Death Valley :: Mesquite Sand Dunes

Located in central Death Valley near Stovepipe Wells, the Mesquite Sand Dunes are surrounded on all sides by mountains, they are essentially captive within a 14 square mile valley. The highest dune rises to a height of about 100 feet. The wind and shifting sands alters the scene daily. These photographs were taken over several days at different times of the day.


For perspective, there are people walking on the dune on the right side of this photo.

Florida Critters and One of My Children Are Really Great!

One thing that is neat about traveling cross country is you get to experience the locals as in the people, and you get to experience the locals as in the animals that live there too.



I know I might be biased but I still think some of the Florida critters are the coolest of all. Really, it's just not everywhere that you can go outside and see this:



When I first moved to Florida, I would be so disturbed by these interesting critters. We had one that liked to hang out in a tree behind our house. And then he'd fall to the ground randomly. With a very loud THUD! Too much drinking is the conclusion I came to. In time I went from that is one freaky dude to that is one freaky but cool dude and made peace with the fact he might fall on me and give me a heart attack. I mean, we did invade their space after all.



The main reason I wanted to talk about these divine creatures though is that yesterday I took a lazy day which is like a sick day but I do it on my day off instead of a work day. A lazy day for me means one of two things. I spend the whole day editing pictures or I spend the whole day doing digital scrapbooking. Ok, make that three things because yesterday I did both.



I spent so long editing pictures, I had time to go back and look at old pictures to edit. Really old. As in, 2004 pictures. These gems were in a folder labeled "Kids Pics" which means one of my children took these beauties. Somehow in the course of attending to five children's needs daily, I neglected to realize at least one of them has some skills in this area. So I am sharing these pictures, but have no idea which one of them I am bragging on.



To those of you that have less than five kids that are horrified by my admission, that's ok. I am used to horrifying parents of one or two or even three children on a regular basis. It's my paybacks for telling my Mother who had seven that I'd never have a lot of kids like she did!



Back to the pictures and figuring out who did in fact take these shots. (Because this is what Moms of five do when four have left home and they have a few minutes to ponder such things!) These were taken at Miami Seaquarium which means it would not have been Ashleigh or Ambir because they were teens then and far too cool to do family fun days. Auburn might have taken them because she is our animal lover. Aric and Austin might have taken them because they are guys and these are about as cool as things go when it comes to guys. That is as good as my guessing gets.



So if any of you three remember taking these pictures, please let Mom know so I can properly give you credit!



In the meantime, I am going to be glad that these particular Florida critters have never made it inside where we live. I do have some boundaries left still.

Provincetown Cycle Yum

I have received a couple of messages asking to recommend "cyclist-friendly" places to eat in Provincetown. This is a tricky one - First, because everyone's taste in this sort of thing is different. And second, because there is really no divide in Provincetown between regular places and "cyclist-friendly": Most restaurants and cafes have racks either right out front, or else the nearest one is half a block down the street. Having said this, here are some of our favourite places:

Spiritus: This magnificent establishment serves pizza, coffee and ice-cream, offers free wireless internet, has cozy indoor seating and an outside garden, and is open until 2:00am year round. Their pizza is some of the best I have ever had, especially the Greek (spinach, olives and fetta on an ultra-thin wheat crust). Heavenly and a great all-around hangout.

The Squealing Pig: Best raw oysters we have had on the Cape so far, and in a non-touristy atmosphere at that. In addition: a fine selection of unusual beers and local wines on tap, and very fresh, delicious food including fishburgers, and french fries that are "hand cut daily". There are always lots of locals eating at this place, and we like the atmosphere better than the seafood places that cater to tourists, such as The Lobster Pot or Betsey's. If you are looking for a higher-end dining experience though, try the delicate and creative menu at The Mews.

The Purple Feather: Very yummy gelato and the best hot chocolate ever, made to order to your specifications. You will recognise this place by the stuffed bear standing at the door, wearing a blond wig and purple lingerie. This is the best place if you want to get an ice cream or hot chocolate to walk around the streets with. For the best indoor atmosphere though, I prefer the dim coziness of the Art House Cafe.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Provincetown is the most bicycle-friendly town I have experienced in the U.S. The infrastructure accommodates cyclists and plenty of bicycle parking is available if you want to stop and eat in town.

Wild green apples and cultured red apples

While at Marienwaerdt I wanted to show MadamE the place. I was planning on taking a walk to the klooster (monastery) and the river banks however we did not have enough time on our hands. So instead we went by car.

We actually drove outside of the property. We drove on a narrow winding dike that protects the property from the rising rivers. The dike road was lined up with wild green apples. Being city girls, we were so amazed at the rows and rows of green apple bearing trees.

Further ahead as we reached the nearby village we saw fences of cultured red apples clinging to a stake. Apples seems to be a popular fruit in Geldermalsen area.

Next time when we or I have time I will go to a fruit farm and help pluck the fruits.

