Bonaire by Bike

It seems like there are more and more people out riding bikes for fun. I usually see quite a few on my Saturday morning rides, except for when I'm riding in Washington Park. I hope there will be a good turnout, this coming Saturday afternoon, for the group ride sponsored by Bonaire Wellness Connexion.

There wasn't much wind last week. It was great weather for tower painting, and the crew will probably finish up this years antenna tower tomorrow, ahead of schedule. I got in a couple road bike rides, which are always more fun when the wind is low. Saturday I did the whole island, at least as much of it as is paved.

It is a little over 46 miles around the island, and it took me a little under three hours. Ten years ago, I routinely did it in about 2:25 or a little less. I'm not how quickly I could do it now, if I really tried. Maybe some time if the wind really dies away, I'll go for it.... if I can psych myself up for that much pain. One of the above photos shows my route superimposed on the Google Earth map of Bonaire.

Riding around the island is a good way to keep up with things. For example, some group is building some sort of newfangled houses just east of Rincon. They have metal framing and either aluminum or vinyl siding. The structures are going up very quickly, but they better have some awesome insulation ready to go in those walls, or it's going to be really really hot inside those things.

I also noticed that the big power generating windmill by Sorobon is gone. I think it was there just two weeks ago. It looks like they are getting the foundation ready for the new wind generator, which will be a prototype for the planned wind farm north east of Rincon. One of the photos at the top of this posting is of the new tower full of wind measuring gear that is located in Morotin.

I also saw two cars that had run off the road and crashed. One car was backwards and in a ditch on the small hill just south of the wind sailing track on the way to Rincon. The other was upside down and in the salt flats just south of the Suzuki/Chevy dealer on the way to the airport. I'm not sure what was so special about last Friday night / Saturday morning to have two wrecks like that, but it wasn't very reassuring as I peddled along with cars whizzing by.