I can understand why you don't like the grip shifters; too many moving parts for my taste. I tend to go for Ultegra bar end shifters myself, but that is a personal preference thing. Happy trails to you!
To everybody else, happy trails, happy stitches, and happy day to you and yours! See you next time...
# posted by gC @ 5:17 PM 
Comments:
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Thanks for the good luck wishes, everything went fine (I hope, I haven't ridden it yet) and it should be a major improvement over the previous shifters. Looks like you have beautiful weather, I'm jealous, it is always snowing here.
Greg, that was a great ride, and I so much enjoyed all those pics! I'm fond of sculptures, and I couldn't say which one of the sculptures I like best, as the two are very different! The first one (metal rusted glasses) impressed me, although it is quite traditional; the second one astonished me! It is so beautiful! but I'm afraid it doesn't "hold against time" as well as the glasses. Is this recent?
Thanks for sharing all this!
About your red bike, I can understand you're getting bored with green, although it's my fav colour...
Nice to read that post!
Take care!
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Thanks for sharing all this!
About your red bike, I can understand you're getting bored with green, although it's my fav colour...
Nice to read that post!
Take care!
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