Got interrupted above. The next day we went whitewater rafting on the Lehigh river, a first for the kids and a repeat of our 10th anniversary, 10 years before. We even found one of the guides on this trip had been there for our trip 10 years before. Most of the trip was great, we even went swimming a few times between Rapids. But then a thunderstorm came down the river valley and kept pace with our group for much of the second part of the trip. Our youngest is really afraid of the thunder, but the bailing bucket on her head made her feel safer. passing under the Pennsylvania turnpike northern extension bridges the rain caught us for the last mile or two, so they both were buckets to keep the rain off. The buckets were meant to bail water out of the raft, but got plenty of use bailing the river into other rafts in water battles. When we got to the end of the trip, the bus wouldn't start. Being a mechanic, I helped get it going, turned out to be a loose terminal on the relay, the guide was so glad we didn't have to wait an hour for a replacement bus, he gave me free passes for another day. The next day we took three of my tandem Sawfish foam kayaks on the Delaware river, Paddling under the Rt 206 bridge to NJ Of course we had to stop and go swimming passing under the privately owned toll bridge at Dingman's ferry Landing at the Dingman's campground ramp . We had the current with us, but the wind was against us, if stopped paddling, we went upstream
Rode my bike back to the launch area to get the van, then collected the boats from the ramp. A storm was rolling down off of the poconos, and I spent too long getting pictures, so I ended up putting the beats on the van in pouring rain. It was worth it! After the rain we headed back to Dingman's falls, much more spectacular than before! Yup, we even bring the kitchen sink when we go camping
Nice shots of my home waters. You'll have to come down in the spring when the do the big damm releases in the Lehigh River for better white water action. I was on the Delaware last Friday. Water is about 6" above summer time low. Not much current at these levels and even less up in the water gap section where you were. It's nice you don't need a kayak launch permit for the river like you do from most of PA's State and County parks.
Yeah, the whole permit thing in PA really is no fun to deal with. Back in 2013 I looked into camping in PA for our wedding anniversary, but only somewhere with bike trails and places to paddle. The whole permit stupidity caused me to go to Dingman's campground, since the river is a national park and boundary waters, meaning no issues with stickers or permits.
Unfortunately these kinds of things are part of the reason our commonwealth has earned the nickname of "Taxylvania". Let's face it, the permits are not much more than a tax in disguise. However it is nice that our state parks are free admission. A few years ago I was in Florida and was quite surprised to learn that the state parks were gated and you had to pay an admission (at least where I was, not sure if this was state wide).
Friday we cashed in on our free trip, and went again. This week was the first time for our kids, and they were really happy to go twice. our first trip only had about ten rafts, the second trip had over 150 paddlers, at 4-8 paddlers per raft. The first trip had a group from NY city that had many who didn't speak English, we kept having to wait while the guides freed stuck rafts, hung up on obstacles everyone was warned about. We started calling their two rafts the crash boats, because they hit almost every obstacle and then usually the second raft hit the first after it was stuck. The trip on Friday had the mayhem of boats filled with oblivious teenagers who didn't listen to instructions from the guides, preferring to have water fights in the Rapids instead of paddling, using paddles to splash other boats which is dangerous, and often dropping their paddles in the river to water fight, instead of putting them in the boat. At the swimming sections the one remaining in the rafts would paddle away leaving swimmers behind. The guides ended up carrying swimmers back to their rafts on their kayaks. Another company had "pirates" on their trip unfortunately I jumped in with my phone clipped to my life jacket and it drowned this was the last picture it took before dying, the second bad thing on our trip, but still lots of fun, and great memories.
Another crash right in front of the church, must have fallen asleep and rear ended that van, actually made the bus land on the sidewalk..
So Saturday of our first week of vacation we packed up everything, drove to my in-laws, ditched the kids and camper, and drove to.... Niagara Falls. We got in a little late because the first time we stopped on the trip to Niagara we locked the keys in the car, when we only meant to get food to go and keep on truck'n. Fortunately the AAA guy was at the shop a mile down the road, about to go on a call, he showed up in his pickup truck and got us rolling a lot sooner than AAA said We stayed on the American side because it's cheaper if you don't pay all those taxes to support "free" government healthcare on the other side. Our Hotel was three blocks from the falls, so we didn't pay for parking either. We walked over to Canada and rode the funicular down to the Maid of the Mist, which is awesome! Then we walked to the skylon tower for another awesome view of the falls. Canada sure got the best side of the river! We walked back to the US, and rode our bikes down the canyon parkway, where we saw the whirlpool, and rode down the old trolley line, which is where you get this great view of the falls through the rainbow bridge from. As we were walking back over for the fireworks cruise on the Maid of the Mist, a seagull stole my sandwich right out of my hand, do not trust the gulls around the park! We had a great fireworks cruise, with the lit up falls. They do a 10 minute show every night during the summer. This is the mist rising over horseshoe falls, the cloud seems biggest in the mornings. 25% of the water that would go over the falls is diverted for power generation, and about 50% is at night, it seems like more water is early in the morning than the rest of the day. Tuesday morning we had to go back to collect our kids, but we did the cave of the winds before leaving! Awesome!! What a great way to celebrate 20 years of marriage! Wednesday we drove home from PA, and I worked my last two days at work. I actually gave a months notice, but only worked 5 days out of the month because of vacations I put in for back in January.
