Another Early Wakeup

I am not sure why but for some reason I was up and at 'em before 5am. If I had gone to bed early I could understand it but not when I go after midnight. The hounds did their usual routine and waited for daylight before wanting their breakfast. I finished typing or transposing my handwritten journal last night to a digital copy, so this morning I scanned some cards people sent me after the tour and a a newspaper article about the guy I rode with for a while. I'll upload those into my document.

We took off for our walk this morning just barely after daybreak. All of these photos are much brighter than what I saw with my eyes. Not only was it overcast as some pictures show but it was dark. That didn't bother either hound of course as they were happy to start another day in their own way.

Stella had to be 'nudged' a few times with me saying "come on" but overall she stayed out front with Sadie. I'll let the pictures show their walk today, nothing out of ordinary occurred.

My electronic document ended up being 73 pages of typed information. As I read while typing I was surprised just how much of that trip I had forgotten. I rode a total of 3,870 miles in 44 days of actual riding the bike. I did ride through the desert in the month of May but found it much harder riding up the west coast to Seattle along the coast Highway 1. Every day me and the other riders I rode with, faced a strong headwind for the NW.

I was wearing bike shorts, a t-shirt under a wool sweater, under a down jacket just south of Daley City California ... in the month of July. While remembering the times I was drenching myself with water every 30 minutes riding across the desert from Phoenix to Oceanside California. Such a contrast.

The reasons for the pain I feel in my left knee today at times, whether from riding now slower or just getting up out of a chair, was explained in the journal. I forgot about all the times I was complaining  of knee pain along the colder west coast highway along California and up in the cool and damp weather in Oregon. It was funny to see some of the prices I listed for the cost of food bought or a breakfast in a restaurant.

I forgot that logging trucks hate bicyclist even more than they do RVs and camping trailers. It was funny to read about a forgotten incident where a Washington State Patrol pulled us over and lectured us about the dangers of riding on a road with logging truck traffic after we had just spent a week in Oregon riding with them every day. He talked to me like I was on my first bike ride with training wheels while I had already completed 3,600 miles across the USA.

I ended by saying it was time to start planning for my next tour. It seemed like it was a given and I had to only finish college that semester and get on with it. Yet, life changes drastically at times. I never took any kind of bike tour after that. It was my only one.

I did do some bicycle racing after that for a few years in California but I never packed the bags, sleeping bag and tent and took off up the coast even while I lived on the coast highway in Carlsbad California. I still rode my bike pretty consistently for the next 15 years after that tour, but never took another trip.

Like most people in life, we all experience close calls, where in an instant we would no longer be here. I had two of those close calls on the trip. The first was outside Show Low, Arizona just a little past sunset and oncoming traffic. The second time was in the early morning in Oregon with heavy fog and mist, flying down a hill that went for 5 miles and yellow warning signs for trucks about the decent angle.

Years later a friend of mine in Oak Harbor, Washington wasn't so lucky. While making his final cross country bicycle tour which was the outline of the USA, he was killed in Nevada on his way back home.

As I read the journal, I had doubts I could do that today. Even if I were in my 20's again. What I might do after the hounds pass, is to drive those same roads I rode on and try to duplicate my trip. It's just to hard to travel with two bloodhounds instead of one. I found in June 2015 that basset hounds are much easier to travel with cross country.

A few years ago I met a cyclist on one of the most dangerous highway between my home and Bloomington Indiana. I stopped him on my way home to invite him a place to sleep and eat. I had to let him know that no matter what your smart phone is telling you, there isn't any motels in the town I live in and that restaurant he was planning to eat at would be closed by the the time he rode 13 miles up and down steep hills. Unlike me in 1976, he was carrying his camping gear in a two-wheel buggy being towed behind his bicycle. He started in New Jersey and made it to California a few months later.

Granted, most of the times I see cyclist on the highway I have to admit they are riding too far out in our lane of traffic. Sometimes that is unavoidable because there is either no shoulder to ride on or the shoulder is in such poor shape it would damage wheels or flatting bicycle tires. Yet there are those riders that feel it's their right to ride 3' in our lane ... but they are wrong ... and that is dangerous.

