The Big Bang

In 1959 Bell Labs built a large microwave antenna to support NASA's Project Echo which bounced radio waves off large metallic balloons satellites to transmit radio signals across the globe. A few years later this microwave antenna was use with Telstar the first communication satellite.  Two scientists at Bell Labs, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, got permission to use this microwave antenna to survey the sky and study radio emissions of the stars and Milky Way. As they used the antenna to look for radio emissions they found they had some background noise. Initially they assumed this noise was caused by a problem with the antenna or some interference from the surrounding area. However after eliminating all possible sources of noise (including cleaning the pigeon droppings out of the antenna and shooting the pigeons) they realized that this noise was not coming from some man made source but was some background noise that was coming from outside our galaxy.

At the same time a few Princeton astrophysicists who were being led by Robert Dicke were trying to find some evidence to support  the Big Bang theory. At the time there were two competing theories on the formation of the universe. The Steady State theory said that universe was static and unchanging and had always existed this way. The other theory was the Big Bang theory that said that the universe had started from a large cataclysmic explosion and was constantly expanding. At the time there was no observable evidence to back up the Big Bang theory but Robert Dicke had theorized that it would have left a low level microwave signature.

Penzias and Wilson hear about Dicke's work and contacted him. Dicke came down and listen to the background noise which immediately confirmed his theory. This lead to a joint paper published by Penzias , Wilson and Dicke that eventually lead to wide acceptance of the Big Bang theory and a Nobel Prize for Penzias and Wilson in 1978.

Its turns out that this microwave antenna known, as the Holmdel Horn Antenna, is at the highest point in Monmouth County. So as part of our ride today we visited this now national landmark. Unlike the last couple of highpoint rides where we got close but not really to the actual highpoint the plan today was to get to the actually highpoint. Also instead of a boring picture of some people standing on an nondescript piece of grass I wanted to get us all standing in front of the antenna. 

Unfortunately things didn't work out as planned. As Laura and I rode around the fence blocking the road to the antenna a guard in the building starting yelling at us with some urgency so we stopped. I suspect he would have called the police if we had gone any further. We tried to ask for permission to see the antenna but it is not allowed with out an appointment. Although the the antenna is open to the public you need to do it by appointment during the week. A fact that is not mentioned on any site I looked at regarding the antenna.   So instead of getting a picture of us in front of the antenna I got one just below looking at it through the woods. You really can't see the antenna but we got as close as we could. We also only got to around 340 ft which is 40 ft below the actual 380 ft high point. Oh well as least we got a good story to tell.

 

The rest of the ride was close to a normal Sandy Hook ride except for the fact that we came in to Sandy Hook from a slightly difference direction because of the detour to the antenna. This meant we missed doing the hills along the Navasink river. It was a clear day so we stopped at the top of the bridge on our way into Sandy Hook to get a couple of pictures of NY

We also stopped at the beach on Sandy Hook to see the beach and take a few more shots.

The ride back from Sandy Hook was made easier by a nice east wind and a newly paved Rumson Rd. At the end we go in just over 62 miles so we got our first metric in for the year.

Part of the fun of the highpoint rides is trying to find something interesting along the way. Although I had known the story of the Holmdel Horn Antenna I did not realize where it actually was so it was cool to kinda almost see it.

Mercer Highpoint

At 60 degrees to start and the promise of almost 80 degrees by noon we finally had good weather to ride in. Today's goal was to ride to the highpoint of Mercer county. Unlike Middlesex county the highest road you can ride on and the highest point of Mercer county are not very close to each other.

This was a typical Sourlands ride. We started from the parking lot in Rocky hill by the canal and worked our way up Hollow Rd to the ridge. The highest road we can ride in at the corner of Featherbed and Hopewell-Wertsville Rd (471 ft according to my GPS). To get there we had to zig-zag up and down the ridge which added some more climbing but also got us on some nice roads that I don't normally travel.

From there is was more or less the regular roads to Lamberville including Alexuken Rd which is a beautiful was to head down the hill to Lambertvile.

After our normal break in Rojo's we headed back. The way back was different than normal. This was because I wanted to get as close as I could to Baldplate Mountain where the real high of Mercer county is. This required us to first head up Goat Hill Rd which starts with a short but steep 10% grade. This turned out to not be the toughest climb. Our next climb was up Pleasant Valley Rd which I had never done. On paper it doesn't look too bad as it is  around a 6-7% grade. The problem is that its almost a 2 mile climb. I decided to ride the Feather today because it can handle anything under 10%.  However it was a struggle getting up the last bit of Pleasant Valley as my heart rate was close to max by the end of the climb.

