Author Topic: RIDES 2018 — add yours here  (Read 65298 times)

Andre Jute

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #150 on: June 18, 2018, 02:41:44 am »
Now that I look at the larger context of your maps again, Jim, I realize I must have gone up the nearby road, west of your cycle path, parallel to the lake, a long, long time ago; we tested the top speed of the first pony cars on the salt, and on an off day went to listen to a choir, and in those days of paper maps had a brain flash: we'll drive around the lake. We didn't manage that of course because the model reading the map thought contour lines were roads, but we met some interesting people in the places we got lost before hunger drove us to give up and turn around in search of a restaurant.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2018, 03:53:59 am by Andre Jute »

JimK

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #151 on: June 18, 2018, 11:51:35 pm »
ha, when we were first planning to move out here, my wife was talking about driving around the lake. I think by now she realizes the impracticality of that idea! I must say though, Andre - your curriculum vitae is endlessly amazing!

A couple of my local cycling friends got out into that country - something in the direction of a Danneaux-scale expedition! Starts on page 3: http://www.cyclingutah.com/march/Cycling-West-March-2017-Issue.pdf

Mike Ayling

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #152 on: June 19, 2018, 01:01:49 am »
We recently spent two weeks riding along Australia's Murray River.

https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/australia/

Mike

David Simpson

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #153 on: June 19, 2018, 04:31:01 am »
We recently spent two weeks riding along Australia's Murray River.

https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/australia/

Mike

Nice photos, Mike. I enjoyed reading about your trip.

I like how Mary referred to the Thorn Mercury as a "half bike". (Context: Mike and Mary did the tour on a tandem.)

- DaveS

Swislon

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #154 on: June 23, 2018, 11:16:46 am »
We are exploring our new home in Dorset.
The bikes have been in storage for 4 months but now we are out and about again.
Photo is in Portland Dorset. The weather speaks for itself!
Steve

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #155 on: June 23, 2018, 10:56:33 pm »
Notes and photos from a couple of days of easy rides in a quiet corner of Ontario

Last week Marcia and I spent a few days in Prince Edward County, a peninsula in the northeast corner of Lake Ontario.  We loaded our bikes onto/into our Subaru wagon, and with friends, rented an old farmhouse on a winery.  Our visit was mostly about food, talk and drink, with breaks for some gentle cycling—nothing approaching Mike and Mary’s grand safari along the Murray, for example, or Julien’s journey through Ireland, Wales, and Wessex.  I’ve written about “the County” before, so what follows may seem familiar for some.
 
The County was one of the first parts of Ontario to be settled by Europeans—farmers who were Quakers of Dutch and German descent from Pennsylvania in the mid-18th century.  They were followed by refugees from the Significant Unpleasantness Next Door between 1776 and 1783.  (Some of those refugees were Mohawks, but they didn’t get the better land—their descendants live further north on more marginal terrain on the mainland.)  The County is fertile and well watered, and by the late 19th century, sustained a fairly prosperous agricultural economy.  Fine old brick farmhouses from that era dot the landscape—photos 1 and 3 below are good examples.  Nowadays, grapes have replaced the fruit and vegetables which were the primary crops a generation or more ago.  The functions of older buildings have changed as well: the grand farmhouse in photo #3 houses a distillery, while the outbuildings in #2 are in disrepair.

Irises graced the garden of the distillery we visited (Photo #4), a family-owned affair nicely named “Kinsip”.  I was always a sucker for any establishment making a pun in its title, and this one offers high-grade spirits, too.  I nearly laid out far too much money for a Crimson Rye (the crimson hue from barrels which had held a local pinot noir, if you please), but chose instead a smaller brandy and a ditto rye with a hint of maple.  In photo #5, Osi the Raven is restin’ his burden against a big old maple, while I photographed the super paint job in #6.  (I was always a sucker for red-and-cream with silver accents.)

