Wedding and Cherries

We did it.  We finally got married!  It took us months to actually set the date, and then a week to plan the wedding.  It was perfect, and very low-cost! A friend of mine painstakingly made my dress, and it turned out graceful and beautiful.  The groom's suit was found at the thrift store.  We paid for a photographer with a veggie share, and the dressmaker's work with a work day at her house, home-made cheese, and herbs.  Seating was on home-made benches...boards supported on log sections, covered with a length of unbleached muslin.  My bouquet was collected from my parent's backyard.  A close friend made the cake, her sister did my hair, my sister made the flower decorations, bouquet, and some of the refreshments, and my mom made the rest of the refreshments.  That same sister also played the piano for the ceremony, perched up on the back of my brother's pickup truck.  I rode to the wedding in the back of a Madsen, pedaled by my father.

The ceremony was on land we lease, under a spreading cottonwood tree.  We had no attendants, a friend did the 'marrying', and there was no reception; just a simple dinner with family.   

We did take a short little honeymoon at Allegany State Park, in a rustic cabin beside a babbling brook.

 It was just what we needed...a little break before diving back into work on the houses and garden.  

I do thoroughly enjoy married life!

While my Dear Man and I were busy marrying and making merry, all the plants in our garden were busy growing...and the fruit trees were fruiting!  We recently picked the biggest Chinese Cabbage I've ever seen... 

Such a lovely head...it is very satisfying.

We also have Kohlrabi that is getting too big, broccoli and cauliflower growing to picking size, and cabbages swelling.  Frustratingly, varmints are getting into our fenced-off garden, and doing their best to destroy our crops! 

This spring we discovered four different cherry trees on our land...and they are all loaded with cherries!

And, for a day, with children...

We harvested quite the bounty!  Yum! Yum!

What have I been Doing?

I'm sorry, it has been a very long time since I posted anything.  I haven't been doing any interesting cycling-related activities.  

I have just been regularly riding across town for various reasons.  My ankles healed completely, and now I am sure to remember the correct height for my saddle, to avoid any other such mishaps.  My knee doesn't give me trouble, unless I exert it more than normal without stretching.  

A local cycling group recently advertised my canvas bags to those on their mailing list!  I haven't gotten any responses, but it is a first step...

A fellow bicycling traveler who decided to stop in Buffalo contacted me through Warmshowers, and now we are making a bicycle bag for her bike together!

I've been renovating a room in the basement to turn into a cheese cave, for aging cheese.  It has been a lot of work, but it is nearly done.  

Just recently I was the happy recipient of a supply of milk for cheesemaking.  The farmer gives me milk, and I give him some of the cheese I make!  A pretty swell deal for me I think!

I got my first shipment of milk last Thursday, and made Gouda, Neufchatel, and Ricotta out of the three gallons.  Neufchatel is similar to cream cheese; just made with more milk than cream.  

Here's what the Gouda looks like...and for some reason there are holes in the surface...I guess the curd was more firm that it should have been.

Another project I've wanted to get started is repairing a fiddle.  I was able to buy a damaged fiddle off Craigslist, and now have to figure out how to fix it up.  I'll get some books from the library on repairing violins, buy some tools and supplies, and carefully try to make it sound like a quality instrument.  This will be my first time repairing an instrument, and I'm hoping to do well and learn a lot!

Here's the project as she looks now...

So there you go, these are a few of the things I've been doing while not updating my blog.  

Life really is a journey into the unknown.  I had no idea at the beginning of the year that I would be able to get back into making cheese.  Not in my wilder dreams did I think I would get good milk for cheese making  in exchange for just some of the product.  You never know what will happen, what opportunities will present themselves.  Always be open to the unexpected, it is probably the beginning to a great story.

I could use this blog to document all the random adventures of my life, or I could keep it focused on cycling.  You, my readers, help me decide!  Focus on cycling, or allow for any adventure life throws at me?

A Trip Cut Short...

It was a beautiful morning that we woke up to.  Chilly, but lovely.  Mist quietly rose off the creek water.  Everything on the mountains was completely shrouded in fog.

A pair of Bald Eagles came and perched in a tree near our camping area.  I was able to get a couple pictures, but they were shy of the camera.

Our legs and ankles were still painful, but we could ride.  I came to the conclusion that my saddle had been set too high.  I had adjusted it during our visit, and must have put it just a little too high.  It caused my feet to extend with each pedal stroke, placing unusual stress on the Achilles tendon.  I lowered my seat, hoping that would enable me to ride the rest of the way home.

 Once again, we got going around 8.  There were about 10 miles of the trail left to ride before we came out at Route 6, or Grand Army of the Republic Highway.  We wanted to avoid the steep dirt road we had taken on the way down, so that meant we were on Rte 6 for probably 20 miles.  

20 miles with little variation.  There were a few small towns to ride through, lots of rolling hills, woods, and a few farms.  There was also a significant side wind that felt like a headwind.  After 10 miles, I was ready to be on a different road....

Finally we turned, and my mindset improved dramatically.  The side road was more interesting and fun to ride with decent downhills and lots of curves.  Twisting winding back roads I find quite enjoyable...

