From castle to cottage

Just outside the gates of Glamis Castle is the tiny village of Glamis. As you would expect of somewhere with royal connections, the village is beautifully kept. This photo was taken a few weeks ago, but the tourist season is well and truly over, and Glamis is settling down for its winter rest.

What time is it?

The Hiatus is over!
Back to the saddle and down to business. Man, I'm chomping at the bit to get pedaling again.
A junk train from Ogden, unbelievably obediant to my instructive cooing stopped to let me off right in Ol' Downtown Laramie.
I made a hasty dash to the home of Adam and Danielle (Sorry again guys for barging) to see the sight I'v been dreaming of: Mybike. The sight of Samu the savage mule slightly dusty and tucked away patiently waiting for me was an emotional expierience that left me a bit teary and choked up.... Ok I'm over it. But man, is it good to be back.
The trip out West was good though. Alot of things got accomplished and some damn good times were had.
So the Hiatus and the train trip back out? I'll elaborate later. I got some riding to do!

Thanx to Lily for the new tattoo! Check out Lily's art work at: www.lilymosaics.com

Ride on the Duluth Lakewalk

Cool morning and the forecast was for scattered showers. After coffee and pastries at the hotel, I found a place to get a haircut. I had been getting pretty shaggy!

Weather.com was showing some showers heading through the area late morning. So, I killed some time chatting online. Soon, the clouds were getting thinner, so kitted up for low/mid 40 deg weather.

It was a little over a block from my hotel (Days Inn Duluth) to the Edgewater entrance of the Duluth Lakewalk. Took the hybrid off the car rack and loaded up for the ride. It was a 3 mile ride along Lake Superior to Canal Park. Rode around Canal Park before riding back to the hotel.

Was a bit brisk ride back as I had a stiff headwind. While I was a little chilly, I was not uncomfortable. Guess I had just the right layer of clothes. Felt great to be back on the bike. Was not sure I was excited about riding in this weather, but sure glad I did. Just over 7 mile ride.

OH, I had the GoPro on the bike. Still have problems understanding when the camera is running and when its not. Did not get the footage I thought I was getting.

Was thinking of getting out last night - sampling the local night life. But the exercise and fresh air made me too tired. Instead, I feasted on a chicken fried steak at Perkins (2 blocks from the hotel) and called it a night.

World's Most Spectacular Pedestrian Bridges

The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge is one on the World's Most Spectacular Pedestrian Bridges, according to Travel + Leisure Magazine. From my experience with the Big Dam Bridge in Little Rock/N. Little Rock, Arkansas, I knew the "Bob Bridge" would become a destination in the Council Bluffs/Omaha area.
Here's what Travel + Leisure said about the importance of bridges like the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge...
"The most successful fall somewhere between spectacle and conduit because they blaze a path where no one felt the need for one before. The newly built Bob Kerrey Bridge linking Omaha, NE, to Council Bluffs, IA, surely attracts tourists, but it has also changed life for the locals. Footbridges encourage new patterns of development geared toward human-powered pace, especially along the nearby waterfronts."
On top of that, the cover photo of the Iowa Transportation Map (free road map) is of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge!

In Japantown

The Peace Pagoda in Japantown, San Francisco.

Teakettle frostflower

I've written about Frost Flowers before, but I don't remember ever seeing them this early.
This teakettle was formed from the stem of a White crownbeard flower (Verbesina virginica). Dr James Carter has the definitive page on Frost Flowers. He's also done a lot of fun experiments on extruding ice from pipes (also here).
The forecast was for 23°F last night (-5°C), but here in our glacial little microclimate, it was 13°F (-11°C) when we woke up this morning. Too bad it's not always 10° cooler in the summer too.

The first of Autumn

The Autumn leaves have arrived in this little corner of the world, lighting up parts of the countryside shades of red. In truth this webpage has probably missed out on the greatest display, as I left my camera at home for Saturday's 100km warm up. I made no such mistake the next day.

I opened with the almost customary climb over the Macpherson Range at Tomewin before continuing south through Murwillumbah and Uki, where this ride really starts. The rolling hills of the Tweed Valley offer a seemingly eternal blanket of green, and Mt Warning a.k.a Wollumbin or "Cloud Maker" almost always lives up to it's name early in the morning. Today I was pushing against a south-westerly wind, but the rolling hills effectively killed it. 76km from home is the Cadell Road turn off to Mebbin National Park, now it was time to climb again.

In truth, this climb could be best referred to as "rolling", but each roll gains height, some of them steeply, and virtually all of them on dirt. At the higher points, the scenery seems to have difficulty choosing between rainforest or spectacular mountain views. This time I could look upon the Border Ranges differently, having visited there relatively recently. These climbs are followed by a screaming descent, this time made a little more treacherous by some loose gravel that some bright spark had dumped on the road. They almost qualified for a Tosspot of the Week award, except that it happens so often in these parts.

I continued through the gravel, over more rolling hills, before climbing out of the campground, beyond the National Park, and back to Brays Creek Road on the old Tweed Valley ride. This really is familiar territory now, but always beautiful. A large portion of the dirt road has now been sealed, but even that can't detract from the beauty of this area. There's little wonder that I've spent so much time here in recent years.

Beyond this really remains little to tell. The south-westerly wind was still hanging around when I came out of the forest and headed north for the ride home, with the traditional Stokers Siding detour. A brief shower came through at Urliup, but didn't stay around for long, and the tailwind on the ride home meant that i made short work of what was left of the 179km day. Another day, another pretty century. I'm still left wondering if we'll actually get a 'winter' this year. So far I've seen nothing to indicate it's likely to happen.