Back on the Road

After yesterday's glorious weather we woke up raring to go on a family breakfast ride.

O.k., not all of us woke raring to go. A certain teen actually had to be woken up ...
The first part of our ride was fairly quick and uneventful, ending at the Brooklyn Fairway where we chowed down on apple fritters, muffins, hot chocolate, coffee and tea on the patio. We were a bit chilly because we had all managed to underdress just a wee bit.Properly fed, we then pedaled the short distance to Ikea -- to discover that they did not open for another 45 minutes. That led us to look for and find 2 geocaches. Yea!

Returning to Ikea, Mike went in and restocked our supply of lingonberry juice concentrate. And chocolate.
Now that we had secured life's necessities, Mike was eager to play with the geocaching mode on his new phone and was quite amiable to more caching. All told, we attempted 7 caches and found 4 today, bringing our total to 150. Not-So-Little Squid and I have declared a goal of at least 200 caches by the end of the summer. This means that we may actually have to cache outside of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
While approaching the site of our third cache of the day, we skidded to a halt when we spotted this:

These folks are building bamboo frame bikes. Cool!Over all, a good day. 23 miles over 4 hours with lots of stops for caching.

Squid on Wheels: The Great Allegheny Passage ... Day 3

Ohiopyle, PA to Smithon (Belle Vernon), PA

After a comfortable evening in Ohiopyle, we set out once again, this time back the way we had come. Our goal was the Fairway Inn in Smithton, roughly 40 miles away.

Shortly after we started, Squidette mentioned that she was not feeling 100%. With that in mind, we took it slow though still at a quicker pace then the day before, simply because the route was mostly down hill. We stopped periodically to rest and to make sure that we were all drinking enough and rolled into Connellsville about 10:00.

In Connellsville, we found a supermarket and bought muffins for a mid-morning snack and sandwich fixings for lunch.

After another break and the consumption of the muffins, Squidette started feeling better and was able to eat her lunch when we stopped at the Roundbottom Campground.

We had a nice lunch and chatted with some day-trekkers. While dining, a 20-something, riding the entire trail with his friend, came over to us to ask how far they were from Connellsville. After providing the information, we gave him and his friend our leftover sandwich meat and bread.

Moving on down the trail (mostly slightly down hill) we traveled for a few miles before Little Squid started complaining that he wasn't feeling 100%. See a pattern here? (It actually started with Mike the night before.) We persevered to the Smithton trailhead and gave him a while to rest. We were way ahead of schedule so time was not a big factor and we knew we still had two miles or so to go.

Since we were running so early, Mike and I wanted to continue to the Ceder Creek trailhead, an alternate exit for our night's lodging, and did what we could to encourage Little Squid to continue a few more miles north.

(Old Overhold Distilary Swining Bridge remnants)

Finally, we resorted to bribing him with a geocache that was 4/10th of a mile from our location on the way to Ceder Creek. It worked and after quickly retrieving the cache, we continued on to Ceder Creek Park. There, Mike called the Inn for directions and was told that the route from Ceder Creek was much easier than from Smithton. So we started climing out of the park. And climbing. And climbing. Squidette and I had to resort to walking our bikes up part of the hill while Little Squid (he of the stomach ache) plowed his way up the entire hill with Mike. Mike later admitted that he had his rear kicked by that hill and barely made it up himself. Just goes to prove how much the gear was weighing us down.

We found our way to Highway 51 and worked our way to the Inn, passing several other motels along the way.

When we finally got there we discovered that it was a tiny, 10 room establishment attached to a bar. And that the proprieter had not started the grill for the day and was therefore not serving any food. This was rather annoying since one of the reasons we reserved rooms there was because the proprieter had clearly stated over the phone that there was food available at the inn.

Figuring that we would have to walk to the gas station for sandwiches, we went to our rooms to stow our gear. And immediately walked out. Both rooms stank. One of cigarette smoke and the other of ... I really don't know but it was gross and disturbing.

What I did know was that there was no way we were staying there and that I was willing to eat the cost of the rooms.

We turned around and carefully pedaled back along the highway to the Comfort Inn where they happily provided us with two clean, odor-free rooms. And then, immediately and pleasently refunded one room when we realized that just one of the two was more than big enough for all four of us. It was HUGE! Plently of room for the bikes, two queen beds and a small table to boot. And ... they had agreements with nearby establishments to deliver food to the hotel!

So, after a dip in the pool (!) we showered and ordered a huge dinner from a local pizza place. Breakfast was included in the room rate so we were totally set for the night.

