Thursday, October 10, 2019

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Active Blog Moving.... michaelkapsner.com

Well folks, I wondered for some time about the pro/con of hosted vs this Google product - bit the bullet and stood up a domain... so all the new stuff will be here

michaelkapsner.com

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Friday August 10

Good morning!  Yawn, stretch!  Open your eyes, time for some coffee ;-). Look out the window, oh oh pretty dark.  Check the weather; looks like we are going to be getting wet.

Well, it's early, probably should make the most of it and get going :-).  First stop: breakfast.  The owner of the B&B made an arrangement with Granny Joe's Ice Creamorium (gasp) for breakfast.  Short walk away, let's see what Granny's got!  Oh, good for me and some smothered deliciousness to boot.

How's this for breakfast?

Breakfast done we discovered the road out of town wound down into a little baby canyon and crossed the Vermillion River, what a nice surprise...

Vermillion River Canyon


More twists and turns back up the other side to mostly flat land.  A solid 100 miles of 'country side'.  On the way through Wellington we stopped at a traffic light, looked over and thought we saw a Russian Orthodox Church.  Not so...

Wellington Police Department

Shortly after leaving Wellington we hit rain.  Funny how the weather affects mood.  It was fine, really don't mind riding in the rain so we were just moving along but with visibility down and no good way to pull out a camera it was really just rolling along taking it in as best we could amongst the drops.

Rain started to pick up past Akron so the phone got tucked away, lucky it was simple straight forward directions to Salem then on to Lisbon.  We made the turn to Salineville but I couldn't quite remember the next sequence of roads, and by the time we got there is was pouring down.  We pulled up next to an old building of some sort and took shelter under this overhang to look at the phone and get a sense of where to next.

Waterfall off the roof!

Here we go :-)

A lake!

Even after a fresh look at the map visibility was so poor we missed the left turn for 164 just a couple of blocks later and had to do a u-turn!  Really too bad all the rain, the road was lovely, freshly paved and windy.  As we climbed the rain dropped off and by the time we got up to the ridge is was misty and we were playing just under the clouds.  There were winds aloft so it was fun to see the various layers of clouds moving along at different rates, one set of clouds dancing along against a backdrop of others.


Misty ridge road

One last photo before we stopped for the night on the West Virginia border.  People are so interesting!  Not sure I understand the draw for things like this in the front yard, but hey, sure glad they do :-).

Lions and tigers and giraffes?  Oh my!

Not much of note after the Serengeti wild life show.  We stopped early and really didn't get so far because of weather (and the fact that we were moving pretty slow, same same).  At this point we are right on the edge of what we expect to be some scenic riding and don't want to miss it so let's stop for the night?  We'll get a hot meal, catch a little R&R, then we can have some more adventures tomorrow :-)!

As always, enjoy following our route on the map below and be sure to check out some of the additional photos there as well...


Friday, August 10, 2018

Thursday August 9th

Ok, today was unique in many ways... Shortest ride.  Most 'touristy'.  Air B&B letdown :-(.  Last night we were poking around on the map trying to figure out which way to go.  Drop down into the heartland?  Follow the lake?  Target New York before starting south?  Then we noticed a ferry to Kelley's Island, hummm, do love ferries.  Hey, lets go! 

We got out the door at a pretty reasonable hour, followed the Portage River towards Lake Erie.  Arrived at Port Clinton starting to get a little hungry.  The town is supper cute - old style main street, but nothing we saw really grabbed us so we pressed on thinking there will likely be something near the Ferry.


Classic Midwest down town

Oh, check that out, nice looking diner.  Stop?  Oh yes!  Place looked like a classic and you know what?  It was :-).  Bright and sunny inside.  Really got a kick out of the staff.  The waitress totally busted my chops for being on my phone.  Didn't she know we needed a place to stay tonight? Sent off a message to an Air B&B that looked good and was about where we expected to end the day.  Then the cook came out of the kitchen, saw the bike out the front window then the two of them went out to look.  Got a few 'nice bike' comments :-).

 

Peninsula restaurant

How's this for classic diner?

Driving along looking for the ferry doc.... well, some how we managed to miss it!  Not sure how we drove past it, seems like there would only be so many options and that it would be marked?  As we were coming round the end of the peninsula we could see Cedar Point across the water.  Silly me, I really had no idea it was a no kidding point!  Well, now I know.  All those roller coasters right there.  Thought about it, but naw, not this trip.  Went just a little further looking for a good turn-around and... What's this?

Interesting...

Well, gate's up, guy standing there... sign says welcome ;-).  He waived as we rolled past, must be ok right?  This was a hoot. Some how it just didn't feel right (a little hard to see in the GoPro frame) to have a speed boat on a 'collision course' with us!  Up and over we go...

Who sas the right of way?

