Exotic Bicycle Adventurers

Exotic Bicycles:They evolved over the years to meet our changing needs.

Leaving Netherlands along the Amelo-Nordhorn Canal and entering Germany on the paved bicycle path known as the “Grenz route” or border route we enjoy the friendly open borders of the Euro-zone.

We have been bicycling for over forty years in North America and Europe.

We have the most pleasure exploring quiet paved roads; the slower we go the more fun we have.

Our collection of cycles has filled our needs for amusement, entertainment, excursions, travel, and shopping.

After all these years we still roll along on our oldest machines that we refer to as our exotic bicycles.

For the past twelve years we have not owned any motor vehicles. All of our travels have been by bicycle or on public transport with our folding bikes.

Not being racers or speed freaks, modifications began to evolve.

For comfort Jane got new handle bars and a comfortable springy seat. For shopping and touring, carrier racks were installed. Then alloy crank, wheels, and shifters became upgrades. Before our Rhine River trip up to Switzerland, new mountain compatible sprockets were installed. After our cross Europe trip through East Germany and into Poland, where we broke twenty spokes on the cobble stoned streets, I exchanged all of our spokes for heavy duty Mexican replacements…fixed!

A computer, drink holders, and front rack for straddle bags were added to make cross-country touring even better for serious cross-country. The innovations made our bikes into little pack mules. A map holder and my personally designed “save my ass” bike seat came next. I designed the seat to save my sex life and protect my kidneys using light duty springs and special cut high density padding. A compass and two drink holders completed the upgrades.

Our exotic bicycles are robust but roll extremely well.

My bike modifications made me think back to a story my grandfather told me:

One day when I was in his shop he held up a well worn little hammer, and he exclaimed, “This hammer has been in the family a long time, it has had seven handles and two new heads.” That sounds a lot like our exotic bicycles.

Ten years ago I was 62 years old and many times made 120 kilometer days.

Now I am 72 years old and 40-50 kilometer days are enough…it must be the global warming?

History of our exotic bicycles: They were purchased second hand in Florida when we lived there. We loaded the bikes on our camper and traveled across the U.S. from Florida to the Pacific Northwest and California to Maine. In Canada we biked the islands of British Columbia and across to the Maritime Provinces in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. We had a home at Brownsville, Texas, and biked the area there, and then settled in Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Eighteen years ago we loaded the bikes on a freighter with our camper bound for Rotterdam, Netherlands. In Europe we have bicycled with our exotic bicycles from Norway and Sweden to Spain and Portugal and from Western Europe to Poland plus every centimeter of the Rhine River from the North Sea all the way up to Konstanz in Switzerland at the Bodensee, headwaters of the Rhine. 

Biking the rural canal region near Emsbüren, Germany: We are still rolling on our exotic bicycles, and they don’t owe us much.

Click here to read more about our life long dedication to adventures.

Sailing the Florida Keys

Excerpts from Sailing the Florida Keys by John M. Grimsrud

Jim and Mary Flood;

Jim and Mary Flood were the owners of a twin-engine sport fishing boat named Mistress… Jim’s reason for owning the Mistress was to have headquarters for a dockside party…With a glib Irish wit and party mentality, Jim poured all visitors his potent high-octane and nearly lethal concoction that Jim jokingly called “cherry bounce.” It felt like 200 proof!

Jim had worked for Household Finance in Chicago and later Collagen Water Company where he made enough dough…Jim owned five different planes that included a DC-3 and a Piper Aztec before he came to the sunny southland to lay back. Jim drove the biggest Lincoln Continental available and owned the biggest house on the block…in the high-rent district. Jim joined the sailing community when he bought a classic Crocker designed 40-foot sailboat named Puffin with a dinghy aptly named Huffin.

Jim Flood aboard Puffin in, Melbourne Harbor.

Puffin

Jim and Mary Flood … anchored…south of Melbourne with their Puffin…his spiffy yacht that now looked like a show room specimen with its meticulous paint and varnish work. We had a fabulous time together catching fish for our dinner. Jim had a knack for landing trout, and Jane had the talent to cook.

When Jim and Mary got ready to leave, I gave a demonstration of how to sail up their anchor without using the engine…I pointed Jim’s pristine yacht in the proper direction, sheeted in the sails for optimum speed and performance, handed the helm over to Jim, and I got into my dinghy giving Jim and Mary a thumbs-up when they briskly sprinted off on a beam reach. We were later told this was the very best sail they ever had.

Jim, a scientific wine maker: Jim’s exact and precise procedures for making wine were without dispute the only acceptable way to make wine. Jim and Mary came to our boat for dinner, and Mary went to great lengths to compliment Jane on her exquisite wine…would not quit her praise… Jane is a fine wine maker…what made this incident hilarious was that the wine was made using Welch’s concentrated grape juice… we had heard Jim go extremes to profess his scornful disdain for wine made from concentrated grape juice. We knew that Jim knew this was concentrate wine, and we could sense him smoldering. Mary either knew this was wine from concentrate and was giving her husband the business or if she did not know, then Jim knew we were just getting a chance to see him squirm.

