Four Paws Kingdom and TCT Rally

     The final leg of this summer's trip is to be a stop over in NC at Four Paws Kingdom campground a campground dedicated to dogs and their humans who happen to drive them around, lookout for their welfare and pick up their poop, amongst other things.  The reason I found this particular campground was because of a Tin Can Tourist rally, a rally for vintage RVs which I signed up for.  The CG has just 40 sites all with full hook up, super clean rest rooms and showers and 8 off leash dog parks, 2 for agility work, 1 with a pond, 1 with a creek, a small dog park and a big dog park and a few other free run. The CG is run by Lucy and Belle and their humans and a few workampers.  On Saturday night they had a German October Fest party, beer, wine, food and fun.  One game was to push a tennis ball up your partner's one pant leg and down the other as fast a you can.  This was a fun game to watch. Another was a nail driving contest and a pretzel fishing match.  I participated and won the pretzel fishing. Would have rather have Cindy push a tennis ball in my pants.   The dogs that afternoon got to do wiener fishing aka sausage bobbing and Luna won the small dog heat, chow hound that she is.
      The Tin Can Tourist rally featured many restored and original trailers and 1 bus.  Cool to see the pain staking work that went into some of these units. Too many to post pics of them all but check out the few here.  Of course many were decorated in their period but I didn't decorate ours being i could not think of anything remarkable from 1995 that i brought with us or could have bought. Anyway 95 isn't considered "vintage"
    Now we're home and playing catch up on bills, weeds, shopping and the like.  While we were away lightning struck the big live oak west of our house and blew the circuits in the office along with Deb's computers.  I checked the breakers but the receptacles in that room are still dead.  The lightning blew off not only bark from the tree but chunks of wood, so it must have made a hell of a boom. We did manage a side trip to Chimney Rock and Luna went all the way up and down on her little legs,2480 ft.

Back to the weeds, and hope those of you whom have followed this blog enjoyed reading as much as we enjoyed sharing.

Grand Canyon of the East

Being in the wilderness has it's advantages being without technology as you get left alone to enjoy said wilderness without cell phones ringing or having to check email, face book and the like.  On the flip side you can't call anyone, send email or post on face book either.  That is why BLOG posts don't come regularly, and I actually have to read back blogs to see where I left off.  How quickly the past becomes a distant memory.
     Any way the next stop on the summer trip as referred by some fellow campers was the Grand Canyon of the East in NY.  The PA. Grand Canyon was more of a grand valley compared to this one in Letchworth State Park where the 14,000 acre park was donated to the state of NY by William Pryor Letchworth.  His home is now is now the B&B and restaurant The Glen Iris.  The canyon is carved by the Genesee River and 3 dramatic waterfalls, one of which is 107 feet high, make it one of the most notable examples of waterfall scenery in the Eastern US. A hundreds of feet high railroad bridge, which will be torn down but still used today gave me a perch to get the rainbow in the falls picture.  Of course there were signs advising not to go up there but to me was an invitation to do just that.  There are 66 miles of hiking trails through out the park and a trike ride on the twisty hilly road to the falls was both fun and challenging.  The camp ground was nice with 30 amp. service, and there are cabins to rent, river rafting, and hot air balloon rides.  Not a place to hurry through.
     Now back at my sisters place in Canonsburg Pa. and heading out today for the final leg of this trip to 4 Paws Kingdom Campground in Rutherfordton NC. where it's all about the dogs, for a Tin Can Tourist Rally featuring older restored campers, the vehicles not the people, and then the haul ass home to be open for the annual Withlacoochee trail ride and Bikes and BBQ in beautiful down town Floral City.  

     This trip has been a blast with mostly great weather, and some of the nicest people we've had the pleasure of meeting along the trails we've ridden and the campgrounds we've stayed. Hope to see many of you again in Fl this winter.  Happy traveling, happy trails to you.

