Neuse River Greenway Trail

Sunday June 26th

On a beautiful North Carolina sunny afternoon my sister and I decided to ride mountain bikes on the Neuse River Greenway trail.  She has a mountain bike and I rented from  "The Bike Guy" bike shop that can be found at the greenway entrance on Old Falls of the Neuse Road

Here is the link in case you are in the area and want to rent a bike.

http://thebikeguyonthegreenway.com/

Some photos that I took of the shop

 The service was friendly and the cost reasonable for a half day or full day rental.   Since the trail is 27.5 miles long I decided to rent for a half day which was all the time the bike shop was open on Sunday ( 1-5 pm)

Here is some information on the Neuse River Greenway Trail

https://www.raleighnc.gov/parks/content/ParksRec/Articles/Greenways/NeuseRiverTrail.html

My sister took this shot of me and the rental bike

The rest of the photos are some sights I saw on this Sunday ride

 Some kayakers on the river.  This is a multi-sport area

 A view from the trail.  The trail often surrounds housing developments.

A couple and their dog enjoying a swim in the river to cool off.   You may have to enlarge the photo to see them.

I highly recommend you try this trail if you are in the Wake Forest, NC area.




On a separate note.....the first photo below is a ceramic frog that my sister made ( in a yellow polka dot bikini....with a large hanging bell.   Too cute!!

The photo above was made by my sister's neighbor.  Can you guess what it is made of??  The answer........

Potting Plants.....ingenious!  Amazing what artists can create!

A Ride with the Cape Cod Cycling Club on Father's Day

June 19. 2016

It's always hard.....at least for me.....to ride with new groups who I don't know when I am traveling around the US.  Today we rode 33 miles....rolling hills for a good part of the way with a bit of headwind.....from East Falmouth to Woods Hole and back to the start.   It was a beautiful ride with 11 other smiling faces with some of the best weather and awesome scenery.  We rode rolling hills in the trees to the shoreline with an awesome view of the Atlantic Ocean.

Thanks to the group for being great hosts.

After the ride I drove to Dunkin Donuts......you can find them on most every corner here because Dunkin Donuts was started in Boston.   I had to take a photo of the sign in the store.

Any takers??

Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Saturday June 18, 2016

After spending the morning in downtown Falmouth at the Arts Alive Festival, my friend's husband, Arthur, took me to Mass Maritime Academy for a tour of where he worked for over 40 years.

Mass Maritime is located in Buzzard's Bay, MA.  Here is a link to a bit more about the school

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Maritime_Academy

It was an interesting tour.  In fact, graduation for the class of 2016 was held today with Governor Charles Baker as the keynote speaker.  Here are some photos from my visit today

 One of the graduating classes gave this granite stone memorial which is engraved with the graduating  class that gave the memorial as a gift

 The new library building and deck bridge simulator which is located inside the building

Graduates who made chief engineer status

An area of study for students

 One of the labs.  This one contained a steam turbine engine that students used for study

This is a teaching ship located on campus.  Interesting that it's original name was "The Enterprise."  The name was changed to "Kennedy" in hopes of receiving more dontations for the school.   I wonder if it worked.

A railroad bridge, operated by the Army Corp of Engineers, that is moved into position when trains pass through the area.   It is easier to lower the bridge for trains than for ships that pass through the Cape Canal which runs underneath the bridge

The Shining Sea Bikeway Ride

Friday  6/17

I had planned to ride the Shining Sea Bikeway on Friday to test out the beater bike and to make sure I had enough in me for a ride on Sunday with the Cape Cod Cycling Club.  It was a successful ride so I will attempt to ride with the club on Sunday.

It was another nice surprise.  The rails to trails bikeway went through marshland, the Atlantic Ocean coastline and ended at the Steamship Authority parking lot where people park to take the ferry to Martha's Vineyard.  The trail goes in opposite directions and when all is said and done you can rack up almost 22 miles.   I added a little extra by visiting the lighthouse.  Here are the photos from another beautiful ride in the Cape.