Visit Period: September

Dynamo Lighting Kit for Roadbikes

While I am generally a huge fan of dynamo lighting, I do not have it installed on what is currently my only roadbike. My plans for the bike did not involve significant amounts of night-time cycling; it was not meant to be a touring or randonneuring bike. For occasional riding in the dark I do have an excellent rechargeable battery headlight that lasts for hours and attaches easily to the handlebars. And I have an equally good tail light that attaches to the back of my saddle wedge tool bag. To install a dynamo hub wheel and lights on this bike would have added unnecessary weight and expense to the build.




I felt pretty good about my bike's lighting setup until I found myself wanting to join an overnight ride. Initially I thought that my super duper rechargeable battery headlight would last through the night. But when I did the math it became clear that it would not; I would need to add a second headlight and to bring several sets of spare batteries. Even at the height of summer an overnight ride in New England means 8+ hours of riding in the dark - and not the kind of milky suburban dark where you can leave the light on a low setting to conserve battery life; proper boonies dark that requires a powerful headbeam. I talked to the others doing the ride, and they all had dynamo lights. Now I felt foolish for not having a bike with appropriate lighting. But at the same time, how often would I do rides like this?






I was discussing this with local cyclist Pamela Blalock and she offered to lend me her mobile dynamo setup: a spare front wheel with a dynamo hub, and lights that are easy to attach and remove. With this kit, she can turn any 700C wheeled roadbike into an overnight bike. Extremely grateful to Pamela for the offer, frankly I was also skeptical that it would work out. To me, dynamo lighting was something that gets permanently installed - not attached and removed on a case by case basis! Furthermore, my bike has no fenders, no racks, no braze-ons. Could the lights be attached securely? I was worried that the installation process would be tricky, and that in the end something would end up falling off, disconnecting, or malfunctioning.




To my amazement, the installation process took mere minutes. The front wheel switch was seamless and soon my bike was sporting a dynamo hub. Then the headlight was attached to the brake bolt, as shown in the first picture. A thin cable runs straight down from the headlight to the hub, easily secured to the fork with a piece of tape.






For the tail light, a P-clamp was installed on the left chainstay. The wiring got routed along the chainstay and the top tube, secured with zip ties to the brake cable. The result was not beautiful, but neither was it flimsy. It was secure and problem-free. The positioning of the headlight and tail light beams were spot on.




Later I learned that other local cyclists employ a similar system for when they ride in the dark - a dynamo hub wheel and lights that get moved from bike to bike as needed. I would not have thought this to be a good idea until I tried it myself and experienced how easy and hassle-free it was. On a dedicated randonneuring or touring bike, it makes sense to have dynamo lighting permanently installed in a more elegant manner. But for those who want the option of using their pared-down roadbike for occasional night time riding, a kit like this can be a good solution. Pamela's setup includes a 32 spoke Velocity Aerohead wheel built around a Schmidt SON hub, a Lumotec Cyo IQ headlight and a Spanniga Pixeo tail light - though many alternatives exist.




At least here in New England, there seems to be an increasing amount of cross-over between road racing, randonneuring, endurance events, and casual long distance rides. And this cross-over is influencing how roadbikes are defined and equipped.I am still unsure what kind of cycling I will ultimately gravitate toward. But if more night time rides are in my future, a versatile dynamo setup like this is certainly worth considering.

Pickleball and Line Dancing

It is very rare for us to not do quite a bit of sight seeing, but this past few weeks it has been so cold we have not even wanted to do that. I am beginning to get a bit stir crazy from it but there has been a nice upside. It has given me more time to spend getting to know our fellow pickle ball players. I have really enjoyed that!



After pickleball, I came back to the RV just long enough to take a shower and start some laundry. Then it was back to Torrey Oaks for line dancing. This was my first try at line dancing and I had a blast. It was much more fun than I even expected it to be. It was really nice to have time with other women. I have really missed having another female around since Auburn has moved out, so it is nice for me when I can hang out with other women. Donna, Sherry, Tracy and her daughter and I went. Faye and Sally were already there since they are at Torrey Oakes and there were other Torey Oakes members there.



Thank you, Donna, for sending me your pictures! I did not take any at either event, so I'd have been pictureless without you.





Living the life in way too cold Florida!

What We've Been Up To

With hundreds of weekly activities available here at The Villages, the hardest part of being here is picking and choosing just what to do each week. Last year while visiting, Donna introduced me to Bunco. We have continued playing that together this year. We have played at Mulberry, Seabreeze and Bacall and Donna has played at Churchill.



We are tackling line dancing, which comes very easily to Donna due to her professional dance background. Even though I am limping along compared to her, I am really loving it. Donna snapped this picture the other morning as we were heading out. We started at 8 am that morning and danced until almost 11 am.



I have finally moved from the bench to the court with pickleball and my muscles are feeling the effects of that. It is so dreadful hot and the level of play is so much higher here, so between the two-it is exhausting to play each day. It is great fun though and I hope that it will improve my game quite a bit. I can see a huge difference in Nathan's game and his weight already so hoping the same happens with me.



We have enjoyed playing Mexican Train several times, which allows us some "down time" from time to time and is a nice filler in between other activities. And all of that is just the daytime fun. At night it is more Bunco, Pickleball and of course-going out to eat. I am sharing two more of Donna's pictures from some of our eating out trips together.







We are really loving our time here so much! It was a good decision to spend the summer here!