Drove past a cemetery - interesting, will catch it on the way back, the around the island... Oh, check this out - it's an old quarry turned marina. How cool is that?

Quarry marina

On the backside of the island the road was under construction... give me a little space buddy!  Then, supper loose gravel, and that bulldozer is sooo loud.  Between engine noise and tracks clanking.  Really hard to see it here but I was really feeling for the poor bike.  I high centered coming of the added material onto the 'road' - was so concerned about dumping between slow speed and loose dirt, but made it.  Should have got the RS?! 

Road hog!

Oh Oh :-/  Unforgiving situation

Back to the start we come.  Cemetery.  Plain white marble headstones, pretty obvious it was a military burial ground, but what's this?

Confederate cemetery in Michigan, who would have imagined?

Johnny Reb longing for home

What a great stop, now to find that ferry... Ok, I think I see where it is, right next to the loading dock for gravel products where the giant off road dump trucks cross, kind of a cover?  No wonder I missed it.  Although in hindsight it was actually pretty obvious.

Truck seemed big, until...

Here comes our ride!

Here we go, first ferry for her

Maybe?
Here are some shots from around the island... It sure was fun just putting along taking in what ever came into view...



Camp Patmos - Sure this is where John hung out?
Glacier sculpting - Hard to imagine the pressures

Just because...
Wow. what else to say?
Incoming!
Riot of color
So delicate
Gingerbread house
Pretty, the home we saw coming in
Come sit?
Entrepreneurs!  Gotta stop and get some water ;-)
 





One of the best baklava's ever










Well, time to head back to the mainland.  We put a message into a host on Air B&B at breakfast, and still no response.  Not looking good.  What to do, cancel now then try and find another?  Plain old hotel - that's not so appealing.  The problem is a little compounded by the fact that we had to guess how far we would get today, and... we had way to much fun on the island so it's pretty late.  We would have a hard time getting there from here at this hour.  Well, that settles it - cancel now.  We'll find something along the way.


A few miles down the road - Huron Ohio, pretty place, river and lots of marinas. Hey, Comfort Inn on the water, looks decent.  Sitting in the parking lot thinking.  If we stop here it will be such a short day.  Still have a little time, let's keep going.  Another 15 miles and we are coming into Vermilion, getting some dark clouds... About dinner time.  Hey, a B&B for sale.

What do you think?

 Pull out the phone and call the number... Me:  "Do you have a room for tonight?" Proprietor:  "Are you sitting across the street"?  thought: So that matters?  What if I say yes?  How about no? This is silly.  Me:  "Yep, do you have a room?"  Proprietor:  "Yes we do..."

What a find.  The guy spent a ton of time and effort restoring the place, and it was so nice.  We were the only guests, and he rode so we swapped stories.  He gave us the upstairs apartment for the price of a room, such a nice experience.


Up we go...

Nice kitchen/dining area

Big bedroom


It was walking distance to a couple of restaurant choices so we dropped the bags and walked a few blocks down the street.  The wine cellar he recommended was just too busy so crossed the street to 'Old Prauge' - quite nice.


Yummy!

Can't resist desert...


 Evening walk on the way home... Wow, check out the library.  Oh, and color in the sky - can we make it back in time to get a camera and move to some open space?

Now that's a library

Fitting capstone on a fabulous day...


Really lite day as measured by the odometer, huge if you count the memories.... More details and geography on the interactive map below.  Enjoy!





Thursday, August 9, 2018

Wednesday August 8th

On the way north we skirted Detroit to the west, but starting this morning we are already 'into' the metro area so trying to sort out what tack we should we take to get past the city.  Wait, we're not sailing - well if the saying fits use it right?  Rabbit trail: mixed idiom perhaps, I can't keep figures of speech straight.  So that makes it a malaphore right!  Ok, back on track.  Hey, what about straight east then hug the Detroit River shore all the way south to Lake Erie...  Humans are attracted to water like a moth to a flame so there should be something interesting I would think.

We so enjoyed breakfast with our nieces we ended up leaving pretty late, just in time for lunch!  Oh, and we are so close to empty the very first order of business was getting gas - or we'll be walking!

Reflections

So bike fueled up, lunch in our tummies and we are off.  Nothing really to speak of on 16 mile, blah.  It is curious to name streets by the number miles from the city center,  nice to navigate, utilitarian but pretty boring right?  We finally hit water at Lake Sinclair park - we would have ridding in and looked around but there was a pretty hefty fee just to take a gander so we moved along.  It was pleasant with water on the left and homes on the right.  The road is close enough to get some views now and again.  Homes were nice to over the top.


Detroit River Views
Grosse Pointe Yacht Club

Older Home

Newer Home

The city center is well, meh a city.  But, it is a big shiny bauble so, here's a photo.

