Garage Sale Coffeeneuring Ride

This morning a club at the high school I teach at was having a garage sale.  I promised my students that I would stop by and visit them on my bike and that I would bring Tsuki.  Since Kapua hasn't made it out on any of my coffeeneuring trips, I went to the garage to pack her up and found her back tire VERY flat.  I didn't have the time to fix the flat this morning so I took the Volvpe, again.  Tsuki LOVED the girls at the garage sale.  She ended up with a new toy that they threw for her, and many of the wanted to take her home.  You can see some her tweets if you follow her on twitter @dogonbike

After eating some cookies they were selling at the bake sale table of the garage sale, I headed over to Kingdom Coffee & Cycle for a hot cup of coffee, because this morning the temps were in the 40's and standing around got me pretty chilled.  Tsuki waited patiently for me outside, protecting the Volpe and even let this guy talk to her.  It helped that she could see me.  I know that we completely blocked the sidewalk, but since there was little to no foot traffic this morning, there were no complaints.  The coffee was perfect, warm and frothy, and since I didn't want Tsuki to wait too long for me to drink it, I poured the rest in thermos and we headed out to find some geocaches.  

There were a couple of geocaches downtown, near Kingdom Coffee & Cycle but they had several DNF's (Did Not Find) so after a quick attempt, we moved on.  We finally found Red Robin (GC4NW3K) back by the garage sale and I was able to drop a trackable coin off in the cache for someone else to find, and we headed home.

Coffeeneuring to Keen Bean @ the Farmers Market

Tsuki is ready to head out for a bike ride and some geocaching, although Kapua stayed home and the Volpi got to go with this time.  Juana meet us at a local park and we headed out around dawn.  It was a chilly 45 degrees and we were bundled up well and road several miles before stopping for our first geocache, Lock & Load (GC4C2MK).  This was Juana's first time geocaching, it is was a GREAT one!  The description stated that you needed to bring your own water bottle, and luckily we had some on our bikes because I didn't read the description before leaving the house.  But when I ride with Tsuki, I alway make sure I have enough water for her and myself, so we had plenty.

Juana signing Some Where Out There 1

                                  After leaving Locked & Loaded, we headed to the trail and looked for Some Where Out There 3, 2 and 1 but were only successful finding Some Where Out There 1(GLK508RN).  Unfortunately we got quite a few stickers on us trying to find the first on one the trail.  

Once we arrived at the market we looked around at some great food options and finally decided on getting some cinnamon rolls from some venders and coffee at Keen Bean's Truck.  Tsuki seemed very interested in my coffee this morning, but she doesn't get any.  Not a drink for doggies!  But I did let her lick the icing off the cinnamon roll container.  

Tsuki was model-ing her newly modified collar that has a patch that says Follow me on Twitter @dogonbike and there were a lot of people asking about it.  Most of these photos made it onto Twitter while we were at the Farmer's Market, but we still only have a few people following us. Maybe the patch will increase her following.  

After we finished our rolls we walked around and bought some produce, tasted some freshly roasted chestnuts and found out that whoever said the buckeyes were chestnuts didn't know what they were talking about.  We also discovered that Tsuki really likes chestnuts and the couple selling them gave her a couple of cold ones so I would have extra to give her later.                                                                                                     We went down into a green space near the market and found another nice geocache Hidey Holey Shoney (GS2NXM4) before riding back to Juana's house.  As I was back on Southcreek where I rode last weekend looking for geo-caches, I saw a couple of ladies looking for a geocache that I had been unable to find.  I stopped and helped them and together we found the cache, to bring the day's total up to 4 finds!  

I am enjoying this geocaching theme within my Tsuki blogging theme, and am enjoying the company of friends as well. 

The Coffeeneuring Challenge Begins Again!

The first weekend of October and a new coffeeneuring challenge has begun: http://chasingmailboxes.com/2015/09/19/coffeeneuring-challenge-2015-a-dream-within-a-dream/.  This year they are suggesting a theme within a theme and so I decided to include geocaching as my theme, while still keeping Tsuki with me from my last year's theme.  Even though I have a new bike, I want to try to ride Kapua for these rides, but unfortunately this morning she had too much in the garage blocking her from my sight.

So I headed out on the trail near my house to look for some geocaches.  I took Tsuki and my coffee along because I knew that geocaching may end up using a lot of my extra time.  I didn't spend too much time with on the first few geocaches, but was able to easily find Battleship #8 (GC61AT2) and moved on to the next one, Roadside cache (GLK3M98Y).

