Shari Tackles Palm Beach

Shari Stiver on bike ride in Palm Beach 1010-2013Friend Shari and Wife Lila have been touring South Florida while I’ve been trying to wrap up projects before hitting the road. I got a bunch of work done Wednesday, so I had a few hours free Thursday morning to take Shari on a short bike ride along Palm Beach’s Lake Trail.

When I mentioned that because I am folically challenged, I wear a Cool Max headsweat under my helmet to keep salty bodily fluids from splashing onto my glasses, she said she usually wraps a bandana around her forehead. Reaching into my back jersey pocket, I produced this souvenir from the Tour of Southern Rural Vistas. I didn’t notice the “Springtime” on the bandana until I edited the picture.

Where’s my Segway?

Shari Stiver on bike ride in Palm Beach 1010-2013A covey of Segways cruised by buzzing like a batch of angry bees while Shari was vamping next to this sculpture at the Four Arts Museum. “Why are we riding these? Why don’t have one of those?”

Some things don’t deserve an answer.

Feed it a kid first

Shari Stiver on bike ride in Palm Beach 1010-2013

No trip on the Lake Trail is complete without pausing at the huge kapok tree south of the Flagler Museum. We pulled up just about the same time a mother with several children arrived. When Shari started to elbow them aside, I said, “We find it works much better if we feed the tree a couple of kids before the first adult gets close to it.”

From the look on the mother’s face, I’m pretty sure my name has been added to some kind of registry in Palm Beach.

 

 

Dog Ate My Homework

1967-01 Miscl 27It was 12:49 a.m. I walked into the dining room and told Wife Lila, “OK, I finished the video I was working on and uploaded it, then I uploaded the photos that Curator Jessica needs to have printed in Athens; I’m going to pop a bowl of popcorn, then unwind with half an hour of TV.”

“I’ve been sitting here waiting for you to tell me you had blog content to proof.”

“Oh, Bleep! I KNEW there was something else. Do you think the readers would believe our dog ate my homework?”

“We don’t have a dog.”

“THEY don’t know that.

Who is that young woman?

1967-01 Miscl 28

So, now that the dog excuse is shot, the burden is on you. Who the heck is this young woman? I don’t have a clue, and neither did the four or five folks I showed the photo to. I’m sitting in the back seat, so it’s not my car. It looks like a small car, maybe even a VW, but I can’t think of a single person who drove a VW in Cape in the mid-1960s.

Pat Sommers and Jim Stone were about the only two guys I ran around with who had cars: Pat had a small Pinto or something; Jim drove cars that came from the dealership his dad worked at.

The gal has a certain cool air about her. She is neither concerned (nor impressed) that I am taking pictures of her.

Your homework assignment

You homework assignment is to name this young woman (with her REAL name. Points will be deducted if you are found to have made one up). Bonus points will be awarded for identifying the car and its owner.

“The dog ate my homework is NOT an acceptable excuse.”

Shooting to tear down my equipment and load the van for a Friday morning departure.

Roadtripper Shari

Ken Steinhoff - Shari Stiver 10-08-2013 IMG_2979

Before I started this blog, I had PalmBeachBikeTours.com. Kid Matt said, “You’re always picking up strays along the road, why don’t you do bike tours?” Well, that lasted until the first time half a dozen riders of various abilities and attitudes showed up (and they weren’t strangers, they were friends and family). I decided I wasn’t cut out to herd cats, so I concentrated on writing about rides and reviewing products.

Jan got to feel cold

Jan Norris Athens OH 01-23-2013_0671

It looks like THIS blog is turning into a touring group. I got to introduce Jan Norris to cold weather and Old Man’s Cave in February.

Anne got to sing with Elvis

Anne Rodgers at Mollyville

I hauled Anne Rodgers from Florida to Cape this summer. (Jan and Anne were both newspaper colleagues and bike partners).

Now it’s Shari’s turn

My first high school girlfriend, Shari Stiver, flew into town Tuesday afternoon to spend a few days in Florida before heading back to Cape with me. Wife Lila shot the photo at the top of the page of the two of us listening to Friend Jacqie Jackson perform at the Tides in South Palm Beach. The ocean and a huge lighting storm way out at sea are in the blackness behind us.

I’m not sure, but that may be closer than Shari ever got to me when we were dating.

Jessica is next victim

Jessica Cyders Athens OH 02-28-2013_3184My next victim after Shari will be Jessica, the curator at the Athens Historical Society and Museum in Athens. She’s riding from Athens to Cape with me. She says she can’t believe half the stories I tell her about SE Missouri, so she wants to see the place for herself.

I told her Bill Hopkins will vouch for me. (I’ve already cautioned her not to stare at Mother’s arm. She’s sensitive about it since that riverboat mishap.)

I don’t have many pictures of Jessica yet. The best I could come up with is this shot of her trying to convince the cat in the window of the Athens County Board of Elections that the museum would be a better home because it provides catnip breaks twice a day.

 

A Windy Day in South Florida

720 DragonflyIt sure looked dark this afternoon. A friend 60 miles west of us at the north end of Lake Okeechobee said it was raining so hard out there she could hardly see across the creek. It didn’t take long before our trees started whipping around.

But, that’s not really the reason you’re seeing this. My computer is tied up outputting 1,111 photos for a project in Athens, Ohio. Not only is it resizing them and working magic once, I have to do it four times for different size prints and for a slide show.

(No, I’m not showing all thousand slides in one show. Relax.)

Video of wind and rain

While all those digital gyrations are going on, I can’t edit any still photos. That’s why you get this short video of the wind picking up, then moving on.

This rain video I did back in Cape is a little more dramatic.