Sea Ranch Visit

Paula and I enjoyed a visit to Sea Ranch in Mendocino County in March, visiting Karen and John.  The conversation and scenery were awesome, and worthy of a return trip. :-)

Check out the photos....

 

 

1/5/19: Tucson’s Catalina State Park to Mission Gardens: 46 miles

Our campsite here in Catalina State Park is delightful. Here are some shots that we took from our site and on a short walk. Just lovely...

Then it was off on our trike ride. Paula planned a route along Tucson’s Loop which goes around the entire city on bike trail. Whoever figured this out did a wonderful thing. The trail is protected from cars, has enough curves to not be boring, and has many bridges over the various arroyos.

When we arrived at the Mission Garden, we found a lovely site who’s goal is to show the various agricultural needs and implementations through the ages. They have a great vision and are just beginning to create it. They have lovely citrus trees and fig trees. And they have chickens. These are desert chickens who have no feathers on their necks. Weird looking birds.

They also had some cacti that had on clothes and hats. We asked about them, and were told they were protecting them from the overnight freezing temperatures. They were cute!

As we were traveling back to the campsite, we stopped at Culver’s for some food. We felt like we could eat the side of a barn by now. Culver’s accommodated us with a salad and burger, and we silenced our hunger.

It was a lovely day. 46 miles of riding. Needless to say we slept well.

The next morning it was quite chilly, so we made coffee and breakfast inside the van. Sally had given me a cute little waffle iron for Christmas that is perfectly sized for van travel. Paula purchased a great mix, so we were set.

Our triking will take another break as we return to Southern California. Paula’s mother is getting ready to say goodbye to this world. At 97 she’s had a fine life, but now she’s getting ready to bid farewell. We wish her well, and look forward to seeing her in the next life.

1/4/19: First Tucson Ride

Welcome to 2019 everyone!!

Sorry to be offline for so long, but we’re glad to be back. We traveled from Deerfield, Ma back to the Bay Area in quite short order at the end of October. We stumbled upon a bit of a health scare which kept us in our Bay Area stomping grounds until December. Thankfully all is well now.

We spent the holidays with Paula’s family in Southern California and have just settled into Catalina State Park in Tucson for the next two weeks. Friends of ours from Washington will be arriving soon, so we’ll be able to do even more triking with them.

This morning our friends Judy & Gail stopped by. They live here in Tucson so dropped off great bicycling maps for us to begin our exploration with. Poor Mariah, their Yorkie, was not pleased with the cool morning temperatures. We’re looking forward to seeing them for dinner on Sunday.

After breakfast we were washing up our dishes only to see a woman with a Recumbent Retreat hat on. We struck up a conversation to find that she rides an HP Velotechnic Pedelec also. Turns out Kate and Pat are traveling in a Mercedes van that they have continued to do upfits on, not unlike us. From them we learned about magnetic latches to keep drawers from opening while driving. We’ll have to try these!

After much conversation about the vans, we all decided to try the bicycle trail. We got 10 miles out and based on the lateness of the hour we started thinking about a late lunch/beer. We found Noble Hops Gastropub. A flight of beer and a split order of bangers and mash, and we were ready to resume our ride. The desert is beautiful and the ridge is dusted with snow.  Check out the photos below. We’ll resume our riding tomorrow.

Dr. Seuss Museum

On October 2, Mom went to Springfield for a concert. This gave me a chance to visit the Dr. Seuss Museum. The museum is located in the museum quadrangle. (Mom used to have a voice teacher who had a studio not far from here.) There was also a sculpture garden of the Dr. Seuss characters but since the weather was rainy, I opted to not try to photograph them.

I have very fond memories of Dad reading Dr. Seuss tales to us as bedtime stories. He could always pronounce the weird words and make everything rhyme.

Check out these photos from memory lane...

10/3/18 Deerfield, MA to Northampton, MA

Happy Birthday to Paula!

In celebration, we rode from mom's house to Northampton, where the coffee is strong and the women are stronger. 39.1 miles!


Our route took us through Hatfield, MA where they have several historic preservation districts. Here's an example of a spectacular and very well-preserved/restored Victorian era home along Main St.


By John Phelan - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

There are also tobacco barns, livestock barns, and yes, a school. The oldest home still standing was built in 1790.

Next stop, Paula's favorite kind of shopping, a grocery store. 😀 The River Valley Co-op is member-owned, with abundant local produce and a fabulous cafe. This area does a wonderful job of supporting their local agriculture and endeavoring to preserve farmland. They've created a Local Hero program where both farmers and consumers participate. We shared a Niman Ranch Pastrami with an excellent swiss cheese on a ciabatta style roll for lunch on their lovely outdoor patio followed by a chocolate chip cookie. Ride to Eat, Eat to Ride.

With our fuel tanks topped up, it was back on the trikes and on to Northampton, where we planned to visit a homebrew store called Beerology located on Pleasant Street. Pleasant Street is quite pleasant indeed as it features not only a home brew shop but also Northampton Bicycle and Northampton Coffee.  Since the bike shop had spacious parking lot, we stopped there first and used up a parking space to lock up the trikes. In the shop, the birthday girl scored a new rainbow jersey and an ORANGE bottle cage, which the bike shop staff kindly installed in the parking lot as we were pretty sure the trike wouldn't fit through their door.

Of course, while we're hanging out in the parking lot, Leslie is busy peddling the trike kool-aid to another shop customer, a local ER doc and avid mountain biker. After a spin around the parking lot, he had developed triker grin syndrome.

Next, Beerology welcomed us with an inviting storefront featuring chairs, stools, and tables made from reclaimed/recycled wooden barrels, locally produced in Greenfield, MA by the Wood & Barrel Co. We discussed New England IPAs and various beer styles, and got to sample their Oktoberfest and IPA. They offer beer tasting classes, but none before we leave. 

The day had kind of gotten away from us, and we were a little concerned about running out of daylight. On the other hand, we hadn't covered as much mileage as we had planned so we had plenty of battery charge left. We poured on the steam and averaged 19+ mph on the way back. 

The siren song of ice cream and a pit stop lured us back into Pasiecnik Farm Stand for a Moose Tracks refueling. While there, we shared a table and lovely conversation with Julie, a life coach from Whately. 

With plenty of remaining charge, we rolled up River Road and through S. Deerfield at 20-22 mph and arrived back at Leslie's mom's house before 5pm.

Great day!