Category Archives: USA

bikes, MTB, USA

Found this little video

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Stumbling around mtbr.com while I work up the motivation to go out for a cold, damp ride, I found this neat little video of the Cannell Plunge trail I rode when camping with some randoms I’d met on mtbr.com north of LA last year.  I’m pretty sure this is the last section which was a complete blast (dropped five thousand feet in eight miles apparently) that absolutely fried my brakes.  As this riding season comes to an end up here in the Rockies, I can’t wait for the next one in the western USA.  I’ve just decided on all the replacement parts that need ordering – perhaps I will have to go in to outdoor sports winter hibernation to finance the trip, but that’s not too likely.


Here’s my take on the whole trail.

friends, travel, USA, vehicles

Goodbye America, for now

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That great time for updating the blog has arrived – travelling. It’s my last few hours in the USA & the international part of Philadelphia International Airport doesn’t have as many flights & airlines as some of the bigger international airports – so I flew through check-in & then security with only a couple of minutes of waiting. Consequently, I now have two hours to pass before boarding for Frankfurt. The convenience of flying from Philly & sticking with Lufthansa for the airdollars means I have a couple of extra hours from that German dogleg on the way to Heathrow. On the upside, I’ve managed to get through my US trip without buying too much stuff to push me over the generous baggage limit (which I’ve been pretty close to the whole time) & my travel agent back in NZ must have pulled the right strings & got Lufthansa to waive their ridiculous $US200 fee for flying with a bike (even when it is undersize & underweight).

Since returning from DC, I’ve been pretty lazy overall & haven’t really done all that much. Just generally hanging with the Lindes & amusing Katarina & pleasantly getting back in to reading a few books (some fiction, some non-fiction – the most interesting of which was about the surveying of the States beyond the Appalachians & also explained how the country is still stuck with archaic set of physical units that it uses).

One morning last week, Doug & I rode out & around Lake Galena – mercifully, the humidity & temperature were not quite unbearable. As it was midweek the path around the lake wasn’t too crowded & it was a pleasant ride; on the way back we detoured a little & Doug showed me a huge Polish Catholic church & associated facility. The place started in the sixties (I think) & apparently it is well patronised by Poles from New York & New Jersey.

Continuing with the theme of different religions – on Thursday we took a day trip out west to Lancaster County & dropped the kids with Jessica’s parents on the way. Lancaster County was one of the first places in America that the Amish, Meddonites & Amish Meddonites (I forget all the differences, but the Amish are the most conservative) established themselves. As well as showing me the area & the people & part of their lives, Doug & Jessica were on the lookout for a couple large collapseable wooden drying racks – I think I marvelled at the Amish furniture making skills previously. So over the course of the day we stopped & browsed around numerous furniture stores & I was no less amazed at the quality & sturdiness of the craftmanship. We eventually got a couple of drying racks from the first store that we visited – in the amusingly named town of Intercourse.

We spent a couple of hours with Ada, an older Amish-Meddonite woman, sitting in the back of the CRV guiding us around the local area while she pointed out & explained different aspects of Amish life. It was all very interesting & quaint as one would expect – from the buggies,

one room schools, horse drawn farm equipment,

all sorts of implements running on compressed air (generated using diesel engine, instead of electricity) – I was intruiged by the ceiling fan with the air piston – the communal telephone in a little hut some distance walk from the houses,

the plain but large houses & barns, scooters instead of bicycles, to the plain dress. We stopped at a few stores where the Amish have gone in to cottage industries as the land is becoming more & more scarce & therefore expensive. The quilts were all hand stitched & incredible and the soft pretzels were amazing; there was the huge variety of produce, preserves & so forth that we had seen at the markets in the Poconos. Back to have dinner & collect the kids, it was then back to Doylestown.

Friday I was planning on going in to Philly & riding the singletrack at Fairmount. Alas, the weather forecast discouraged me from that – over the next few days we would have a big storm some time in the afternoon. I quite liked seeing the rain & always like big thunder storms – Katarina had quite different ideas however. Sunday was a cracker of a downpour with some quite good flooding in the storm water overflow area across the road & also in the yard & a little in the basement.

