This file contains brief summaries of some or our adventures.

Spring Break
Florida, March 2005

Enough of snow and cold weather! We put our bicycles on the car and headed to Ocala in Florida, intending to ride the various trails in the area. Departure was delayed  a day while a foot of snow fell.

The trip down was interesting in and of itself as we spent a night (or two) in the "old town" parts of New Bern, NC, Wilmington, NC and Charleston, SC. Found good restaurants and nice river walks in each case.

Arrived first at Spanish Springs, part of The Villages, south of Ocala and visited two now-retired colleagues from IBM. Rode our bicycles on the Withlacoochee Rail-Trail for three days, one day with a colleague.  The Villages is an interesting place where golf carts are used for everything, including shopping, going to the doctor, attending activities (over 500!) and going to restaurants. Even for golf. It is a well manicured "life style" place.

Also found trails to ride in Manatee Springs and Fanning Springs. Found the trail-head in Hawthorne for the trail to Ocala, but left Florida because rain was moving in. Before that, though, the weather was generally good and certainly warmer than at home where is snowed at least twice while we were gone. Bird watching was good, even exceptional a time or two (watching a red-shouldered hawk eat lunch and watching kites).

Stayed two nights in Savannah on our way home which let us renew our acquaintance with that place. Ate two dozen oysters in the same place where I ate a similar number years ago.

Spring Break
Florida, March 2003

Enough of snow and cold weather! We put our bicycles on the car and headed to Port St Joe  (and Cape San Blas) on the Florida panhandle in mid-March. On the way down we surveyed the Virginia Creeper and New River Rails-to-Trails for future excursions. We also visited with Kirsten and Max in Charlotte, NC, one evening.

We spent 6 days at the Port Inn, where friends from Missouri met us for 4 days, also with their bicycles. The weather was lovely, the ground is essentially flat, the bird watching is excellent (would you believe we watched Ruddy Turnstones turning stones?), and there are several reasonable restaurants in the area. We rode our bicycles in-town a bit, and also out on the cape. It is a nice place for walks. Life is laid back and unhurried. Building codes limit buildings to no more than 3 stories so mostly it is a place of single-family residences and, on the cape, rental residences. The far end of the cape is a wildlife refuge. An adjacent island, unreachable by car but there is a ferry service, is also a wildlife refuge. The beaches on the cape are superb and very uncrowded. Altogether a nice place to spend some slow time. We spent two extra days there when our car broke down on a bird watching excursion and had to be towed (AAA) and have the starter motor replaced.

From there we drove to Tallahassee and the next day rode our bicycles to St Marks on a paved Rails-to-Trails path. Then home, with a stop in Washington to see Janet and her family.

California and Back
May, 2002

May 1, 2002, Shelley and I set out by car for California. Ostensibly we were off to see my Uncle in the Berkeley hills (actually El Cerrito, CA) on his 91st birthday on May 17. 8838 miles and 38 days later we arrived home again. Some of our experiences we reported from the road by email to high-school-class email lists. Endured downpours in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky and kept an apprehensive eye on tornado forecasts in Missouri and Kansas. Followed the Oregon Trail in Nebraska into Wyoming noting the landmarks along the North Platte. From Cody, WY, through the Wind River Canyon to the east entrance of Yellowstone. From Yellowstone to the Grand Tetons and Jackson, WY (touristy). Followed the Snake River into Idaho. Dropped south into Nevada, where rooms are commodious and inexpensive and food and booze are good and cheap, then west to Reno. Then Tahoe for a day, over the Sierras through the only one of three passes not still closed by snow and onto Stockton, CA. Spent a day in the Sacramento delta, stopping at road side stands for cherries, apricots and strawberries. On to El Cerrito, on time.

