Beat the Street For Little Feet

 Beat the Street for Little Feet

Sweetwater, Texas

April 27, 2019

 Registration table. Well organized and friendly volunteers. I think the photographer was telling the clouds to go away.

 Clouds looked threatening in several directions but I did not recall rain in the forecast. Just wind. The forecast was correct.

 Beat the Streets benefits the Cornerstone Christian School and is a family oriented event. Castle for the kids to jump and bounce was all set up. 

Start and finish line. Someone went to a lot of effort to make the line pretty. Thanks someone.

Christine is back. After a year off the bike due to a shoulder replacement, she is eager to start the season.

As I looked around, I found a few people from San Angelo. Joy, always smiling, was not going to ride. Had an operation on her heel so she may be out all of this season. In background is Michael.

Jodi, Michael, Joy, and Marlon. Jumping ahead of myself and the ride, (Correction if you saw the post earlier)--Michael 1st place and Marlon 2nd place.  Jodi, winner last year, got sick while on the route this year and had to be picked up by Joy.

Brian ready to go.

 As well as Marcus. Think I saw that he was fifth.

Line up time.

San Angelo grouped as everyone was going to do the 50K race. Everyone ready to go--

Except for Christine. She was day dreaming and not listening to instructions. Turned the wrong way and put in a couple of extra miles. (She still came in ahead of me).

 About the first three miles were a decline and not much wind.

Then we started our climbs. And into the wind.

There were bluebonnets all along the route.

The bluebonnets kept my mind off the wind--somewhat.

Bluebonnets could not diminish the hills or wind. It was forecast for 20 mph--pretty accurate.

Straightway lined with flowers.

And another climb. My Garmin Training Center grade chart looked like a cardiac or EKG chart that had gone haywire.

Now every cyclist knows if there is an up--there is a down--eventually.

But we had our share of ups and wind.

Offset by pretty scenery.

I had to stop and take a shot of a good patch of bluebonnets. Glad I did as even these are blurred.

Brian chugging away, but we can see the top of the hill is close.

This is part of a very long climb.

And it continues

End in sight again 

 Stopped to take this as I remembered this was a good downhill.

Stopped again before the next long descent. We go all the way down to the plateau.

Nearing the end of the descent but there was a good patch of bluebonnets. I admit being partial to the Texas state flower.

Biker's dream. If you look closely--smooth road-mostly downhill-20 mph wind at your back. I don't think I pedaled more than twice in 7 miles.

We had to turn off the great stretch of highway back into a wicked cross wind.

Nice patch of flowers.

A sort of selfie demonstrating my point and shoot technique. And it explains how some of my shots are so blurred.

Dog right. Good fence.

Nice lane road.

Thought the ride was about over as we came into the outskirts of town.

 But we were diverted back around town to extend the distance.

We rode

and rode

 and

Finally we were going to go under the underpass to head back toward town.

 And guess who caught up to us even after taking her wrong turn.

Coming up--the historic Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and WWII Museum. 

The WASP Museum is located at Avenger Field. During WWII, female pilots trained at Avenger Field to fly supplies to free up men for combat.

 Possible rain clouds still lingered. Never rained tho.

 Almost to the end. Brian is way up there and Christine has taken the lead from me. What a way to end our first ride of the season.

But the sharing of "war" stories at the end of a ride makes it all worthwhile. Plus they served hot dogs.

Starbuck Island, Close to Nowhere

 Starbuck Island

March 2019

South Pacific
Somewhere Between Hawaii and Fanning Island

Starbuck Island is a little 5 x 2 mile island of uplifted reef in the South Pacific close to nothing else. Our captain was excited that we were to pass close to this uninhabited island and announced for all to go to the starboard side with binoculars and cameras. Cruise ships do not normally pass by as the captain had obtained permission to veer off course to entertain us with this "island in the making."

Incidentally, the palm trees are the only discernable vegetation able to be seen with binoculars or zoom lenses so, most of the shots were of the trees.

Starbuck was not named after the coffee company rather, it was named after Valentine Starbuck, a whaler, who sighted the island in 1823.

There is no fresh water on the island and the little vegetation consists of stunted sida fallax scrub, low herbs, and bunch grass.

(picture by Angela Kepler, and public domain)

Starbuck's claim to fame was the harvesting of the Sooty Tern guano from 1870 to 1893. It has been estimated that the Sooty Tern population there ranges from three to six million birds.

I hope the people who mined the guano were well paid as the island was noted for the unbearable screaming of seabirds, extreme heat, and blinding sunlight. (Not even the palm trees were on the island back in the 1800's.)

The close up photos illustrate that the highest point on the island is 5 meters (about 16 feet). Maybe the island will have more shade by the next time we get to go past. 

Hilo the Ironic Scenic Tour

Hilo, Hawaii

March 2019

Tour: Culinary Hawaii Homes

The travel brochure states: Savor a delicious island progressive brunch at the homes of three Big Island residents. Gain an insider perspective of the various island lifestyles both mauka (mountainside) and makai (seaside). At every stop, a delicious course packed with fresh, local ingredients will be served."  

Ironic? Yes, that we should choose this tour while on a cruise ship. Anyone who has ever taken a cruise knows that it is almost impossible to be hungry. Yet we took a culinary tour.

A short word of explanation. As with Oahu (Honolulu), we have toured the Big Island (Hilo) and the other Hawaiian Islands in previous trips. So, when we were trying to decide which, if any, tour to take while at Hilo, we saw the culinary tour. THAT we hadn't done.

The "delicious course" at every stop was an understatement. It was great. Plus we had been alerted not to eat breakfast on the ship before the tour, so we had an ample appetite to allow us to "savor the flavor" and indulge ourselves. 

But what impressed us about as much as the food were the truly magnificent views the three homes enjoyed. The following pictures speak for themselves and need little explanation.

Enjoy as we did.

With full stomachs and satiated visual stimulation we went back to the ship to get ready for dinner.