A Reminder

The reason for our ride.  We miss you Alex.

EdieBug

Our kitty EdieBug left her mark on the back porch this morning.  She left lots of them, actually, since we got more fresh snow last night.  It sparkles in the morning sunshine.

Icy Lights

The streetlights had an eerie glow about them today.  See the ice?

Snowmobiles?

Who says you can't ride a trike in the snow?  We took some great video earlier of us skidding, sliding, and shreiking our way down the hill (which we will edit and post onto Vimeo).  They say it feels like 14 degrees out there but we stayed toasty warm in our new cold-weather gear.  Neighbors watched us from their warm living rooms as we played like the children we are.

A Love Story (Haiku)

Ken walking alone.

Ken finds Jen and they are happy.

They smooch in the snow.  :)

Jen and Simon

We didn't get too far on today's walk.  In fact, this is about as far as we got before Simon wanted to go back inside, and this is the street right in front of our house.  In his defense, it was only 24 degrees out!

Let it Snow!

The white stuff has been falling for HOURS now and there is quite a bit of snow on the ground and on the roads.  Looks like we won't be riding our trikes today, but we will be walking in it and loving how beautiful our neighborhood looks covered in white.

My Other Chucks

There is something about being on these TerraTrikes that makes you want to take pictures of your feet.  Once we are on the road I will only have one or two pairs of shoes with me... until then you will probably get a pretty good idea what my shoe collection looks like.  LOL

What is That Thing??

Simon looking smug - he hasn't noticed the tail hanging off the back of Ken's trike yet. 

Vitamins and Things

Vitamins and WHAT things, we wondered when we saw this sign on today's 20-miler. 

The front of the shop.

This is Mary Farrell and beside her stands one of her loyal customers (sorry I didn't get her name).  Mary owns "Vitamins and Things," a great little shop located at 3723 Carbonton Road.  The "Things" she sells besides her great selection of supplements include cards, healthy snacks, essential oils, and one of our favorites, Dr Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar (see customer's hand - lol).
Thank you Mary for the great conversation, the lip balm, and the donation.  It was great to meet you!

So Cute

Simon and Daddy sleeping.

Today's Funny

"Okay, so when you get to the fork in the road..."

Beyond San-Lee

Today we went out past San-Lee Park and found ourselves in uncharted territory for some of today's 30-mile ride.  It was really pretty country, very few cars, lots of horses, and unfortunately alot of wind.  We were pleased to learn that sitting as low as we do means much of the wind passes over us, but it was still a challenge riding in the gusts.  At least we didn't have to worry about being blown over!

Horses Like Trikes

We saw these three horses, and they saw us. 

Cold, Hard Ride

We worked ourselves out on yesterday's ride, really pushing it up the hills, pedaling harder and moving faster than any of our other rides.  We didn't do this on purpose, mind you, it was just really cold and we were still a long ways from home and the sun was setting!  We made it home just at sunset and looking at the sky made us think of all the sunsets and sunrises we will be seeing from countless new places when we start Touring.

Red

We loved this little red set up.  Too cool!

Rainbow??

During the last 4-5 miles of yesterday's 26.5 ride, this appeared in the sky.  It shared some characteristics of a rainbow, however, it wasn't raining and it wasn't in the shape of a bow.  Hmmm... to us it was more like someone, Izzi, touched an enormous grey watercolor wash with a finger, and slid it down the canvas.  As blessed as we have been feeling lately, we were suprised when we pulled into our yard and our little house was not lit up in all the colors of a rainbow.  :)  (Nor was there a pot of gold.  Hmmph.)

Ken's Latest Creation

Ken made this walking stick today.  Pretty awesome!

New Flags!

Our SHINY new trikes.  :)

Thanks to Nancy Evans at Donate Life America today we received two new flags to fly on our trikes!  How do you think they look?

The Best Soap Ever!

Since we will be taking very few things with us on the Just Be-Causes Tour we are going to be careful about what those things are.  We don't want to be advertising for companies we don't believe in - such as (brace yourself, this might hurt) Burt's Bees who recently sold out to Clorox. Vomit.  By doing our research and learning about how to best represent our beliefs while supporting companies who's priorities match our own we hope to find products we can use and tell others about.  The soap you see pictured above is going with us FOR SURE, and I want to recommend it to all of you.  It is WONDERFUL, and at around $5 a bar (which lasts forever) you have replaced your soap and your shampoo and your conditioner!  It can be found in health food stores or ordered online at:  J.R.Ligget's Shampoo Bar
Know of any similar companies that would benefit from being with us on our ride?  We prefer they be environmentally friendly, part of the solution, and small or family owned.  Please do not hesitate to tell us about them.  We would love to know!