Pa. Grand Canyon & Erie Canal Trails

     Sorry so long since last post but being in the boonies as we were a lot didn't lend well to wifi or cell phone service.  Gosh most people up in this part of Pa. still have land lines and there are pay phones just about in every town general store.  We settled in to Pettecote Junction Campground in Cedar Run near the Pa. Grand Canyon and managed to cop a electric site due to a cancellation after only one night boon docking.  Here the Pine Creek trail is 61 miles long, crushed rock through stunning scenery, with little villages and towns along the way. We found a farmer in Wellsboro who sells pasture fed beef and another guy just 5 miles down the road from the camp who sells free range eggs.  So we've been eating primal and clean.  A storm blew through and brought the creek up enough to enable us to get in a kayak paddle, so we took the van south, dropped it at Slate Run, pedaled the trikes back to camp got in the kayaks and paddled down stream with the current with small rapids thrown in for fun.  Stayed through Labor Day and then lit out for New York and the Erie Canal trail. Got a pull through site at Red Rock Ponds Camping Resort.  There are lots of ponds where they quarried for the red rock in the 1800s that is seen on lots of buildings in this area.  Luna has met a friend by the name of Diesel and he is said to be Chihuahua/Corgi mix, and if they could both be let off leash would have a ball juking and cutting chasing each other around. She also met another Chihuahua named Mikey who is so very cute.  This trail is crushed rock until it gets closer to Rochester then we hear it's paved, but haven't ridden that part yet.  We're here till Friday when we'll head south to Alfred to Peter Stull,  The Bicycle Man Shop for a recumbent rally and ride.  Hope to hook up with Bryan Ball sometime this week and will see him at Pete's.  Made a Trader Joe's run today as it was rainy and there was a huge Wegman's store in the same complex.   A monster grocery store on the scope of the GIANT Giant Eagle in Pittsburgh. Hoping the weather clears up tomorrow so we can explore more of this trail and places like Holley Falls. Read a really good book I saw reviewed in a newspaper in Wellsboro Pa.  It's by David Rosenfeld, "Dogtripping".  Very funny true story about a couple who rescue Golden Retrievers mostly and take a trip x country with 25 dogs. Read it in 2 days! Met a guy throwing a stick into the canal for his golden to fetch. Couldn't tell if he said he was 99 or the dog was 9 but his name is George Foster and the dog is Max. Lovin' this cool weather, see ya!

 
                  

Oil Creek Trail

     After a steady rain last night which put out our camp fire but not before the chicken breast was cooked, and a relaxing evening in camp we woke to drive the short distance to the Oil Creek Trail.  Everything was wet and a little slick in places but that just adds to the fun factor when riding a trike.  Nicely shaded some curves and slight ups and downs, mostly down on the way back which is the way I prefer but the trail is only @ 10 miles anyway.  It pretty much follows Oil Creek crossing a bridge or two and ends up at the Drake Well that started the petroleum boom.  Along the way there were many wild flowers and some delicious thimble berries.  It was hard to just ride and not stop to pick and eat which we had to finally say ride on, don't look.  Now in Oil City at "Spilling the Beans" coffee shop since there is no wi fi or cell service at the camp ground.  Tomorrow is laundry and farmers market day in Franklin so we wont be on the bikes. Maybe a bit of mt. biking on the trails in the park.  They were just groomed for a race last week so sounds like fun to me. Just noticed Aug. 27th on placard and that is the day we were there. 

Back to Pa.

     After lots of thoughts of where to go next we dicided to stick with the original plan and head for all the trails in Northern Pa, the Oil City, Allegheny River Valley, and Sandy Creek, pronounced "crik" here in Pa.  As happens every year, leaving Bass Lake CG and yellow Springs area and all the familiar trails around there is a little melancholy, but we're ready to move on down the road. Got a good early start for Two Mile Run County Park in Franklin Pa. but was delayed by a tire blowout on our Airstream.  Road construction had us running down what was once the shoulder or breakdown lane where the right front tire must have picked up something which cut it and caused a delaminating of the outer casing which started flapping against the side of the trailer.  Glad I caught it in time before it tore anything up.  Pulled off to the side to change the tire, dropped and installed the spare as a Ohio State Trooper, Chris Dunn stopped to offer assistance with lights flashing to aid in our safety on the side of I-71.  Of course the spare was low in air so a bicycle pump was employed along with Officer Dunn's, Cindy's, and myself arm power managed to get the tire at 60 lbs. to gets us down the road to Wally World to purchase a new Chinese tire.  Akron Oh. used to be a tire manufacturing area but now everything has been out sourced to China.  I bought a lug wrench back when I bought my first car and still have it and used it to chance the trailer tire.  Bought it a K Mart when such things could be had made in USA.   You can really reef on this wrench without it bending.
     After a bumpy ride getting to 2 Mile County Park CG we got a spacious site in the woods with full hook ups in a very nice park about 8 miles from the Allegheny Valley Trail System which encompasses 3 interconnected trails, all paved except for some short sections where connected.  From Sandy Creek to Allegheny there is a pair of 65 stairs to carry a bike down or up.  These are some of the most scenic trails we've ever ridden.  It's a shame there isn't a campground on one of these trails so we didn't have to drive the 8 miles or more as yesterday to get to Foxbourg to ride the South end of the Allegheny.  There was 2 tunnels on this section of trail which required lights to see since the tunnels curve and it's pitch black for about 1/2 mile.  Also many sections to get off the trail and play in the river which we did and little Luna loves to play in the water. Today we do the Northern section of the Allegheny and tomorrow the Oil City.

