The Great Bike Hike

Amy asked if Hubby and I would keep the grandkids this weekend. We almost said no because there was a homeowners’ association meeting scheduled for the WV place that we needed to go to. We both knew there was NO WAY Gaige (6) and Joey (2.5) could sit through that.

After some thought, we decided I could come to WV and attend the HOA meeting with Brianna while Hubby stayed home in MD with Gaige and Joey. Oh yeah, and Klondike (who is quite a bit larger than our dogs).

Before the meeting, we went to McDonald’s for breakfast. One thing you forget when you don’t have kids around daily is how SLOWLY they eat. (About 1/4 of Brianna’s  bacon, egg and cheese bagel went to the meeting with us.)

Asking a nine-year-old to sit quietly through an HOA meeting is asking a lot. Despite her having her iPOD (music and games), two chapter books and a word search puzzle book, I was really wondering if Brianna, a talking machine, would be able to make it through the meeting. She complained a little bit, but actually behaved amazingly well considering that most adults have a hard time staying awake, sitting still and keeping quiet during HOA meetings.

She was the only kid in attendance, of course, and the adults seemed tickled to have her there and chat with her. She told a couple of them we’d be going on a “Bike Hike” after the meeting. I corrected her several times explaining that we were going for a bike ride. I reminded her we would not be walking.

“Hiking is walking,” I said. “We’ll be riding our bikes. So quit calling it a bike hike.” (As an aside, she also told at least three people that her Aunt Shannon had had her ear bitten by a monkey.)

Not that long ago, Hubby and I biked a small segment of the C&O Canal between Oldtown, Maryland and Town Creek. I figured that after a 3-hour HOA meeting, Brianna would be ready to burn off some energy, so we brought her bike along. It really is a great place to ride.

Brianna Readying for the Bike Ride

Before we left for the canal, I showed her the piece of coal I’d found last time I was there. She was quite impressed. She asked if we could go find some coal for her. I told her it was a pretty far ride (just under 5 miles), but she was determined. She really liked my coal.

"Ribbit!"

It had rained for a couple of hours in the morning and was supposed to rain again in the afternoon, but we decided to give it a go anyway. So after taking the dogs for a long walk, we headed for Oldtown.

It wasn’t as sunny as the last time I was there. It was cooler, too. But we still saw lots of different critters.

“I’m not driving you crazy stopping to point out all of the animals, am I?” I asked her. “No!” she assured me. “I love critters, too.”

That frog was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Turtles

Brianna likes critters just about as much as I do (which I honestly never thought possible). So she was thrilled to see the various little critters we saw. And we really did see quite a variety. I took my zoom lens this time, so I was able to get some better turtle pics. She, too, was amazed at how many turtles are there.

Turtles

About two miles into the ride, I realized we’d probably both have the energy to do the entire five miles. So I told her I thought we’d make it. She was thrilled. She really, really wanted some coal of her own. She kept saying stuff like, “I know that’s far, and we might be pretty tired. But if we say that’s our goal, and we just keep going no matter how tired we get, we’ll be able to make it.” I tell you, the girl is a talking machine. I found her little motivational speech to herself quite entertaining.

Brianna Loves Having Her Picture Taken
Virginia Bluebells

On the way to the canal, we’d discussed all of Brianna’s favorite colors. Teal is #1. Followed by light blue and dark blue. So she liked seeing the Virginia Bluebells that are still in bloom at various spots along the towpath.

Ugly Snapping Turtle

The more we rode, the more critters we saw. We were having a great time. We’d gone about 4 miles when Brianna said, “This road is starting to feel funny.” She kept pushing, though, and talking about the wonderful coal we were going to find.

A couple of minutes later, however, we realized her bike had gotten a flat tire.

Crap.

We only had a couple of options at that point. Keep walking to Town Creek, stash her bike in the bushes then ride two-up the 5 miles back to Oldtown. Or turn around and walk back to where we’d left the truck.

“But, my coal,” she said. “We can’t abandon my goal.”

That’s when I told her we’d walk back to the truck and then drive to Town Creek to find her coal. “And,” I said, “if we don’t find any coal, you can have my piece, because by then you will certainly have earned it.” The whole time, I’m thinking we’re screwed. I mean, 4 miles is a long way for anyone to walk, much less a nine-year-old who had already biked that far. But we really didn’t have any choice, so we set off.

