Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[DiggyGun]

Update on the warm and dry weather in the UK.

We are now in a drought condition as a Water utility company, Southern Water has imposed a hosepipe ban.

This means that the other will follow shortly and declare an official drought.

 

[Djangodog]

Another day of riding in a Maxfield Parrish painting.

Cornish NH. The sky threatened, but no rain today and decent temperatures. I do love New England.

 

[kahn]

@Djangodog

"Maxfield Parrish painting."

You aptly describe your scenery.

Now for some slightly different scenery that we have discussed. Fire Lookouts in Washington State. The article has some great pictures and history. Can you imagine, there were over 600 at one time and down to less than 100

93 fire lookout towers remain in WA. Here’s what it’s like working and living in one

Jim Henterly, in his seventh consecutive fire season in the Desolation Peak lookout in North Cascades National Park, takes us inside his life as a fire watchman.

www.seattletimes.com

 

[fooferdoggie]

Columbia river

 

[DaveMatthews]

Has anyone ever considered these contraptions, as long as its pedal assist, an electric bicycle can be anything.
They really are quite nifty and you could imagine a world where they are the norm.

That Veemo is made just down the road from me here in Vancouver. $13,000 CAD Bosch, with belt drive, CVT, and throttle.

Veemo

Semi-Enclosed Electric Bike Designed for Personal Use and Sharing

veemo.ca

 

[Cowlitz]

Kettle Corn is popcorn with a delicious sugary sweet coating on it. It's very good when cooked well. Some places seem to burn it. You can buy microwave kettle corn but it isn't as good as the festival made stuff. We have a local movie theater that survived Covid by selling different concoctions of popcorn. Their Kettle Corn is excellent and I mustn't buy it because I eat it all up quickly.

A corn dog is a hot dog/wiener/frankfurter on a stick that is dipped in a corn bread like batter and then deep fried. It is also a delicious festival food. It also can be found frozen and ready to cook, but it isn't the same. You can put mustard or ketchup or??? on your corndog.

I went for a ride this morning until it got too hot. I managed 20 miles until I was sick of the heat. I've been meaning to get this lovely display on here but always seemed to forget and ride by it. Looks like it is even illuminated at night with solar lights.

We have a bit of haze. Beautiful British Columbia has a forest fire going and the smoke is drifting this way a bit. Locally, even with the hot temps here, the indicators show we have no large fires burning in our area. Cross fingers and toes...
When these structures disappear from their storage area, I know things are bad.

 

[Cowlitz]

The drought and heat situation is only going to get worse, so my advice is to find a piece of land on the green side of the Cascades and put one of these on it: https://modernprefabs.com/prefab-homes/greenpod-development/

Just saw this.

The Green side is pretty darn expensive right now. Heck, even here would be too expensive if I hadn't already purchased a house. Even----Aberdeen/Hoquiam is spendy, even in places prone to flooding. Believe me, I've been looking. There is a place in Wisconsin, but that is so far away, and the thing that must not be mentioned is not good right now.

Unless housing prices crash, I guess I will hug my AC.

Those houses look cute but I imagine they are costly.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Kettle Corn is popcorn with a delicious sugary sweet coating on it.

Talking to a diabetic, aye? The whole corn thing is such an American thing...

@Djangodog: I'm positively jealous about the kind of gravel roads you have got there!

 

[Mulezen]

The whole corn thing is a ‘Meso-America’ Invention. Charles Mann in his excellent book 1491 spends quite a few pages describing how the genetic engineering required in domesticating Maize/corn (10k years ago) was on par with building the Pyramids…only harder.
All this said I don’t eat corn except the popped version. Much of corn goes to animal feed and fuel which is sad for the planet.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

There's nothing wrong with any food as long a person is used to it. I would personally not insist anyone ate Eisbein or "golonka" (the Polish variety). Once, I met an English speaking French on a train. He complained he felt sick after eating golonka. I sympathetically asked him what he drank for the meal. "Wine" he said. "Wrong!" my answer was "You should have either drunk beer or vodka for the meal!" Or, the Norwegian "lutefisk", or the dried fish processed with alkali. I was recommended to finish the meal with a small glass of Schnaps. It was a good advice! I think the (apparently tasteless) fish creates some soap in your stomach, and it is better to quench that with strong alcohol!