Still in O HI O

   Still in Ohio and no reason to leave with the nice cool weather and all the trails to ride.   Bass Lake Camp Ground is our base and so far we've ridden the Little Miami, and the Great Miami trails, today a 40 miler to Xenia and back, yesterday ride to Yellow Springs then a hike with Luna in Glen Helen to the actual Yellow Spring the village is named for. Only had my phone and it took a lousy picture of the spring.  The day before we rode to Tipp City once Tippicanoe  had meatloaf and mashed taters at Sam and Gladys restaurant then went on to Troy.  Tomorrow is laundry day so a short ride in the afternoon to Yellow Springs and their new brewery which as is in the process of putting on a deck trail side.  Yes their beer is good, very good so guess where I'm going.  Since wi fi is sketchy and ATT phone service sucks I've had to pick my times to post, and being I have no smart phone the camera on mine is only so so, which means there is not going to be any instant uploads to facebook.  But here's a few pics anyway if they'll go.  Till later or something exciting happens, ta ta for now, or is that ttfn.
First pic is Troy courthouse from the Great Miami trail, 2nd is Huffman Dam trail switch backs, 3rd Luna's friend Fancy.

Back to Ohio

     After a fun filled family reunion on both our parts, apart, Cindy in KS and I in PA, and my family camp out at Punderson Lake State park, Ohio where we rode the Maple Highlands trail, went through a torrential rain storm Friday night.  The rain was especially intense for those in tents! I've always wanted to find a way to say that, as the next morning there were a lot of sleeping bags and such laid out to dry.  One positive thing about the rain was it chased the noisy idiots ( not members of our group) who camped in the site next to ours, away.  They seemed hell bent on trying to make as much of a disturbance as possible in the few hours they were there, by yelling, cussing, and making all manner of noise without any regard for anyone else.  The rain fell so hard which later when in bed drowned out they're antics and finally drove them from the park.
     Now we're hooked up in Berlin, Ohio in conjunction with Millersburg deemed the largest Amish community in the country.  Horse and buggies everywhere, beautifully maintained farms, lots of shopping for Amish goods, great cheese and meats and wood worked products.  The Holmes County trail is here so we rode the 17 mile stretch of it from end to end. Very nicely paved and wider than most to accommodate buggies and bikes through verdant farm and forest.  Of course we had to go sample some of the cheese and scrumptious home cooked vittles not to mention a delicious peach pie with whipped cream to die for.  We'll just have ride extra hard the next few days to make up for our indulgence.
     Tomorrow we head for the Kokosing trail starting in Mount Vernon.  A guy we saw in Troy last year recommended it highly.

 

Montour Trail

     After so many hot muggy days I finally got a day that was made for a nice long bike ride, highest temp reached 73 degrees but 69 degrees most of the time and mostly cloudy with just a little wind.
The Montour is crushed rock and a total of 63 miles and is part of the Great Allegheny Passage. The Section I did today was from Hendersonville to mile marker 0 near Coraopolis.  It encompassed 2 of the 3 tunnels the National tunnel and the Enlow tunnel and a long trestle spanning the Panhandle trail which goes to WVA.  Because of the heave rains of late there were some sandy washouts to traverse but the old mtn. bike sense kicks in and just pick a line and pedal like mad.  Saw lots of rabbits, a few ground hogs, many birds, summer tanager, king fisher, gold finches, robins, cardinals and a cat bird that gave me holy hell for picking black berries.   Stopped and ate lunch at Brothers Grimm and had a 10 oz. hamburger and a mountain of fries which I didn't eat all of.  The gate at the entrance of the road to the restaurant was an interesting welded together metal affair using 2 bicycles and painted bright red.  Brothers Grimm gives away free lunch to the annual trail ride every year.
     Tomorrow I'll try to hook up with a child hood friend and cruise around my old neighborhood.
See ya!