She did complain some, mainly about not achieving her goal. But we kept pushing. We were walking at a decent clip, too, spurred on by the sky that was growing increasingly dark with every passing second.

Very Large Black Snake

The good thing about walking was that we could look more closely for critters without having to worry about driving into the canal, which is how I noticed this big-ass snake sunning itself in a tree.

Pileated Woodpecker Holes

And this neat tree full of woodpecker holes. (We even saw a Pileated Woodpecker not far from our cabin on the way home later.)

Brianna Resignedly Pushing Her Bike
Small Garter Snake
A Rest Break

This picture made me giggle every time I looked at it last night after we arrived back at the cabin. “You TOLD me to look sad!” she said every time I laughed. Which is true. I had. At the time, she’d asked me why. I told her we’d just trekked at least three miles, that it would be funny to make people think she was exhausted. That was MUCH easier than explaining that I wanted it for effect on my blog, which would only have spurred a gazillion questions like: what’s a blog? You have a blog? Why haven’t I ever seen your blog? Why do you need a blog? Are there other pictures of me there? Etc., etc., etc.

My Favorite Turtle Picture
My Second-Favorite Turtle Pic
One of the Three Muskrats We Saw (Brianna wants one of these for a pet)
STILL Walking and Pushing without Complaint
Back at the Truck

I took this picture of Brianna sitting on her bike just before we put the bikes into the truck. Does she look even slightly miserable/exhausted/hungry? She looks even happier in the next shot. Can you guess why? Just one, four-letter word is your answer…

Coal!

Just as I’d promised, we drove to the Town Creek Aqueduct to find Brianna some coal. And because I remember weird stuff like exactly where I’d found some coal weeks prior, we hit the mother lode. She walked away with EIGHT pieces of coal. She was beyond thrilled. Until she realized, after settling into the truck with her coal lined-up on her lap, that there was a smallish-but-menacing black spider walking across the largest chunk. She didn’t shriek hysterically like most little girls would have, but she wasn’t thrilled either.

I calmly grabbed that particular piece (I was wearing my grandmother hat, remember)  and tossed it out the window.

“No!” she said. “My coal!” (Who would’ve thought coal, COAL, would have inspired her so?)

“I just wanted to knock the spider off,” I told her after I’d retrieved her prize coal hunk. (Luckily we hadn’t started moving yet.)

It was at that point, by the way, that the rain started. At least our timing had worked out.

Since we hadn’t eaten lunch, we drove to Fort Ashby and had a pig-out dinner. Brianna had a cup of broccoli cheese soup, a salad, and chicken parmigiana with spaghetti. I had a cup of vegetable soup, meatloaf with french fries and cole slaw. She was quite tickled that the waitress was treating her like an adult. And an older couple at the next table were chit-chatting with us throughout the meal. They were amazed not only by what she was eating, but by how much. She finished it all (we both saved a few bites for the dogs), so we topped the meal off with some yummy strawberry shortcake.

While eating, she informed me that she wanted to move to West Virginia with me, “Because people here really seem to like kids.”

Care to guess what her first order of business was upon arriving back at the cabin? Washing her coal.

Brianna's Clean Coal

After I fed the dogs, we took them for a short walk. Then we made a critter list, which Brianna was also quite proud of.

Our Critter List

If you click on the picture, you should be able to read the list. After this picture was taken, we realized we’d forgotten to add the woodpecker.

Notice the coal reference?

Brianna insisted that she should take a picture of me, too. So here I am, looking lovely as usual.

ToadMama (with K, who missed me very much)

At the end of our day, I told Brianna that “bike hike” was a pretty accurate way to describe our day after all.

And when I tucked her into bed (at 11:00 after two LONG games of Skip-Bo), I told her how proud I was of her for being such a good sport all day.

I’m already looking forward to our next ride, after I buy a tire repair kit, that is.

http://toadmama.com/2010/04/biking-the-co-canal/

It’s Only Natural

When it comes to weather, all I can say is what a difference a month makes.

Here’s my honeysuckle back on March 12.

Honeysuckle in March

And here’s what it looked like yesterday, April 15.

Honeysuckle on April 15

See what I mean? In just over a month, we went from cold, drab and dreary to lush, verdant, flowering and green.