Great pics and sounds like you had a good time Rowerwet. Congrats on the 20 years of marriage! If you haven't been and ever get a chance to see the falls in winter they are quite spectacular then as well. The icicles formed by the mist with the lights at night look awesome!
The next Monday I was on a plane to Dallas for my new job. Spent a week there doing new hire training stuff. There's a neat park in Dallas called white rock lake, I went paddling there each evening. I brought my inflatable kayak along. It was usually still in the high 90's when I was out on the water, some days it was over 100. meanwhile, New England was enjoying perfect summer weather... I even rented a paddle board one evening, didn't fall off the whole hour I had it either. flying back to Boston My new job has much better hours, I actually have a life during the week, My wife and I never would have had the time to go to Boston on a Thursday night to see fireworks unless I took friday off before.
awesome pics! We were there April 2013. Some areas were shut down for maintenence. Didnt have passports so saw the US side only. GF was terrified of tower with elavator down to the boat which we didnt go on. We want to go back.
When you go back I would highly recommend crossing to the Canadian side. Rowerwet is absolutely correct when he said they have the better viewpoint of the falls.
The boat ride is 2nd best to the Canadian side view, the observation deck on the US side is also better than Goat Island
If you're from the Boston area, you might know about Castle Island. My mom grew up in Dorchester, MA and visited the park many times as a girl, however my grandfather hated crowds, so she never got to see the old civil war era fort on the Island, open. My grandfather thought relaxation was sitting in the shade with a newspaper, so the only beaches he took my mom and her sisters to had trees and grass for him to sit on while they played in the water. I bought a used Rowbike again, and ended up waiting for the seller to show up. I walked around Castle Island and saw that the fort would be open on Labor day weekend. My family enjoyed a visit to Fort Warren on George's island, so I planned a visit. I invited my mom and she told me she'd never seen the inside of the fort in her whole life. It only took 70 years, but she finally got to go inside the fort The whole fort is very similar to Fort Warren, because they hired the same architect, only Fort Independence is smaller. Reproductions of the cannon as it would have appeared back in the day. The original ones were all melted down for WWII production. The fiberglass replicas are to scale, each was able to throw the shot about 6 miles. They sure didn't get much room to serve the guns. Logan airport from the top of the wall. Back in the day Governors Island would have been over there. of course the kids had to go in the water, probably about the same place my mother did many years ago. Castle Island was the site of an earlier fort during the revolutionary war. With that fort the British controlled the main ship channel into Boston Harbor. After the fighting at Lexington and Concord, the British sat snug inside Boston, protected by their Navy, while the Rebels kept them bottled up, keeping watch on the shore. It was a stalemate and many colonial men were tired of sitting and went home. A group of men went to NY, captured fort Ticonderoga and hauled the Cannons all the way down to Dorchester. They waited until the lakes and rivers had frozen, then cut holes in the ice and poured water onto it until the ice was thick enough to support the cannons. In one night the colonial men built a fort on the hill in Dorchester called Dorchester heights. The fort was made of bundles of brush lashed together, with trees, and many baskets of dirt dumped into the brush forms . It stunned the British to wake up the next morning and find their main fleet defense port was within an easy Cannon shot of the brand new fort. The British had known it might be a problem, but figured the colonial army had no cannons so why bother. General Washington demanded an evacuation, and the British fired one shot from their fort, then abandoned it. This meant the fleet had to leave Boston as they were in danger from the fort that had been their protection. My new job has the coolest work uniform I've ever had My new job is within a mile or two of the place where Paul Revere was arrested on his famous ride, he actually didn't finish it until after the fighting was over and the retreating British troops released him. He spent almost a year stuck outside Boston with the rebels, while his wife and family had to survive the siege of Boston inside the city.
