Month: March 2026

Lands End

3/8/26

Today we arrive in Key West. The journey ends successfully.
I hug a Wildflower I will probably never see again,

pose with the 4 other Route Leaders

and become part of yet another successful team.


Angel and Flossie look on smiling …

The Keys

3/5/26

Today I helped drive 63 miles to South Miami. Tomorrow I’ll start my three day trek west across the Florida Keys. We arrive early at church and decide to travel east by car about 5 miles to the Key Biscayne State Park. There I see a lighthouse that was created in the early 1820s and has since been reconstructed after having been destroyed first by the Seminole Indians in  a revolt and then after the South surrendered the Civil War. 

The keys have been habited for nearly 1000 years by local native Americans. The Seminoles were moved to Mississippi much against their will. There are archaeological digs near the lighthouse dating back to about 1000 AD.

I was curious about the word “key” so I decided to research it and share with you when I learned. Much of this is from Wikipedia. 

The Keys are a string of islands starting just east of Miami, extending to Key West and beyond ( un inhabited). They are formed on top of ancient coral reefs going back millennia now  covered by sand and soil with eventual vegetation and human habitation.

The islands lie along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and defining one edge of Florida Bay

The Keys were originally inhabited by the Calusa and Tequesta people and were later charted by Juan Ponce de León in 1513. De León named the islands Los Martires (“The Martyrs”), as they looked like suffering men from a distance. “Key” is derived from the Spanish word cayo, meaning small island.

The northern and central sections of the Florida Keys are the exposed portions of an ancient coral reef, the Key Largo Limestone. The northernmost island arising from the ancient reef formation is Elliott Key, in Biscayne National Park. North of Elliott Key are several small transitional keys, composed of sand built up around small areas of exposed ancient reef. Further north, Key Biscayne and places north are barrier islands, built up of sand. The islands in the southwestern part of the chain, from Big Pine Key to the Marquesas Keys, are exposed areas of Miami Limestone.

The Florida Keys have taken their present form as the result of the drastic changes in sea level associated with recent glaciations or ice ages. Beginning some 130,000 years ago the Sangamonian Stage raised sea levels about 25 feet (7.6 m) above the current level. All of southern Florida was covered by a shallow sea. Several parallel lines of reef formed along the edge of the submerged Florida Platform, stretching south and then west from the present Miami area to what is now the Dry Tortugas. This reef formed the Key Largo Limestone that is exposed on the surface from Soldier Key (midway between Key Biscayne and Elliott Key) to the southeast portion of Big Pine Keyand the Newfound Harbor Keys. The types of coral that formed Key Largo Limestone can be identified on the exposed surface of these keys. Minor fluctuations in sea level exposed parts of the reef, subjecting it to erosion. Acidic water, which can result from decaying vegetation, dissolves limestone. Some of the dissolved limestone redeposited as a denser cap rock, which can be seen as outcrops overlying the Key Largo and Miami limestones throughout the Keys. The limestone that eroded from the reef formed oolites in the shallow sea behind the reef, and together with the skeletal remains of bryozoans, formed the Miami Limestone that is the current surface bedrock of the lower Florida peninsula and the lower keys from Big Pine Key to Key West. To the west of Key West the ancient reef is covered by recent calcareous sand. While the islands of the upper and middle keys, consisting of Key Largo Limestone, form a long narrow arc, the islands of the lower keys are perpendicular to the line of that arc. This configuration arose from an ancient tidal-bar system, in which tidal channelscut through a submerged oolitic deposit. The bars lithified into Miami Limestone, and with changes in sea level are presently exposed as the islands, while the channels between the bars now separate the islands.

This is all rather “Greek scientific gibberish” to me but I’m sure some of you readers out there understand it. 

The White Rabbit Appears Again

3/4/26

As a route leader the White Rabbit was supposed to stay asleep… but… today I ride 72 miles unexpectedly and there is another route leader to sweep. A transformation in the middle of the night

I awake and am ready to leave at 6:45. As the sun rises over the ocean I move South at a steady speed. I pull into the first rest stop 5 minutes ahead of the speedsters but leave soon after. No one sees me again until the end… I arrive 40 minutes ahead of them to get the yellow jersey. In fairness to them they are tired , achy, and concerned about saddle sores with little winter training. I worked hard to prevent these three but then I am a proactive turtle at heart.
As I cross bridges back and forth across the sound, locals pass me quickly riding one speeds!!! I don’t get it …but they are small pure muscle and natives.
I ponder my body frame… a little chunky and short… not exactly a model cyclist.

I ponder my age… not a youngster…

I ponder my speed… rather like this beast.

Here’s what I look like on the rides…

here’s what I wish looked like on these rides…


So why does the White Rabbit seem to end up with the yellow jersey so often?

