Ride September South

30 Sep:  The ride from Vermont to Miami leading fall south is over!  Fall was left behind not long after we saw the last of New England.  Pennsylvania had magnificent, brilliant Sumac bushes near Lehigh.  Once we arrived, a day early, we enjoyed a lovely weekend.  Monday, we met with our respective doctors who told us bronchitis and pneumonia are gone. The residual nasal congestion will soon go away.  Rons weight is too low at 170 lbs.  He is eating heartily.  Cynthia was delighted she had not gained weight after six weeks of inactivity.  

29 Sep, Sunday:  And we are enjoying Pritikin now to Oct. 13th, unless we decide to stay an extra week. Love it here!  

28 Sep:  We backtracked up US 1 and FL 997 from Key Largo, FL to Pritikin in Doral, FL.  Yikes!  We arrived a day early!  But how fun to discover friends from our visit in February: Charles is here with a new friend and a very slim Brian is still here!  YAY!  

27 Sep:  The view from our balcony is lovely,  but we must change rooms because we didn’t book two nights fast enough.  Today we rode down US 1 across all those bridges over various channels to Big Pine Key to visit Ron’s friends Greg and Cindy.  They entertained us with conversation about friends, described changes since the hurricane, including less commerce, and fed us a very nice Pritikin-perfect meal of salads and salmon.  Our bags were moved to the new room, which has a partial ocean view -- from the balcony - if you lean out far enough. 

This is that faded sunset in Key Largo

26 Sep:  After the first dozen stop lights, US 27 south from Lake Wales turns into a very comfortable and pleasant ride all the way to FL 997 which continues due south and skirts the entire Miami metro to the west.  After a decent lunch at the Miccosukee Casino, we continued down Krome Avenue (997), which is being widened to 4-lane.  The traffic flowed better through the road construction than ever previously.  997 ends south of Homestead, merging into US 1 traffic, the only route to and from the Keys.  We arrived at the Hampton Inn in Key Largo in time to luxuriate on the balcony with a view of Tarpon Bay.  Cynthia was delighted to get a laundry done where the laundry room also has a nice view of the bay. The sunset was so glorious we failed to reach for the camera until it faded.

25 Sep:  We left Jekyll Island on US 17 south and decided to ride down I-95 in the "early" morning in order to make miles in the cooler morning and were delighted to find the traffic less crowded than usual.  Once we entered Florida, we turned right on FL 200 to Callahan where we continued south on old US 301 and were surprised to find traffic a bit heavier than on I-95.  As we approached Ocala and noon, Ron consulted with the GPS and determined that these is a Ruby Tuesdays in Ocala, so of course we aimed for that and enjoyed wonderful salads.  Cynthia took it upon herself to renew Ron's driver’s license last February, but the new license was sent to a Post Office box in the Florida Keys that he no longer owns, so we needed to get a replacement license, and to that end we stopped at the Motor Vehicles Office in Ocala after lunch.  The Ocala folks were very friendly, efficient and fast.  Less than an hour later, after answering a couple of questions (SSN, address, etc), Ron emerged with a brand new photo ID.  We continued south on US 27 until we saw the signs for County Road 33 (which bypasses a ton of Orlando traffic on the road less traveled) and eventually reconnects with US 27 until we paused for the night in Lake Wales, Florida.  Ron delighted in remembering that Vince and Mona rode their Harley to breakfast with us in Lake Wales a couple of years ago.  At night when Ron pressed the backs of his hands on the sheets, he was surprised to feel a burning sensation.  We have ridden from Vermont to Maryland to South Carolina to Georgia without the sun bothering his bare hands at all, but the Florida sun burned his hands in only one day - and they are painful.  (He later read the prescribing information for the doxycycline and discovered that it can increase sun sensitivity - i.e. stay out of the sun, and that it should not be taken with a multivitamin, and that it should not be taken within an hour after a meal.  Oops.  And, after the catastrophe with azithromycin, Ron had told himself that he must ALWAYS read the prescribing information before taking pills.)

