Fourth of July Fireworks

 

Being born on the fourth of July means that you are associated with fireworks. I have seen a lot of different firework shows both small and large on my birthday. This year for my birthday I decided to go see a big firework show for my milestone birthday. So on July 4th we headed down to Camden to see the Philadelphia fireworks from the Battleship NJ. We went for the VIP package so we got some food and drink and a place to sit on the upper deck. It was little tough finding a parking spot as thousands of people were heading to the river to see the fireworks. 

Once we got on the ship we had a comfortable seat at a table with a couple of my wife's friends. We also got some food and drink as we watched the sunset over Philadelphia.

And then watched day turn into night. 

The barge in the picture was where the fireworks were launched from so it was really close.

Once the fireworks started we had a front row view to the show which was worth the price of admission. 

There was a good variety of fireworks. 

Some were so close and large that they filled the entire wide angle view of my camera.

Others were so bright that they turned night into day.

Besides being a visual spectacular it was also an audio assault you felt the sound of the fireworks in you chest and heard them reverberate off the buildings on both sides of the rivers.

The show lasted for almost a half hour.  It ended with a finale with more fireworks per second than I could count. It was definitely one of the best shows I have seen in a long time but it wasn't quite over. After the show the Battleship NJ fires off six rounds of its "small" 5 inch gun which gave us an idea of how loud and violent a battle at sea would have been. 

It took a little while to get out of Camden and home so it was a late night but it was a memorable way to celebrate my birthday.

Trying Some New Things

This year I hit one of those milestone birthdays so I have decided to use that as an excuse to try a few new things. One of the things I have been wanting to try for a few years was a treetop adventure course. This is where you climb up into the trees and walk over different wobbly bridges and other swinging obstacles as well as zip lining through the trees. My nephew has done it a few times and the more he talked about it the more I wanted to do it.  

So this past Thursday my sister, my nephew and his daughter went to FlgX in Mt Arlington NJ near where my sister and nephew live.  

It wasn't the best weather as it was raining on and off but under the trees the rain didn't really bother us and it was cool which was good because going through the course really works up a sweat. It's hard to describe what the actual course is like. There are basically three types of obstacles you have to make you way across. The first are bridges where you have to walk across widely space planks or a narrow cable. These I didn't find to hard you just had to be careful to place you feet correctly to keep your balance.

The second type of obstacle is suspension objects. This is where there are some logs or balls or other things that are hung from cables that you have to make your way across. For example they had some 3 inch diameter logs hung like a trapeze and you have to step from one trapeze to another without falling. These were challenging and definitely used every part of my body. Legs, arms and core. The first one of these obstacles was hard but I got better at them as I did more of them.

The third type of obstacle was a zip line where you had to leap off the platform and glide over the trees to the next platform. This is easy once you get over your fear of jumping off a platform 20 to 30 feet in the air. 

I have to say the safety system at this place is amazing and I had no fear that I could actually fall at any point in the course once I understood how it worked. You have a full harness on with 2 clips and a zip line pulley. Before you start up the ladder both the clips have to be clipped in or you can't climb. As you move from obstacle to obstacle there is no way to unfasten more then one clip at a time so you are always hooked to something. When you are on an obstacle you have to have both clips hooked on to a cable. If you fall off an obstacle the most you could fall is about 6 inches before you will be hanging from the clips in your harness. Then you just pull yourself up and keep going. I was luckly as I never fell from any of the obstacles although I came close a couple of times.

The harness you are in is also pretty secure so the first time I did the zip line and had to hang by the harness it just felt like sitting on a canvas swing. 

You start out on a demo course which is only 5 feet from the ground so you figure out how to work the clips and harness and zip line pulley there before actually climbing up into the trees. 

 FlgX has 5 levels of courses that you can go through (Green, Blue, Silver, Red, and Black) each level gets a little higher and harder. It took us 2 hours to work our way through the first three levels. There are 8 to 12 obstacle in each level. It was challenging and tiring and a full body workout. It was also fun and rewarding. Not only because we made it through the obstacles but because we were joking around with each other and helping each other through each obstacle. 

We start up the 4th level but after getting a closer look at the challenges my sister and I decided not to go on. There was one obstacle you had to walk lengthwise over a log with nothing to hold on to. I didn't think my arms and legs had enough left to do that. 

My nephew and his daughter started the 4th level but my nephew had to stop halfway through as he pull something in his shoulder and had to be pull off the course. His 12 year old daughter made it all the way through and the last obstacle is doing a Tarzan swing into a cargo net which looked like a lot of fun so I'm sorry I couldn't make it there. 

The tree top adventure course was challenging both mentally and physically. Surprisingly I didn't have a problem with the height or the possibility of falling. It was good to push my boundaries of what I have comfortable with. Once I made it through the first few obstacles it was actually a lot of fun and something I may do again. 

Southern Soujour

The southern part of NJ offers a lot of quiet flat roads. I try to go down there once our twice a year for a ride just for a change of pace. This Saturday's weather was going be a good day for a ride with temperatures in the 70s with partly cloudy skies and a little wind. Okay is was more than a little windy. 

