I forgot how much work it is to go on vacation before you go on vacation! We have not actually had a vacation for years and years. Sure, we took trips to visit family and maybe did a night away or even a weekend away, but we did not take a vacation where nobody worked for a whole week since we lived in Virginia.
We talked about this on our way over to Cocoa Beach and also talked about the differences in living a life where a vacation never even enters our mind and one where vacations are almost vital to help you step away from your daily life and renew your bonds together and your own inner self. We are looking forward to getting back to the lifestyle where vacations never even enter our minds since we by far prefer that, but for now we are grateful we can at least take vacations to give us something different and give us a way to get away and have fun together.
The really fun part of the vacation planning was that the ladies in my life joined in the fun and helped me plan, pack and even loaned me clothes and books for the cruise. How great are they!? ! Other friends graciously kept Ava for us so we did not have to send her to a kennel. Again, so great of them to do this for us so we did not have to worry about her. And I knew lots of people in the park would keep a close eye on Austin while we were gone and one of our friends kept an extra super close eye on him so we did not have to worry about him at all.
We headed out about noon today, turned right back around and came back to get my purse that I forgot. My purse with our boarding passes and passports that is! So glad I remembered two minutes away rather than two hours away. We made it to Cocoa Beach in great time, checked into our hotel and then did our first cruise related thing here. We went to the dive shop to buy snorkel gear.
I went to get my hair cut after that. (Donna, can you believe I finally got a hair cut!) It's been a year since I had one so it was overdue. The girl cut my bangs reaalllly short so I am now rethinking having a hair cut the day before a cruise. We had a nice dinner, spent time talking about all we wanted to do on the cruise and got to bed early since we were getting up early the next morning.
Last Saturday night, we had an informal get-together to discuss forming the vintage bicycle society I mentioned last week. There were four of us in total: somervillain, Cycler, Astroluc, and myself. I will take this opportunity to showcase my remarkably photogenic acquaintances and some of their bikes:
This is Cycler from Biking in Heels, with her recently acquired Raleigh DL-1. Cycler is an architect living in Cambridge and commuting to work downtown. The Co-Habitant is an avid reader of 
Cycler's DL-1 is an earlier model than mine, but in better cosmetic condition. I wish I had this earlier model - or at least the decals from it - because the lettering is more attractive than on mine. I also covet her cream-coloured handlebar grips. Cycler is pretty handy at DIY and even made the basket support for this bike herself. The wicker basket is attached with zip ties and seems stable; the headlight is mounted directly onto the basket and reminds me of a camera. Cycler is having an issue with her chaincase, whereby the one she ordered does not seem to fit her bike. Sadly, she discovered this only after stripping the chaincase of paint in order to have it re-powder coated. Not sure what she will do now, and this was a big topic of discussion.
I have already introduced you to somervillain, who has a beautiful collection of vintage bicycles that I am slowly working through photographing. He had things to say about Cycler's chaincase issue and many other DL-1 related things. The resident DL-1 Guru, he knows pretty much everything there is to know about these bicycles; I continue to be amazed.
And finally, I introduce 
We are still fleshing out our ideas about the club and it's moving along nicely. Next time we look forward to meeting several others who could not make it to this meeting, and hopefully the Co-Habitant will be able to join us as well. Just as soon as we settle on a name for the club, we will cobble together a website where our goings-on will be documented for the benefit of members and far-off readers. Stay tuned, and get in touch if you'd like to take part.
Thinking about the best way to give away the refurbished vintage touring bike "for women who fear roadbikes," I kept coming back to the connection between cycling and the Ride Report. If you've spent any time browsing blogs and websites about bicycles, you are no doubt familiar with the genre. While at its most basic level, a ride report is simply a description of a bicycle ride, it is really so much more. Some are infused with a seriousness and depth of analysis that is normally reserved for historical descriptions of war battles. Others are light-hearted and hilarious. Others still are impressively dull, filled with endless lists and technical descriptions. A Ride Report can resemble a travelogue, a parable, a newspaper article, or an entry in a physical fitness diary. A Ride Report can be self-aggrandising or self-depricating. A Ride Report can describe a 1,000 mile tour or a 1 mile trip to the grocery store with equal degrees of drama and suspense. At the heart of it, a Ride Report tells us less about the ride itself than about the cyclist - and the cyclist's relationship to their surroundings, their bicycle, and the very experience of riding a bike.
Give-Away Details
While I ride for transportation on the streets of Cambridge, Somerville, Boston and beyond on a (mostly) daily basis, it is of course physically impossible to photograph myself doing so. But recently the Co-Habitant was with me, and he surprised me by taking some snapshots with his mobile phone. I wanted to share these, because they happen to be of my favourite cycling route.
We cannot always articulate what we like or don't like about cycling in our city. But taking our favourite route as a starting point and examining what is so great about it, can lead us to discover our preferences - as well as our anxieties - when it comes to transportation cycling.