The sunset view was marvelous from our balcony

24 Sep:  Dick joined us for breakfast and promised to tell everyone else that he was right to think that we wouldn't get out of town yesterday.  We did leave Columbia, SC soon after breakfast and rode south, first on I-26 around Columbia, then onto old US 321 through North, then Norway, then Sweden, then Denmark en route to Garnett, SC and SC 119 (a pretty, quiet road) into Georgia to GA 21 south to I-95 south 46 miles to GA 520 east onto Jekyll Island, Georgia (after paying $8 toll.)  We splurged on a lovely suite at a Days Inn, a Wyndham Property, with a view of the Atlantic Ocean from our room.  The balcony is a very pleasant, peaceful place to lose oneself in mindlessness (saith Cynthia.)  Unfortunately we were advised to eat at the Sunset Diner, which was unable to feed us satisfactorily.  The Wyndham hotel looks to have a fine restaurant that would have been a great choice.

23 Sep:  We were supposed to leave Columbia today, but first Ron took Cynthia to Urgent Care to see if her developing cough was of concern.  It appears that Cynthia gave her bronchitis to Ron who kept it for a month and has now returned it to her; she has a new prescription for antibiotics.  Good grief !!  Ron ultimately packed his 4 computers and stuff at Greg’s and shipped it to Texas, but it was six PM when he returned to the hotel.  Ron was ready to go to Denmark (SC), but Cynthia asked, "What can we eat in that tiny town," so Ron instantly decided to stay another night at the Hilton Garden Inn and eat at Ruby Tuesdays one more time.  

22 Sep, Sunday:  Ron enjoyed breakfast at Lizards Thicket with Dick and Clark & Elizabeth (who brought the Carolina Reaper hot sauce for his fish & grits.)  He will pack his stuff that has been languishing at Greg and Donna's house here for years and ship it to Texas.  At breakfast Dick stated that he had had pneumonia and would not have gotten over it without antibiotics.  This convinced Ron to go to ER, where he was diagnosed with bronchitis. The entire gang met for dinner tonight... and Mary brought contraband (carrot cake) to Cynthia who quickly gobbled down three pieces!  

21 Sep, Temperatures in the high eighties will prevail as we ride from Raleigh, NC to Columbia, SC to pack Ron’s stored stuff and ship it to Texas.  We had a lovely dinner with friends at Ruby Tuesdays in Columbia, SC. 

20 Sep, Raleigh, NC and the Archives 1.2 mile walk. Lunch at the Daily Planet, a Farm to Table Restaurant.  Ron is Photographing deeds and the 1771 Petition to form Caswell County, NC.  The signatures are original. We had dinner at TavernaAgora, another Mediterranean restaurant in a lively downtown Raleigh with Cheri and Mike M.  Cheri is from Elk Horn, Iowa; she remembers Cynthia as her Red Cross swimming instructor. 





19 Sep, Roxboro, NC to Raleigh, NC and the State of NC Archives; date night dinner at Vidaro’s Greek Restaurant was divine. 

18 Sep, Mount Airy, MD to Roxboro, NC and the Innkeeper.

17 Sep:  Fishkill, NY to Mount Airy, MD and the Sweet Retreat.  This was our least favorite roads of the trip.  While it is wonderful to ride through Delaware Water Gap, the road is old and reminds one of old clack-clack-clack railroad tracks.  Then the traffic on US 33 southeast was so heavy that Ron bailed on PA 5xx and rode west to rejoin US 17 

16 Sep:  A good night’s sleep put us in in the mood for oatmeal at Irja and Mike’s lovely home.  Highlight at breakfast was the company which included BD.  Irja is quite the gardener!  And off we rode for another day of leading fall south.  The sumac along the Taconic Parkway was astoundingly vivid.  We arrived in Fishkill, NY at 5:30 P.M. and decided to call it a day.  

Our us
ual Pasta Loft regulars.

15 Sep:  As usual, packing took longer than expected, but Ron had a driving shortcut in mind.  Our ride (on highway 4 East, to I-89 South) was occasionally peppered with brilliant red, gold, and orange colors amidst Green Mountains foliage; it was lovely to see these vivid reminders that fall approaches rapidly here.  We arrived at the Pasta Loft only ten or fifteen minutes late.  What a lovely time we had visiting with friends!  Thanks to B.D. for the photo.  We spent the night at the Doubletree in Nashua. 