Ah, Spring. If only we could have Spring-like temperatures year-round, ToadMama would be a happy girl.

Biking the C&O Canal

As Spring days go, yesterday was about as good as it gets. It was cool, but not too cool, with sunny skies and low humidity, which meant the air was clear and the sky was blue. A great day for a bicycle ride.

For the first time since we built the WV place, Hubby and I put our bikes in the truck and headed for Oldtown, Maryland, one of the access points for the C & O Canal.

Hubby Biking from the Parking Area to the Towpath

As luck would have it, Oldtown is just 15 miles from the WV place. Unless it’s been raining. Then we’d have to drive MUCH further. There’s a privately owned toll bridge that crosses the Potomac River between Oldtown, Maryland and Greenspring, West Virginia, but it’s a low water bridge. That means, if the water is running high because of recent heavy rains and/or snow melt, the bridge will be under water. (I wrote about the bridge in a previous post.)

Seriously, the weather could not have been any nicer. And every single turtle that lives in the canal was out enjoying it.

More Turtles Than You Could Ever Imagine

There were turtles everywhere. Pretty much every log or large rock that stuck out of the water had a turtle on it. Click on the image above, look closely and see how many turtles you can count. I see at least 20.

Both Hubby and I agreed that we’d never seen so many turtles before  in our entire lives. There were turtles of all shapes and sizes. If there’s a picture here that shows an empty log in the water, chances are good I got too close and the turtle or turtles that were on the log dove into the water to escape.

Hubby Riding Toward the Town Creek Aqueduct

I don’t know how many times we have driven or ridden our motorcycles past signs for the Town Creek Aqueduct. Just last week I told Hubby that one of these days I wanted to stop to see what it was. Now I know. The Town Creek Aqueduct is basically a water bridge that carried the canal across Town Creek. That section of the canal is empty now, which is why Hubby is biking through it, but the structure itself is still standing.

The Town Creek Aqueduct

It was extremely quiet and peaceful along the canal. Check out this next picture of the towpath as it continues beyond Town Creek.

C & O Canal Towpath Looking East From Town Creek

If we hadn’t gotten such a late start AND if our tender tushes were more-accustomed to riding, we would have continued for another 5 miles to Paw Paw. But we’d already ridden just under 5 miles and we still had to ride back to Oldtown, which is where we’d parked the truck. We’ll go farther one day…

Virginia Bluebonnets Blooming Alongside the Towpath
Recent Sign of Beavers Sharpening Their Teeth

We didn’t see any Beavers. They tend to be pretty bashful and are usually seen early or late in the day, not at midday, which is when we were there. I did see a Muskrat, though. He was floating in the water only a couple of feet away. I could tell he thought I didn’t see him, because he just laid there staring at me. Until I reached for my camera, that is. I don’t have any pictures of the little guy, so you’ll just have to trust me.

C & O Canal Towpath, Somewhere Between Oldtown and Town Creek

It really was a gorgeous ride. We are most definitely going to go back. If not before then, definitely in May or June when the Mountain Laurel are in bloom. This hill is covered…

Cliff Face Covered in Mountain Laurel

Despite only having my point-and-shoot camera along, I got some decent pictures. There are too many to post here on the blog, so I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check out my C& O Canal set at Flickr, which is where the rest of the shots are posted.

Summer? No!!! Not Yet!

A week ago, I was happy to see temperatures in the 80s. It made for great motorcycling weather. Actual sunshine and warm temps were nice for a couple of days.

But it’s April, people. April. And that means it is way, Way, WAY too early in the year to get hot! So enough already.

Although heat does have its perks…

"Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt..."

Like margaritas. What a great way to beat the heat (if I do say so myself)!

But I can’t be beating the heat midday while I am working. I just can’t. It’s against the rules, of course, and would render me pretty ineffective, which can be very bad when working under a tight deadline trying to balance 400 lines of Excel calculations.

Anyway… by Monday, I was tired of the heat. It actually got downright hot. I don’t remember the exact high temperature for the day, but it was close to 90. By Tuesday, it was in the 90s for sure.

Now, the thought of turning on the A/C in April is appalling. Sort of. Mainly because A/C = higher energy bills. But as I lay sweltering in bed on Tuesday night (sort of) struggling to get to sleep, I kept thinking of the little thermometer in my office. The one that said the high temperature on Tuesday IN MY OFFICE was 92. And that’s with the ceiling fan on high and the window wide open.

