Chicago and Florida in a week

We took a one week trip to visit Amy and Elliott in Chicago, then onto see Ellen in Florida. While we didn't do any riding in Chicago, we did get to see the Lakefront bike path there. Lots of cyclists, walkers and rollerbladers were using the path. As well as swimmers, getting their workout by swimming parallel to the path. Here are a few pictures with the path in the background.

And the trail winds around to a park along the lake.

Park along the Lakefront Path

While we were in Orlando, we took a day and drove up to Winter Garden, where we rented some bikes and a trike. We rode a few miles west on the West Orange Trail. The salesman warned Brian that the trike (a Trailmate delta style trike) was slow, but he wanted a trike. Turned out that it wasn't as much fun riding that trike as he thought, and we switched off on all of the bikes. We had a single speed tandem as well. The temperature was in the upper 90's and it was humid, but there were many people using the trail.

West Orange Trail near Winter Garden

Dynamic Duo on the tandem

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The West Orange Trail is nice and I recommend it if you are in the area. But, it sure was nice to get back to 80 degree weather and ride the NH Seacoast roads again.

Ride to Chelmsford, Ma

I rode to Jane's 4th of July cookout in Chelmsford MA. About 54 miles total. The beginning of the ride was a nice cool temperature, but by the end I was hot and running out of fluid. Glad I brought that extra bottle of Gatorade, and especially glad that I had frozen it the night before. The drink in my water bottle (what was left ) had become pretty warm. I've done this ride at least once a year since 1997 when I got my first recumbent, a Rans Rocket. I have been changing the route over the years to find less traveled roads, and tried some different roads this time. They turned out to be less traveled, although it seemed like there were more hills. And I did get lost between Boxford and North Andover. There was junction with a couple of options and I had not printed out a map of that junction. I was just suppose to follow Great Pond Road to the end, but I couldn't figure out which was Great Pond Road. Of course, I picked the wrong one and ended up in an area not on any of my maps. I few minutes of riding in both directions (I picked right first, which turned out to be wrong ...... again), and I found North Andover commons. After that, I was in familiar territory and had no problems, other than hydration.


South Road in East Kingston, NH

The Merrimac River in Merrimac, MA and some welcome shande. You can see the bridge I use cross the river in the distance.

Sperrys Pond in Boxford, MA along Main Street.

Boxford, MA at the junction of Main Street and Route 133