Hudson, newest great grandson

14 Sep, Saturday,  The jigsaw puzzle beckons.  It is a cloudy, windy, and cold day.  And we have packing to do, once the puzzle is finished.  Baby Hudson (right) is so adorable! 

13 Sep, Friday the 13th and a full moon?  Anyone superstitious?  Not us! Our boxes are now shipped to Pritikin in Miami and home in Texas.  Time (Sunday) is drawing near for the ride south from Killington, Vermont to Nashua, NH, for the MIT alum pasta party.  The sun was shining brightly for our three-hour hike on the Sherburne Pass!  Ron handled the hike better than Cynthia, who is still short of breath a lot.  After the hike, Ron rode to the market in Killington for cough drops.  Ron's cough is better today and the nose hasn't bled again.  Reggie, the chef, brought some delicious ground cherries for us to eat.  The full moon is glorious! 

12 Sep, Thursday.  Ron awoke at midnight with a nose bleed that prevented sleep for two hours; later, he awoke drenched in sweat again.  The cough seems to have improved.  Rain is preventing our morning hike, so off to the jigsaw puzzle it is!

Alexander and aunt Cynthia

11 Sep,  Dense fog greeted us as we rode east towards Hanover, NH for lunch at the Hanover Inn with grandnephew Alexander, a brand new freshman from California at Dartmouth College.  He is an exceptional, talented young man who at age 18 has already sung at Carnegie Hall.  

10 Sep:  Tuesday is a chilly day in Killington!  We hiked to the roots to do more repair before lunch.  Ron still has lingering cough and headaches, but they are diminishing.  One has to wonder what is next.  After lunch, we rode into Rutland for Cynthia's girlie maintenance pedicure and manicure. About 4 pm we returned to the room, Ron took another dosage of cough syrup and we again napped for an hour.  If you wonder that we never mention food in this blog, it is because our diet is soooo very predictable.  Ron has an egg-white veggie omelet with oatmeal and fruit and Irish soda bread every breakfast; Cynthia has oatmeal and fruit and bites of Ron's soda bread.  Lunch we share a sorbet "appetizer," and Ron has a large spinach salad with broccoli and "colorful" vegetables, Cynthia has hummus with veggies, and we share a "dessert" order of Irish soda bread.  Dinnertime, we each have a baked sweet potato, and Ron has additional baked potatoes.  GMC 3 hrs cleaning water bars and filling tree roots.

9 Sep:  A happy hiking day, although Ron still had a headache.  We hiked 3.5 miles while doing trail maintenance.  Ron 'allowed' Cynthia to move rocks up the trail to fill in tree roots.  Ron cleaned out the runoff into water bars and moved it onto the rock-filled roots making nice steps out of the obtrusive roots.  After returning to the room, we laid down for a nice, 2-hour nap, and Ron slept an additional 2 hours.  He awoke feeling almost normal.  GMC 3 hrs cleaning water bars and filling tree roots.

8 Sep, Sunday:  Well, the Robitussin helped sleep without coughing, but Ron awakened every hour, so he is still lethargic this morning.  However we have breakfasted and Ron is ready to hike, but Cynthia is busy packing to be prepared for next Sunday's departure.  Ron is considering jigsaw puzzle while she packs.  We hiked from Gifford Woods State Park on the Kent Pond Trail to Thundering Falls and return 5.7 miles!  Our lungs and legs are very slow about regaining strength.  Ron had a nice nap!  Happy  Grandparents Day!

Mushrooms! 

Mushrooms, closer!

7 Sep:  We decided to again hike the Sherburne Pass Trail without trail maintenance, but Ron is feeling a bit stronger, so Cynthia lagged far behind at times.  Cynthia's long sickness leaves her tired more quickly now, so we cut our hike short of the ski run to help her recover.  Cynthia walked off-trail through stinging nettle, so Ron found jewelweed, a woods medicine that immediately took care of the stinging.  Lunch was great; Reggie, the chef, makes the best tomato fennel soup for us without oil or sodium!  After we returned to the room, Cynthia left to get WiFi, and Ron decided that an afternoon nap sounded like an attractive option.  After the nap he rode into town to buy Robitussin and cough drops (bananas and grapes too.)  Cynthia enjoyed marvelous piano and banjo music in the lounge.  The pianist is overcoming an old, out-of-tune-piano with exceptional keyboard mastery.  Then dinner and to sleep early.  Hmm, Cynthia said she put pictures onto the blog, but I do not find them.  I'd better see if my copy now predates her additions - it did; I fixed.