I think it’s consistency, steadiness on the ride, perservierence ,avoiding long rests , and the monotony of “ grinding it out” . I’m not a glitzy ,fancy ,macho rider. I just get the job done…

Besides I always have an Angel blowing from behind…

Jackknife Scars

3/1/26

Vultures circle above a Virginia farm …everyone knows that something has died. 

A farmer looks at me, his temporary teenage summer help, and says “go find out what has died and bury it”. Bouncing on an old tractor through fallow fields I approach the scene to find a rotting calf who  has died from blow fly infestation…vultures feasting around. The stench is unbelievable. I returned to explain to the farmer what’s happened and again somewhat irritated he says “well go bury it boy”.

The moment calls for creativity so I stuff my nostrils with cotton balls soaked in Aqua Velva and sprinkle a few drops all over my clothes. 

It takes me nearly 6 hours to bury the cow. 

The next day still reeking of the aftershave cologne, I’m given a new assignment of cleaning out the farm’s grease traps and hauling the liquid garbage along with buckets mammalian waste to the dump. 

Half way there I stall the van on a steep hill and jackknife the trailer I’m pulling in tow…half ton of waste cascades down the hill. 10 minutes later a state  patrolman arrives and gagging at the multitude of aromas stands off at a distance unsure what to do. Luckily a thunderstorm approaches so he tells me to load up what I can and move along…No tickets for me that day…he can’t get close to me for the smells…

I never drive  a van and trailer again…

until now…

This year I have decided be a route leader on the various MS rides, the Floridian Coast, the Trans  Am and the C&O Canal.

I will still be able to ride but just every other day…most of my responsibilities will be helping the full time riders along the way. 

In the past, I have been ambivalent to take on this role …not being able to ride every day…and more importantly avoiding the van and trailer again.

Sooner or later time moves on…

I drive from Blacksburg to Fernadina   Beach to start , an easy highway route. My first leader training session is today from St Augustine’s to Smyrna Beach. Half way there we stop on a deserted beach parking lot for “backing up practice”.

It goes well.

40 miles on we arrive at our hosts church 

and I slowly back 

the van and trailer into the night’s stall. Amazing! I do it with unsuspecting ease.

Success will breed success, I firmly believe this…as long as no mammalian wastage is in tow. I will drive again tomorrow…

Appalachia 

The Ozarks 

The Rockies

 and the  Sierra Nevadas

Here I come

A Mouse Who Roars

2/28/26

She can barely walk her ankle is so swollen from Achilles tendinitis.

 She has just joined us on the ride in Eastern New York following a wedding … not there at the start in Bar Harbor.

She readily admits that her training has not been great and the tendinitis is a direct result . I’m concerned that she may not get very far on the Northern Tier, but I start her on naproxen  and ride with her for the next week. Through the Grace of her youthful 25 years  and hellbent determination, the Achilles tendinitis resolves and she rides on without pain.

Three or four weeks later somewhere in the Midwest she and another rider pass the threshold of novice to become experienced  riders and finally show themselves to be “Wildflowers” (see the stories of June 18 and 19th of 2018).

We finish the ride in Seattle with much mutual joy. 

There’s an Aesop fable about a mouse and a lion .The lion catches a young  mouse and is about to eat her when squeaks from below beg for mercy saying that someday she will return the favor. The lion laughs and says there is no way something so small could ever help but decides to lets the mouse go. Some years later, the lion is caught in a trap of ropes… vulnerable and  old. The mouse now grown  comes along , sees the struggling  and offers to help by gnawing  through the tightened ropes. The lion bounds away free and the favor is returned.

I have often  thought of that lesson.  

Now, eight years later, I am riding  again with one of the Wildflowers. I have not seen her in all that time and barely communicated with her. The trek  from Jacksonville to Key West is about 700 miles and she has decided to join the team. We hug and embrace and I meet her parents for the first time.

Today I ride 70 miles the longest I’ve ridden in nearly a year and a half. Injuries and work commitment have kept me from long rides and recently the winter has been very difficult with much snow …outside training has been impossible. I ask if I can ride with her since I know I will be slow and she readily agrees . More importantly, I know that she has computerized maps  on her bike …she can lead the way and I will not have to worry about changing glasses all the time to read the map of the route.

When we reach the second rest stop at 55 miles I amble over  to her and ask if I should “pull a White Rabbit ” and speed ahead. 

With a slight smirk on her face, she says “ Well , do you have any idea where you’re going?” and I realize the answer is no. 

A smile confirms her suspicion and she says “ I think it’s best that you stay behind me so I can get you there”. 

As payback for the many  times  I “dumped her“ on the Northern Tier  in 2018 (near the end of routes for her experience ) she dumps me about 8 miles from the edge of  Saint Augustine’s leaving  me to fend  for myself .

I can  only look back and think of the mouse, which today gnawed  through the ropes and got me almost home…

It’s a good thing I have a Guardian Angel  who led me safely the last 8 miles.