 Nobska Lighthouse

 The house behind the lighthouse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobska_Light

 In the distance you can see the Martha's Vineyard ferry bringing passengers back to the Steamship Authority parking lot in Woods Hole.

It was a great ride.  It got cold near when I was riding near the Atlantic Ocean portion of the trail. It apparently didn't bother another cyclist.  He decided to take a swim.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of him.  It makes me cold just thinking about that water temperature.  Bravery only goes so far and venturing out on the trail solo was all that I had in me for today!

Cape Cod, Salem and Boston

Monday through Thursday 6/13 through 6/16

I left NJ on Sunday to visit my snowbird neighbor Debby and her husband Art in Cape Cod who graciously invited the two dogs and I to come for a visit. 

On Monday Debby took me for a drive around East Falmouth, Woods Hole and Falmouth.  We had lunch and walked  about 4 miles on the Shining Sea Bikeway.  It's an old rail to trail pathway extending from Woods Hole to North Falmouth which is 10.7 miles one way.  I plan to take my bike and ride the trail on Friday.

http://www.capecodbikeguide.com/shiningsea.asp

I couldn't help getting a photo taken of me at one of the pathway entrances


Someone had this on the entrance way to their home from the trail

On Tuesday we headed for Salem, MA and my friend Debby's 55th nurses reunion which was held at the Danvers Yacht club.  We stayed in Salem, which is the next town over, at the Hawthorne Hotel near the pedestrian mall



http://www.hawthornehotel.com/

It was a stunning hotel and I was happy to have the opportunity to stay there.



Here is where we had lunch in Salem....Live Life Alive. ( the name of the restaurant)  It was a vegetarian restaurant and very tasty.  I would highly recommend this place if you ever visit Salem.

Some views on the pedestrian mall

Salem is definitely a strange place.  The now call witches....wickers....which is another name for holistic people who practice witchcraft there.  

We had dinner at the Danvers Yacht Club. 

Some people have a lot of disposable income!



On Wednesday we went to Boston.  What I didn't realize is that we were taking a ferry.  I also didn't realize how much the Boston area uses ferry boats to get around the suburbs and to get into the city.

I saw Marblehead ( home of Tyler Hamilton) from the waterway as well as Logan airport.  I learned a lot this trip.  I didn't know that Logan airport runways are surrounded by water.  We watched many planes land and take off from Logan while cruising on the ferry.

The Boston skyline

Another shot of the Boston skyline

 

We arrived in Boston Harbor in about an hour and hopped on a trolley to tour the city.  For a Wednesday the city was packed.  It was hard getting any photos due to the traffic blocking the sites.

Included in our tour was a harbor cruise to see the USS Constitution which is currently in dry dock.

 The three masts in the back are the USS Constitution

 It was a great trip to Boston....a perfect weather day.....and very nice company with seven of the nurses including Debby attending this event!  We drove back to East Falmouth in the evening and it was great to be back to home base.


On Thursday we headed up to the Cape Cod National Seashore National Park. 

I seem to be on a National Park streak this year!

We hiked a short hike...the Nauset Trail....which took us around marshland and gave us a view of the Fort Hill area.    We stopped back at the visitor's center to see if we could discover more of the park.  There was a free access beach area...Head of the Meadow Beach......so we headed up the road towards Provincetown to find this beach.

It was a great suggestion as we had lunch on the beach watching the Atlantic Ocean.  The tide was low and the water was cold but I stuck my feet in the water just to confirm that I much prefer the Gulf of Mexico and its' warmer water.

You can see it's low tide.  What's interesting about the flags on the lifeguard stand?  One is green which means it's safe to swim and the other one is a shark flag.  I asked the National Park guard what it meant.  Surprise surprise.  It's for shark sightings.  This year they have decided to post it every day to keep swimmer's aware of sharks in the area.  It's the seals that bring the sharks near the beach and interestingly enough.....we saw a seal swimming in the distance.  Glad I didn't stick more than my feet in that water!!!

On our way home there was another part of the park that the ranger recommended we visit.  It was Fort Hill.  She said the view was beautiful and it was!

