Return of the summer bike trip series

After an April we'd all like to forget weather-wise, I figure my readership could use a little pick-me-up that involves warmer temperatures on the horizon.
Well, here it goes: Back by popular demand is the summer bike trip series.
Over the next few months, I'll be doing occasional entries about destinations in the Mankato area that can be reached on two wheels and a set of pedals (and hopefully with minimal flat tires). Unlike typical training rides, these trips won't be about the speed that one can complete them in. Rather, they will about the appeal of their destinations and the adventure it takes to get there.
It seems like this got a lot of good responses from people last summer. Perhaps others share my cycling-crazed belief that life is simply more exciting on a bicycle.
Similar to last year, I will post a route map of each trip and write about the ease/challenge of the ride, the safety of the ride and the appeal of the destination. Also similar to last year, I will post any trips submitted to me by other riders. Just e-mail your suggestions, photos and maps to avoigt@mankatofreepress.com.
Here are a few guidelines if you're going to suggest a trip:

• The destination should be a place that has some appeal to it. Maybe it's a restaurant with good food. Or a state park with some cool hiking trails and viewpoints. Or perhaps it's a historical landmark with an intriguing story behind it. Whatever the case, it should be a place you want to stop and hang out at for awhile.
• Extending the previous guideline further, it should be a place that can be enjoyed by people beyond yourself. Your grandparents' house may be an enjoyable visit for you, but it means little to me (unless of course they're making cookies, then it's somewhat enjoyable).
• It has to be a destination that a person can bike to and make it back to Mankato in a day. The bike trips are meant to be more of a "fun stuff to do on your day off"-type activity. I enjoy visiting the North Shore area of Minnesota as much as the anyone, but unless you're Lance Armstrong, you're not biking there and back in a day.
• On the flip side, it also has to be a destination with some degree of difficulty to reach. Reasonable guideline: If it takes you less than 15 minutes to walk there, it's not a challenge.
• The route should be relatively safe for cyclists. Roads are pretty much unavoidable if you're going to bike to another town. However, there's a big differencTe between biking on a low-traffic country road with wide shoulders than bracing for the constant flow of cars on Highway 169.

Here's a recap of the bike trips I did last summer:

• Rapidam Dam Park
• Minneopa State Park (recent addition: The Minneopa Trail was not complete when this post was written. That would now be the easiest and safest route to the park)
• New Ulm (I used the entire city as one destination. In hindsight, one location would have been a better idea. If someone wants to suggest an individual destination in New Ulm, I would be OK with it)
• Trail Blazer Bar & Grill (recent addition: The ripped-up part of the Sakatah Trail that I mentioned in this point is now paved)
• Amboy Cottage Cafe
• Green Giant Statue Park
• Franke's (Kolacky) Bakery
• Seattle Space Needle (just kidding)

Fire and Ice

Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus).

Captured during his unannounced guest appearance at the Fire and Ice show¹.
Alabama Power's indiscriminate and ugly tree-removal policies have saddened me every time I drive this road.²

But when the sun warmed that questionably broad path, I was surprised at what popped up.

Wild hyacinths (Camassia scilloides). They dot the woods beyond the power lines, but this much sun exposure (and no late killing frost this year) caused a population explosion.
I doubt they'll last here long -- brush will dominate within a year or two, choking out anything this small.
But obviously, they can lie dormant, waiting for the day when they feel the sun again.
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¹Fire Pinks and Wild Hyacinths
²They don't practice quite so much dogwood-twisting tree torture in ritzy lawyer-heavy Birmingham suburbs, but out here in rural areas, I'm sure they figure no one of importance will mind.
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Friday Ark.

The Labyrinth of Lawn

I used this phrase a few days ago in a comment, and can’t stop thinking about it. The comment was at the Dirt Divas blog, and the subject was gardening as a solace in time of trouble. The Dirt Divas have a name similar to the group I belong to, Austin's Divas of the Dirt, but these divas live in Alaska.

So my thoughts concern mowing, but they're not about the current Lawn versus No Lawn discussions. It’s an interesting topic, but it’s not mine. I’ve been thinking about what happens to your mind when you’re engaged in something like mowing.
When I was a teenager, I occasionally pushed a mower for my parents, but my husband cut the grass once we bought a house, and my sons took over as time went on.