Another Jim Flood wine story: Jim told Jane that we needed to take advantage of the prolific fox grapes to be harvested in the area. We talked to our friend Harold and asked if he knew of any fox grapes. next we were off on another all-day excursion into the county down the back roads that just happened to yield lots of fox grapes and a number of taverns where Harold was well known. Jane followed Jim’s exact winemaking instructions with the fox grapes and sugar, but in the end we wound up with the driest mouth puckering wine ever produced aboard Dursmirg or for that matter the driest red wine we have ever sampled. When Jane gave Jim a glass of the finished wine to sample, Jim’s comment to Jane was: “It's always considered a good idea to wash the feet before stomping, and in good society it is considered that the shoes as well as the socks should be removed. If the socks have been worn for more than two weeks, they have a tendency to add certain piquancy to the finished product, though after the first bottle or so the unique flavors tend to disappear.”

End of excerpts.

We met Jim and Mary Flood on our yearly excursions to south Florida aboard our live-aboard sailboat Dursmirg. We made the Indian River area and Melbourne a regular anchoring stopover. The boating community included the Floods plus many others who became our life-long friends. Mary passed away a few years ago, but Jim is still ticking and keeps the jokes flowing.

These interesting people and many fascinating places are part of our Travels of Dursmirg sailing series. The Indian River is included in Sailing the Florida Keys, Volume 3. 

View more.

Streets of Merida, Yucatan - VW - Car of the Century

VW in Mexico: Volkswagen was the car of the century and number one in Yucatán from the 1960s to the 1990s when more than 9 out of 10 vehicles were Beetles = Bugs, (or called Sedáns in Spanish).

The Beetles were produced in Puebla, Mexico.  Sales soared because of strict import regulations, low prices, and any shade tree mechanic could keep them running with readily available parts.

In the streets of Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico, the VW love affair is still alive and well. Those old cheap Beetles and transporter vans are now cherished collectables.

Jane and I became a part of this mania and owned six VW camper vans that led us to more than twenty years of far flung adventures across Europe, Canada, U.S., and Mexico. That adventure story is part of our latest publication: Sailing to St. Augustine, volume 4 of the Travels of Dursmirg series. Click the link to look inside: Sailing to St. Augustine: Travels of Dursmirg.

Sailing Beyond Lake Superior

Idle minds may lead to strange and interesting outcomes:

When I was twelve years old I got the plans from a Popular Mechanics magazine for an eight-foot racing hydroplane. I had saved my money and bought the two sheets of quarter inch plywood and the few boards that the plans required.    That winter in my folk’s basement, with nothing but hand tools and determination, the little boat took shape. Early the next spring just after the ice went out of Lake Nebagamon I carried the new creation to the water and in it went! Not only did it float, it didn’t even leak! It was wonderful to say the least…it was just like a living thing that I had created with my own hands.

Launching of my second home built dreamboat, 1952, at age 12; an inspiration for bigger and better things. Read Sailing Beyond Lake Superior, one of four volumes in my Sailing series, and discover the story of my first dreamboat.

Many a dreamboat is scuttled by procrastination.

Experience the Lucas de Gálvez market in Mérida, Yucatán

In Yucatán you will find unique experiences that separate travelers from tourists.
Mérida has a vivacious street scene every day. Music and dance performances are found in different plazas. Sunday in Mérida streets are closed, food stalls, a book fair, flea market, comedy acts, concerts and a bicycle tour go all day. Nights in the plaza people dance and the restaurants set up tables in the streets…that is what you get from the tourist promotions. If you are looking for the real thing in Mérida here is a sample of what you can expect to find in the main downtown market, Lucas de Gálvez, located on Calle 65 between Calle 54 and 56:


Treat yourself to special moments—those experiences that memories are made of and visit places tourists miss most with this indispensable traveling companion: Yucatán’s Magic, Mérida Side Trips. It features do it your self one and two day trips, a compendium of the authors 25 plus years of experience.

Pedro Ínfnte died April 15, 1957, in Mérida, Yucatán

PEDRO ÍNFANTE; Mexican actor, movie star, singer and aviator died fifty-five yeas ago, April, 15^th, 1957 in Mérida.

The king of Mexican ranchera and mariachi music lived hard, died young and left a beautiful memory. 

  José Pedro Infante Cruz, born November 18, 1917 in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, is the most loved and famous Mexican actor, movie star and singer of all time.
  He began his film career at age 22 in 1939, appearing in more than 60 films, and starting in 1943, he recorded nearly 350 songs. His performance in the movie Tizoc won him the best actor award at the Berlin Film Festival.
  Pedro was in love with Mérida and Mérida was in love with him.
  He met the exotic dancer Lupita Torrentera and had three children with her in Mérida.  Pedro was a ladies man as he had a wife and other women as well.
  The morning of April 15, 1957 at 8:15 a.m., aviator enthusiast Pedro Infante, while piloting his own converted B-24 Liberator bomber, crashed and was killed while leaving the airport at Mérida, Yucatán, on his way to Mexico City.
  The world mourned.
 

