Today: 18.19 miles. What’s funny about this picture is there are many people sitting and laying on the grass but two guys drinking beers were throwing a a frisbee from the right and left to each other. Meanwhile women with babies are on the grass near them and even an old man in a wheelchair. Nothing bad happened (they were actually good) thankfully, while I ate a banana. If it were me the old man would be knocked backwards and angry moms would be chasing me down the street.
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I have a lot of pictures because I went urban exploring but I won’t post all of them because it is too many and you only want to see The Best.
Was a very nice sunny day.
A little too sunny for my camera so some pictures I enhanced to tone down the brightness and haze which made some colors more vibrant.
I also cropped some pictures so the art can be seen better, which eliminates sense of scale. Some paintings are much larger than they look.
But first I rode through the park and woods,
I saw them building the middle section and I thought it might be for a band making a music video (which I seen done a couple of years ago) but instead they parked two house-boats to it:
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You can see this large tree in the woods is damaged:
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This is the other side:
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This was the first time I was on this path in the woods, so I took a closer look at the tree:
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After I took the picture it struck me that this tree is badly damaged and could fall on me.
I suddenly got a little panicked and when I turned to get my bicycle there was a loud roar of a noise that scared the crap out of me.
I thought the tree was falling and looked which way to jump.
Turned out the noise was a chainsaw not so far away.
I got on my bicycle still alarmed with my adrenaline pumping.
I was zipping through the woods like the wind when there was a class of small children ahead of me.
That trail is not wide so I rode into the woods, through the bushes, thick cover of fallen leaves, soft dirt, fallen branches, etc, like it was nothing and got ahead of them and back on the trail.
They won’t see a display like that again!
I was out of the woods quick and will not take that path in the future.
There are plenty of other ways to go.
At where I call the graffiti wall:
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I used to visit here, by “Molecule Man” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecule_Man_(sculpture)).
It’s a nice place where there is more graffiti constantly going up.
But then they started construction and gated the area off and I wasn’t into climbing gates.
But now they are mostly done and it opened up again.
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I just got a pop-up window saying my device is going to restart at some point, to update.
Consider this Part 1 with Part 2 coming tomorrow.
Good night!
4.7 miles, another old tree but at least this one isn’t 80 feet tall,
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Looking at the water (what I call “the lagoon”) from the tree:
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The Le Col Vuelta Challenge ended yesterday.
Now I know I finished in the top 35% of 179,376 participates with 242 miles compared to the 75 required to complete.
https://www.strava.com/challenges/Le-Col-Vuelta-Challenge
I joined another challenge that started some days ago and my distance of those days is already added on.
Which means I have 37 miles of 60 required to complete.
The ROKA Summer 60
https://www.strava.com/challenges/roka-summer-60
Some challenges are insane and way above my skill level:
September Cycling Distance Challenge
Athletes that ride over 1,250 km (777 miles) during the Challenge will earn a badge in their Trophy Case.
I could do MAYBE half that - LoL!
Still working on The Escape Plan Challenge with two weeks successfully completed.
https://www.strava.com/challenges/the-escape-plan
I like doing these Challenges and see what position I end up at.
People are joining these Challenges from many parts of the world.
4.6 miles, I lost 6 miles because my app glitched so really 10.6 miles but what can you do,
This car caught my eye so I found a way in,
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Then I saw this place and squeezed between the gate and wall (ground showed signs of others doing this),
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I don’t recommend doing like this but now I am urban exploring,
I entered down into a hole in the wall.
The welcome desk,
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The coatroom,
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The more I went in the more the place invited me in,
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VIP only,
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Have your ticket ready,
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Looks like I found Party Central,
There were empty liquor bottles, cigarette butts and many sneaker-prints in the sand,
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Then I went into a nearby woods for the first time,
Trail got a little rough,
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and then a little rougher,
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I made it to my usual local woods ride.
There is a giant abandoned ferris wheel in an old amusement park that is gated off.
Groups can pay for a tour of the old place and it is common to see them in the summer.
But today was like Grand Central Station!
So when I got home I checked online what is up with that.
Turned-out today the place was open to the public for free (just for today).
Also, and this incredible, they are going to make the ferris wheel work again for special events.
WOW!
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23.6 miles today. Was riding through the woods when a stick got caught on my front tire and splintered the fender. There was a sudden jolt and skid and then explosion of pieces but I was able to stay up.
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Bicycle was OK enough to continue riding and I used the adrenaline to gain extra mileage I need to complete Challenges.
I successfully completed one Challenge (https://www.strava.com/challenges/roka-summer-60)
and joined another (https://www.strava.com/challenges/Zwift-World-Champs-Challenge).
I posted about these houseboats before, today they were a bit closer to land:
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Then I noticed a small watercraft that apparently is used by the houseboat people to get to shore:
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There were papers taped to it. Apparently the houseboats docking-platform is an Airbnb operation someone set up.
Of course some German is not happy about that!