In the late nineteen-eighties, the garden grew more important, and we bought a mower that I could handle. I took over the lawn like a prairie version of May Dreams' blog photo, in denim skirts and a wide-brimmed hat.
One reason to mow: When you're mowing, your family is less likely to interrupt you with the usual demands. The dads mow in suburbia, so when a mom does it, it must be an important job. The sound isn't pleasant, but it becomes a white noise, blocking out the background. I couldn’t hear the airplanes on their way into O’Hare; I couldn’t hear the phone; I couldn’t hear car motors; I couldn’t hear any squabbling. I could think. Some of my best garden plans were developed as I went back and forth and around, mowing my yard, looking at everything from changing angles, noticing and evaluating and concentrating.
Another reason to mow: I knew what was out there and how close to get. I didn’t accidentally mow down struggling young lilies and hostas as weeds, because I was the one who planted them. I also saw things that were not ‘right’ as I passed - catching a shrub before it smothered another, or stopping a perennial before it completed a takeover move.
A possible reason to mow: A non-self-propelled mower means some load-bearing exercise. I use a mulching mower and overlap the lines, and don’t put grass in yard bags.
A sad reason to mow: In the months after my dad died, I could act normal most of the time, but once I started cutting the lawn, the tears wouldn't stop. Was it because mowing was something my father did, for as long as I could remember? Even in his last years, Dad would use his cane to steady himself as he climbed aboard the riding mower.

Or was it the action of mowing, the walking and the formation of patterns in the grass that released bottled-up feelings? In retrospect, now that I see labyrinths designed for walking appear everywhere, at retreat houses, on church grounds and in meditative gardens, this idea seems pretty likely.

Am I alone in feeling like this? Do you mow and think, or mow and plan, or mow and weep, or do you let someone else walk the Labyrinth of your Lawn?

Coming attractions

Many have risen...

... but few have budded.
(Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica.)

Shy ones have been spotted, but their lips are sealed.
(Trailing Trillium, Trillium decumbens.)

Mouthy little things, they'll soon be chewing the scenery everywhere you look.
(Toothwort, Cardamine sp.)

Tired of worn winter clothing, some are already sprouting new duds.
(Stoneseed, Lithospermum tuberosa.)

Still sleeping, but last year's faded poster marks the spot of exciting future installments.
(Foamflower, Tiarella cordifolia.)

Are You a Nut? It's OK

Gone Triking Again

We should have been packing for our upcoming trip, but that’s not what we were doing this morning.  After consecutive days of ‘this is how it must be inside a furnace’ temps that felt like 105F (41C) thanks to the humidex, we could not resist going out for another trike ride.  We needed to pick up my CamelBak hydration pack from the Phaeton, so we headed to Bull Run Regional Park to kill two birds with one stone :-)

After parking near the entrance, unfolding our bikes, and gearing up, we had a bit of fun on the deserted side road before heading off for a longer ride on the main road.

A 43-second video of us goofing around.

A nice breeze and plenty of shade made for perfect trike riding conditions.  The flapping of our colorful ‘we’re here; don’t run us over’ flags was the only sound to break the morning’s silence until we came upon two hawks calling to each other.  We watched them for a while from our trike seats, our quiet approach allowing us to get surprisingly close to the base of the tree where one was perched.  No photos; I’m afraid — too many branches in the way.

Except for the occasional car heading out from the campground towards town, traffic was nil.  The campers were still fast asleep, and we were the only ones out and about to enjoy the sun streaming through the trees, burning off the light fog.

There’s a small pond not far from the campground store.  At first, we planned to stop there to eat our breakfast bars, but there were too many gnat-like bugs.  Pedaling back towards whence we came, we found another spot instead.  Bugs there, too.  So, we just munched away at our breakfast while sitting in our trikes and quickly high-tailed it out of there.

All in all, I did somewhere around 4-5 miles (6.5-8 km) on this run.  Mui wanted to do a high-speed pedal on our second time around the park, so he got in more mileage today than I did.  By 9:30a, with the temps starting to reach into the 80F (27C) range, we were ready to call it quits.  Not only was there work to do at home, but it also didn’t make sense to over-tire our muscles and pay the piper later!  (So far, no aches or pains — that’s a good thing!)

A bit of biking humor to end this post :-)))

Alert, Alert!  the aliens abducted a triker at bull run.  Only her shoes were left behind :-)

(For those who are not bikers: these shoes snap onto the pedals so that we can pedal at speed without worrying about our feet slipping off.  They also make for a smoother, more comfortable pedaling experience.  With the shoes on our feet, we sit down and snap the shoes onto the pedals.  A slight twist of the ankle frees the foot from the pedal — shoe and all.)

