Summer 2013

It seems Blogspot has changed the way posts are generated

(or I forgot how it's done) so this post is in reverse

chronological order.  I suggest you scroll to the 

bottom and read up.  Either way it's all good.

2013 Has been a great summer for us.

However, the best part deserves it's own post.

Watch for our London / Ireland post.

 Julie made lots of new friends.

 And no summer is complete without Family Reunion.

 A tussock moth caterpillar.

 Friday of Reunion we rode the Simon Kenton Trail 

to Urbana.  On the way we found one of the old railroad

mileposts.  This one was covered in vines.

 Some time during the summer

Julie had a baby, one of many.  This is a giant

Leopard Moth.

 Mile 0 on the towpath, Georgetown MD.

From here we rode across K Street in DC 

to pick up a U-haul truck for the trip 

back to our car.

 This mud hole was our nemesis.

We almost had room to go around it but our bike

is so long that the back wheel trailed too close and 

slide into the puddle.  We crashed in the weeds.

Thankfully there wasn't poison ivy.

 Another improvement since our last visit.

This aqueduct was little more than a pile of rocks.

A small steel bridge bridged the creek.

Concerned supporters took on the task of rebuilding

the aqueduct.  They did a fantastic job.

 A typical view of the towpath.

 Saw several of these guys.

We rode the C&O twice in 2008. 

A vast improvement to the towpath was  the creation 

of this concrete path along the "slackwater" section.

Five years ago this didn't exist and we had to climb steep hills 

out of the valley and detour through farm land for a few miles.

Needless to say we were delighted.

 This is a family we met on the towpath.

They came all the way from Arizona to ride it.

A classic case of the tortoise and the hare. 

They rode faster than us but took more breaks too.

We kept leap-frogging until we chanced a mutual break.

 Saw lots of Zebra Swallowtail butterflies.

Tried to get pictures but they don't sit still for the camera

This is the only one that turned out well enough to post.

 Saw lots of turtles in the old canal.

 In May Julie and I traveled to Cumberland Maryland to ride the

The C&O Canal Towpath.  We spent the first day in Cumberland

to hang out and ride the Western Maryland Scenic Railway.

Laurie graduated from UC this spring.

So of course we had to celebrate. 

French Park turned out to be a perfect venue.