Saturday, May 30, 2015

Paris Review - My First Time

New series of videos produced by The Paris Review in collaboration with filmmakers Tom Bean, Casey Brooks and Luke Polling. Here is the link to the Paris Review YouTube Channel where the series is being posted.

https://www.youtube.com/user/theparisreviewable


Thursday, May 28, 2015

One More Item Off The Bucket List & More Brownies




WIth a slight adjustment in our plans we will now include a trip to the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, NY. We have been cooking out of their cookbooks for years, and now a chance to see how their stuff is supposed to taste.

We also think we solved a logistical bottleneck in Glacier National Park. We will add one more night at the front of the stay at Brownes Hostel and Bakery, then camp in the park for a few days then a couple more at Brownies, then we movie on to Waterton. 







Sunday, May 24, 2015

Phase 2 Planning

This is the update for the second leg of our trip. Couple of open spots but there is a fine line between not having a place to stay and the surrender to the serendipity. We hope we are walking the line.

Leaving Cheboygan we will travel to Ashland WI, staying at an inn that got great reviews. The Apostle Islands are nearby. From there it will be a short day to Bemidji  where will explore the Paul Bunyan State Rail Trail and associated trails for a couple of days. Then a long day to Medora ND to stay in the Amble Inn, and then into Theodore Roosevelt National Park for a couple of days. Then up,a few TBA days ending up in East Glacier to stay at the Brownie's Hostel & Bakery on July 23rd. We then want to work our way into Waterton in CA with full plans yet to be determined. Check the Calendar Tab, and Map tab as we will be updating there.

Ode to Joy




We did a 30 mile ride on this beautiful late spring morning. There is poetry in Woodstock when you turn right onto Joy Road. I am blessed to live in a very pretty place of hayfields, stonewalls, and curvy roads of rolling hills. Of all of places Joy Road is always true to it's name. Your heart leaps as you know you have over a mile of swooping curves and rolling breakers. You finish one hill with speed and power up and over the next to settle back in for the next part of the roller coaster. And at the bottom, Sweet Evalina's Stand with tempting treats as you mark the halfway point of the ride.  We found joy, patriotic cows and a stone mile marker in Abington. Great ride, and the back problems I have been suffering were not a problem for most of the ride.


Saturday, May 16, 2015

Breakfast from the Natchaug

Nice trout that gulped a fly deep into his throat. Getting it out caused enough damage that he was not going to make it on release. Took it home for a breakfast snack.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Lunch

Lunch at Passiflora Tea House and Herbal Shoppe, New Hartford.




Trial Run #2 - No Fish for Breakfast


Camping weekend #2 to work out more kinks in our systems. At Austin Hawes Campground on the Farmington River in American Legion State Forest, one of our favorite CT camping spots. One of the best trout streams in CT. Alas no fish for breakfast as they were beyond the skill of this fisherman and it is a catch and release section of the river anyway. Note to Mike Babinski - below note that I do pay attention on how leading lines and foreground objects contribute to composition. Note to Doug Hammerstrom - thanks for teaching me about fly fishing.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Airline Trail Pomfret

Newly constructed section of Airline Trail in Pomfret looks like a super highway.  Hoping that they add one more layer of stone dust but this will work if need be. Rode in from the rail trail where it crosses the road in the Natchaug Forest. They are moving along with the trail construction but have a ways to go. Encountered mud and traprock and did a lot of walking. It will be great when done.

Retro Ride

Could not resist pulling over at a tag sale yesterday to buy an item from the past. Sarah Lynn Stolz - do you remember when this was your ride instead of your Prius - official car of the Farmington Valley? #readywhenyouare




The Coming of Spring



After a too long winter and a late, late arrival, spring is finally digging in to transition our world from gray to green. We are in that special week or so where budding trees paint the hillsides with subtle pale pastels of red, green, and yellow. It is the counterpoint of that short brilliant week in autumn where the trees are in a blaze of glory and then when you look around you realize it is gone. The spring week is just as time precious but the show is sneaky and slower on the eye. It is a sideways glance in the early morning light that makes you notice the hillside dabbed with brush strokes of faint paint. A pixelated impressionist landscape of almost imperceptibly different hues of green mixed with the reds of the maples all against a mat of gray tree trunks and blue sky. It will be gone in days but it is glorious to behold.  The picture of a local beaver pond taken on a mundane early morning weekend dump run does not do things justice but I hope it conveys some of the glory.