I had the bike of the ages then, it had a chrome moly frame. Very light and was claimed to be the same material that airplanes were been made of. But as with any expensive light bike equipment, it's the little things that make the long tour more comfortable, than just a light bike. Things like sunblock, water, calamine lotions for poison oak or ivy, would be nice for starters.

Plus also know that while you are in a campground taking a shower it's never good to leave your food supply on the picnic table, inviting all the raccoons to enjoy your trail mix, peaches and even attempt to try your mixture of peanut butter and honey in a plastic squeeze tube while you are enjoying a 4 minute shower for 10 cents.

I have thought about uploading the journal into the blog as a page at the top or a link on the side. It's rated PG from what I can see. I still have some photographs to scan but most of my photos were taken with slide film and a small 8mm camera.  LOL

I'll post this now but this is later and I have been out and have lost all train of thought on blogging.

It's getting freezing cold right now in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Stella's Back Under Control Today

The day started off too strange for all of us, getting up and starting our day in the dark. While I made coffee and did system downloads and app updates during my 'free' data (50Gb/mo) period, the hounds continued to sleep. Sadie was curious only for a few minutes before she turned and went back to bed. I could hear Stella snoring in the next room. Monday's always remind me how much I love retirement.

I'm not sure what is on the agenda for the day, with rain forecasted late this afternoon and early evening. I have plenty of typing to do though. I finally pulled out my handwritten journal from the box in the closet that I want to turn into a electronic document. I kept this journal on my 1976 cross-country bike trip. I thought I had typed a lot yesterday. By the time I quite I was as far as Phoenix Arizona on my trip but it looked like like I had only 1/3 of it finished.

Just in the pages I typed, I found a few things I had forgotten about. I can't say it was written as well as some of my blog posts are but it's interesting enough that I didn't want to stop reading it. After a little research I decided to write the journal in Apple's Pages. That's Word Documents to all of you Microsoft users. I do have some photos that I can scan but at the same time I have some slides from a camera that was taking 8mm film, if that is possible to even remember. I'll talk more about that trip later or may make a separate post about the trip with photos, after I am finished transposing everything.

As you can tell by this mornings photos, Stella was urged to follow me and Sadie. That is the normal protocol after she does one of her disappearing acts. She didn't mind too much and would usually start trotting toward Sadie by the time I reached her.

During our afternoon walk yesterday, I heard the loud engines of ATVs. I was able to see them when I glanced into the woods but by the time we reached the first corner of our walk, they were speeding along the path they've made over the past few months at the back of the field. Stella was on the 25' retractable leash, otherwise she would have sprinted after them based on her reactions. Sadie started to chase them but turned around when I yelled her name.

Consequently there were a lot of things both hounds needed to inspect up in the far right corner of the field. That is the entry point for the ATVs going from the field to the deep gully. Why do I have a feeling that next spring/summer will bring more ATV traffic? I also don't think they will bale it anymore based on the farmer's were doing the owner a favor by baling and taking the hay ... based on what their son told me.

I guess it could be worse. When my neighbor bought the land through an estate sale a few years ago, he mentioned to me he was thinking of plowing it up and planting corn. If that were to have happened I would be long gone by now, I would have sold the house and left. So, I guess I can live with some ATV traffic as long as they stay in the other side of the field.

I had to call both Sadie and Stella to stop this morning. They were trotting with their heads down and heading right below the high power tower, leading them to the woods to the north. It was the fresh new ATV tracks that were getting them motivated. Luckily both of them stopped and waited for me to catch up with them, when I called their names.

I'll not say at what time I decided to get out of bed, but I will say there is no doubt that a siesta will take place later this afternoon. I received my first of two refund payments on Saturday for the Z4 parts/hardware I returned last week. I wonder how they liked the itemized spreadsheet I sent with box full of parts/hardware?  LOL

The hounds were pretty laid back the closer we got to the yard this morning. Within minutes after walking inside they both had joined Heidi in a morning nap. Stella sleeps as close to my desk chair as possible. Heidi is still on her sleeping bag and Sadie moves the large chair/ottoman in the living room. They will usually stay that way until they decide to tell me to feed them lunch.