From El Cerrito down the San Joaquin, stopping for peaches, strawberries and cherries. To Death Valley, with a pause in the descent to allow smoking brakes to cool, and on into Nevada again to Las Vegas. Spent an unprofitable evening at Bally. South to Laughlin, over the very big hill east of there to Williams, AZ. Spent most of a day at the Grand Canyon, returning to Flagstaff, where we took a room for the next three nights. Did a loop north of Flagstaff to see some of the 600 volcanic features there, and see ancient pueblos. Looped through Sedona (touristy) the next day. Then east to Meteor Crater and on to Canyon de Chelly, one of the most interesting places we visited. On to Monument Valley to Cortez, CO. To Mesa Verde and on to Durango, CO (touristy). South and east to Taos and then east to Clayton, NM. East across the Texas panhandle, through (surprisingly green) Oklahoma into Arkansas to the extensive rice fields in the Mississippi flood plain to Memphis. Across Tennessee and up the long western edge of Virginia. Crossed a bit of Maryland, a lot of Pennsylvania and into New York.

That is a very compressed summary of an altogether interesting trip. You can see a gallery of the photos we took (you may have to register with Ofoto first). (If the thumbnail page doesn't load at first, hit refresh.) The many small individual happenings each day enriched the experience. For a satisfying change of pace and an uplifting experience, a road trip around America is hard to beat. Here are some other possibilities. Or see Byways.

The wisdom of Walt Whitman, who wrote, "While I know the standard claim is that Yosemite, Niagara Falls, the upper Yellowstone and the like afford the greatest natural shows, I am not so sure but the Prairies and Plains last longer, fill the aesthetic sense fuller, precede all the rest and make North America’s characteristic landscape."

Cape May
March, 2002

Linda, Shelley, and I spent 6 days in Cape May (or this)  bird watching and eating and drinking too much. It was cold, below freezing some of the time, and windy. By the shore it really cut through you. Considerable acreage is set aside along the eastern shore of the Delaware Bay as refuges so we found a number of places for extensive walks and good birding. You can click on the thumbnails below.

Delaware Bay Cold and Windy

Shelley and Linda

Hawk Watch Platform

Osprey Overhead

NYC
February, 2002

We've been to NYC 3 times since 9/11, once the first of Nov to see ground zero, again in Dec and now in February. Saw Broadway shows 42nd Street and Aida this time. Had lunch at The River Cafe (under the Brooklyn Bridge). Expensive but a great view on a clear day; walked back across the bridge. Had suppers at Meson Sevilla on 46th street and at the Pig and Whistle pub on 47th street. We recommend both. All in all, an easy couple of days.

Bombay Hook NWR, DE

January 27-30, 2002

Having kept an eye on the Rare Bird Alerts and thus informed of some interesting sightings, we set off to see what we could see. Photos and summary.

WashingtonDC/Annapolis/Chesapeake
September 2001

We met our friends from Missouri for a bicycle ride through Washington, D.C., on Sunday, September 23. Check out Washington Area Bicyclists Association(WABA), BikeDC. Our son, Ted, and his wife, Judy, joined us. On Monday and Tuesday we rode the Roosevelt Island-Mount Vernon trail (see the Paths & Trails link). We then moved to Annapolis for a day, and then on to Kent County on the eastern Chesapeake shore.  Working out of a favorite bed-and-breakfast ( Mitchell House), we rode our bicycles through the country side for the next  3 days.  It's the sailing activity, in places like Rock Hall, that supports several nice restaurants in the area, so our evenings pass pleasantly.  Of particular interest to us birdwatchers is the Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge.

(We went forward with our trip despite the tragic events of September 11 in keeping with trying to do our part to revive the economy. For example, it is estimated the hotel industry in the Washington, D.C. area alone will lose 25,000 jobs, nasty collateral hardship, because of reduced travel.)

We returned to the Mitchell House October, 2002, for 2 days riding our bicycles. We also took these pictures.

Shawnee-on-Delaware
August 2001

We spent the week at our time-share condominium at Shawnee-on-Delaware (immediately adjacent to the Delaware Water Gap). See the About Us section on the web page. The gentle Delaware river is just a hundred yards away. The Appalachian Trail follows the Kittatinny ridgeline just across the river in New Jersey (Shelley and I backpacked all of the trail in NJ in years past. We were younger then.). We did almost nothing this year.  Read books all day. Imbibed a martini and a scotch sour in the evening at a local small restaurant. For 5 days running.  Very lazy of us.