Biking from Akron to Independence!

Boarded the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway train with our bikes at 9:00 am for a 1 1/2 hour train ride to North Akron station. A very pleasant ride with beautiful scenery on a gorgeous prefall day in the 70's. It was rather cool early on but quickly warmed up. By the time we got to Akron I stripped down to my sleeveless T-shirt and bike shorts. After getting our bikes off the train, pumping up George's tire a bit and taking a slight detour in trying to find the trail head we were on our way. What a gorgeous day and tow path trail! I'm so glad that some smart people had the foresight to preserve all this and convert it to this use. The conductor said they had a record day for ridership on the train yesterday, and since they started the "Train your bike" program (only $2.00 to ride to Akron with your bike!) ridership has tripled from last year.

We had never ridden most of the trail south of Penninsula. It was beautiful. I took pictures of the Heron, carp and beaver dam and lock's along the way. We stopped after ~ 14.5 miles in Penninsula to eat at Fischer's Cafe. The thought of Caravel's ice cream at the end of our trip kept us going the rest of the 29 miles we biked today! A nap in the hammock was a nice finish to a beautiful day once we got back. We'll sleep well tonight!

Life Off the Grid a.k.a. Camping In the House

So, the hot water heater allowed us to take lukewarm showers up through Wednesday (although the shower Wednesday was rather invigorating!). Otherwise, we are doing rather well without electricity. It dawned on me Tuesday after we went to bed, that we COULD plug in a lamp and have REAL LIGHT!! We laughed a lot about that! We are gradually adapting. The biggest issue is the shower thing. So yesterday I went out and bought a solar camp shower thingy. We heated water on the camp stove and mixed it with room temperature water to fill the 5 gallon bag. However, the tubing and stopcock are rather wimpy so this will take some tinkering. All I can say is I'm sort of clean enough to teach today....

Later!

Hurricane Ike Hits Ohio!

Hurricane Ike wasn't content with messing up Texas, but decided Ohioans needed a taste of the fun! The winds were in the 70's mph in gusts. It was weird, all wind and no rain or lightning. We'd fortunately battened down the hatches and eaten dinner before the silver maple lost the large limb from the top of one of the trees in the front yard as seen in the picture above. It managed to land on the power lines going to our house and ripped the lines off the side of our house along with a little siding. There was a huge noise and a shower of sparks as it crashed to the ground. We are basically screwed for probably at least a week since thousands are without power and many line crews were sent to Texas. Fortunately our generator is working well, we have lots of propane for our camp stove and lots of candles and flashlights. We may be showering at the neighbors, however!

Hiram lost power too, so there weren't any classes today. George's plant was also without power.

What's for dinner? Yummmmmmmm

Foccaccia

2 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast (or one envelope)
1 cup minus 1 tablespoon very warm water
2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour (I substituted one TBLS flour for 1 TBLS ground flax seed)
2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
1 tsp. salt

Either add all these to a bread maker and then set it on the "dough" cycle (which is what I do!) where it will mix and rise for 1 1/2 hours or mix and knead by hand and place in a greased bowl and let it rise for 1 hour in a warm place covered loosely.

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray and spread the dough out in approximately a 10 inch circle. Cover loosely and let rise for 20-30 minutes. Make dimples all over the surface, cover with the topping of your choice and bake at 425 F. for 15 minutes.

Topping I used:

2.5 oz. of shredded Asiago cheese
2 diced green onions
3 minced garlic cloves
1/4 - 1/3 cup olive oil
parsley
oregano
about 1/4 tsp pepper

Crumbled feta cheese and black olives are also wonderful toppings!

Enjoy!

Peaches!

The last peach harvest from our deceased peach tree. The weight of all the peaches broke the tree in half and led to its ultimate demise today. Now I have to make lots of pies!

Finished Trip, School Starts, Planning Trip...

What a busy past 6 days! Thursday night we packed the van with all Anya's belongings and we headed out Friday morning bright and early only to turn around at the end of our street as we realized we had forgotten Anya's bicycle. We listened to a cd to pass the 8 hour trip detailing various early American scandals of the high and mighty - good grief I think we have actually improved over the years! It was interesting history, but rather depressing at the same time.

Arrived in Philly around 4:40 after circling Adam and Vanessa's area (they put the street signs way up in the air behind tree branches!) we finally made it. Had a delightful dinner with Adam and Vanessa at a restaurant in walking distance ( I had mussels - delicious!). They had an amazing choice of beers and wines. We'll have to eat there again sometime. It was a short but fun visit. I'm glad Vanessa has a new job.