The pictures here document a busy street around the corner from my home that stretches through several neighborhoods along the border of Somerville and Cambridge, winds into MIT territory, and then proceeds directly over the Longfellow Bridgeacross the Charles River, into the center of Boston. It is not a traffic-calmed side-street, but a crowded major road, and it is not especially attractive. And yet, it is my favourite cycling route in the area. It goes on forever, gives me easy access to Boston, and does not make me deal with ambiguous traffic situations.
When cycling in the city, I think it is ambiguity that causes me the most anxiety: left turns from side streets onto busy roads; bicycle lanes that suddenly end; commuter trails that force the cyclist to cross busy intersections without streetlights; roundabouts and stop signs where questions arise about the right of way and I never know whether the car is really letting me go... I could go on. But on this route, none of those things happen. I am basically cycling down an endless avenue, andas long as I abide by street lights, the road will take me where I need to go. This not only eliminates ambiguities, but appeals to my love of the "endless open road." I like knowing that I can get on this road around the corner from my house and end up in downtown Boston, stress-free.
You have probably noticed that this route has a bike lane most of the way. But that is not what I like about it - at least not the lane alone. Unlike most streets with bike lanes in my area, thisone is consistent and logical. At no point does it suddenly end in a dangerous spot, and at no point does it place you in the door zone of parked cars. It even takes you through a curve in the road with a left-turn lane specifically for bikes. The bike lane here functions as a bike lane should in my view - a suggestive marking, similar to a bus lane, that signifies a space on the road where bicycles have priority over motor vehicles. It goes without saying that you must still be vigilant of things like occasional double-parked vehicles, and vehicles making right turns at intersections. But overall, the lane - and specifically its consistency - has the effect of legitimising the presence of bicycle traffic. There are quite a few bicycles passing through, and it is just another lane of traffic. Normal. I do not always feel this way about bike lanes, but on this particular route it seems to me that they really do have this positive effect.
When a cycling route feels comfortable and convenient... well, that is pretty much how it ought to be. Cycling for transportation in the city should not feel as if you are going into battle every day; it should feel like the city you live in is open and accessible to you. This is my favourite route, because it does just that.
The house that Grandma (Hazlette Brubaker Phend Dunn) had built in 1950.
Building Supplies and Plumbing.
Plaster and Electricity.
Flooring and Cost of House ($5,250.86)
1951 – Me and my brothers.
1955 – Grandma with her grandchildren. That's me, reaching toward my sister, probably to pull her thumb out of her mouth!
The show went well, and was the same neat things as the other times I've been here.
At some point, it became very interesting to me though because I saw something different. When Aric and I were here, they told us that they were bringing out a new stallion. They weren't sure how he'd do. He did great. Today was his second time. He's the middle horse in this group and you can see the look on his face that tells us he is feeling feisty already:
This is where he lets us know he is going to implement that plan:
And this is where he does it:
This is where that plan gets nipped in the bud:
And this is where he pouts about it. He wasn't happy about being reigned back in. He wanted to show us his stuff. He didn't want to simply perform the show that mere humans came up with. They stopped the show to explain what the deal was. They explained that it was his second time out with the big boys. They said he was the teenager in the bunch. That explains this expression:
I had no idea horses could make that face. I'm on teenager number five. I recognize this face all too well!
It's not all that amusing when my teens give me that look, but I have to tell you that it was hysterical when he did it. I feel for his mother is all I have to say. I have loved every trip to this wonderful place, but this was the best by far.
In the newspapers, NPS officials predict road openings as late as Christmas, but cautiously hope it will happen sooner. At this time, it's difficult to tell just how long it will take to get things ready. Another complication is the ongoing Paradise construction project. The contractors had planned to work continuously this Fall and this isn't helping. In the meantime, I'm cheering for the road, electric and water treatment crews who are hustling to get things reopened.
Here are a few extra images that I didn't weave into the blog earlier. To the left is the only road into the Kautz Helibase. This one may not be so easy to repair, because some of the creeks have changed their course and now flow down road corridors. 
As for creeks that change their courses, the main one of concern so far is Kautz Creek. It jumped its main channel about a mile above the road, and now runs through the forest as seen in this aerial photo. Note the dry creek bed where it once flowed. You can also see the younger forest as compared to the older growth.
Walking into an outdoor clothing and gear retailer today, we invariably see an expanse of merchandise that is stylised to portray outdoor pursuits as highly technical activities. Fabrics of unnatural textures emitting an otherworldly sheen, colour schemes that don't exist in nature, motifs based on jarring geometric forms, aggressive logo placements - the overall feel is decidedly inorganic. And perhaps that is the key to why I find the aesthetics of today's outdoor industry so disturbing: How can clothing and gear designed for an intimate relationship with our natural surroundings be made in a way that is so at odds with them?