There’s a frugal gene in Hubby’s bloodline. He really hates turning turning the A/C on too early in the year. I do, too, but I also hate to be hot. Wednesday morning I was all ready to go check into a hotel if Hubby wouldn’t let me turn the A/C on. But when I told him it hit 92 in my office the previous day, he said something to the effect of “quit whining and turn the air conditioner on.” It took me all of about three milliseconds to close all the windows and slide the thermostat switch from OFF to COOL.

Ah… sweet relief. It was so much easier to work that day. And the next day. This morning, however (Friday), I turned the A/C off. It was 49 degrees when I let the dogs out. And today’s high is only supposed to be 60.

Spring is back. Thank. GOD.

Seriously, I hate to be hot. Although it was a great excuse to whip up a blender full of my famous blue margaritas. (Not that I need an excuse, really.)

I imbibed happily on Wednesday afternoon while grilling some chicken for dinner. Is this a great summer image or what?

Grilled Chicken with Baja Citrus Marinade

Yum. My favorite way to eat grilled chicken is very thinly sliced, marinated, cooled, cut into small strips and sprinkled on a fresh garden salad. Double yum.

One of the best improvements Hubby has done here at the MD abode was to run a natural gas line out to the patio for the grill. So we can use it anytime, year-round, without ever having to worry about running out of propane. Whenever we get a hankering for something grilled (or “barbecued” as my Belgian friend would say), we can have it. I’ve cooked out there in all kinds of weather, too. Rain, sleet, snow, ice. Really.

The girls like to hang out with me while I am cooking outside. (They like to hang out with me inside, too, but I always kick them out of my indoor kitchen because then tend to get under foot.)

Meg with the Grill in the Background

Meg is my most faithful “guardian” (i.e., most diligent dog when it comes to waiting for droppage).

Belle Hoping for Droppage, Too

You can’t see K in the above image, but she wasn’t far away. She was waiting on the top step.

K... She's Actually Smiling for Once (she smiles a lot, just not often in pictures)

It doesn’t take long at all to grill chicken that is very thinly sliced. But then I had to let it sit for a while so it could cool thoroughly. There’s nothing worse, to me, than hot meat on a cold salad. Ew.

ToadMama's Famous Blue Margarita (aka Kick-ass Blue Margarita)

The REAL reason I took pictures of the margarita the other day is the strawberry. I’d never thought to garnish my margarita with a strawberry. But that’s probably just because I never had fresh strawberries on hand before while drinking margaritas. It’s pretty, isn’t it?

I just may have started a new trend…

While I am totally not ready for Summer yet, I must say that I’m glad the grill no longer looks like this.

The Grill As It Looked on February 13

Here’s something earworm-inducing to get your Friday started.

The Call of the Toad

I get excited each the Spring when the Spring Peepers start their chirping. Not because they are frogs, but because that’s when you know warmer weather is on its way. Tonight, I heard my first toad. 🙂

When the toads start calling, you know Spring is really here.

My Favorite Toad Pic

No, I did not run right outside and snap a picture of the singing toad I heard. This image is from quite a few years ago. It’s one of my favorite toad captures.

Speaking of toad captures, I can’t forget all the toad sex shots…

Making More Toads for My Pond

When I had a backyard pond, it was a pretty popular toad hangout. Once when I went out there, there were FIVE toad couples going at it. Five. I kid you not.

Green Frogs

There were even a couple of Green Frogs hanging out for a while. They were pretty shy and never let me get very close. Green Frogs are not quite as big as Bullfrogs, but they’re way bigger than toads and Pickerel Frogs.

Pickerel Frog or Leopard Frog

I just had to share my favorite frog picture, too. I am pretty sure this is a Pickerel Frog. It could be a Leopard Frog, too. They’re hard to tell apart. And they’re way too fast to get a very close look.

Since I no longer have a pond, there aren’t as many frogs around. But there are still lots of toads.

Are you wondering how I know what a toad sounds like?

Back when we had a pond, I’d hear different noises and wonder what they were. So I’d go investigate. Toads are LOUD, hence they were pretty easy to find. Of course, there are also Internet sites where you can find frog and toad sounds. For inquiring minds and all.

If you have an inquiring mind, too, check these out:

Gray Treefrog

I’ll have a pond again one day. But it will be much bigger than the one I had (pictured below).

