The dogs get a nice ride...

The dogs have it made. They get to tag along quite a bit.

Bicycle powered ice storm damage assessment

In my out-of-shape-ness it's a fairly tough ride out to the farm.....Especially if the weather is bad. We've had a few nice days following the harsh ice storm that came through and this was the first time I've been able to check the damage to our property and travel trailer. This was the most destructive ice storm in anyone's memory. Most people were out of power for at least a week. We feared there was hefty damage on our farm.

We're living in town during winter. This was a pretty lucky thing as I'm sure we'd have been nearly scared to death if we were out at the farm and listening to trees falling everywhere.

Things are now settled down and it was a pleasant ride out there. Once you leave town it's mostly uphill to our place so I always have to remind myself to take it easy and not try to duplicate my ride time of a few years ago for this ride.

Used to be easy to get out there in less than a half an hour on a nice, lugged steel road bike. Now it's nearly 45 minutes on a heavy Xtracycle equipped Electra Townie. That's probably not too bad considering the bike weighs twice as much. I'm nearly thirty pounds heavier as well so I really can't complain about the ride time.

It's mostly a very nice ride. There's a few minutes of very hectic riding but the rest is nice.

Good news is the trailer didn't get wiped out. The awning broke from the weight of all that ice sitting up there but no trees fell on it. Even our access road escaped all but two small trees falling on it.

Twas a good visit made better by the fact that I had a relaxing ride out and back!

Great ride and a fun bridge!

This was a great ride on a beloved bike that's no longer with us. It was about four years ago and I was doing a loop I love. Eastern Kentucky has tons of swinging/suspension bridges (for people, not cars). This is a loop that's about 35 miles and coming back near town I cross this bridge. It's at River, Kentucky and is claimed to be the longest plastic pedestrian bridge in existence. Yes, it's plastic. I trust steel in bicycles but I sure entrusted my life to plastic when crossing this bridge high above cold waters.



'Twas a nice fall day in the Highlands. I set out on a ride with some hard climbing, a dirt section, one long downhill, nice backroads, and two swinging bridge crossings. The bike was a Kogswell F-58. Interesting bits were Nitto Albatross bars flipped upside down, a Shimano Nexus 7 speed internally geared hub, Brooks B-17 saddle, and a Carradice Barley saddlebag. The bike nor the hub complained. It was such a nice ride, my body didn't even complain.

Here's the link to the route. http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/ky/paintsville/593459183841