When we got to Baldplate Mountain park some of us tried to ride into the park to see if we could get to the actual highpoint. We made it to the parking lot but could not get to the actual high point. According to my GPS we got to 463 ft which is 17ft below the official highpoint of 480 ft.

I took a picture anyway since just to show we were there. (Not sure what's up with Laura's neck)

From Baldplate Mountain we headed through Pennington and then through the backside of Princeton to get back to the starting point. These are roads I haven't taken in a while so it was a nice change of pace. By the time we got back to the start we had 54 miles and had checked off another highpoint.

Naked Legs

This past Saturday I went on a ride with the Philadelphia Bike Club (PBC). The ride was out of Lambertville so it was close by. I had planned to be on this ride a couple of months ago when Linda, president of PBC, asked me to help her with a route in the area.

Of course I didn't know what the weather would be a couple of months ago but it turned out to be a warmish day. At the start it was 55 and sunny so I debated for a few minutes whether to wear the tights or not. Most people were still bundling up in jackets and tights but I hate carrying discarded cloths so I ditched the jacket and tights.

As we headed up Alexauken Creek Rd I felt almost naked compared to the bike cloths I have been wearing for the past few months. I was also a little chilly but by the time I got to the top of the hill I was warming up.

Linda had a good crowd there were 11 of us including Joe and Dave who I persuaded to join the ride. The goal of the ride was to explore Hunterton County so we zig-zaged our way through the Sourlands towards Flemington and onwards towards Round Valley although we didn't go to the reservoir itself.

I was concerned with the hills since I have not done many this year but I actually didn't feel bad. The real problem was the wind which was gusting to over 20 mph. By the time we got to the stop in Flemington Dave and Joe decided to drop from the ride and take off on their own and make a shorter ride. The rest of us continued on and although the wind didn't stop we got into a rhythm and keep cranking the miles away.

Although I don't know a lot of people in PBC there were a couple on the ride that I knew so it was a good social ride. Jim had some deep thoughts on bike friends in his last blog post. The question is are the people we ride with week in and week out real friends or just people we like to bike with. The answer is they are real friends and in fact they feel like a family to me. When Jim had his accident last week we all responded like a family would and did what we could to help give him some emotional support.

This is partly because we all like Jim and partly because we are bikers and when anything happens to any biker we all feel the pain. Being an avid biker means entering into a larger community of shared experiences that all bikers have. I have met many bikers on the road who are total strangers but after a few minutes of exchanging stories we quickly build a connection.

The fact that I don't see my bike friends much outside of biking has more to do with everybody having our own busy family life which doesn't leave much free time for other social events. Still I spend 4 to 5 hours a week with riding and talking to my bike friends so I think I know more about them then most of the other people in my life. I'm sure like most friendships some will fade and disappear overtime and some may grow stronger as life and circumstances evolve. Although they say you can choose your friends the truth is you find some of them as you are riding along a road.

So even though I don't see Linda or some of the other people from PFW or PBC that often I still consider them to be friends and will always enjoy the social aspect of biking when our paths cross.

Twinkies vs Dreamies

Its Easter again which means we are hosting the family for the celebration. Besides all the good food my wife makes she also tries to make a visually interesting dessert with an Easter theme.

This year it took her a while to come up with an idea but finally settled on making cars with rabbits in them. The cars are Twinkies with a peep rabbit and a pretzel for the steering wheel. The wheels themselves are marshmallow. 

Actually the cars are not real Twinkies but the the Tastycake equivalent (Dreamies) We actually ended up buying both Twinkies and Dreamies while shopping because we wanted to make sure we had enough. This gave me a unique opportunity to compare the two. I know many people were concerned when Hostess announced they were shutting down in November 2012 that the Twinkie would be gone and for a while it was. This lead other bakeries like Tastycake to try and fill the void.

So here the verdict. The Dreamie is close but it is a little drier and not as sweet as the Twinkie. I also think the filling in the Twinkie is a little better. You would think that a bakery like Tastycake could make a perfect copy of a Twinkie but I guess the secret recipe is still safe. I don't eat this type of food a lot but given a choice I would stick with the Twinkie.