 

[ChezCheese:)]

Just saw this.

The Green side is pretty darn expensive right now. Heck, even here would be too expensive if I hadn't already purchased a house. Even----Aberdeen/Hoquiam is spendy, even in places prone to flooding. Believe me, I've been looking. There is a place in Wisconsin, but that is so far away, and the thing that must not be mentioned is not good right now.

Unless housing prices crash, I guess I will hug my AC.

Those houses look cute but I imagine they are costly.

Actually they're not expensive. They're not big, but they're not expensive. Check out the prices on each model. Land is not that expensive. I just looked on craigslist and you can find land for $95k to $250k, here in Kitsap and Jefferson counties. And that can be for a small lot or even 5 acres, because, depending on zoning, if it is zoned as "one residence in 5 acres", anything up to 5 acres is still just a buildable lot. (So even if you get 5 times the acreage, it doesn't cost you 5 times the price of a one acre parcel, see?)

Also Mason Co & the Hood Canal. Internet can be iffy on the other side of the canal though. But seriously, drought is only going to get worse. Come on back to the forested side of the state!

 

[Cowlitz]

I am spoiled when it comes to corn. My mom always planted a good sized garden and always grew sweet corn. There is a big difference between sweet corn and feed corn (for animals). The sweet corn must be cooked within a couple hours of being picked for the best taste. The longer corn is picked, the more the sugar converts to starch and the taste really is affected. I have a small patch that has to be watered frequently in this 100+ degree heat. It is just starting to "tassel" and this year I will try to pimp my corn instead of relying on the wind to scatter the pollen. My neighbor says that she calls going out and shaking pollinating corn, pimping it.

I have been unsuccessful in growing corn here. I know how, but I think the aspect and sunlight might be the problem. I've been working on improving the soil, which is sand and have a mulch down because of the heat. That's how much I love to eat fresh corn on the cob.

The corn patch does look better than past attempts here. I have my fingers crossed.

Wow. After this morning's ride, I have been sucking down water worse than the corn patch.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I am spoiled when it comes to corn. My mom always planted a good sized garden and always grew sweet corn. There is a big difference between sweet corn and feed corn (for animals). The sweet corn must be cooked within a couple hours of being picked for the best taste. The longer corn is picked, the more the sugar converts to starch and the taste really is affected.

Nothing beat fresh corn and ditto on eating it shortly after it’s picked.



We planted a variety called Northern Extra Sweet and it grew so well last year we planted it again this spring in our community garden plots. It’s grown even taller this season and we are also crossing our fingers for another bumper harvest. Sounds like you could be well on your way to one too.

 

[BlackHand]

Nothing beat fresh corn and ditto on eating it shortly after it’s picked.

View attachment 130821View attachment 130822

We planted a variety called Northern Extra Sweet and it grew so well last year we planted it again this spring in our community garden plots. It’s grown even taller this season and we are also crossing our fingers for another bumper harvest. Sounds like you could be well on your way to one too.

I'm headed back east at the end of the week and I fully anticipate buying some fresh Silver Queen off the back of an Amish buggy parked at a seemingly random intersection.

My dad and his brother make a pastime of working out which intersection and which buggy or pickup bed to go to to get the best corn on a given day.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Just on a utility ride (Vado SL). I have found an excellent shopping centre by name of Nowa Stacja (New Station) in Pruszków that is just 5.9 km away! Improbable. I could buy/manage everything i needed, had a walk-in visit to a haidresser, and even found an unexpected extra...

No need to go to England anymore!