My Original Pond

Larger ponds are actually easier to maintain. I could go all into the reasons for that, but I’m guessing you probably care about that as much as you care about what different frogs and toads sound like.

I simply cannot end this post without a picture of a bullfrog.

Bullfrog

Hubby thinks my interest in critters is stupid, but he usually humors me and does stuff like hold this immature Bullfrog so I can get a good photo. I’m pretty sure this is the one I found in a parking lot one night after a soccer game. I caught it, threw it in my trunk, and brought it home.

Bullfrogs are quite large. Here’s another frog fan’s photo that shows a Bullfrog at the bottom of a cat litter pail, which should give you a better idea as to how big they are. Another of her pics shows her holding a full-grown Bullfrog.

When most people think of frog sounds, they think of the Bullfrog. They also think of these famous Bullfrogs.

Although, really, most people probably don’t ever think of frog sounds.

I’ll try to find something more interesting for my next post.

If there’s ever anything you’ve seen here or heard me mention you’d like to know more about, just let me know. Coming up with new and interesting material isn’t always a hop in the park.

What Might Have Been

While driving home from Pennsylvania on Sunday, I stopped at the Conowingo Dam near Port Deposit, Maryland to check out the Eagle action.

I didn’t know I was going to stop there.

Why does that matter? Because had I known I was going to visit the dam, I would have been prepared. I would have had my tripod with me.

A tripod is important. A tripod is what supports your camera to minimize movement. Minimizing movement matters most when using a zoom lens, when even the slightest movement blurs your image.

Even though I was bracing my camera against a fence, it still moved ever so slightly. And that, unfortunately, was enough movement to blur my shots.

Now, had I used a tripod, I could have had some cool, clear photographs. Instead, I ended up with a lot of grainy/noisy snapshots. Yes, you can see what is in the pictures, but the pictures are blurry. And they’ve all been edited to get them to this poor level of quality.

Normally, I wouldn’t even post images that are this bad. For someone like me, capturing a barely recognizable image isn’t good enough. I want focus. Clarity.

When I do finally get to Conowingo with a tripod, I’ll show you the difference. For now, you just have to settle for what might have been some great shots if only I’d been prepared.

Below Conowingo Dam

This image was captured with my standard lens. It is close to what the average person sees with the naked eye. The two arrows show the areas of focus for most of the following shots. They are pretty far away.

Great Blue Herons

Had I used a tripod, you would have seen a cool picture of seven, yes SEVEN, Great Blue Herons and one Cormorant (on the right in the vertical middle) fishing. You would have been able to tell, without squinting really hard and using a bit of imagination that the bird in the center of the shot has a fish in its mouth. (NOTE: If you click on any of these images, you’ll get a bigger view.)

The Eagle Has Landed

If I’d had my tripod, this might have been a great shot of a Bald Eagle joining the fishing party.

And Then There Were Two

If I’d been prepared, you would’ve seen a clear shot of a second Eagle taking off from this big rock to score himself a fish.

Immature Eagle Chasing Adult Eagle

Having a tripod wouldn’t have helped this shot much. I tried my best to get a shot of this immature Eagle (brown head) chasing the adult Eagle (white head).

Double Landing

This might have been a clear image of the two Eagles landing. Perhaps you would have noticed the Great Blue Heron in the middle of the frame without me having to tell you it is there. Notice all the pigeons sitting still on the rock that Eagle is about to occupy? You know the fishing is good when pigeons are of no interest to an Eagle. In any other setting, one or more of those pigeons probably would have been lunch.

Great Blue Heron In Flight

The tripod wouldn’t have helped this one either. I had to track the bird with my lens while focusing manually hoping for at least one clear image.

Great Blue Heron Landing

This might have been a nice shot of that same Great Blue Heron landing in the foreground while the two Eagles look on.

The Fisherman

Perhaps this would have been a nicely focused image showing the adult Eagle (left) with seven Great Blue Herons in the foreground, an immature Eagle (center) and nine or ten Cormorants in the background with water cascading over the spillways as a backdrop.

One day, when I have my tripod and actually get some good bird pictures, you’ll be able to see the difference. You’ll know why I find these shots disappointing. I’ll even refer back to this post for reference.

For now, I hope you enjoyed those snapshots of what might have been.