This photo doesn't do it justice.  It was a beautiful view of the marsh on top of the hill.  Surrounding the area of the water were million dollar houses with their yachts right in front or along side the house.  It was the marsh and not the houses that made this worth the stop.

So much to do in Cape Cod and I have just scratched the surface.    I guess you can tell I am having a great time!

The Carversville Ride and the Garden of Reflection

Saturday 6/11

Blake W, Nevada and I decided to ride in Bucks County for some hill climbing.  Bucks County has such beautiful scenery that I would never say no to a ride even if it is a bit more painful than riding the NJ hills.

One of the many stone houses that can be found along the country roads

I fell while climbing shortly after I took this photo.  Turns out that the drop out was bent and needed to be bent back into position.  Thanks for Pete at Hart's Cyclery who was able to correct that problem.  Thank goodness the fall was nothing serious as I was going slow while climbing but with two falls in three days the right side of my body is sore.  Sunday would be a travel day for me off the bike and I was glad for that.

Of course when you ride in Bucks County the rest stop is most often the Carversville General Store

 Jack from Central Bucks Cycling Club was nice enough to take this photo.  I met a lot of familiar faces including some Anchor House riders in training for the upcoming ride in July.  Seems I always run into someone from the past at the rest stop!

A convenient bike rack located along side of the store.  Of course, the gang getting ready to take a break after hanging up their bikes.

On the way back we stopped at the Garden of Reflection which is located on Woodside Road in Yardley.

http://www.visitbuckscounty.com/listings/9-11-Memorial-Garden-of-Reflection/733/


It was a place that brought back lots of memories of that fateful day.

 A piece of one of the World Trade Center buildings

A memorial to those who lost their lives

This place has stuck in my head for most of the last two days.  As I headed to Cape Cod this morning to visit my snowbird neighbors from FL who have a home there, I passed the NY skyline and the World Trade Center is of course gone.  It doesn't seem right and with the events of today in my now home state of Florida it just makes me realize how much the world has changed.....and not for the better.  May those who lost their lives on Saturday in the Orlando tragedy rest in peace.

From Goodland to the Badlands and Beyond

May 23, 2016

Al has been visiting the past few weeks and we have done a lot while he is here.

On Saturday we visited....not on the bike.... Sanibel and Captiva Island.  We crossed the three bridges that I did last year by bike...and our first stop was.J.N. Ding Darling Wildlife Sanctuary. 

J N Ding Darling Wildlife Sanctuary

Here are some photos from our visit.

 I am told that this is the best restaurant with a view of the Gulf on Captiva Island

 One of the homes for rent on Captiva

I had to take a photo of this tour jeep.  What a tourist trap!!


On Sunday we met Bob S and his wife Meg.  Bob, Al and I took a bike ride around the island.  The most interesting thing we saw were burrowing owls at their nests.

 All photos of burrowing owls at their nest.  The last one was a family of 4.

One of the many sites on Marco.  This is a replica of a old Mercedes but the real Al.  There is no replica for Al!!

A Gopher turtle.   We could call this the nature bike ride.

Some people have way too much money.  This is a mailbox on Marco Island

One of the many houses in the Goodland section of Marco Island. 

This section of Marco is more of a fishing village with motorcycles visiting on Sunday for an afternoon
at Stan's for an Idle Hour ( instead of happy hour)    The boats can idle while you drink.




On Tuesday Al and I went to South Dakota to visit the Badlands National Park and Mt. Rushmore.  We flew into Sioux Falls ( mistake....should have flown into Rapid City) and traveled 336 miles to the Badlands Park.  It was a long trip looking at the plains as there was nothing else between Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

There was one site to see along the way to the Badlands.  We stopped at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site but learned that we would have to travel 15 miles to see the missile itself in an underground silo. 

We decided to do the 20 mile scenic loop in Badlands which was also on the way before checking into our cabin.   On the way we saw a sign to see prairie dogs so we decided to stop and take a look.

 You have to enlarge the photo to see the prairie dog on the mound of dirt

This was the biggest prairie dog I had ever seen so I had to take a photo....with Al of course.

