Grenada

Headed to St Georges in Grenada for a week. CardioStart has been invited to install a cardiac surgery unit in the local hospital there. I visited the island last December and the facilities look very good and they have an excellent medical university located there. Some changes have ocurred in the local management so we are back for a second visit. I am hoping to make contact with a local rider I met last year at the airport. He said he could fix me up with a bike, helmet, and directions, so I am looking forward to it if time is available. Grenada is an old British Colony and thus is pretty stable as far as government is concerned. I didn't see much during the two days we were there and hope to see more this time. Grenada is about 70 miles off the coast of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez country, and the location of President Reagan's war to thow out the Cubans. I'll be back next Saturday night. Hopefully have some photos of biking Grenada.

Above photo is from the stairway from my room near the restaurant at the University Club, where we will be staying for the week of our visit. Tough life, huh?

Been Busy

A little 5 yr old girl can sure keep you busy. Luz is the 5 yr old., but what fun it is to be kept busy.(see: http://www.luzestephanie.blogspot.com/ ) I went for bike rides on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but slipped Friday and today. My back is killing me. I think I hurt it lifting a larger bucket of concrete out of the truck on Thursday afternoon. Tylenol is being consumed at a high rate of consumption, but it seems to do little to relieve the pain. I think rest is the answer. Take a look at the photo.
I saw Chris on the side of the road on Hwy 41 on my way back from All Childrens Hospital on Friday. Chris works for an engineering firm. They give him a GPS, a bike, and a water flow detector. he is mapping out the county's water system, valves, conduits, etc. All the info is recorded on a computer he carries on his belt. That big dome is the GPS receiver and transmitter for him to download back to the office. Interesting job.
Photo #2 is Claudio and Angelica on their arrival at the Amtrak Station in Tampa from Miami. They stopped by on their way to Anchorage, Alaska for a ride from Anchorage down the Great Divide Bike Route. They will continue through to their home in Bogota, Colombia. They'll be at CardioStart House in Tampa until July 24. You can follow their adventures on their website at:

http://bicinfronteras.skynetblogs.be/
They will soon have a blog available for daily postings. Click on their photo above for a real closeup and take a look at the CardioStart patch on Angelica's shirt. The patches are available for your own shirt from CardioStart. Send me an email.

Check out the Neighborhood

Time sure flys when you're having fun. What else can I say, I guess I have been having fun, It is already July 9 and I have not written since June 30. But I thought a lot, that should count for something. A little girl named Luz has been keeping me pretty busy.(see earlier post, or weblog at http://www.luzestephanie.blogspot.com/ ).
My recent rides have been keeping me closer to home. It is amazing what you will find if you just slow down and look around. These are some of the photos I took on a short 17 mile ride areound home.

How many people are lucky enough to have a peacock or two in their neighborhood? The colors are tremendous. This fella was just sitting there watching me pedal by. As I turned around to catch this photo I saw another one in a building lot. But don't start thinking that having these beautiful birds as neighbors is a neat thing. Have you ever heard the cry of a peacock? The first time I heard one it scared the bejeebers out of me.(is that a word, bejeebers?). They sound like a cry for help. And they are very loud. I am thinking that I might better enjoy the company of a Pantree Chicken, in the next photo. I'm not really sure what kind of bird this is but you see them all over, usually in pastures and many times sitting on the backs of cattle picking flies off them. We named them after a restaurant that was formerly in Valrico. A club, of which I was a member, had a weekly meeting at the restaurant and nine times out of ten chicken was the meal of the day. I used to kid the owner about going across the street to catch his chickens, referring to these birds. At least they are quiet, and they do a good job of picking bugs from your lawn. My favourite are the Sandhill Cranes, seen below, in a neighbors yard. Of course they are also noisy, but not like the peacocks. They move so majestically and are fairly common around here.

The photo at the right is from our own backyard. A Lady Cardinal trying to pickout just the right sunflower seed. Of course, no photo layout would be complete without one of my best friend, Jack.