Sunday, August 13, 2006

Preparing for the Holiday Trip

Distance 74 miles (two days)

I have been increasing my riding and fitness in anticipation of our trip to France and Spain. Todd has all our reservations in Spain and Keith recently booked our French accomodations. We are good to go. Now let's hope all this foolishness about bringing water and dirty underwear on a flight is over with. Enough with the politics already.

I went online to choses our seats for the flight and naturally all the good seats were taken. The best I could do for Sue and I were aisle seats across from each other. Same thing on the way home.

One last item to take care of is getting tickets to a game. AC Barcellona would be great, but just attending a football match in France or Spain would be great. Marselle is the home of Zidane. Wouldn't it be something to run into him.

Friday was a half day at work and I decided to bring my bike, ride home, and do a return ride on Saturday to retrieve the car. Fridays' ride was perfect. Nice weather, made good time and enjoyed every moment. I got home in time to shower and load my backpack for a trip to the dentist then the gym. I am doing a workout that was developed for the astronauts. Time will tell how good it works.

Saturday, I decided to stop for a light breakfast at McDonnalds. (One of those egg in a tortilla things). That decision produced quite an adventure. Eating a McD's anything, can ruin a nice bike ride. Actually I remember our college soccer team having McDonalds' food before a game. It felt like we were running in ankle deep mud for the whole match. Riding a bike felt the same way. The first 10 miles was painfull to say the least. Gradually the effects wore off and the ride was much better. It took the better part of an hour and four rest stops to recover. The actual pedal time to the office was two hours and change. It took me four hours to get there with all the stops. Mostly for picture taking.



The McDonalds locals.


I have passed this little grass runway airport many times. Today was the day to stop and look around.






Back on the road in Berkley Ma.



Path through abandoned state school



A lonely slide at Dever State Hospital for severly retarded and deformed children.



I'll be back on the bike commuting tomorrow after a well earned day off today.
Later

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