And...in only about 20 miles we would be in New York!

Unfortunately my Achilles tendons were becoming more and more painful as the day went by. 

We stopped for lunch at the same place we had on the way down, near a little creek and a side road.  I tried standing in the creek to cool my tendons, but it didn't help.

In the little Pennsylvania town of Genesee, we stopped at a gas station for some water.  There was less than a mile to go till NY!  We were pretty happy to be getting to the state line.  It was a very clear sign that we were nearing home.

Not long after riding into NY, we noticed that the driver here were definitely less courteous than PA drivers.  How annoying!  Why would a thing as small as a state line have such an impact on the behavior of a person?  I found it fascinating....

We made it to the little campground between Wellsville and Scio that we had stayed in on the way down.  There were only 80 miles between us and home, but my tendons were extremely painful.  I called home to find out if they thought, like I did, that it would be a bad idea to ride 80 more miles on an injury like that.  

Mom decided she could come out and get us that night. 

Here is a picture from when we were waiting...

We were very grateful to her, but I was sad to miss the last leg of the trip, and not finish the way I had planned.  I am glad I didn't further injure my tendons, though.  I hoped they would heal quickly, so I could get back on the bike before too long!

Wet Gravel and Jerky...

I slept better this night, but Tuck didn't sleep very well.  Strange.

We ate dry cereal for breakfast, and then were on the road by 8:30.  

This time I was planning on nearly completing the Pine Creek Rail Trail by evening.  First, we needed groceries and water. In Jersey Shore we stopped at a gas station to relieve our bladders and bought a gallon of water and some pretzels.  I asked the cashier if a grocery store was nearby, and he gladly informed me of a Weis just up the street. 

Since our diet had deteriorated considerably during our visit, I wanted to bring it back up to a somewhat healthy level.  I bought cabbage, apples, grapes, granola, cookies, soy milk(so it wouldn't spoil un-refrigerated), and peanuts.  

We then proceeded onto the trail.  It was a lovely place, but I got very tired of grinding endlessly along a flat gravel trail.  There were no downhills, and that meant few brief breaks.  Just pedal, pedal, pedal, until it was time to snack or go to the bathroom.  Ah, well, at least it wasn't uphill!

We met a group of interesting elderly cyclists on the trail.  They were from near Wellsville, NY and were working on riding 100 miles this year.  It was fun encountering them repeatedly on the trail, since we were headed in the same direction.  

We stopped at Cedar Run for some more of the amazing jerky we had eaten on the way down.  This time I bought 10 pieces!  It had started pouring just as we rode up to the little store, so we sat on the porch and chatted with a couple guys that were also sitting there.  The rain didn't let up very quickly, so Tuck decided we should eat some ice cream while we waited for it to quit.  The ice cream was good, and the conversations floating around were interesting.  By the time the ice cream was gone, so was the rain, so off we went.

Everything was wet, so the gravel stuck to my tires and swished through my fenders annoyingly.  

Here's a photo I took while waiting for Tuck near Rattlesnake Rock.  I took a quick walk down to the rock, and was pretty impressed, but saw no rattlesnakes.  Tuck had already run over two snakes today.  One may have been a small rattlesnake, but I'm not sure.  Yes, they were alive and slithering!

We stopped at the Tiadaghton Camping Area for the night.  We didn't have a camping permit, so we hoped any officials would just stay away.  It rained again, so the ground was rather wet.  We ate random food that we could find in the bag, such as cabbage, apples, grapes, fig newtons, and so on.  It was a very lovely place to camp, and we had it to ourselves.  We even saw some Bald Eagles glide majestically through the gorge.

Both of us were having great difficulty walking.  My Achilles tendons were extremely sore and had been most of the day.  Tuck's thighs were very sore.  I figured the extreme soreness was a result of the mountain yesterday, and hoped it would recede by morning.

The rain stopped enough for me to set up the tents.  Tuck was fixing his front tire, which had acquired a slow leak towards the end of the day.  The leak gradually got faster and faster, and by the time we were at the campground, he had little difficulty finding the puncture.

The sunset was very picturesque...

We bedded down and fell asleep hoping nobody would show up to kick us out... 

Heading Home....Finally!

After six weeks of visiting our dear friends in Berks Co, PA, it was finally time to head home.  Thankfully, they weren't sick of us yet!!

I re-planned the first leg of the trip so as to avoid a few undesirable roads we had traversed on the way down.  This time, we took Rte 183 over Blue Mountain, instead of 645.  It was much more manageable, but also busier.  We sailed down the far side, reaching the fasted speeds we had reached so far - 37mph!  

We appreciated the wide shoulders on most of the highway...

There was a lot of evidence of coal mining in the areas we rode through today.  Towns with names such as Minersville, and Coal Castle.  Chunks of coal littering the banks along the highway.  Interesting...

Neither of us was feeling very well, and the uphills tended to make us feel rather sick, just from the exertion.

 We took a lot of short breaks, and one longer one.  The longer break was after lunch, at a little memorial for a chapel that had collapsed in a winter storm in 2003.  Tuck took a short nap and I snacked and took a few photos.  Here is a little poem in a display, about what happened...

