Pink Flower

Can't remember what this pink flower is called. It is the only one that came up from two bags of bulbs that I got from The Dollar Tree Store this spring.

Cream Tires Directory

It is no secret that I like cream bicycle tires.If you are a fan as well, you will find this recent thread on bikeforums a real treat - loads of pictures of classic and vintage cream tired bicycles. And, since I am asked about this all the time, I have compiled below a directory of cream and white tires in various sizesthat are available on the market. My criteria for these selections were reasonable availability and all-over colour (as opposed to white sidewall on a black tire). Unless noted otherwise, all tires listed are puncture-resistant.



Cream Tires for City Bicycles



28"

Schwalbe Delta Cruiser (28 x 1 1/2")

Vredestein Classic(28 x 1 1/2")*

*available in EU only or from Dutch bike dealers



700C

Schwalbe Delta Cruisers (700C x 35mm)

Kenda Kwest (700C x 35mm)

Specialized Nimbus(700C x 35mm)*

Electra Amsterdam City Tire (700C x 40mm)*

* may not be puncture resistant



26"

Schwalbe Delta Cruiser(26 x 1 3/8")

Schwalbe Fat Frank (26 x 2.35")

Geax Tattoo(26 x 2.3")

Kenda Cruiser (26 x 2.125)*

Electra Retrorunner (26 x 2.125")*

Electra Vintage Diamond (26 x 2.35")*

Electra Blossom Trail (26 x 2.125")*

* may not be puncture resistant

Cream Tires for Road Bicycles



650B

Grand Bois Hetre (650B x 42mm)



700C

Panaracer Pasela (700C x 28mm, 700C x 23mm)

Vittoria Randonneur(700C x 28mm, 700C x 23mm)

Vittoria Zafiro Pro (700C x 23mm)

Origin 8 Elimin-8er (700C x 23mm, 700C x 25mm)

Schwalbe Durano (700C x 23mm, 700C x 25mm, 700C x 28mm)



27"

Cheng ShinCST C-740 (27" x 32mm)



The selection is not huge, but there is something to be had in almost every wheel size. If you know of other cream or white tires I have omitted, please let me know and I will add them.

Our Travel Buddies Make it to Chesapeake Bay

Since we went full time, we have felt to lucky to be able to travel with Daryl, Diana, Lauren and Josh. We have had more time together in the past two years than we have the entire time we've been family before that. Since they had RV troubles after our last trip, they have not been able to travel RV style since we met them out West. We have only seen them once in that time period. It has felt like a really looooooong time to me. Especially since Diana is my best friend. They made it to TT's today and we were tickled pink to finally be back together again.



No, the geese don't have anything to do with this story. But I snapped a picture of them at the campground and wanted to share it.

Living the life in Virginia!

Jemez Mountains

Another photo from our day in the Jemez Mountains in the Ponderosa area.

Gamble Plantation State Park

We visited this neat place last year, and enjoyed it so much. It is a antebellum mansion that sat on a sugar plantation. It is the only surviving plantation in South Florida. It is a beautiful building and it has beautiful grounds. We enjoyed our visit this year too.



You can read more about it here: Gamble Plantation

Are These My People?

One of the things I “discovered” last week was that FamilySearch has Ohio, County Marriages, 1790-1950 online, which includes the name index and images and is 76% complete. Now, I realize that it has probably been “out there” for quite some time but it was a “new find” for me – it's been a while since I've done any research. I have lots of ancestors who married in Ohio and lots more of their siblings, children, and other relatives too that I'm sure will be found in that database! It's been tempting to gather those records but better judgment has prevailed and I've been concentrating on trying to find things here that aren't online and may not be available elsewhere.



When I had visited Muskingum County in 1992 I was unable to locate the marriage record for William B. Jones and Elizabeth Helms who were “married in Ohio in 1825” according to her obituary. They are my 4th great grandparents.



Anyway, yesterday morning temptation won and I got into the Ohio Marriages on FamilySearch, typed in William B. Jones, and got several pages of hits! Scrolling through the list I was looking for Elizabeth Helms (or any other variations) when, midway down the first page of hits, I came upon the entry for William B. Jones and Elizabeth Holmes. The year was right – 1825. Her last name was close. But the county was Licking – not Muskingum. That's okay though because Licking County borders Muskingum on the west.