The only other thing of real note from the remainder of my stay in Doylestown was being bitten by a dog (just a scratch really, but more of a surprise – considering I’d just walked the entire length of the section on the sidewalk past it) – I suppose that is a disadvantage of the unfenced sections. There doesn’t seem to be Animal Control to call, so I got to talk to another of America’s finest late on Saturday night. Thought I better get a medical opinion as I wasn’t too thrilled by the very slim possibility that I might die of rabies in a few months. So the family clinic wouldn’t see me, so it was down to the Emergency Room of the hospital for me. In the space of an hour I think I had my blood pressure & temperature taken, answer enough questions to fill in three or four forms, was told that it wasn’t infected (duh) & rabies is not common in the area. When it came to explaining that billing me next week was not really going to work as I would be in Britain, things got a little complicated. When I was told that I should pay five hundred dollars, I laughed a lot – I couldn’t help it. What a screwed up system. Yay for travel insurance.

My last few days in Doylestown consisted of too many little treats from various food shops in town (wonderfull organic thin crust pizza, water ice, gelati, ice custard & so forth), amusing Katarina, changing the brake pads & tyres on my bike (varying success on the brakes – one rubs a lot, one seems to have some air still in the system), packing, watching the Phillies (lose a lot) on TV (I think baseball is a lot like cricket – it can be really slow at times, exciting in other parts, but a lot of interest is in the details – of which I don’t really understand for baseball).

So now I’m in London & it’s great to see familiar faces & places again – Vittoria has grown & there is a new addition to the family, Amelie. My longing to hear a NZ accent was fulfilled earlier than I expected – shared the flight from Frankfurt to Heathrow with a couple from Invercargill. They had just finished four weeks of campervanning around central & west Europe with their kids. It was great to swap travel stories & even find an Oamaru connection (boarding school at St Kevin’s). Sure was great to have some bread that wasn’t full of sugar, but I’m sure there are some things that I’ll miss from the States (wide streets spring to mind for some reason). A big thanks to the Lindes for having me to stay & taking me all sorts of places.

city, friends, history, USA, vehicles

A roundabout route to DC

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Currently, I’m sitting on my first (& probably last for some time) Amtrak train returning to Philadelphia after my small trip over the last week. The trip to San Diego was really just an exercise in medium distance travel – almost two hours of train travelling to PHL & eight hours of flying & stopovers & I arrived in San Diego & back to the heat (thankfully not the 106 that it was in Phoenix when I changed planes). Kindly, Beverley picked me up from the airport & it was back to La Jolla. Nice to catch up with the Turners that were home – Anna-Marie had returned from a month or so in Europe the previous day. As the Turners had a foreign student staying for a while & both girls home, I was relegated to sleeping on the couch in the lounge – just as I was going to bed Andrea wandered in from opening day at the races, so that necissated a catch up & talk about tomorrow’s testimony. After all that travelling, I thought I would sleep, but it wasn’t really the case; I must have had two or three hours of sleep. Up at six, as it was light & Beverley was up, & ready for our date in court at eight o’clock.

After Andrea handing & me studying my summons, the three of us (Anna-Marie was persuaded that she should get up & come too) were off to court. It was of course a big anti-climax – we sat in a waiting room while our case was assigned a courtroom & judge; it was quite annoying that I had my iPod in my pocket, but no earphones – so I had to settle for staring at the walls & reading year old magazines for the best part of two hours. Eventually we had a courtroom & we walked a very long way through the building & then through the next one to find it & the DA & detective met us there. After all that, the three defendants saw the writing on the wall (as the DA had managed to get five witnesses & countless police testimonies together) and they all pleaded guilty. It took a bit more waiting in a corridor for this to be confirmed & the paper work done. So in some ways I had travelled all the way across the States to sit & wait for three hours, just to go home. On the other hand, it was a good to get a result & it’s one less thing for us to think about & hopefully Andrea will be able to go back to plan one & go to Costa Rica to live. After leaving the courthouse, the girls took me down to the SDPC HQ & I got my stolen money back (finally) – the lost/recovered property & evidence room in the basement of the headquarters was massive (I think it covered an entire city block). It’s a short drive from downtown to SAN, so the girls dropped me off at the airport & I was off again cross-country.

The trip was uneventful, but from Vegas to DC I was stuck between the window of a 737 & one of those wonderful people who are intent on sharing your seat with you & spill over the armrest – just as well I have no discernible upper body presence. Due to a change of planes in Vegas, we were well late getting in to Dulles – but Adam & Jen (the friends I stayed with in DC – Adam is a Te Puke friend from way back) faithfully met me & they only live ten or fifteen minutes from Dulles – so in bed by two in the morning, fantastic (at least I was back in the same time zone as I had been thirty-six hours before).

