Bill Schell's "BeachWeb" for September 2011 
THINGS of a 'publishable nature' for your entertainment, enjoyment and information:
I guess the only 'REAL THING' of note is that I flew-out to
Santa Fe, New Mexico, to help my sister drive her 'Fancy Car' (Porsche
911 Carrera S) from Santa Fe to Austin; since she had a broken-ankle in
a 'boot' (which she is now free of) - anyway - with her ankle her
ability to drive more than - say 30-45 minutes is pretty limited...
This was a LONG TRIP - 700 miles in 'about' 12 hours - well -
anyway...
just a FEW pictures...
Our 'Navigation Helper' - there were a LOT of twists-turns-and
road-changes. In this part of the USA most roads lead east-west or
north-south; we wanted to go South East - so - well - we needed a LOT
of help navigating. With two iPhones (Map appliction) plus the
in-car GPS, plus the two of us and Ms. Panda-bear we navigated this
trip beyond belief....
One of the MANY MANY road-cuts where Mr. Bill could study the geology of the New Mexican "High Plains"...
Mr. Bill doing the driving - 12 hours is a lot in any car - especially
six weeks after we did 9,300 miles from Stuart to Vancouver and back!...
"Tour of Sebring" (Labour Day Weekend) cycling event:
a sunrise picture on one of our morning rides (Monday, I think, but not sure)...
Day 3 ride: 37.1 miles in a bit less than 3 hours - some dirt (washboard) some EXCELLENT scenery, etc. etc. etc
Day 2 ride: 63.5 miles in
4 hours, 52 minutes = appx 13.3 mph (and - yes one (BUT ONLY ONE) flat
- and it was a "Slow Leak"... - I rode it about the last 6-7 miles into
the first rest-stop then put a new tube in while there - while
being verbally abused by both my wife (Ms. May) and my riding partner (Mr. Tom) ...
- then Mr. Tom and I
proceeded to finish the 62-mile ride which was probably a lot more than
my body really needed to do after having been sick for 3-4 weeks... but
- well - sometimes we learn, sometimes, we don't sometimes we get
rained-out (but NO RAIN today) though we'll see about tomorrow (Monday
- Labour Day).
Day 1 ride: 33 miles - in a bit more than 3 1/2 hours - with about an hour and a half changing my 6 flat tires
Two track-logs-here - Saturday's 31 miles is in red; Sunday's 63
miles is in green... - Ms. May (on Sunday) went to Avon Park and
returned to the hotel in Sebring - so her route would have been the
same as mine (green) except she turned around at Avon Park (which is
annotated on the above image)...
SOMETIMES (more and more frequently, as of late) my Huggly-Bunch does a better, more succinct job than I, - her link here...
Here at the 'Kenilworth Lodge' (an exceedingly funky hotel (very
(VERY)) old - like probably older than Mr. Bill - (which is pretty old)
- anyway - very ancient, but also very interesting and along with the
cycling event not too expensive, either...
- ANYWAY - we met this (above picture) fellow
in the parking lot.. - and - took this picture. Note his front
paws are 'kind of strange' - we have asked several people, but nothing
definitive, yet, about this condition or problem (we think (via
Wikipedia) that he is called a 'Polydactyl cat'
but we can not guarantee that this is true... - if you're interested,
look up that term on the web and read more about him and his
condition?) - they didn't seem to bother him at all - he was very
friendly!
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some "Cactus Flowers" (with bumble-bees) in our "North" yard... -
amazing we started with just a few short cacti 5-6 years ago, now we
must have a dozen, the tallest of which is about 10-12 feet high!!!
This is Mr. (or Ms.) "Peek At You" (otherwise known by the "Pokemon
name" as
Pikachu. We got this one via the generosity of Mr. Jacob (Ms.
May's nephew in Vancouver). He (she?) "Normally" sits on the
dashboard of our Toyota mini-van and helps our small (Gund) bears and
Mr. Panda Bear work navigation duties - just in case Mr.
Bill loses his way?
I was "HURTING" for lunch one day in Jacksonville (there to do
'Mom-errands' (sometimes I have an 'agenda' but most of the time(s)
that 'agenda' gets waylaid for other's agendas...) - anyway - I
wandered into this sandwich shop on the recommendation of someone at
the bank... - When I came out after lunch - this cat said he'd like to
appear on the web-site. So, since I ALWAYS DO what stray cats
tell me to do, so here he (she ? / it ?) is on the web-page....
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Some things from August - 2011 - to keep you busy while September develops into something 'Noteworty'?
Our
Kayaking Adventure - actually from Sunday, 31 July, 2011, not from
August - it's something to keep you busy while August actually gets
under-way, and we have something more exciting than 'driving home' to
report on.
We managed to leave the "Garden Valley" EARLY to take Mr. Jeff (one of
our instructors) to the airport for his plane-rides back to Raleigh,
NC..., - then we drove on and on and on - we saw a bit of this and a
bit of that - and cycled here, and there...
We managed a brief (but sometimes wet (for Mr. Bill (who turned-over in
a rapids-area), but not necessarily for Ms. May)) kayaking-trip in
something called 'Inflatable Kayaks' - referred to by the 'hard-shell'
(kayak) crowd as 'duckies'...
Link to 'Aire' site - similar to what we used, but not exactly the same model...
We managed to get them through this company...
Anyway - this was 8 miles where sometimes you wonder what all the fuss
is about (you're bored to tears) and sometimes terrified of the
white-water... When asking 'what line to take through a rapid' -
someone responds with "Whitewater" - but after 60 years of thinking
white-water was dangerous (to boats and people) - it took me a while.
On the other hand, they don't call this 'White Water Kayaking'
for nothing?
The above 'route-line' was drawn on a Google-Earth image.
I did NOT take my good GPS since I did not want to risk
drowning or losing it (even though it is NOT behaving itself these
days). The city of Boise, Idaho is just about 80-100 miles
almost due-south of the take-out point at the bottom-left of the
image...
something a litle different: click on this link video-'taped' at this park.
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This was our short cycling ride in Boise, Idaho...
Archived BeachWeb monthly (and other) site(s): Click here for a list of the archived months
updated: 22:33 p.m. (USA-EDT) on Thursday, 22 September, 2011; by: Mr._Bill on the Apple Macintosh
'G5' - revID: 1f
