Home again, Home again....

Home again to our little house in Tennessee! Walked in and wondered how our ceilings got so high. After a week in the camper, it's amazing how high an 8 foot ceiling looks! Another thing I noticed was how far it was to walk from room to room! LOL! It was nice to be home, but at the same time, I missed being in our little beach house on wheels. I can't imagine how it will be after a whole summer! We were pretty tired after a long day driving so we just brought a few things in that we would need and hit the trail. On Saturday, Bill decided to go for a long ride on a new section of road...Greeneville to Jonesborough, 40 miles total with hills galore! He pulled his bike out of the back of the truck and discovered a flat.

He patched it and while inflating it, it blew up! Neighborhood dogs started barking and I thought someone was target practicing. We were fresh out of tubes, so he got everything ready for the ride and drove to a bike shop in Greenville to buy a couple of tubes and some flat proof tires. The new tube was installed and he started out. After 9 minutes, another flat. He fixed that one and was on his way at last. When things like this happen, you just have to think that God is protecting you from being hit by a bus! After a couple of hours, I went out to find him and get some more shots of him. Shot the first one and took off and turned around to get another one.

I'd set up the shot, set the camera on burst and have an assortment to choose from.

Then turn around again, pass Bill and find another good background.  

Did this quite a few times until the battery died in the camera. Here's a good one of him in front of one of our local shops.

I pulled over and climbed up a hill to get this pretty flowering tree in the arrangement.

I liked the flag and the church in this one.

And I thought a shot of him in the rear view mirror would be fun.

Bill still had a few miles to go and he was getting tired, so I made sure he made it back to his truck. After a hot shower and some food, he took a short nap. We relaxed a bit in the evening and went to bed after our busy day.

Shopping for tire liners and a Special Coin

Since Bill has had 2 flats since he started training, he started looking for something to make his tires more flat-proof. 2 flats may not sound like much, but if you have 2 flats in 438 miles, think how many there could be in 4,500 miles. We sat and watched youTube videos about different products and at first thought that a product called "Slime" might be a good choice. If you ever did have to change a flat though, it would be pretty messy business. Another item that looked interesting was called a "tire liner"; a tough puncture resistance strip that goes between the tube and the inside of the tire. Since we were in Walmart picking up a few things, we went over to the bicycle department to see if they had any. While Bill was looking, I couldn't resist trying on a funny kids helmet.

Bill took my picture so I could show it off to the granddaughters.....they all approved and want helmets to match. Bill would have added it to his cycling gear but it didn't fit into his red, white, and blue color scheme. Besides, he's more of a ninja turtle guy. LOL! Walmart didn't have what we were looking for so the search goes on. 
I made more of Bill's Granola Rounds (check out the "recipes" label) and our son that is stationed overseas happened to call a day or so later. I told him we'd send some over for him to try out....he's a pretty game guy. So while Bill was waiting in line at the post office to mail the box, he met a gentleman behind him in line and started talking about our son and also what we will be doing this summer. When Bill noticed he had a sidearm, he assumed he was in law enforcement. He handed him one of our business cards

and said he would be doing this trip for all the men and women in uniform as we will be "Standing up for All Lives" to show how much we appreciate all they do by putting their lives on the line for all of us. After a few more minutes of conversation, Bill and the gentleman parted ways and Bill continued filling out the paperwork to mail off the box. When after a few minutes, the gentleman returned and said, "I have something for you" and he handed Bill this coin.

He was surprised to be presented with this. It is similar to the coins presented to men and women in the military. Both our sons have coins similar to this that they carry with them. It was an honor to receive and will be carried by Bill on the trip. We want to thank this fine officer for his generosity and service as well as giving us this coin. Thank-you for reading and for following us on this endeavor.

Consider donating at Generosity.com

Sunny Day!

Yesterday was one of those perfect cycling days here in Tennessee! Bill wore his bike shorts for the first time in a long time and headed for the open road. I grabbed my tripod and little Elph 350 HS camera and took off after him to get more shots of him on his ride and to improve my technique. This time, I chose a picturesque background, pulled the truck way off the road, set up the tripod, my zoom and also set my camera on high speed burst to shoot multiple pictures just by holding down the shutter button. Just as he comes into view in my shot, I press the button and shoot.

This way, I have multiple shots to choose from that I can edit and publish. Another change I made this time was to shoot the image with more area surrounding Bill so I would have more options when it came to cropping.

After he zipped by, everything went back in the truck and I chased him down to get a good ways ahead of him and do it all again.

The weather was so nice that while I was waiting for Bill, a whole group of cyclists came by and I managed to get a shot of them too!

The next thing I worked on was the way I take videos of him. The first video we made was just shot hand-held and I wondered if it would be smoother on my tripod. The first attempt at this was a major fail! LOL! He was missing from most of the shot! After flipping the truck around and racing ahead of him again, I did the hand-held method and was able to catch him a lot better. I am definitely not a professional and do  much of what I do by trial and error. And of course, had to have the flat of the day! LOL!

Looks like we'll be looking into those tire liners we heard about. But I enjoy photography and I love my subject ;). So now I guess I will go put that video in our editing program and have something new to share with you next time.

Donate at Generosity.com