Wonderfully, I didn’t get up until 10.30 & proceeded to do not a lot the rest of the morning. After lunch, Adam & I decided to go back to Dulles as the National Air & Space Museum (a Smithsonian museum) has another site out there (the main one is on The Mall in DC). This site consisted of a huge hangar filled with all sorts of aircraft & a sizeable tower that you could go up to get a great view of the airport & the surrounding area.

Also there was a air traffic control exhibit on the floor below the observation deck – as well as the display, an interesting part was the live audio & radar feed from Newark airport. Of course there were all sorts of planes & other aircraft – the highlights were a Air France Concorde (it fitted across the width of the hangar),

Enterprise space shuttle,

SR-71 Blackbird (it once flew from LA to DC in sixty-four minutes & then promptly was transferred to the museum)

& the Enola Gay (the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima).

We managed to cover most of the hangar in detail, before having to leave to meet Jen & some of her workmates for Friday happy hour. It was at some Italian restaurant that had great pizza & twenty buck carafes of sangria – I rated the pizza, but the sangria went down pretty well (at least judging by how quickly some of the glasses were emptied) too. It was a great group of people & conversation & the couple of hours passed quickly.

Afterwards we had a few options when some of the group dissipated – five of use went around to Dave’s & tried our hands & voices at Guitar Hero World Tour. On the way, I had my first ride in an American muscle car in America – Dave’s Corvette, of course we had to put the top down. I had never played Guitar Hero before & it showed – as well as my complete lack of timing & musical ability. I was able to play the guitar to some level eventually & sing a little bit – but the drums completely evaded me. That may have been something to do with the red I was drinking – I found later in the night, that it wasn’t just me that though it tasted bad (beef jerky apparently) – but after two, who can tell & who cares? Somehow it was two o’clock before we got home & I went to bed – nevermind, a great evening & I learnt some new songs.

Another big sleep in on Saturday – I don’t recall doing too much for most of the day or perhaps I recall doing not much for most of the day. The last few days’ travelling & late nights had caught up with me & it was nice to sit around on the couch watching TV or Blackadder & napping. Plus it was very hot & humid outside so the chilled townhouse was a pleasant alternative to that. Did get my first visit to Trader Joe’s – a great variety of food there, a pity all the NZ wines were big names & for some reason the only NZ cheese on offer was some no name cheddar (it’s the single most popular cheese in the world!) – if you are going to import NZ cheese, why would you choose cheddar?! A big thunderstorm came from somewhere late in the afternoon – but that didn’t change our plans of heading to see the monuments after dinner (I’m told that they are better by night). When we got in to town it was still raining, but jackets & umbrellas were more than enough to ward off the moisture – the rain had the added bonus of scaring some of the tourists away. Saw most of the monuments – Lincoln,

Vietnam, WWII,

Washington (the two red navigation lights on top remind me of The Blackadder – Witchsmeller Pursuivant) , Korean

& Jefferson. It seems a bit strange picking favourites, but the WWII & Korean were mine.

Sunday was another good sleep in – we just had to get up in time for brunch in Reston town centre with another couple of Adam & Jen’s friends – Eric & Amy. Eric & Amy being long time locals, they know all the best places. For thirty five bucks we got a huge buffet & were supposed to fit a entre off the menu in somewhere. Of course we ate too much of buffet (the desserts were fantastic; I managed to get kiwifruit, boysenberries & blueberries to make the full Willingale Orchard complement), so by the time we tactfully ordered our entrees, we were too full to fit them in & just took them home for dinner. Another nice nap & we were off to check out the Marines Corps/Iwo Jima monument

– another pretty good one & then a nice walk to burn some of the brunch through Arlington Cemetery.

Saw JFK & family’s graves & the Tomb of the Unknowns.

The changing of the guard (that we managed to stumble on at the correct time) was pretty good – quite simple & with lot of clicking/banging of heels. Back home for my paella & then it was Transformers on DVD – a favourite of Adam & Jen’s but I hadn’t seen it. Was pleasantly surprised by the humour & action (I’m easily pleased). Also balanced the bearded lizard on my shoulder.