Like I said in the last post been parked in my sister's driveway for a family visit and reunion and today we sister, brother in law and nephew went for a ride on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail in Pgh. PA.  We started across the Monongahela river from South Side crossed the Hot Metal Bridge which used to be used to carry iron from Eliza Furnaces to the South Side past the practice fields for the Pgh. Steelers and Pit Panthers to Eliza furnace and pump house which today had an art fair with a local winery having a wine tasting.  Of course we tasted. Then continued Southeast past Kennywood Amusement park along the river and crossing bridges to where we had to turn around due to time restraint.  This trail is part of the GAP or Great Allegheny Passage from Pittsburgh to Wsahington DC.  Eventually it'll begin at Greater Pgh. Int. Airport through the South Hills to Pgh. and on to DC. Imagine flying into Pgh. or DC with a bike and doing this trail for 300 some miles one way then flying home.  Most of the sections we rode today were paved and well marked with lots to look at. Had lunch at Mitchell's Fish Market, yum, cedar plank salmon.  Will do this trail further next week.

Sand triking

    Been parked in my sister's drive way this past couple of days and yesterday Cindy flew off to KS. to visit her family and attend the Jones family reunion while I stay here in the Pittsburgh area.   It's been hot and humid but supposed to cool down this weekend.  We've ridden some of the Montour trail and yesterday evening Joan (sister) and Steve (nephew) rode some of the Panhandle trail near McDonald PA.  There has been a lot of rain lately with some flooding and parts of the trail were about 3 or 4 inches deep in sand.  This made for some interesting riding on a tadpole style trike, picking a line and pedaling like a mad man,weaving and slicing, keeping up momentum to get through  sandy sections.  Kind of like mountain biking on some of Fl. trails.  Joan had a bit of trouble at first but got the hang of it near the finish of the ride and started to have fun with it.  What a great interval workout.
She'd be doing much better if wearing cleats and clipped in. 
    Gotta take the dogs for a walk, wow spell check allowed "gotta". See ya.

Babe I'm leavin' must be on my way!

                                                                                                                               7/15/13
Left Floral City at 9:05 on July 9th and made our way to our first stop at Trader Joe's in Gainsville FL. to stock up supplies then a quick stop at a Camping World for a Oxigenics shower head.
Had a good lunch at a place called The Pig in SC. BBQ pulled pork, yum!
    As the song said, Green Acres is the place to be, well there we were at Green Acres camp ground in Walterboro SC.  We've stayed here before being a Good SAm park for 26. per/nite.  They've had a wet spring and the mosquito feeding frenzy kept us inside most of the night.
     July 10, on the road by 7:50 and while stopped at a rest area managed to lock my ignition keys in the van with Cindy's purse where her keys were so now we are in the parking lot in the blazing sun trying pay phones, yeah the cell phones were in the van with the keys of course.  Hey, if your gonna screw up do it well I say. While Cindy was on a kind women's cell phone going through automated voice response to Good Sam roadside assistance I grabbed a shepherds hook which is used to hang a bird feeder from the camper and bent it to snag my keys off the drivers seat where they had fallen from my belt loop.  I actually managed to do this but dropped them when they were almost to the window on the passenger side which was left open an inch.  I then bent the hook more and fished Cindy's purse from under her seat, got her set of keys and yeeehaaa, got in.  Called Good Sam and canceled the rescue and resumed our Northward trek.
     Next overnight was Camp Creek state park in WVa. ust off I-77.  Very nice level paved sites, great clean restrooms and showers,  hiking trails, water falls and recreation areas. 26. per/nite.
     A stop over at Coopers Rock st park was thrown into the mix where I spent lot of time as a kid climbing around on the rocks at the overlook.  Now sitting in my sister's drive way in Canonsburg PA. after a wine tasting and dinner for my cousin Ray's birthday last night.  Tonight my sister has planned a birthday celebration for me with my mom at the nursing home with chocolate cake then we'll go out for pizza.  Happy "61" to me.
    Luna is turning out to be a really great dog to travel with so far.  Loves to hike and bike, and is getting along well with Cheyenne my sisters chocolate lab. 