Downtown Detroit

Interesting to see the Ambassador Bridge at kind of the business end of things.  This is clipped from GoPro footage so is certainly not a 'planned shot' but I enjoyed the fact that we captured trucks above and below, sometimes lucky is just as effective as good :-).  Interesting to note that over somewhere between 15-25% of US - Canadian trade passes right over head at this very spot.

Business End of the Ambassador Bridge

I remember seeing an article in the paper (Washington Post) some years ago describing some of the controversy over this bit of road connecting the US with Canada.  At the time I glanced at the headline and moved on, not all that interested in some local politic half a country away.  Now here I am riding under it.  Small world right?

So my curiosity is a piqued and I did a search, read a few articles.  Evidently the billionaire owner, Matty Moroun, is quite a character.  Described as a bare-knuckle business man, he is of Arab decent and grew up hard.  I'm not going to take time and space here to say all that much, if you are interested, it's easy enough to find out more.  Here are a couple of fun tidbits though.  An article in the Detroit Free Press recounts his ties with Jimmy Hoffa quoting Matty saying 'I was close with Jimmy, since he used to buy gas at my fathers station' and another recounting the day spent in jail at 83 years old for not fixing the bridge after the Canadian government rolled over and relinquished it's fight for control in exchange for his promises to repair the structure. They (Canadians) are now building their own bridge and it is probably safe to say that that no small part of their motivation to shell out $7.5 billion for an alternative is contempt of the Morouns.  Humans certainly are funny creatures.

Next stop historic Fort Wayne.  Cool looking place, mostly rotting away.  The original earthen works fort and sandstone barracks have been restored the rest is a decaying mess.  Evidently it was handed over to the city of Detroit, sorta wonder why they took it?  Had I known there was a museum to the Tuskegee Airmen there may have tried to stop (web site says by appointment only) so on we go.

Ft Wayne

I suppose one of the themes of the trip is bridges, today was certainly that way.  Lots and lots of bridges.  And like snowflakes, I suppose, they are all a different...  Some are fancy, others grand.  This one is rather industrial with a touch of grace.

Rouge River Bridge

The next bridge we crossed was a rather small at the entrance to Elizabeth Park.  Unlike the earlier park this one is open to the public with lots of trees and grass - and even a wedding party taking photos!

Elizabeth Park Bridge


And the next bridge?  The 'Free' Grosse Ile swing camel back truss bridge, how's that for a mouthful.  And here is what it looks like west - east.

Camel Back Truss Swing Free Bridge to Grosse Ile :-).
So why Grosse Ile?  I duno, why not?  Turned out to be a pretty spot, more houses and river views.  At the south end is a marina that had a certain charm (and two more bridges, of course...).  Here is a feel for the island.

North Grosese Ile ...

... Center Grosese Ile ...

... Center Grosese Ile

Hey, Gibraltar?  Have to go there!  Well, big name, not really that much going on ;-).  Worth a try right?

Gibraltar - Gotta Wonder Why

Well, we have used most of the day and are a whooping 33 miles (as the crow flies) from where we started.  Oh my!  Ok, time to pull up a map and tighten up the day.  Given the distance from our destination for the night, the time, the fact that we need to get an external hard drive (Hard drive on my laptop is full, and the memory card in the camera is nearly full...  At the end of the day it's all about logistics isn't it (Sean :-))  Looks like the best thing is some highway driving to Toledo, hit a Best Buy for the disk, grab dinner, then back on the small roads to our nightly stop.  So here we go...

Freeway Driving :-/

Korean Barbecue for Dinner

Back to Roads Less Traveled

We didn't really have time to explore Toledo but the building above caught our attention while we were sitting at this red light, mostly because one of these isn't like the other.  It's not particularly stunning but compared to the neighbor across the street and the others near by...

And what do you suppose came next?

A bridge - of Course!
Industrial Town

A baby version of the mighty Mac :-).  It crosses the Maumee River running through the once famed 'black swamp' which some considered to be so treacherous that it was only deemed passable by adult men!  Not so much anymore, lots of farms land and a city focused on industry. The glass capital of the world by some estimates and home to factories turning out Jeeps since 1941.  At the other end of the bridge we couldn't help but note and old historic church, and... some more friendly people!  I love the waves and interaction we have been privileged to enjoy on this journey.

Historic Church

Another Waver :-)
With the time pressure we didn't stop to take any 'proper' pictures, just more frames from the GoPro then back down the road.  Soon enough we were out in the country, just in time for a lovely sunset.

Serendipity
Sunset Photo Op
Well, one more bridge then we are home for the night.  A little time to rest and reflect, and wonder what will tomorrow bring ...


Portage River Bridge
Home for the Night

Sweet Dreams


If you have read previous posts you know the deal, if not here it is: more photos and additional details for your enjoyment on this interactive map ...