 Here are some views of the park.

 We did this short hike.  There were signs to watch out for rattlesnakes on the trail but we didn't see any thank goodness.

 Look closely.....bighorn sheep in both photos!!

We stopped in Wall which is a cowboy town near the Badlands and the only city for miles.  Luckily we didn't have to hitch the car to this.....

We headed back to the main entrance to the park to check in to our cabin.  

 Although the Badlands was beautiful the hiking trails were made of sandstone and looked like pinnacles and we didn't think that there was any beauty to see.  Wrong.

The view on the Windows Trail.   It was only a quarter mile trail but worth the hike to see this view.

 Had to take a photo of a familiar animal.....a rabbit

 The door trail.  We did part of the trail until we had to climb over sandstone.  We decided to turn back and head to the next destination....Custer. South Dakota

 How the Badlands got its name


We headed to the next destination.....Wind Cave National Park where the bird watching was suppose to be great.  

There was no mention of birds when we got there but there were caves to tour,  We did not get a chance to tour the caves unfortunately.  There was still a lot more to see in the area so we decided to pass on the hour long tour.  One interesting thing is that you could not wear shoes that were in other caves outside of this area because of possible contamination from those other areas.

Enlarge the photos.  The black dots are bison!!

We continued on to the Crazy Horse monument.

You can take a bus to see the carving which is where I took these photos but that's as close as you can get unless you want to pay $125 for a private tour up to the face of the mountain.  There is no federal funding and the family of the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski,  is carrying on the project since his death in October 1982.  It's going to take a long time to finish this project!


We continued on to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial which was another reason for this trip.  Unfortunately I was not able to get more than one photo because I ran out of photo space on my IPhone.

  Ugh...   Here is a link that will give you a closer look

https://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm

Here is a photo of the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum,  who oversaw the carving of this wonderful site.

We went back at night to see Mt. Rushmore lit up at night.  I was not that impressed.  I was unable to take a decent photo of that.   There is a hour long program during season.....which it was not...... which runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

On Friday we decided to visit Custer State Park.  It was an open house weekend so entry fee to the park was waived for the weekend.  Custer is known for its free roaming bison of which there were many.

 A bison relaxing in the meadow near the State Game Lodge


We stopped at the visitor center and the guide told us of two hikes we could do in the park.  The first one was the Badger Clark trail.  I didn't get any photos as I was distracted by a bison standing at the trailhead and wasn't sure if we would do that trail.  We eventually did hike this wooded trail and learned a lot about this poet laureat who leased land from the state and built a cabin where he lived his life until he died.

The second hike was the Cathedral Spires hike.  It was a 2.2 mile hike....and it was not easy. We were not prepared.....I had sneakers and Al had sandals but we decided to try and hike this trail to the top.  We climbed over a rocky trail near the top but the view was worth it.

We continued on the Needles Highway ( Rt 87) which twisted and turned on a narrow road with one lane tunnels.  It was a white knuckle drive but again worth the effort.

Lake Sylvan below was also along the Needles Highway and we stopped for a photo before we headed back to the hotel for a rest.

Al was tired but I wanted to see a cave so I took a solo ride to Jewel Cave National Monument, which was closer to the hotel than Wind Cave National Park, late in the day.  I had hoped to get on a tour of the cave but all the tours were sold out for the day so I ended up going back to the hotel cave-less..  

The weather turned bad Friday evening with 3 inch hail and flash floods.  Luckily we were on the fringe of that bad weather and decided to stay put in the hotel and wait till the morning to see if we could do or see any more in the area before driving back to Sioux Falls.

On Saturday morning it was extremely foggy.  One thing I would have liked to do was the Mickelson Trail which is 108.8 miles of paved trail from Edgemont to Deadwood.  You can rent bikes in Custer but with the weather not condusive to riding we headed back to Sioux Falls. 

Here is a link with more information about the Mickelson Trail in case you decide to visit.

http://gfp.sd.gov/state-parks/directory/mickelson-trail/