But the question remains: Is this really the record for my ancestors? Of course, I think it is. But is it really? I refined my search a bit and entered the years from 1824 to 1826 just to see if there were other possibilities. There was no other marriage for a William Jones and Elizabeth in that time frame. So I really do think this record is for “my” William and Elizabeth...





The Jones-Holmes marriage is the third entry on page 211.Licking County, Ohio Marriages.

Oct 3rd 1825 William B. Jones to Elizabeth Holmes

Licking County, ect Perry Township

I hereby certify that on the 3rd day of October A. D. 1825, the Marriage of William B. Jones and Elizabeth Holmes was solemnized by me, in due form of law. Given under my hand this 15th day of October, A.D. 1825.

J. H. Southard J. Peace

Reading Bill Strickland's Ten Points

A little while back, someone suggested that I read Bill Strickland's Ten Points, and before I knew it I was interacting with Bill Strickland himself and he sent me a copy. When the book arrived, the cover alone induced a pre-emptive sense of nostalgia. A cyclist walking his bike into the fading sun, beneath the overhanging trees, as if savouring the sweet devastation of defeat. Of course this would be on the cover of Bill Strickland's memoir.



Bill Strickland is the editor of Bicycling Magazine. He lives in Pennsylvania. He races for Kapelmuur Independent. And he writes, a lot. Articles for various cycling and sometimes non-cycling magazines, a few books, blog posts. The first time I read something by him was maybe in Rouleur a year ago, and then I began following him online. I remember it initially surprised me that a person who wrote like Bill Strickland was the editor of Bicycling. Those guys are all about nutrition and training and race coverage and roadbike reviews. Strickland's writing is evocative and sensual and self-consciously sentimental. And that's just on his instagram account.



Ten Points is an unconventional memoir. It's inextricably tied to bicycle racing, but is not really about it. Bicycling is more of a metaphor, an explanation, a case study in magical thinking. At the start of the book, the author tells his little daughter that he will score 10 points during a single racing season, then proceeds to participate in criterium races and fail spectacularly week after week.



But this plot line merely serves as a trajectory for the real story - a story of surviving childhood abuse, emerging damaged, then wondering for the rest of your life whether you're human or a piece of garbage. In adulthood, the author considers himself cursed, a monster. He struggles to stay in control, but the past haunts him and he worries about being a fit parent and husband. He believes that cycling keeps the monster in him at bay. And winning 10 points for his daughter might just have the power to lift the curse entirely.



Reading the memoir and trying to process it as such, I must admit that I found the 10 points theme to be overbearing and at times distracting. The writing is good. Bill Strickland excels at creating a visceral sense of understanding between himself and the reader. Repeatedly I found myself lost in his past, in his life, in his very sensations. In contrast to this, the overarching storyline of the 10 points feels forced, packaged. Like maybe the author had written the book differently, and then some editor swooped in and tried to make it more marketable for those who like the "top 10 ways to tackle hills" types of articles. I don't know how else to explain it.



Could the story have been told without the 10 points theme being so overt? I honestly think that it could. The book is really a rich collection of snippets, flashbacks to various incidents in the writer's life, and there are other ways in which these could have been tied together. The narrative style is jewel-like, seductive, while somehow also managing to come across as sparse and reserved. It is part American Gothic, part John Updike, but replete with its own, uniquely Stricklandian, characteristics.



In a way Ten Points reads more like a novel than a memoir, and some characters feel more believable than others. The incidents from the past, despite how dramatic some of them are, read as believable, as do the parts about racing. But in the present-day dialogue with the wife and daughter, the things they say are sometimes too well-phrased, too conveniently meaningful. In those instances I could practically feel the author trying to wrangle them into the 10 points plot.



At his best, Bill Strickland is the sort of natural storyteller who can engage an audience with a description of an Idaho cornfield. He can stir the reader into alternating states of wistfulness and fear within a single paragraph. He is a master of subtle foreshadowing. I want more of all that, less meta-narrative.



Writing about this book, I find myself wishing I hadn't interacted with the author prior. Because now I am hyper-aware of him as a real person and nervous about how he will feel reading this. But maybe that's arrogant. After all, who the heck am I and what does it matter what I think. I am describing the book as a reader, not as a critic. And I continue to follow Bill Strickland's writing with interest.