had an old above ground pool given to me for scrap metal. discovered that it also makes great firewood rack covers. Even with the wrinkles from being folded for me to get it. They help give the roof more strength to resist buckling under snow load. This should last for many years Had an adventure moving my toolbox to my new employer. Blew a tire in Nashua on Rt 3. Used Uber to get a ride to the nearest store with a new tire. Got my toolbox moved in one piece. The view out of my office window flying around in my new airplane, I can ride along when they go flying for training. I get to go to the weekly meeting for pastors in Haverhill every so often. Found out one of them also likes to build boats. He built the canoe upstairs, and has been sort of working on the one downstairs for about 15 years. hopefully we can go paddling together sometime. the Colby Farm in Newbury has some awesome sunflowers each year, we get to visit for free since my parents house is across the street. Connors farm corn maze, had a great day that wasn't too crowded because the weather threatened rain all day. It only rained while we ate lunch, so perfect timing. The giant bounce pillow is awesome, and the new train ride was nice. That's my 70+ year old mother in the giant pipe rolling it across. She even jumped on the bounce pillow for a little while. The Rt 1 bridge over the Ipswich river, next to the Toppsfield fair grounds Paddling on the Ipswich river I no longer punch a time clock, I set my own hours. I was able to get this awesome sunrise over the city reservoir in Haverhill and the battle bridge in Concord because of this. God is good. family paddle on a local river in Amesbury, I love the contrast and color in this picture we have a pet tortoise and sometimes take her outside to enjoy the good weather. Unfortunately she crawled under a wood rack and the person watching her couldn't grab her. She ended up spending the night outside, the next day my son took the wood out of the rack, then I flipped it up, but she wasn't there. Turned out she was under a different rack, found her a little later...
restacked and added a more permanent roof to the rack. I showed you my first rowbike, unfortunately it is a very early model, one without the bugs worked out. The frame cracked due to one of these bugs. I found a newer rowbike with the bugs worked out of the design. The newest models go for almost $2,500, even used on Ebay they're around $1,000. This was a fixer upper. The tires were flat and cracked, the chain was rusted solid both brake cables and the shift cable were frozen with rust, and the bungee cable was dry rotted. While I was fixing it all, I upgraded as much of the features as I could without adding the $500 Nuvinci rear hub. That would change it from a 7 speed to an infinite ratio hub. the chain was originally attached to the end of power lever, I upgraded my bike to the "dave cam" attaching the chain to the frame and running it around a pulley on the end of the power lever. The face cam changes the mechical advantage on the chain, making the pull easier and more powerful. the big pulley is the upgrade an engineer named dave added to the design, he also came up with the Oring on the pulley on the end of the power lever so that the chain wouldn't rattle over it. The dave cam means that the rowler is pulling more chain, I had to use 1.5 normal length bicycle chains to replace the chain that was rusted solid. This means the bungee cord has to be longer as well. The original power lever had one loop of bungee, the Dave cam requires two loops. this is the new pulley set up to allow two loops where there was only one. the double pulley set up required the end openings to be enlarged. the seat slides and you don't want it to go beyond the length of your legs. Whoever had this before had much longer legs. I added the brackets to provide a seat stop at the correct distance and to add a cargo rack to the bike. a cheap dollar store plastic cutting board for the cargo rack. Strong, Lightweight, and doubles as a fender. this even had the extra bushing extension for a computer or headlamp to be attached since the handle bar goes back and forth. Another bonus! Minuteman rail trail passes under the old Lexington train station, just behind the famous green. Nashua river rail trail at Pepperell I believe. Nashua river rail trail USS Constitution, this is considered the exact spot where Paul Revere landed in the boat to start his famous ride from. upper Charles River near Waltham. along the banks of the Mystic river heading toward Medford square. Charles river dam looking at the Zachem bridge. it's not just fun and games, my parents are selling their house, they gave us their lawn tractor to help with the church lawn, not quite a firewood tractor though... went to the Moody center in central MA to see Zach Williams Of course he did "Chain breaker". this tree stands right near where Paul Revere was arrested before he could get to Concord. Mrs rowerwet and I just completed the NRA pistol course
normally I have the most unusual bike on the rail trail, because of my rowbike, but this guy took the prize. I started after he left Bedford depot, and didn't pass him. He must have stopped along the way, because I met him at the other end of the minuteman rail trail when I was on my way back to the car. 10 miles must be hard with no gears for the hills canobie lake sunset was stunning as a cold front swept across the sky My parents built their house in 1985, but found they couldn't take care of it anymore. Helped them move into a nice condo in merrimac. my airplane heading out on another mission, knowing I'm helping sick people is more rewarding than making sure Amazon gets delivered. Training dummies at work, they are fully computerized and can simulate many different health problems and conditions. Looks like a chainsaw got the bottom guy... My oldest daughter giving blood for the first time. Amazing how fast they grow up. Thanksgiving day walk at my in laws house in PA, beautiful but a little cold. Almost finished with the first rack of wood. Burned about a cord in November. moved about 2/3 of the extra cord I didn't have a rack for. I know the threads about covering your stacks come up every year, I know my answer now. The uncovered extra cord was frozen together, meaning it has no chance to season. top covered is the only answer for me. Many of the pieces were coated in ice, and we've only had rain so far. Once these melt off, they will begin seasoning nicely. Another great part about the three year plan. I know it will be ready to burn in a couple years, no matter what kind of weather we get. made a good dent in my extra storage. Talked with a tree crew at my neighbors house, sounds like I might get some trees dumped here soon. end of the season, finally put the kayak fleet to bed for the winter. Looking forward to skiing, hope this storm is enough to ski on!