Just tweaked the new HP Velotech Scorpion FS 26 and what a sweet ride. This one has the 3x9 internal hub so no front derailleur  but plenty of gears to fast and low enough to climb any hills.  Best of all the suspension is anti squat so no pedaling induced suspension bob, just in case you need to kick in the after burner to chase some one down or run from a dog. Of course this suspension and internal hub comes at a price of added weight, but this trike isn't designed as a speedster.  You want to run down Madones get a Catrike 700 or Ice Vortex, and make sure you have the legs and lungs.  Would like to spend a little more time on the Scorpion, maybe HP Velo will let me ride one back to the hotel while at Spezi.  Yeah right, I think they'll have that covered themselves.  Oh and did I mention it's fold able. Maybe I should have brought it with me.

House and dog sitter in place for our trip to SPEZI  recumbent bike show in Germany and a long over due visit to my daughter and family.  I'll try to blog and post a few pics but don't expect too much.

Easter Sunday

We will be closed Easter Sunday, March 31. 

Thanks to all who made it to our cold ride this passed Catrike Rally ride.  Had to generate our own heat by pedaling faster.  Hope all had fun.

Catrike Rally Sunday March 3 2013

We will once again host a ride for the Catrike Rally. Our ride will begin at the shop in Floral City at 10:45. We will head south to Nobelton and have lunch at River Ratz Cafe.  If you want to come early we will have some coffee and treats. We look forward to seeing old and new friends.

Thanksgiving morning ride

As in years passed we will be doing a Gobbler loop ride Thanksgiving morning starting at the bike shop at 8:30 AM.  About a 22 mile ride on the trail and some lightly traveled roads, Istachatta Rd to SR 48, to Trails End Rd, to Withlapopka to Gobbler to the trail. Hope to see some smiling faces wanting to burn some calories before your Thanksgiving Holiday.

Babe I'm leavin' must be on my way

      Yep, looks like its high time we start heading South on our voyage homeward bound.  Always feel a bit melancholy when its this time in the trip, even though our gig isn't bad at all.  I mean getting people on bikes, talking to people from all over the country and sometimes getting invitations to stay with them if we roll through their town, again thanks, Bill and Ruth, George and Sue, Leroy and Diane, Lance and Arlene, and of course Mike Cooper/Coop for putting in 30 amp and letting us park in his driveway, whats better than that.  And, not to mention we get to bike or walk to work, hey I've driven 1 hour each way for years to the work 20 and believe me, its no picnic.
      To catch up on the last few days or week as it may lets see;;;;;;;;;; did a bunch of rides to Yellow Springs of course, but one day we rode to Springfield, some trail some streets. Another we wanted to find the Jamestown connector route so rode from Yellow Springs to Xenia then to where they were working on a tunnel under SR 35, turned back and found our way to the other side of the highway by roads then back on the trail to Jamestown where we found not much going on. Maybe once they get the tunnel finished and more people ride there things will pick up. Anyway that ended up being a 50 mile day.  The next day, wait, the memory is charging, Friday we came at Dayton from the West from Taylorsville Metro Park.  A nice ride but cool and the threat of rain. Saturday was reserved for the Cyclops Festival in YS and celebration and sales of all things local and hand made, and The Gathering of Wool at Young's Jersey Dairy, an all things wool, sheep, alpaca, llama, and what to make from these animals fur. There were rugs, rope, shawls, gloves, hats, sweaters, and demonstrations on how to do the various arts.  A very warm experience.  Today a ride to YS and back, and may I say on a perfect day, sunny and 72 degrees.  Hope the heat is over when we get home, I'm spoiled.  Seems like a long time ago we left in a hurry but at the same time it went too fast.  I know quit your damn crying!  WAAAAH!
      Most of all I'd like to thank Greg Emlinger for keeping the shop open a couple days a week so that we could do this and not go completely broke in the process.  Thankx Greg.