  Only the grotto remained standing...

We continued on, and slowly worked our way up an endless hill.  I briefly thought it was taking us to heaven...it seemed to never stop going up!!  Disappointingly, it was only taking us to big busy highway intersections...oh well.

We had our first nasty driver encounter on this ascent.  We had paused for one of our many breaks, and I noticed a truck coming up the road, but his wheels were well onto the shoulder.  I motioned at him to move over, not sure if he had noticed our presence.  Sure enough, he knew we were there, and then moved over even closer to us!  He roared past, scaring us pretty bad, but thankfully not touching either of us.  After that, we were quite paranoid of truckers, but everyone else was considerate of the two toiling cyclists on the hill.  Some were even friendly!  Also, a few motorcyclists gave us the 'fellow cyclist' wave.  It was nice to feel welcome on the road, even if it was only by a very small percentage of motor vehicle drivers.  

That evening we stayed at a cemetery just outside of Mt Carmel.  I stopped at a Boyer's not far from the cemetery and got peaches and tomatoes.  That, and hard-boiled eggs, is what we had for supper.  I was hungry falling asleep, but my huge calorie needs hadn't kicked in yet, breakfast was only a few hours away, and supposedly it is good to eat a light supper! 

A Day of Firsts...

We woke up ready to ride this morning... 

Packing went smoothly and quickly, and we were back on the road between 8:30 and 9:00....if I remember correctly.

The trail ended in the PA town of Jersey Shore...where we stopped to take care of our now-dry, but very smelly, unwearable clothing. 

Squeaky Kleen Laundry did the trick...

Across the street from the laundromat was a store I had never seen before.  A store of addictions...and it was very busy...

We had two route options after Jersey Shore...we could take route 220 to Williamsport and then pick up Bike Route J, or we could take the smaller route 44 down to Allenwood, again picking up Bike Route J across the Susquehanna River.  We decided to go with route 44, since 220 was limited to only motor vehicles...

This added one mountain, but we thought that would be okay...

We did survive...but some of it was very steep!

Here are our bikes near the top...with the final murderous incline in view...

There were no shoulders, but the traffic wasn't bad at all.  We even saw a couple other cyclists on our way up!  They were on fancy racing bikes, and were breezing past us on their way down, but it was encouraging to see them...

Here is the not very gradual incline we just rode up...

And here is the very steep bit we were about to tackle...

After we conquered the beast...this is what she looked like...

On our way down the mountain we had to stop a couple times to cool our rims since we tried to keep our speed under 30mph.  A cyclist passed us going the same direction...on his fast light bike.  At the bottom of the mountain we passed him....he had stopped for a snack.  A few miles later he caught up to us and chatted for a bit...

We then had our first flat....Tuck had noticed a slow leak on our way up the mountain, but just pumped it up hard, and watched it carefully.  A few miles after our cyclist friend left us, Tuck's tire went splat...patching was necessary.

In one the small towns along the Susquehanna that we passed through I stopped at a grocery store and picked up bananas, apples, fig newtons, cookies, walnuts, and yogurt.  I had started craving fruit for the last few days...especially bananas...

When we left the store, I was suddenly incredibly tired.  It was only mid-afternoon, but I felt like setting up camp and going to bed right away.  Unfortunately that was not to be...

We had decided to try to make at least 60 miles today, because that would make it possible to get to our destination tomorrow....

By the time we got to Shamokin Dam, I was getting slightly irrational in my handling of tractor trailer passes...I even panicked once and almost crashed.  After that, I was very careful and made sure I was relaxed and didn't freeze up whenever one went by.  Thankfully, almost every truck was very courteous.  One even forced oncoming traffic to get over so he wouldn't intimidate us!

Riding through Shamokin Dam and Sunbury was pretty frustrating.  We had a hard time finding the correct roads, and the traffic was pretty bad...

The dam itself was interesting though...

A few fisherman were wading and boating just past it...

As we were riding along a street that I was desperately hoping was the correct one, a young man stopped us with great enthusiasm.  He had been thinking of bike camping and thought we were "rad".  It was a "sign from God" that we rode past his house...nobody like us ever comes up his street.  He was very excited, and I sure hope we didn't discourage him by our lack-luster responses to his questions.  We were tired, frustrated, and not even sure if we were on the right road! 

Thankfully, not far out of Sunbury we came upon a cemetery with an old church-turned-dining-hall, parsonage, new, larger church, and outside pavilions and bathrooms.  We stopped and asked the parson if we could camp in the graveyard.  He was very generous....gave us the key to the dining hall and told us we could sleep inside if we wanted...oh joy!

I was so exhausted this evening that it was wonderful not having to set up camp!

We didn't even fix supper...just ate fig newtons, walnuts and yogurt...

It was great to sit on real chairs...with backs!  We brought our bikes inside the little sanctuary, and were able to take sponge baths in the bathrooms.  Flush toilets and plenty of easily accessible clean water were also welcome luxuries!!

It was a wonderful place after an exhausting, 63-mile day...