Holiday Cheer: Garden Fest of Lights

It’s 10:00p and it’s about 40F (4.5C) outside.  After having spent several hours wandering around in cold temps, we’re now tucked in cozy and warm in Room 1812 at the Omni in Richmond, Virginia.  Why are we here?  Because we wanted to enjoy some holiday cheer at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden (LGBG); a change of pace from the usual Christmas light displays we’ve enjoyed in DC in the past.

National Christmas Tree  — Washington, dc ()

Lest you think we pulled the Phaeton out of storage for this outing … no, we didn’t.  With the coach all winterized, we have no intention of going anywhere in it until the temps warm up considerably.  But, Mui and I talked about our various blogs, and decided that with less than a year to retirement, we’d start posting our local adventures in Phaeton Journeys.  So, here I am.

What a splendid evening we had with thousands of lights glittering and shimmering all around us.

That said, the start to our adventure wasn’t so great.  We left DC around 2:45p and all was well at first.  The sky was blue; there were interesting cloud formations; the temperature was a “balmy” 57F (14C); and traffic was flowing.  Then we hit I-95 South and found ourselves in bumper-to-bumper traffic that was moving slower than molasses.  No, there wasn’t an accident; it was just the usual daily exodus from the city.  It seems rush hour starts earlier and earlier around here.  It took us over two hours to drive the 60 miles to Fredericksburg.  Ugh!  After that point, however, traffic picked up nicely, and with an average speed of 70 mph (112 kph), we traveled the remaining distance to Richmond in about an hour.

It was crowded at the LGBG; more so than I thought it would be.  In fact, the reason why we braved the Friday afternoon traffic was because we hoped there would be fewer visitors as compared to Saturday.  We were especially surprised at the number of children — school groups, it seemed like to us — that were roaming the grounds.  Most of the kids were well-behaved and seemed to be enjoying the colorful lights around them.  But each group had the requisite few who were “up-to-no-good” with their loud, pseudo-enthusiastic appreciation that the teachers seemed to have difficulty controlling.  Oh well; until we retire and can sightsee at our leisure during the week we just have to deal!

I’m going to share just a few of my photos here.  I was lazy and didn’t take my tripod.  I should have known better, but I was hoping the monopod would suffice.  It didn’t.  I ended up using an ISO setting higher than optimum and that introduced more “noise” than I like to see in my pictures.  I have no one to blame but myself, of course.  And yes, I’ve learned my lesson!

Fear not; for those who would like to see more of the festive lights, here’s a short video from Mui.  Ascribing to the “KISS theory” — keep it simple … you fill in the second “s” word of your choice — he took only the Canon S95 point and shoot still camera, leaving his video equipment at home.  He got really good footage with that little camera; handheld and in HD, no less.  Maybe I should just chuck all my SLR gear and just get one of these cameras myself!

We left the LGBG shortly after 9:00p.  Despite the cold temperature — it was down to 43F (6C) — we really enjoyed our three-hour stroll.  Of course, it helped that we were bundled up in the expedition parkas we received this summer when we went gallivanting in the Norwegian Arctic.  What would have made the garden fest better?  Music.  There were no carols being sung; nor was there any music broadcasted around the grounds.  Some Christmas audio cheer would have put the finishing touch on the festivities.

One last glimpse of holiday cheer — from the Conservatory towards the Visitor Center.

A short drive from the LGBG put us at the Omni Richmond Hotel for our one-night stay.  Whenever we find ourselves in need of a hotel room, we tend to use Priceline to bid for one.  It’s a great means for getting a really good room at a discounted price — provided you do your due diligence first.  We’ve not had a bad room yet!  And in every instance, we’ve gotten a hotel with a higher star-rating than what we bid on.  It was no different this time; for $85 we got the Omni, located in the heart of the historical district and just steps from the Virginia State Capitol!  Even better, when we reiterated our request for a quiet room, they upgraded us to the Club Floor at no additional charge.  Not a peep can be heard from outside, so we’re happy campers :-)

The hotel promises “southern hospitality.”  So far it’s delivering on that promise.

After checking in and dropping off our overnight bag in the room, we went back out to briefly enjoy the holiday cheer at the James Center, which is adjacent to the hotel.  The small outdoor plaza was a-twinkle with white lights and deer … and there was even some music to add to the festive atmosphere.

Not only is there holiday cheer on the grounds outside the Omni …

… there are Christmas decorations in the indoor plaza as well.

All in all, a very satisfactory outing and well worth the 120-mile (192 km) drive down from DC.  We have fluid plans for our return trip back north tomorrow … we’ll see what the day brings.