My 4.5 mile daily bike ride in the hood

This is a pretty town for a bike ride. Very Hilly (is that really a word?) and no traffic, great to ride and push those endorphins to the maximum production. It takes me about 22 minutes, but I really break a sweat and feel good when done.

My goal is to do this daily, but stuff happens and things come in the way. So I try. Take a look at the elevation at the bottom of the map, which should tell you why I break a sweat. I am actually working my way up to joining a group that rides regularly, I believe they do about 15 miles which is 3 times what I do currently. Will get there. in the mean time enjoy the map.

Now for a little about my bike. I bought this Schwinn LeTour, 20 years ago in Chicago and never used it much. A couple of years ago when my kids started learning to ride I decided to get the bike looked over. The best $400 I spent in a while. The thing rides like a champ. Will post pictures of it soon.

My Brush with Greatness today.

Great morning in Kalamazoo, and perfect for playing tennis or getting a tennis lesson from one of the best. Les my neighbor has been a tennis player all his life, at 72 with both knees replaced, the mileage he has had on the courts show through clearly.

So it came to be that we set off in his Prius down Oakland Ave, to the K college campus where 50 odd years ago he had a part time job as the night watchman for these wonderful tennis courts and learned to play the game and kept playing all his life.

We first took a tour of the campus and then settled down to the far courts. Les walked me through the warm up routine, where you touch the intersection of all the white lines, running forward and backward along all the lines. We then settled down to holding the racket. I learned how to hold the racket for the forehand and backhand strokes and about the two types of follow through for the serve.

These courts have seen most of the great players, as you can see from the list of winners here . So needless to say, after two hours I came away with a feeling of having brushed with greatness.

Les my neighbor by the way played Rod Laver and beat him in an exhibition match back in the 50's. So I was one degree removed from greatness today