A New Toy

We'll say it was in an effort to keep me active and healthy, but anyway, Brombeere recently talked me into getting a new bike. And not just any bike; a recumbent bike.  Maybe it was a safety concern as well.  After all, it's much harder to fall over on a recumbent tricycle.

I've dreamed about recumbents for years.  Years and years, since before I had ever actually had seen a commercially manufactured recumbent bike.  Recumbents have been around since the 1890s but I had never seen one until much later.  I used to image how to make my own but I'm not an engineer, nor have I ever had ready access to the  machining and welding tools it would take to make my own recumbent.  Actually, what I used to envision was a four wheeled recumbent, which I still have never seen commercially available.  But two and three wheeled recumbents are now readily available so when we decided to get one we just went to the store.  Much easier than making one of my own.  And likely much more efficient and better built.

So we bought it but had to come back the next day to take delivery on it.  I ended up going in myself to pick it up because Brombeere had somewhere else to be.  So I picked it up and promptly went on a short ride.  That was fun.  I also learned right away that, while it uses many of the same muscles as an upright bike, it causes me to use them a little differently.  So in some ways it's easier, in other ways it's just as hard.  But I don't think it's any harder than an upright bike.

So over the next several days we went on several bike rides around our usual haunts, riding the roads and trails we usually ride on where we live and gradually I began to get more familiar with riding a recumbent and some of the differences that are involved.

We've also taken it on a couple of excursions we've been on.  We took it to a place called Terrell's Island, which is a place I've had on my list of places to go for a few years.  That was a fun ride.

We also took it down to Chicago to ride the Lakeshore Trail on Lake Michigan with Erdbeere and her kids.  That was quite an adventure. That was actually another ride I've thought for some time would be fun to do.  Erdbeere was kind enough to indulge me on that ride. That involved some mechanical difficulties that we had to deal with, that were the result of me still learning the ropes with this new toy.  But we managed and, all in all, had a good ride.

So we've cruised around on our bikes and we've been having lots of fun, near ...

... and far, on old familiar trails and some new ones.

Getting back to some places I haven't been for a while ...

... and some I've been to frequently.  Yes, I even persuaded Brombeere to stop with me at my favorite ice cream shop. 

Yep, I think I'm going to like this new toy, the more and more I ride it and get more familiar with it, the more I like it.  This is going to be good.

The Island

Some time back I learned of a place called Terrell's Island.  It's a cool trail on the west side of Lake Butte des Morts so, of course, it went on the list until I could find a time to take my bike out there and ride it.  The trail is maintained by a non-profit organization that works to preserve and maintain the natural habitat in and around Lake Butte des Morts.  One of the things the group did many years ago was to build a causeway out into the lake on the west side, making a circle that ran for three or four miles and came back around to nearly the same place, enclosing a large body of water within the causeway.  Out in about the  middle of the causeway a small bridge was built so that the causeway doesn't completely isolate the water inside from the rest of the lake.  A trail was made along the causeway that is open to anyone that wants to walk or bike it, allowing the viewing of the flora and fauna living and growing in the area.  Pretty cool, actually.  We were looking for something to do that might interest our oldest grandchild, Blaubeere's oldest, and decided to suggest a bike ride that took in the trail at Terrell's Island.  He was game so that's what we did.

We drove to Omro, the nearest community, and parked at one of the city parks there and then rode our bikes the few miles out to the island. 

That all went well until I missed a turn about half way there.  We went quite a ways beyond that before I realized my error and then we had to go back, so that missed corner added a little over three miles to the trip.  Ah, well - that happens.  But finally we arrived at the entrance to the island.

The original plan had been to ride to the island and then all the way around the trial and back to the park.  But we met the general manager who told us quite a bit about the island and its history.  One of the things he mentioned was that the group had decided a couple of years ago that the causeway was disrupting the natural habitat more than it was helping so they had decided to take the causeway out.  They had actually begun last year so the trail no longer went in a complete circle around like it used to.  They had quit maintaining it and actually removed a section so it was no longer possible to go all the way around, even on foot, much less on bicycle.  That was disappointing to learn but we decided to go out to the bridge anyway.

We had to go in a clock-wise direction, the trail only went about a quarter mile beyond the bridge.  So we started out.  There were all kinds of wild flowers growing up on either side of the trail.

We came to an area where a whole bunch of lily pads were growing. with lotus flowers growing up just above the pads.  I've never seen such a large field of lily pads.

The lotus flowers growing up out of the pads were really pretty.

They really are a pretty flower.  Normally they come in all kinds of colors but these were all white.

I had heard there were pelicans around the lake so I was hoping we'd get to see some.  Boy, did we see some.  Thousands of pelicans and lots and lots of cormorants, as well.

The general manager had told us that when the group first started up there were only a few nesting pair of pelicans.  They decided they wanted to encourage the population, which was one of the reasons the causeway had been built.  

But now, 30 years later, the area can no longer sustain the population at the size it's grown to.  Like many other animals, pelicans return to where they were born to have their own babies, so each year the population has grown until now they're killing many of the other birds and plants because there are just so many of them.  That's one of the reasons the causeway is being taken out. 

Anyway, we finally reached the bridge.

The bridge was our "turn around point", since it's no longer possible to keep going all the way around.

So we stopped for a couple of pictures.

Then we headed back the way we came.

Oh, yeah.  There were plenty of seagulls, too.  This guy was the keeper of the bridge.  He stood there on the piling the whole time we were there, keeping an eye on us.

We made it back in good time, no missed turns this time.  Braumbeere's counter said we did 15 miles.  Yeah, a few of those were unplanned, but it was pretty country and a nice time.  Even in the heat, it was a nice ride.  We got to spend some grandbaby time and I got to cross off another one from my "bucket list".  A good ride, indeed!