  A national outpouring of grief spurred the creation of three majestic bronze statues in his memory; in Mexico City, Mazatlán and Mérida.
  Cast in bronze from thousands of keys donated, by his adoring fans, this art in action figure is located in downtown Mérida at the intersection of 54 and 87.
 

  A fitting image of Pedro silhouetted against the sky he loved so much and dressed in his famous movie set attire atop a bucking horse.

  Pedro Ínfante sang and recorded, Kiss Me a Lot, his one and only song in English. In Spanish, the song is Bésame Mucho and was composed by Consuelo Velázqiez, Mexico’s greatest female composer.*  That legendary song was featured in the 1951 movie A Toda Máquina in which Pedro was the star.
  Pedro Infante’s reputation has enlarged greatly since his death.
  He was everybody’s hero; the partying cowboy, charro, people of the working class and  lovers of Mexican movies and music  around the world.
  To this day, musical tributes of homage are paid to this one-of-a-kind charismatic personality by singers of traditional ranchera and mariachi music.

  As Pedro rides off, his timeless songs, which resonate through the ages, are kept alive.

  For the interesting story of Mexico’s most famous female composer, Consuelo Velázqiez, click the following link:
  http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1172-did-you-know-consuelo-vel%C3%A1zquez-and-b%C3%A9same-mucho
 
©2012John M. Grimsrud

2012 CARNIVAL IN MÉRIDA, YUCATÁN, MEXICO

Six days of parades hypes Mérida into a frenzied state of merriment that culminates with the beginning of Lent. The main boulevard lined with bleachers finds eager participants camped out overnight to secure a front row seat. Food and beverage venders keep the crowd well fed along with copious quantities of beer and soft drinks.

In the above collage, left;  The parade route bleachers at dawn already filling with overnight campers, center; one of a dozen entertainment stages stacked high with mega speakers and a  banner that proclaims; “The hottest Carnival in Mexico!” ; right; one of hundreds of street venders hawking juices and snacks. 

The noise level of celebration sends trembling reverberations throughout the city and exuberant revelers put on exotic faces and provocative costumes.

Click here for a video and collage of more, “Faces of Carnival”.

eBooks—Free Books and Readers

The 21^st century has ushered in the information age and certainly yielded a wondrous bonanza of publications, sound tracks and videos many of which are free along with all the computer programs you will need to make them usable on your digital devices.

Kindle for PC free from Amazon books http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311

Customers can check out a Kindle book online through a U.S. library and read it on the free Kindle for PC app.

Free eBook Collections

These books can be read on many devices and in many formats.  There are over 2 million titles to choose from.   Amazon provides a list of many good sources for eBooks.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/b/?node=2245146011

Adobe Digital Editions

http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/

Free eBooks

Sample eBook library  http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/library/

Check out the Adobe Digital Editions Library, where you can browse and download free eBooks and digital magazines, including full-length novels and works of nonfiction.  With a membership in a U.S. library, you can check out online many eBooks and read them in the Adobe Digital Editions reader.

Nook from Barnes and Noble

Download the Free NOOK app for PC. Over a million eBooks, newspapers, magazines, and thousands of free eBooks just a touch away.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-for-pc/379002322/

Project Gutenberg has 36000 free eBooks for Kindle, Android, iPad, iPhone.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

iBooks; If you have an Apple device such as iPad or iPod, you may download through the iBook store many free books. (You MUST have their device.)

Calibre - eBook mangement

Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books.

http://calibre-ebook.com/

Audio books - Free

You can download free audio books from these sites and listen via your computer or transfer to an mp3 device.

http://librivox.org/

http://www.archive.org/index.php

With a membership in a library in the U.S., you can borrow and download audio books. 

My Books

Click here.

Yucatán’s Magic – Mérida Side Trips: Treasures of Mayab

Finally the book for traveling adventurers who want to see more than just trinket shops and crowded tourist traps has arrived:

Just launched — our new book, Yucatán’s Magic – Mérida Side Trips: Treasures of Mayab

–Built one stone at a time like the Mayan pyramids–

Over a quarter of a century of inspired exploration and recording of our travels in captioned photo stories has led my wife and me to compile an impressive collection of outings that are the foundation for this book, built one story at a time.

We present the best of the best after over twenty-five years; places, excursions, and outings. Each place we have visited we liked for different reasons; tranquility, history, view of village life, and connect with the Maya past and present, change of scenery and a look at a uniquely distinctive region. 

Available for Kindle and  in paperback.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005POWVU8
Available as an EPUB e-book, click here.  
From Barnes & Nobles for Nook, click here.