It wasn't long before I had Sadie standing in the doorway giving me her stare and Stella at my elbow, nudging it with her nose. That's when I knew it must be time for lunch. The normal routine is with Heidi not moving a muscle off the couch until she hears Stella howling to be fed, then she will chime in with basset hound barking. After that, there is no way I can not feed them their lunch.

I couldn't believe it could be that late already.

I had been typing from my journal since we came back from the walk. I had lost myself reading it while I typed. Before they came to get me to feed them, I had ridden from Phoenix Arizona and was now riding up the coast highway just north of Santa Barbara.

Stella wasn't sure if it was a good time for a walk or not. She rarely, if ever goes on the 2nd walk of the day within minutes of finishing her meal. It's one of the ways to prevent bloat. I've never had a bloodhound bloat before and I no longer follow Bloodhound groups, so I don't know how common it is anymore but I'm taking no chances.

Heidi came outside long enough to sniff the air and feel that the temps moving across her nose was not warm enough to spend any more time it would taken than to use the bathroom. She was sprinting for the couch by the time Sadie, Stella and I were at the door.

Hard to believe that yard is that green for the 4th day of December.

After the mandatory wait period for them before we started our walk, both of them took off running toward the edge of the field. I didn't hear any ATVs and shouldn't have since the kids are in school today. I saw no deer on the horizon but the wind from the south had picked up and it's possible that had something to do with them taking off.

(Yes, I know I changed in the middle of the post and started typing content that goes with the photos UNDER them instead of BEFORE them.)

I normally have Stella on the leash for the afternoon walk but I didn't have enough photos after our walk this morning so the camera took the leash's place. That did not mean I was going to let her hang back and give her a chance to wander off again. It took a lot of "come on" to get her to move but she gradually followed Sadie and I.

Sadie is just Sadie and when she is outside anywhere it's time to track scent. Here you can barely see her on the full inhale as her jowls have filled with air as she sniffs the ground.

I could see how the rain could blow in later this afternoon based on how strong the winds were from the south. There was a lot of cloud movement that my camera didn't catch but it should be a nice rain later today and then freezing temps in the 30's by Thursday.

It surprised me to see Stella trotting to catch Sadie and I. She will follow this same path for any walk she does after the morning walk. Again, it took some verbal commands as "come on" to get her back home, probably more of them than I wanted to say. Yes, she always wins and gets her way.

Just because the wind has picked up speed, the temps are a little warmer than this morning and I am already standing at the corner of the house does not mean it's time to finish this 2nd walk of the day. There are scents to check out all the way up to the yard and beyond if I have the time to wait on them.

This is the look she has when she is tired and is ready for her afternoon siesta.

Once she feels that way and decides she wants to sleep, THEN she can't get back into the house fast enough.

I'll go back to typing the journal and forget I'm not back riding my bike up the west coast on Hwy 1 heading toward Seattle. I am still amazed as I type from that journal just how much stuff I forgot about the trip.

I'm sure you know that Christmas is only 3 weeks from today? That is hard to believe, just how fast time is flying right now.

Another sunny day in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Says Not Warm Enough

She checked the air with her nose to get an accurate temperature and then decided about all she had time for was bathroom break after her lunch, then back to the couch.

Stella Decided To Disappear Today

It should have been obvious when I saw her while I took this photo as we started our walk. I know it was obvious after I looked at it when I downloaded it and edited. She does not do her disappearing act all the time and nothing consistent but she does. Today she was not gone long but from the area she walked out of the woods, I know that she heard me calling her name.

Sadie and I was on our way home and didn't see Stella anywhere but that has been normal lately.

The camera searched all the logical places where she might be. Combine that will me calling her name as loud as I could ... no responses from her.

It was time to step into the woods to see if I could see here. Past experiences doing the same thing in when I couldn't find her never proved positive.

Just in case, we walked back to the house to check the door to see if she was standing there. We looked to the neighbor's yard to the south, we looked in that part of the woods ... no Stella.

Sadie and I decided to walk to the neighbor's yard to see if she was between houses. About that time taking one last view towards the woods, there she was walking out of the woods not quite to the corner at the first turn.

Now ... on to watching the College Football Playoff announcement.

A beautiful day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.