We stopped and enjoyed the rest of my morning joe at the nearest park, which is just over 3 miles from my house.  I guess I can't say "we", since Tsuki only got water.  It was a beautiful morning that started in the 40's and warmed up into the 60's.  I took Tsuki home and then met some friends to ride some more on the trails. Total miles for the day: 56.7 miles!

Longest Weekend of 2015 - Summer Solstice

It has been a long time since I have taken Tsuki on a ride with Kapua and decided that this weekend, having the most sunlight of the year would be a good time to take them both out.  I needed a few things from the Farmer's Market and it is a perfect place to take them both.  I found a nice shaded spot to park Kapua while Tsuki and I shopped.  

While in the parking lot on the way to the market, someone driving by asked me how I get her to stay on the back of my bike.  I am asked this question often and realized that I don't actually "get" her to stay there.  I simply provide her a place to sit when she is tired.  She loves being out with me so much that she stays put.  She also discovered that jumping off when the bike is moving hurts.

On Sunday I took them out again, but this time we went for a longer ride on the trail.  We rode through the park and saw the goslings growing up.   The heat and humidity was pretty oppressive, so we had an emergency trip to Andy's, where Tsuki got a free doggie cone! 

Snow Ride

My plan was to ride this morning before the snow arrived around lunch, but I woke up to snow already falling. My goal for this year is to ride at least 200 miles each month but the weather this month has kept me off the roads. I figured if I started early I should be able to get the 25 miles needed easily before eleven, but with snow already falling I knew it wouldn't happen. However, I decided to take Tsuki with me and see how many miles I could get in before it got worse.  As I started, the ground was already covered and I found some ice underneath so I stayed close to home, avoided cars and got just over 3 miles of snow riding. Not close to 25 but it was fun. I didn't take any pictures while out but did get some of Tsuki's beardcicles before we went in the house. 

Happy New Year!

Today my patch arrived for completing the Coffeeneuring Challenge and I realized that I have not posted a blog since Thanksgiving.  I learned one thing this winter, Tsuki LOVES to run in the cold.  In the summer she can only run a mile at a time, in the cold she can run twice the distance, and she really enjoyed Thanksgiving eve's snowy run.  On Thanksgiving morning I took Tsuki on the Turkey Trot 5K, but had to leave the bike at home.  Tsuki and I are in costume as the Fourth Doctor and K9.

Saturday we rode over 16 miles on the Galloway trail with our friend Susan with a detour to Sunshine Bike to look and their bikes and I fell in love with the Volpe going back to buy it that evening before they closed.

Sunday I led a group geocaching on the Frisco Trail.  It was a lot of fun except for the cold front that arrived, causing us to shorten our ride.  We ended up finding 10 geocaches though and it was a first time geocaching for most of the group, so all in all it was a success.
A week later I was sick with the flu and poor Tsuki was bored, so I took some silly closeups of her wishing I would take her for a run/ride.  It took forever for me to feel strong enough to get back on the bike, but as the semester ended and winter break began, I was ready to get out.  I didn't get any pictures of the next ride, but I did get a picture of her crashed out on the couch after running about six miles.

I took her out on a familiar trail most days during the week of Christmas doing a loop that is between 11 and 16 miles, depending on how far I ride before heading back home.

 I was able to go up a fairly steep hill with her on the back on the new bike. Since the weather was bad and it was a couple of days before Christmas there were very few people on the trails, so I gave her some freedom off leash when it was safe.  She was so happy and did such a good job staying by the bike.

 I am sad that my break is over and I will not have as much time to spend with my dog on the bike, and am finding it difficult to focus on work related activities when I really just want to get out and ride.  Although slightly warmer temperatures and more sunshine would make it much more enjoyable!  

Sunrise Coffee & Bicycles

          

A group that meets every other Wednesday morning at a different location to drink coffee and have good conversations.  Since I have to be at work by 7:30, I can't make it when school is in session but do my best when we don't have school, like today.  With Sunrise at 7:04 we met at Hebrews Coffee and then headed out for a better spot to see the sun. Although sunrise was beautiful it was difficult to get a great view.


We decided to try to get to the Galloway trail via Nature Center Way, but due to a recently installed fence, we had a much bumpier ride than we expected.  After the slightly adventurous detour, we finally made it to the trail and split into separate directions.  Since I had a heavy bike, loaded with a medium sized dog, and no need to make it to work by any particular time, the guys road off and I took my time heading home.

We knew there was a chance for a little rain, but instead it started to sleet.  It wasn't too bad, because at least we stayed dry as it bounced off of us, but as I changed from trail to road, the precipitation changed to snow.  Starting light, but by the time I was home, the flakes were HUGE!  Lucky for me, Tsuki LOVES snow and cold weather, so she did just fine.