Pretty crazy weather this morning riding in the mountains, climbing and descending in and out of dense fog. When above it, it was like being at the beach, but with clouds instead of water. Very dramatic lighting! My friend traded in his 'regular bike' for a road bike and we went on an ambitious 42 mile ride with 5000 feet of climbing. It's plenty challenging for most cyclists, but this guy is pretty much fasting, eating maybe 600 calories a day because of Lent, which made it even harder. But we did it! (With or without the assistance of an energy bar, who will ever know? What happens on the mountain at sunrise, stays on the mountain forever.)
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This is my favorite picture of the day.

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These next two are from a ride I did yesterday. This is a nature preserve in New Jersey (the first pics are from Shenandoah National Park, VA...I move quick!) I took it while riding. It reminds me of a village in a game like Heroine's Quest or A Tale of Two Kingdoms or King's Quest III or somesuch.

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And the view where you can see the cockpit, because in flying and driving games, I always preferred this view over just seeing the road with no vehicle cockpit for perspective context.
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And because I don't think I've posted any pictures of myself yet. This is me outside of the bike shop. If I look happy it's because I just got a new bike, and because me and Baroness Blubba had some *amazing* pizza just a half hour earlier.

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It's good to see you, BB! I've driven by the shop many times on the way to visit friends, although home projects have been curbing my travel lately. I love the way the the clouds look like snow in your 4th picture.

Wow! What a gorgeous view. The view from above the clouds is called "unkai" (cloud sea) in Japanese. So beautiful. And you're right, that village is straight out of KQ3 or maybe Quest for Glory 1. Thanks for sharing these!

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The cherry blossoms are blooming right now in my area. It's a pretty magical time, but it only lasts about 1-2 weeks, so you have to make the most of it.

In the 2nd pic, that bare patch where there aren't a lot of cherry trees is from a big earthquake a few years ago. It killed the big old cherries in that spot, so it'll be about 10 years before they fill out. 


In the 3rd pic, you can see the snowy mountains in the distance. They're not as bright and clear as they can be, but still nice. Also in the 3rd pic, that glass windowed building in the lower right is a Michelin star french restaurant with a wedding venue. I perform weddings there on weekends as a side job

   
   
   

Beautiful pictures. Looking good, Baron!

Here are a few from this morning. The full moon was pretending to be the sun. And then the sun rose.

In this first pic, the real scene was actually much darker. My phone camera is not the greatest...but it's a lot better than I ever thought a phone camera on a very small phone would be, to be sure.

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This was pretty incredible. I'm curious which picture you folks like better, cropped or original?

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I'm very pleased with how this one came out, considering I was rolling downhill at over 30mph. For the Europeans here, that's like 500kph or something.

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Okay, well that's all morning spent on the bike, time to go hang out with the Baroness!

Both were taken in the (currently) pre-apocalyptic city of Deventer!

Ha! I always assumed you were American, Bob, not sure why! We're practically neighbours!

And what could be more beautiful than spring time in Japan?! Although those misty morning mountains are giving it a run for the money

Amazing! What's the temp like? It looks cold. As for the cropped vs original, I think I like the cropped a little better. These make me want to get out into the mountains.