Fall Foliage Arrangement  by Ron

6 Sep:  That headache is still a bother, but the cough is subsiding, so we won't complain excessively.  We did breakfast as usual and then hiked up the hill.  After yesterday when Ron was unable to hike at a satisfactory pace to catch Cynthia, today he decided to hike without trail maintenance.  Somehow it seems surprising that fall is appearing already in new, more colorful leaves cluttering the trail (see photo.  We were back in time for lunch, after which the jigsaw siren called and Ron succumbed.  By dinnertime, the new puzzle had displayed its primary characteristic: it will be impossible to place pieces by anything other than mere shape; the colors change too abruptly to follow color or patterns.  Dinner was a lovely event with new hiker friends, Tom, and his nephew, Josh, both United Methodist pastors. Serendipity. 

Rock Garden View From Breakfast Room

5 Sep:  Well, phooey, Ron awakened with a bit of a headache again, that hadn't gone away after breakfast, so he laid back down in bed to rest & sleep a little.  We requested and Reggie baked us sweet potato pancakes.  We also ate the sorbet appetizer, so after lunch, we were both overfull, and we again went back to bed to digest.  Finally, at 5 PM, we managed enough energy to cross the street to add to Ron's chosen compost spot.  (Cynthia had not previously seen the derelict buildings across the road.)  We hiked up the trail for about an hour.  Dinner is done, and we can hardly wait to go back to sleep.  The bad news is that there is lots more to add to the Likens package, discovered while looking at the previous Cock package.  GMC 1 hr water bar cleaning.

4 Sep:  Cynthia hasn't yet learned to keep the desired (larger) font by copying from last month, so you see how "out-of-it" Ron has been this past ten days.  (Four days of microprint.)  Today is exciting; Ron hasn't had a headache since morning exercises, and he is beginning to believe that he is thinking clearly again.  Likens package number one is finally coming to completion after a week of foggy thinking.

3 Sep:  Fog blankets our afternoon view.  Our brains are foggy, too.   Perhaps another day of rest and recuperation will demonstrate if we survived.  Only twelve days left to hike?  Plans are being made for our departure on 15 September to meet the MIT alum at our favorite Pasta Loft restaurant in Milford, NH.  Cynthia has already booked a nearby hotel in Nashua!

2 Sep: is a rainy day; we slept late.  After getting exercised and oatmealed we slept again.  How fun to look at Ancestry DNA Thru-Lines and then read Roberta Estes' blog: Ancestry's AI Thru-Lines are not TRUE lines.  The cousin matches come from Ancestry public trees.  After lunch, Ron slept again.  Granddaughter Lauren became engaged this morning.  YAY!  Congratulations to Lauren and Tyler.  They will marry in Cozumel, Mexico in 2020.

1 Sep: is a challenging day for Cynthia; it is filled with warm and wonderful memories of an outstanding son who died too young.  Rest in Peace, Scott!  Ron and Cynthia hiked 2.7 miles around Kent Pond without incident.  Yay for us!  Tomorrow we will be weller but wish we were weller sooner than soon.

Sunday Offering: 

The bumper sticker on the car says, Peace.  The hiker’s tee shirt has Peace written in several languages.  Where do they get the peace they offer?  Do they really mean it or is this a leftover 'trip' from the sixties?  Where do you go to find peace?  Finding real peace and giving peace is key.  How do YOU give peace to a troubled world?  The first clue is to find the right peace and then to give that peace away.  That is where we actually make a difference instead of sharing platitudes.  Jesus, in the Gospel of John, offers his peace.  He offers us HIS VERY OWN peace.  He leaves it with us to give to those who are fearful and frightened.  He spreads it around generously.  Come, let us receive and share the peace of the Lord: The Lord be with you!!!

John 14:27-31 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.