Six-thirty was a bit of a shock to get up on Monday morning to head in to DC to check out a few of the other sights. I think I was in town before nine & wandered from the Metro to check out the White House. Good to finally see it in the flesh, but funnily enough no real surprises – I knew it would be small. It appeared a lot smaller than it would have if the turf in front was managed properly.

We had hardly had any rain over the weekend & the park in front was sodden – very poor drainage. I was not much more impressed by The Mall – the grass & patches of dirt were a mess. After walking around the Washington Monument (flags at half mast everywhere – apparently the anniversary of the end of the Korean War),

it was off to the Holocaust Museum. Much as I expected – well done & quite sobering, plenty of artefacts from Germany & Poland & Czechoslovakia to help illustrate the awful truth.

By now it was noon & after another disappointing hotdog from a street vendor conveniently placed to sucker tourists like me I checked out the science & transport parts of the Museum of American History. Some good parts, but mostly didn’t really do much for me. Then off to the Air & Space Museum – ultra popular & crowded. The place was in desperate need of the exhibits, more the explanations, having a makeover. The crowds were too much for me – but a very good exhibit on the Wilbur & Orville Wright and all the experiments they went through with gliders & windtunnels & aeronautical engineering; also got to go in a 747 cockpit (it was really old). As there was not as much space in this facility as at Dulles, there were not nearly as cool exhibits. I was quite impressed by the Capitol building,

walked around it to see the Supreme Court

& then was amazed by the Library of Congress (Jefferson Building) – had to go in the largest library in the world of course. A tiring day on the feet, but very cool over the last few days to see so many places that I have read about in thrillers, seen on TV & in movies. Back home on the Metro (which is very clean & well signposted – pity about the crash on the Red Line a few weeks ago) & Adam & I decided to go & see Transformers 2. The movie was better than I was expecting (but who takes infants to a movie at 8pm? In a small, almost empty cinema they were so annoying & the parents next to useless) & I was quite pleased to see sights in NYC that I just been to the top of or walked across, then shots across the The Mall & low & behold a whole scene in the Air & Space Museum at Dulles. It was – “I saw that plane, & that plane, & that plane too, walked along there, walked up those stairs, saw that plane & that one too” – very fun; a shame our schedule (or is that sked-ule?) did not fit seeing the film at the Imax at the museum – that would have been quite a coincidence.

Tuesday morning was pack up, say goodbye & thanks a bunch to Adam & Jen, on the Metro & in to DC. Had a few hours to kill before my train, so went around the International Spy Museum & enjoyed it immensely.

friends, travel, USA

Bacon?

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Realising how exhausted & lethargic I was from my time in NYC, it was great to be going away for a long weekend up in the Poconos to do be doing very little. So Thursday morning we managed to get organised & packed up & left for the hour an a half of driving approximately north. Driving around Pennsylvania is a lot different to out west – there aren’t as many of the big 8-10 lanes on each side freeways, but rather a lot of smaller dual carriageways that connect all sorts of places to each other. Stopped for gas (it seems to be coming down – less than $2.40 for a gallon) & made it to Stoddardsville for a late lunch. Unfortunately the kids weren’t too appreciative of the change in routinue – as we were continually reminded over the next two days. Stoddardsville is quite the has-been town. It is on the Lehigh River & back at the start of the nineteenth century it was expanded by a guy called Stoddard & was quite the little boomtown – awaiting a canal that was to have been built up to the town. Of course, the canal never quite made it & the so the town never made it & Stoddard went bankrupt. All the infrastructure was pretty much left & there are a few ruins of the mill & other buildings lying around. Now there are ten or so houses on either side of the river which are mostly just used in the summer. Our tie to the place is that Jessica’s grandparents used to live in the old mill house & Jessica spent a fair bit of time during her childhood here. After her grandmother’s death the house ended up in the hands of a local guy who has worked hard at preserving the local history.

Pulling up to the house it was obviously quite old (never did find out exactly how old – greater than a hundred years) & it had sprawling grounds down to the river with some great big trees around.