Believe me, if you go outside the norm (or perceived norm),
it won’t take long before a crabby German lets you know everything that is wrong about that.
I can tell you - LoL!
I like how one notice is in English,
Certainly no German would be stupid enough to think they could get away with it!
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Next, the Graffiti Wall:
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There was a lot of construction noise on the other side of the wall,
I thought they started work on the street,
But no, it was inside the area near the wall.
Nothing about these people and their van looked official,
And it was a weird place to be working on.
Not so long ago I posted about what looked like a music video being filmed here.
But there was no filming then so I am guessing this work has something to do with that,
A decision was made, maybe a tower for lighting is needed and they are setting the anchor points... or something like that.
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They seemed sensitive to me walking around with a camera,
Maybe tomorrow I will tape notices to what they were doing there,
Informing them all about how wrong and illegal that is - LoL!
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There is a small botanical gardens in the park with water fountains, sundial and benches,
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Someone posted this email he “still can’t believe”, from a STRAVA Challenge:
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24.2 miles
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Local Townhall. The fountain is newly restored.
The pool was caved in at the sides and filled with dirt.
It was really bad but now it is really good.
The woods is across the street,
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8.3 mile ride to the dentist. Sometimes you see buildings painted like these.
Sometimes they even look nice.
I discovered these buildings around the corner from my dentist because I arrived a little early,
so I rode around the block a few times,
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The dentist pulled a front lower tooth that had become discolored (blue) in recent years.
He put in a temporary tooth till I heal and then he is putting in a gold tooth (”gold”, fake gold).
I asked how much for that and he said nothing because he filed my form as “critically urgent case”.
I told him good.
I asked how long till the gold tooth?
He said ten years.
I told him good. (I think he was joking)
33.6 mile swim in the lake naked ride,
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It was a very nice sunny day, 77 degrees with a steady light breeze.
My intention was to ride around the lake,
because I need miles to complete my Cure Cancer In The UK Challenge (I had colon cancer surgically removed 8 years ago),
But when I got to the swimming area it was so nice I wanted to swim.
However I didn’t bring my bicycle saddlebags with my beach stuff.
So I decided to checkout the nude beach thinking not many people would be there.
When I turned the corner of the path around the bushes to the nude beach I saw the most naked people I ever saw in my life!
There was about 60 naked people middle age and up all with deep tans over their whole bodies and standing in groups of 5 to 10 people.
They were not sitting or laying on beach towels but just standing there talking.
There are hotels nearby so I guessed it was a convention.
So many made me feel uneasy but still I really wanted to get in the water,
So I stayed out of the nude beach boundary by about 20 yards,
Even though they could all still see me.
I locked my bike, got naked and put my clothes on the bike.
I realized how ridiculously white I was where my swimsuit should be especially compared to all those deep brown people,
But I was going in the water so I didn’t much care. (unlike they standing there talking to each other)
The water was really cold but the floor was nice sand with no rocks.
It was great! I dived under the water many times and swam a bit for 15 minutes.
When I came out of the water there was a Polish couple inflating a rubber raft right next to my bicycle,
they were busy and we didn’t exchange words. Which was then I realized...
I realized the whole place was crowded with people.
There were the nudes at the nude beach not far away, The couple inflating their raft,
But also I picked the worst spot to get naked if you don’t want people to see you naked...
right where the paved path from the non nude public beach (which was 40 yards in the other direction from the nude beach) bends to the parking lot.
So suddenly there were crowds of people walking all three directions and I was basically standing in the middle, naked.
What I learned is, when you are naked, people will ignore you (at least by the nude beach, probably not the mall) as if you are not there - LoL!
It’s true. Think about it. I had no problem. Also this is Europe.
I grabbed my T-shirt and used it as a towel then mostly got dressed while my feet dried.
But it was great! I’ll do it again except a different spot.
I took this picture of all my clothes on my bicycle while completely totally naked then went for a short swim:
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Here is the public beach I always went to,
There were many more people at the nude beach this day (a sign says no picture taking at the nude beach):
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I almost went nude swimming here but decided to get moving,
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Right afterwards I made it all the way up in one go.
I am going back to this place (first time I been at this area):
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23.9 miles ride,
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16.8 mile David Hasselhoff promo ride,
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New record speed segment,
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13.11 mile Prize Fish ride,
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I most always stop at the middle of the bride because it is high up with a nice view,
But lately I been keep going,
Today I decided to stop and was glad I did,
A man showed me his Prize Fish:
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I watched him put the fish in a net he had hanging in the water,
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33.3 mile nude swim ride,
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I finished a Challenge with 302 miles...
Cycle 300 with Cancer Research UK
Ride 300 miles this September to help beat cancer
https://www.strava.com/challenges/Cancer-Research-UK-Cycle-300-2019
I was glad because the next few days are supposed to be very rainy.
11.29 mile Escape Plan Challenge completed ride,
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Escape Plan Challenge
https://www.strava.com/challenges/the-escape-plan
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13.3 miles ride,
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