 

[RabH]

After 4 days resting my legs it was time to get back out for a recovery ride, I was around 2 miles into my ride when I spotted all the lights flashing on my Wahoo...I forgot to start it oops! I don't recall ever doing this before but onwards and upwards, yes I said upwards...4000ft of climbing on a recovery ride isn't recommended! What can I say, I just got carried away and decided to explore some new roads! I found some gems and will revisit them again soon, I love trying out new roads I find in the opposite direction at a later date! I will have some big climbs and some lovely descents to look forward to!

When I set off I decided to see what progress they were making on a new cycle path they are constructing close to home, they still have quite a bit to build but some parts are now open and looking pretty good!

I have been neglecting some of my favourite local roads recently so I put that right today, this road is so much fun in both directions! It takes you from the village of Blackridge to the village of Avonbridge and is single track most of the way, its great fun when you meet a huge tractor on one of the many inclines! I got lucky today

I was now heading for Beecraigs Country Park near Linlithgow where I was intending to try a road they recently resurfaced! This is part way up the climb to the country park!

The top of the climb looking over to the Ochil hills!

I reached my destination and discovered they had finished the resurfacing job but they decided to cover it in surface dressing... So I continued on to the next road which takes you down into Linlithgow and I rememebered about a route I descended fairly recently so it was time to climb it, it passes over the canal and there were quite a few canal boats parked today!

The road I was taking leads back to the road at the country park, I stopped part way up to grab another few photos and noticed the Forth Bridges in the distance!

Back at the country park I turned off down one of the many side roads, with big descents and big climbs all around! As I was climbing the steepest part I spotted my Wahoo showing a gradient of 19.8% but once again Ridewithgps was showing my maximum gradient as 13.8%

I finally reached a road junction where I had the option to turn left or right, the last time I turned right so I thought it would be fun to try the left turn and see what the roads would be like going this way! I wasn't disappointed, some lovely descents with loads of twists and turns ensued and I came across this field full of horses! I don't think I have ever seen so many in one field before, it would be quite a job looking after all those!

Eventually I was back on a familiar road, at the village of Dechmont! I knew this road would have lots of trucks and buses on it so I took to the cycle path which goes all the way to Bathgate and I only encountered 2 walkers and one cyclist on the near 3 mile stretch! That was quite a result as I was expecting many dog walkers, it sure was my lucky day! I was about 15 miles from home now and decided I would just stick to familiar roads and crank the assist up into the 15-20mph headwind!

After last weeks epic this seemed like a short trip around the block, although I was glad I took 2 batteries and was able to turn the assist up all the way home as my legs were starting to feel it after all the climbing...yet another great ride though!

 

[RandallS]

Nothing beat fresh corn and ditto on eating it shortly after it’s picked.

View attachment 130821View attachment 130822

We planted a variety called Northern Extra Sweet and it grew so well last year we planted it again this spring in our community garden plots. It’s grown even taller this season and we are also crossing our fingers for another bumper harvest. Sounds like you could be well on your way to one too.

Back in the 80's, I was living up in Peace River (about 800 kms NW of here.
The corn up there was amazing - and I suspect the varietal was that (or very similar). There was an area about an hour south called Dunvegan and this time of year farmers would have roadside stalls and we'd buy a sack and have a big party with the Rugby Club whenever we had home games. The Edmonton teams loved it.

In my opinion the best prep for sweet corn is on the grill - directly on the grates. We through the cobs in a ziplock with some olive oil, chili pwder and a squeeze of lime for about an hour before grilling. Get the kernals slightly browned for the best flavour. Yum!

 

[RandallS]

@RabH Love your "more reasonable" ride!

 

[Djangodog]

There are many ways to experience the less beaten paths in Vermont. I asked before taking their pictures. Very nice ladies.

Getting warm, but a beautiful summer morning.

 

[Prairie Dog]

In my opinion the best prep for sweet corn is on the grill - directly on the grates. We through the cobs in a ziplock with some olive oil, chili pwder and a squeeze of lime for about an hour before grilling. Get the kernals slightly browned for the best flavour. Yum!

Pairs well with curried potato salad too.