Apparently it was built before studs were common practice & so the walls are solid walls of up to eighteen boards of wood – it would explain why the lighting in the house was so poor – retro-fitted wiring must have been a nightmare. The floors were wonderfully unlevel; the basement was what I have come to expect from Bill Bryson’s stories – dark, damp, low-ceilinged, with an ominous looking furnace & fuel oil tanks; the furniture was old; a warren of rooms upstairs; a large attic further up. Adding to the old setting, the place had been turned in to a mini-museum by John Butler (the only guy I’ve ever been introduced to as “Commander” [ret.]) – the guy who is preserving Stoddardsville, with old photos & captions, newspaper clippings, models of ships & submarines, letters (some from George Washington) to do with the settling of the area, the Wyoming Massacre, the Revolutionary War, WW2 & all sorts. It was like staying my own Night at the Museum. As we had climbed a bit from home, the temperature was about ten degrees cooler & pleasantly, the humidity had dropped right off from home. Apart from the kids, it was very peaceful & I found a Patricia Cornwall paperback lying around & probably spent the rest of the afternoon napping & reading. Popped down to river that evening for Doug to see if he could hook a fish & Katarina to throw stones in.

After a nice lie in Friday, Doug & I loaded up our bikes & drove twenty minutes to a state forest to see if we could find somewhere to ride. We had some luck in finding a place to park & then we followed a gravel road up & into the woods. It was quite nice to be out riding in the woods & not really caring where we were going. On the way back we wandered down an emergency access road in between high-fenced deer exclusion zones & suddently came out in a clearing & found a hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere – not really what we were expecting. After returning for lunch, it was out again for another ride – this time with Jessica in to the nearest town (a few miles uphill) to post mail, check voicemail & most importantly, get some donuts. By dinner that night, the kids still hadn’t settled at all, so we had to open another bottle of wine to help us through. It quietened down a bit when everyone else went on a nice settling drive & I stayed behind to do the dishes & read.

Saturday morning, we all loaded up to go to a couple of markets in town – the first mostly run by Amish. They had a lot of home grown fruit, vegetable, meat, cakes & so on. Their wooden furniture was very solid & well constructed – & very comfortable. I didn’t think any of it would fit in my luggage, so wasn’t really tempted to haul a very fancy gazebo to London. The second market was just plain strange – it was mostly just a whole heap of junk. Similar really to the exhibit at the MOMA, except these people seemed to expect people to pay money for their rubbish. At least I know where to go if I ever want scores of cassette tapes, VHS tapes, Master System II, Nintendo 64 or Atari games. Back for lunch & put the kids down for naps.

That afternoon, family friends of the Lindes turned up to stay for the night. Scott grew up with Doug & now works on the golf course Doug grew up on – Scott’s family is his wife Lisa, & two boys Noah & Deacon (older than Katarina) & daughter Gracie (two in October). Katarina seemed to quite like Deacon & followed him around a fair bit & generally settled down a lot. It was quite different having noisy, active & adventurous boys around. A lot more time down at the river throwing stones, fishing, climbing rocks, swinging, letting off fireworks & making & devouring Smores (roasting marshmallows, & sandwiching them between biscuits & Hersheys). Also treated to perhaps the loosest interpretation of a haka I have ever seen & an amusing attempt at charades by the boys. And somewhere in all of that, I finished my book – it was OK, but a pretty weak ending – I hate it when someone gets the main character out of a bind with the psychopath & the author doesn’t have the decency to explain why they were even there. Still it was nice to be reading a book again.

Sunday was pack up & clean morning, with a bit of time down at the waterfall & river. I don’t remember much else of Sunday – except I had my first Philly cheesesteak – it was good & Doug & I went for a good workout ride around Doylestown after dinner. Monday Jessica & the kids & I brought home a big pile of books from the library – I’ve already finished a good Harry Bosch one. In the afternoon Doug & I went out to the golf course he grew up on (Scott is the greenskeeper there now) & did some measurements on a couple of the greens, before we were off to Limeport Stadium to watch a ballgame. Doug used to play for these Dodgers & it was neat to be at a local level game & try & understand baseball a bit more (there’s not too much to it & I’ve seen a few major league games on TV). There was a good sized crowd in & the game started with a hiss & a roar after the Star-spangled Banner played & our pitcher had a shocking first innings. The vistors were up by four runs straight away & I thought it was going to be quite exciting – alas, there was only one more run in the next thirteen innings & our team was held to love (to borrow a tennis term). A cool night watching the game, even if it wasn’t the most interesting, & trying to explain cricket to a few people – they seemed to get some idea.

It’s raining today, so I’ve mostly been reading & trying not to think about packing to go back to San Diego tomorrow for one night & appearing in front of a judge. From San Diego I’m off to DC for five nights.