perspectives

Nippy lost the DVD I made of the Alaska pictures I took in May 2009. I found my copy and duplicated it.  Of course I spot checked the copy to make sure it duplicated correctly and ran in to some pictures I had taken at Glacier Bay.

The pictures do not provide a sense of the magnitude of the Alaskan wildness.  Perhaps it is the difference between congested New Jersey and the glaciers, but probably not.  I think even a Texan would find the landscape immense.

We headed in to Glacier Bay and on in to the Tar Inlet.  Two glaciers come in to the end of the inlet.  Like many glaciers, the Grand Pacific Glacier is receding.  This is where the Grand Pacific Glacier hits Tar Inlet:

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I know it's not very impressive. Although I couldn't get the entire glacier face in the frame, I'd say it's 90% there. You're looking at a 2 mile wide glacier face. A little perspective? If you laid the Empire State Building on it's side, it would be about (actually a little less) the length the dashes underneath the picture.

To the left is the Marjorie Glacier.

The Marjorie Glacier is about 1 mile wide and 350 high (250 above water).

Note that those caves are about 1/2 up in the first picture. The splash is about 1/2 to the cave. So the splash is about 60 feet high!!!

One of the other things that impresses me is the color of the water. I first encountered this at Glacier National Park in Montana. It was even bluer and clearer there. This picture doesn't capture it very well, but I think it gives you the idea.

The color is from Glacial Flour (also known as Rock Flour, but I like Glacial Flour better). Note that spectacular blue in the photo of Peyto Lake:

When we left Glacier Bay I was gripped by the sunlight on the water. It is a little out of context as it doesn't provide perspectives, but I liked it enough to toss it in.

The final perspective was the Gulf of Alaska coastline after we left Glacier Bay. Do you think there is enough elbow room in these parts?

Shuttle Delay

NASA announced that the last two shuttle launches have been delayed.  The last launch is now scheduled for Feb 25, 2011.  I talked to the Captain and we agreed to delay our Florida trip.  We're going to try to get tickets for the February launch and drive to Florida.

Whew.  The knee is still swollen etc.  I'm sure glad I'm not trying to do 50 miles a day in two weeks.  At least I've got a year to make this work.  If the knee isn't good by then, well perhaps the touring days might be over.

4rth of July

I was running through some photos and thought this picture of a pair of bald eagles would make a fitting simple 4^rth message.

Happy fourth of July

An LBI Day

The wily captain brokered a deal where he painted a few rooms in his ex-mother-in-laws Long Beach Island house for a week stay there.  So, of course, most of his family glombed on to this and joined him for part of his stay.

Spousy had a retirement party to attend to so we went down on Friday.  The drive down was fine although my knee started to bother me.  I would have thought that keeping my leg straight and foot on the foot rest would be the best position.  Wrong.  I found that bending my leg so that my foot was back by the front edge of the seat.

We got there around noon.  Although I'm not much of a beach person (so why am i on LBI?), soon we were off to the beach.  I really hate sunburn so I stayed under an umbrella until about an hour before we were going to leave.  Most of time I watched the local fauna or this dredge that had little activity.

The next morning Captain Bob and I rode north to the Barnegat lighthouse.  It was a great ride on the way down in the cool morning.  Apparently we had a tailwind.  The way back was tougher.  It was hotter and we clearly had a head wind.  By the time we got back, my knee was a bit sore and swollen.

That evening we ate at the Greenhouse Cafe.  It was pretty good and reasonably priced.  Captain Bob and John both brought too much wine.  But as I expected to drive back later, I only had a 1/2 glass.

Later we went to the final showing of the Black Maria Film Festival (John is the founder and director).  It was hosted by the LBI Foundation of the Arts & Sciences.  I didn't think any of this year's films stood out.  I didn't like Pickles for Nickels and a couple others but didn't have any favorites.  Perhaps I was less in the mood because my leg was starting to hurt while sitting there.  It was also so cold that I had to get up and walk around about 1/2 through.  In fact, at one break, I heard others call for the air conditioning to be turned down.  As near as I can tell, that never happened.

When the films were done, I was glad to get out in the warm humid outside.  We waited for John to out, chatted for a bit, then left.  When I got back to the car I was surprised that it was already cool.  Remember awhile back, Captain Bob had to buy a new car?  Well he had this new Prius that he apparently left running for 3 hours.  We will see how good his gas mileage is after that.

We went back to the beach house.  Captain Bob made me some coffee.  I put my bike on the rack and we took off.

Two hours later I was back and in my own bed.

Road to Recovery

As she has done for the past few years, Princess hosted a father's day get together.  It was small this year.  Just her brother-in-law (and family), father-in-law (and spouse), and spousy and me.  I usually bicycle there and plotted a longer route for my knee rehabilitation. 

This was the third time outside on the bike since my knee surgery.

I had been on the mag training bike in the basement a couple times.  I hadn't put any effort in to that.  I was mostly trying to flex my knee.  So I kept the tension and gearing low.  I spun at a low 60-70 cadence.   I think this helped loosen me up.

The first time outside was two Saturdays ago.  I walked the bike up to the main road because I didn't want to have a short stop forced on me by oncoming cars.  I mounted the bike OK and started off.  I just road around locally for about two miles and came back.  I didn't have any problems and figured I was on my way.

Next I rode around the block.  This upped the mileage to about 5 1/2 miles.  It also added a steep little bridge that goes over the railroad tracks.  I did alright on this one too.

Finally, I decided to take the long way to Princess' house.  I fired up my old Microsoft Streets and Maps because I find that the easiest to play with with this sort of plotting various routes to get a decent ride and the desired distance.  I settled on a 9 mile route that took me out to US 206, then north, and finally back to Princess' green acres.

I left about 12:30 and of course it was dang hot.  I rode down to the high school then over to US 206.  Fortunately there was one car waiting to turn left as I came up behind it.  I like a single car.  That way it trips the traffic signal and I get to go and not hold up traffic as I will if I'm behind three or four cars with more behind me.

The ride up 206 was fine.  I hit the usual nervous area where the cars are fast, the lanes are narrow, and there is no shoulder.  But I reached the promenade without incident. 

By this point I was about 2 miles from the end but I was getting a little tired.  Maybe it was a combo of the knee and the heat.  At any rate that last 2 miles was not as pleasant as the first two miles.  When I got to Princess' house I felt light headed enough that I put my bike in her garage rather than lifting it up to the roof rack.  But a short time in doors with some more ice water and I was ready for the shrimp, burgers, and of course Mike's shots of Irish whiskey.