School-Houses

The building in this picture is one of my favorite places in town and is just at the bottom of our hill.  A former Elementary school, it has recently been renovated and turned into homes!  Don't tell anyone, it's a secret, but I am using it as one of the settings in my novel.  Riding our trikes by it on this little path usually inspires me to come home and write.
We rode 21.9 miles today and the weather was gorgeous!

Rainbow

Beautiful rainbow in the back yard the other day. I didn't think the camera would pick it up but it did!  If you click on the picture and look really close you can see that this was a double rainbow.  Made me think of Jack Johnson singin about rainbows:  "That was God tellin me, everythings gonna be alright...."

Terras in Tramway

We double checked the distance when we got home because it sure didn't feel like we'd gone over 20 miles, but we did.  Wow.  We must be getting into shape!

Sanford Churches

      Churches come in all sizes, don't they?

This Methodist Church was one of our pit stops today. 

Irreplaceable, by Stephen Lovely

Those of you who know me know I don't recommend a book unless it is truly exceptional and this book is at the very top of my list.  The subject is of special importance to me (Organ Donation) but even if donation has not affected you personally this is still an excellent read that reveals much about the inner workings of our fellow human beings.  Stephen Lovely has become aware of our Tour and will be helping us promote our ride as we help support him in his upcoming paperback publishing next month. Give it a read - you won't be disappointed!

Our Dream Home

Eventually this is the type of low-imact house that Ken and Jen want to build themselves one day.  To live a low-impact lifestyle is to live lightly on the earth.

In essence, this means to intelligently and intensively manage our surrounding environment in order to maximise return (in the forms of energy, water, food, shelter and products) and minimise waste (through recycling, composting and energy efficient systems).
In practice, this means to adopt a land-based, simple, localised lifestyle that works with the land and natural cycles available to us.
To learn more about permaculture visit this site:  http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm

Simon's First Long Ride

Today's ride was the longest so far on our new TerraTrikes - about 40 miles or so.  Other than being hungry we were feeling super, which we found VERY reassuring.  Simon joined us today for the first time and he did great!  He seemed to enjoy himself so much and felt so at ease riding with us that we are now more sure than ever that bringing him with us on the Tour is the right thing to do.  Simon barked only once or twice and that was because horses like to chase trikes!  Isn't that great? Watching the horses run along side us was magnificent to behold.  I wish I'd had my camera ready, and I hope we see alot more of that on the Tour.

Back Pack Pals

This morning we did some volunteer service work with a local group called BackPack Pals, A Program by Communities In Schools of Lee County.  This is a program that helps provide regular nutrition to children who would otherwise go without.  Several volunteers get together to do this every week and we were really impressed with how many children they are currently helping!  It felt good to be a part of something helpful, and we want to say thank you to Jenny Vaillancourt for telling us about this wonderful opportunity!  What a nice group of people!
If you are interested in donating food or funds to the BackPack Pals, or would like to volunteer your time, send your email to backpackpals@hotmail.com

Rollin Around Town

In the gazebo at our Kiwanis park where we used to walk, and where we now RIDE!  Bikes aren't allowed in some parts of the park, but the sign doesn't say anything about trikes... hmmm....  LOL

A quick snapshot outside the store.  It was cold today but not nearly as cold as it has been so we didn't have to get quite as bundled up.  We also didn't ride 25 miles, which is what we figured out yesterday's ride was.

Ken smiling his way up the hill on Sunset Drive.  Hills are so easy now, if you can handle a slow pace which in our opinion is the whole point. 

The Sanford Herald - hopefully our first media coverage will happen here.  We spoke with them today and gave them our packet of info about Donate Life, TerraTrike, and the Tour.

We also went here.  Don't tell them but we've never watched or listened to any of their programming (we don't really watch much tv).  They just happened to be next door to the Herald and we thought 'why not' since we plan to tell EVERYONE about what we are doing and why!