The next day we headed back to the other inn to drop the keys in the drop box and realized that had we climbed up from the river at Smithton, we would have had an easier climb and we would not have seen the other inns. In this regard, that rear-kicking climb was a true blessing

Of Caching and Good Deeds

On this last day of break Squidette decided that she wanted to get in on the caching fun. As Squidette, Little Squid and I had a commitment at the synagogue, mid-morning, we decided to subway uptown on the west side and walk across Central Park to our destination, detouring for a cache or two.We aimed for two and found one on the first leg of our journey, then hustled across town for a little bit of Good Deed doing.
On our way across town we stopped briefly to admire Cleopatra's Needle and the crabs holding it upright.

Two hours later, deeds done, we grabbed sandwiches from a local shop and headed back to Central Park via a street side cache (really quick grab by Not-So-Little Squid) and ate our lunch al fresco next to the Alice in Wonderland Statue (where the cache had gone missing).
Onwards, past some pretty flowers, we hustled to another Did-not-find where we were met by Mike on his bike. He stayed with us while we hunted out and found another cache and then he rode back home while the kids and I attempted three more caches and found two for a total of 8 attempted and 5 found for the day. That makes 11 in the last three days!

Very little crafting got done but I do intend to now put on my audio book and do some prep work for the next set of carding. As I prep this roving I'm realizing that the dye did not soak in as much as I would have liked so I may wind up redying this once it is spun. I won't try it again now for fear of felting it.

Of Bike Rides, Geocaching and Worm Leavings

Yesterday was the first breakfast ride of the year. We traversed the Brooklyn Bridge, rode along the Brooklyn waterfront and dined in full view of the Statue of Liberty.
The orange boat? The Staten Island Ferry, of course!

We enjoyed muffins, scones and croissants much to the childrens' dismay. (They were looking forward to apple fritters which were not to be had.)

Riding home we took a new path that allowed us to avoid a rather steep hill . That said, we still gained the elevation but were able to do so much more gradually and, for my part, without shifting gears.

We hit the Greenmarket and returned the tote bag to the Worm Compost Lady. Yes, our Greenmarket has a Worm Compost Lady. She sells 5, 10 and 20 pound bags of worm leavings. Last weekend Mike went to the Greenmarket while the children and I were doing something else (I forget what) and he asked about the compost. Since he did not have the shopping cart with him, he was reluctant to buy the 20 pounds I had asked for. The Worm Lady really wanted to make the sale so she offered him her sturdy tote bag to schlep it home in.

Needlesss to say, my balcony plants are now well composted. I mixed about 3/4 of the compost into my not-yet-planted pots (the peas having been enriched with the last of last years' worm poop) and now the soil is looking all nice and dark brown again.

(Worm leavings, by the way, unlike those of other animals, do NOT smell! I'd love to have a worm bin of my own but have not yet figured out how to keep Maria from cleaning it. )

Since then two tomato plants have been added to the pots and I still need to obtain two more for this years' "Squid Farm."

Riding home, we viewed the usual sites, including this homeless person lounging outside the church next to our home. (That's Not-So-Little Squid in the foreground.)
To be fair, the church houses a soup kitchen so it is actually unusual not to see down-on-their-luck folk outside of it.

Once home, I resumed my dying and then ventured forth once more with Little Squid to do some Geocaching. He and I had done some bike caching on Friday and decided to test our luck with some caches within walking distance. We scored 2 for 2 yesterday and 4 for 8 on Friday, bringing our total to 70 found caches. We might do some upper east side caches today, time permitting.

Home again, I carded up some of the dying from a few days earlier ...
Pretty! Now I'm prepping the next color for the carder while awaiting delivery of my Woolee Winder before I start spinning.

Squid On Water

While Little Squid was in hebrew school this morning, Squidette and I got a little exercise. First, we walked to 57th Street and the Hudson River only to discover that the place we were going was closed due to a lack of volunteers. Then we continued walking uptown to 72nd Street where we found these:yup, kayaks! This little outpost was adequately staffed (there were two volunteers on duty) and so we went out on the water. No pictures since I had to keep my hands on the paddle.

We paddled around for a bit and then walked back home via the West Side County Fair, which was just setting up.
Squidette got to see a wooden cow up close and personal.
And then there were the cute animals.
Continuing our journey home, we did a spot of geocaching and found one that had evaded the entire Squid clan a few weeks back. When we sat down to log it, this is what we left:
Yes, our tush prints. You see, kayaking is a wet business.