There are still standard-issue functioning farms, as well.  Photo #7 shows an emerging crop (of beans, I think) in an impeccably groomed field, all in a flood of thundery light at sunset.  In the pasture a little further along the road, the lovely bay in #8 allowed me to take her picture.  Photo #9 is two of your basic summer farm colours, a field of bright yellow canola beneath a fine blue sky, with the accents of an aluminum barn roof and a wee bit of lake of a deeper blue.

The last word goes to the stylized rooster in #10.  Barns all over the County show murals of quilt patterns.  I liked this image of an audacious fellow—you might even say he was cocky.  (Unless you thought for more than half a second before saying that…)

(Photos are spread over this post and the two following.)
« Last Edit: July 05, 2018, 02:16:35 pm by John Saxby »

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #156 on: June 23, 2018, 10:58:11 pm »
Four more photos from the County...

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #157 on: June 23, 2018, 10:58:48 pm »
...and the last two.

in4

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #158 on: June 23, 2018, 11:10:46 pm »
Lovely photos. Very evocative of The Bridges of Madison County  to me.
How much would a prospective  owner have to shell out for that gorgeous farmhouse? Henry, my Nomad would love it there. :)
Thanks for sharing John.

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #159 on: June 23, 2018, 11:19:44 pm »
Thanks for your kind words, Ian--glad you liked the pix :)

The price of housing in the County has gone up rapidly and a long way in recent years--so much so that local people with jobs that give a modest salary have trouble finding affordable housing.  As the wine industry has grown, the area has been "discovered", and is well on its way to becoming A Destination.  Many well-off retirees from larger centres such as Toronto and Ottawa are moving to the County.  That farmhouse might well fetch Cdn$500,000 or even more, because (from the outside at least) it seems to be in very good condition. I don't know how much land would go with it.  It's on a very quiet side road, but it's not near any water.  Half a million is a lot of money, but on the other hand it'll never be as cheap as it is now...

Andre Jute

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #160 on: June 24, 2018, 02:42:25 am »
And the contrasting regular corrugated and rustic wood stripy backgrounds of that "quilted rooster" absolutely makes the photo. Well caught, John. The varied detail of the interested eye and ear in the written report of the ride doesn't escape me, but we've mentioned it before; you must've been a very good teacher.

When we first started these annual "Rides" threads, they were in the hope of giving less adventurous -- for whatever reason -- members insights from around the world, and inspiration for those with the legs and the lungs and the will. I must say, just looking up this current page here, we have reports of rides, long and short, from Jim in Utah, Mike in Australia (in countryside I know actually, from when I lived in Melbourne and Adelaide), Swission in Dorset and John in Canada, and more from other members on the many other pages, and this is only halfway through the year; you can't help but consider that a grand world tour, and there is so much more on the earlier pages.

No tourist agency can match this thread! All kudos to the posters, and much gratitude for sharing.

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #161 on: June 24, 2018, 02:47:48 am »
Thanks as always for your kind words, Andre -- but also, thanks for starting this annual thread, and thus creating a space for all of us.

Sometimes, Grand Things can be found in little adventures  :)

Cheers,  John

geocycle

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #162 on: July 16, 2018, 05:23:23 pm »
Finally, got some decent touring in this year!  Did a nice C2C from North Lancashire, across Yorkshire, over the Humber Bridge, through Lincolnshire, around the Norfolk coast to Suffolk.  Lots of flat lands which was a novelty and all very English...

 

John Saxby

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #163 on: July 16, 2018, 05:31:14 pm »
Nice ride, geo -- love the thatch on the Queen's Head!  Awash in sunshine too--you're sure it was England?  ;)

geocycle

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Re: RIDES 2018 — add yours here
« Reply #164 on: July 16, 2018, 07:23:25 pm »
Yes, we’ve had a fantastic summer so far. Today is only about the third wet day since early may. I was actually grateful for a headwind to keep me cool! This was a very different area of England to that I’m used to but despite the slightly cliched thatch, it was very interesting as well. Some great bird reserves, history and fabulous food.