Arrived at Amy and Mike's later in the evening. Elizabeth sure has gotten bigger and happier! My only disappointment was that I really didn't get to hold her more than a very few minutes. Oh well. Got a few cute pictures anyway.

Our drive to Baltimore wasn't bad at all and we made it in a little more than 2 hours. We didn't even get lost this time! We're becoming pros at navigating around MICA. Anya's new dorm is nice although her portion of the suite is small. At least she has her own room and her suite mates are all close friends who seem very nice. Its all brand new too! I got locked in the stairwell which was rather unnerving. We moved some of her suite mates' belongings too, of course, out of the storage unit - twice- since we missed some the first trip. That was rather a challenge since a street parade/event was taking place half a block down the street from the storage facility! We were sure looking forward to relaxing at Chris's house in the evening by the end of countless trips to the 6th floor! The college didn't have any dining facilities open (planning is not the forte of artists evidently), so we located a tiny gourmet sandwich shop and had a very good late lunch. Kissed Anya goodbye (she wasn't all worried this time!) and headed for Chris's house who had a party going on!

Chris was having a surprise birthday bash for a friend, who we had met before when we went tubing down the Potomac. Ate my fill of delicious blue crab,mmmmmmmmmmmm and thoroughly enjoyed the evening - including the slow motion tipping over of the picnic table with Chris and Anne sitting on one side! Fortunately no one was hurt. All the cats, dogs, hummingbirds, squirrels, fountains and flowers entertained us in the morning as we had a leisurely brunch on Chris's back porch. Made it back to our house in record time listening to old George Carlin and Bill Cosby cds . When Andy and Cindy get back in the states we'll have add them to our visiting swing!

We booked our train tickets for our trip out West on the Empire Builder for next July. I'm really getting excited! !!!! We will leave July 3 @ 2:45 am from Cleveland and arrive in Chicago around 9:00 am. We'll board the Empire Builder around 2:15 pm headed for East Glacier National Park in a sleeping car called a "roomette." We'll arrive in East Glacier around 7:00 pm on July 4 and walk to the Glacier Park Lodge which was built in the early 1900's. We'll spend about 5 days exploring Glacier National Park - we are thinking of staying at least one night in Sperry Lodge which you can only get to by horseback or by hiking 5 + hours. There are lots of interesting places to stay and, of course, a lot to see. We will leave West Glacier for Seattle July 9 in another roomette car at around 9:00 in the evening and arrive in Seattle around 10:00 am July 10. We are hoping Jill will join us for at least a day visit sometime that weekend while we are touring Seattle. We will probably take some bus trips to Mt. Rainer, etc. Maybe some boat trips too. Lots to see here too! Lastly, we will take a short train ride ~ 4 hours - to Vancouver, British Columbia and visit there a couple of days before heading back to Seattle to fly home on July 18. We still have quite a few details to work out.

School started with a bang. My first class can only be described as a comedy - although everything worked out well in the end. I managed to lose one group of students on the way from the lab to the vans for our field trip to a primary headwater stream. One of the girls forgot her boots (I think she was the same one that went to the wrong classroom first) and all three of them in the group went back to get them and didn't pay attention to where we were headed for the vans. For some reason they went to the Kennedy Center where they thought the vans would be! They eventually made it out to our study site and did well. Then the bees attacked!

The other lab instructor (who is a Mr. Mom) arrived to observe after we were busily collecting from the stream with his 2 and 4 year old sons. The 4 year old, Evan, climbed out on a tree that was leaning over the stream and the bees at the base of the tree decided they'd had enough of us humans (we'd tromped over their nest at least 6 times) and stung him. I was wildly trying to brush the bee away from little Evan and his dad and then it turned its attention on me and kept getting trapped in my hair. I yelled for Rob to take his kids and leave the area and asked the girls to please smack me in the head with their notebook as I was tossing my head back and forth brushing at the persistent bee. (Its not often that your teacher asks you to smack them in the head!!!!!!!!!!!!!). They weren't very good at smacking the bee, but the darn thing finally retreated long enough for me to tell the girls that they had collected enough data and needed to get out of there NOW! Fortunately no one else got stung and I always carry Benadryl with me out in the field - I even had Benadryl cream for the poor little guy. I was rather flustered after that but we actually did get very good data despite the lost boots, lost line level and general confusion. Fortunately, the afternoon class was very smooth without so much drama.

I get to do it all again tomorrow!