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.

 

 

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.

 

Jackson Band Concert

Jackson Band Concert 07-11-2013I had a hankering to attend a band concert. I missed Cape’s Wednesday night concert at Capaha Park, but happened to be coming back from Perry County with Friend Shari on July 11, so I suggested we catch Jackson’s concert.

It took a bit of looking to find it,. We were a little early, so I told my passenger (who had slept most of the way back from Altenburg), “I’m going to take a 7-minute nap,” and set my alarm. When I woke up seven minutes later, she said, “You REALLY can fall asleep fast, can’t you?”

I couldn’t figure out why people were setting up their chairs at the top of the hill, several hundred yards away from the bandstand. I mean, sure, being able to get to the parking lot in a hurry is nice, but you needed binoculars to see the stage and I couldn’t imagine that you’d hear anything that far away.

Great warm-up act

Jackson Band Concert 07-11-2013 Steve Schaffner’s group got toes to tapping. I could have listened to them all evening. Shaffner retired this spring after 22 years of conducting the Central junior, senior high school orchestras.

And, much to my surprise, the sound was great. I walked all the way up to the folks sitting at the top of the hill and could hear as well as if I had been in the front row. The guy running the sound board did a great job.

The main event

Jackson Band Concert 07-11-2013Before long, the Jackson Municipal Band took the stage. They played well, with enthusiasm and the crowd liked them, but I’m low-brow enough that I like the group that played Blue Grass, folk and country music. I’m not complaining about the muni band, but it’s not really my thing.

The Municipal Band’s website has the history of the organization, which dates to 1920, and a current schedule.

Great evening, great location, perfect weather

Jackson Band Concert 07-11-2013If I only make it to one band concert every 40 or so years, I’m glad I went to this one. The music was great, the temperature was perfect, the sound system was excellent and the mosquitoes must have gotten lost. These is plenty of parking, so I think I’d rather go to Jackson than Capaha Park.

It looked to me that everyone was having a good time, particularly when free ice cream was handed out.

Band concert photo gallery

Sometimes it’s better to let the photos tell the story of an evening. Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the sides to move through the gallery.

Snakes Alive!

Horseshoe Lake 07-10-2013_4625I have a number of places I take visitors and friends for a ramble. A week or so ago, I took Friend Shari and her mother, LaFern, on a ride that paused at Horseshoe Lake near Olive Branch, Ill.

The little park and spillway at the south end of the lake is almost always pretty. Shari stopped to use the restroom – it’s an outhouse, but Friend Claire pronounced it acceptable on our visit last year. Shari also gave it a passing grade.

While she was otherwise occupied, LaFern and I checked out the spillway. I saw a huge fish chasing minnows as soon as I got there, but he disappeared, never to be seen again on this visit.

There were plenty of turtles, including a softshell with a neck a foot long who was snurfulling along the top of the water until he spotted us.

Snake

Snake Horseshoe Lake 07-10-2013_4616

This guy cruised by to the base of the spillway, then disappeared. His coloring and rounded head makes me believe he was harmless.

Moccasin, maybe?

Snake Horseshoe Lake 07-10-2013_4631I was less sure about this one. His body was thicker and his head was more triangular. I was ready to label him a water moccasin. Either way, I wasn’t about to dip my toe in the water.

I’m happier with turtles

Turtles Horseshoe Lake 07-10-2013_4636I was happier to see a batch of turtles looking like they were playing on a seesaw. I count at least five on this log. (You can click on the images to make them larger.)

Ernie Chiles and I rode our bikes around the lake in 2009.