Luckily most of the insane posse were back from their vacations and most of them were able to join me for the ride. So we got the band back together again. We met at Bordentown and carpooled down to Fort Mott which is by the Delaware Memorial Bridge. 

We got to the starting point just before 10am and were soon on the road. The first 10 miles we zig zaged into the stiff north west wind as we went through the swamp and farmland. Once we got the wind at our back we quickly knocked off a bunch of miles until we were at Bud's Market, in Alloway, which is literally the only place to stop down this way

It is actually a nice stop and there is a empty house next store with a porch to relax on. When Laura rolled into the stop she said she had a problem with her rear derailleur. Ricky took a quick look at it but couldn't fix it. He did put it into a middle gear. You only need a few gears down south as there aren't many hills or rollers down south.

From Alloway we did head up hill a little to one of the highest point in Cumberland County but at 145 feet is not much of a climb. As required on one of my rides we ran into a dirt road. We could of course have gone around it but where is the fun in that. I had spent time the night before the ride using Google maps street view to make sure we stayed off dirt and sand but I guess I missed this one. The surface was hard packed sand so we were able to slowly make our way about a half mile until we found a real road again. 

Here is Ricky saying the scarecrow says the road is that way while Bob is seeing whether he can get an Uber to get him back to the start. We eventually found a road an another deli to stop at where Martin got some more local info. He was told that we should head down this road down to a boat ramp for a good view of the river. However after a 2 mile detour and no sign of the boat ramp we turn around.

We did get our first view of the Salem nuclear reactor. At this point we had at least 15 miles more or less directly into the wind which was still a constant 18mph with gust probably close to 30mph. It wasn't fun especially for Laura who didn't have right gears to spin into the wind. 

We took our time and stop to gather up a few times and slowly made our way back. Right after we went through Salem I cramped and had to stop and stretch for a few minutes before continuing back to Fort Mott park. 

 

On the  way back into the park I stopped to get a picture of the ugliest light house in NJ. This lighthouse is about a mile from the Delaware river and is a different type of lighthouse. It's beam intersects the beam of another lighthouse near the river to mark the center. The lighthouse by the river no longer exists so this lighthouse in no longer used. 

We were all pretty beat by the time we go back because of the wind. Still I'm glad we made the trip as it was a change of pace and another fun adventure with the posse.

Where is Everybody

The last two weekends I have had to do some rides without most of the usual members of the posse as they have been traveling or otherwise occupied. I posted a ride last Saturday that only got one person to sign up and then had to cancel the ride because of rain. I ended up doing a ride on my own on Sunday and then the All Paces on Monday. I was planning on leading my own ride at the all paces assuming enough of the posse would be there to join me but besides Jim, who was leading his own ride, nobody was there. I ended up on Dave's ride which was in the upper B range. I bailed after the rest stop because I wanted to swing by the old house the see it on my way back. 

This Saturday I posted a ride from Bull's island to ride through some of the covered bridges on the PA side. It was going to be perfect weather for this ride so I thought I would get a good turn out but only got 4 people to sign up. Two people I didn't know and Chris and Jim. I was surprised that Chris sign up as he hadn't been riding in the hills the last few years.

It really was a beautiful day for this ride. We walked across the bridge to the PA side and then headed up Fleecy Dale which had a road closed sign across it but the only problem with the road was it was full of large pot holes which were annoying but easy enough to ride around. The toughest hill is at the beginning of the ride after the turn on Wisner and has two steep climbs. I hadn't done any tough hills in a few weeks but had my triple with me so just shifted it into the low gear and ground up. I actually had to stop and kick the front derailleur to get it into the bottom gear so I need to adjust that before the next ride. Chris was the last up the hill. 

We continued on towards the first covered bridge but right before we got there Jim got a flat. After he changed it while his tire was on the ground and he was putting his tools away the tire blew out the side. Apparently the tire had a defect. Luckily Chris had a spare tire so Jim put that on and then decided to head back instead of continuing on. The rest of is continued on through the three covered bridges. 

The part of the route has a nice rhythm as it has some gentle up hills followed by some twisting long gentle downhills. The only problem is that most of the roads had just be rocked so in the shade it was hard to see where the rocks were and I was worried about the bike sliding out from under me. 

We did make it through with out falling and ended up at the Upper Black Eddy deli at the bottom of Bridgeton for our break. This is one of my favorite places to stop for a ride. It's got a nice set of tables out back by the canal that you could just sit out and relax all day. 

 

After the break we headed to the NJ side and climbed up to the ridge and rode past Sky Manor airport. It was a little warm in the sun but not uncomfortably hot. The clear sky now had some clouds which made for some good pictures. 

We finished the ride with a screaming decent down Federal Twist. Although there were a few problems with the ride is still was a good day on the bike. Hopefully most of the posse will be around for my next ride.

Lunar Eclipse

 

On Sunday night there was a lunar eclipse. Despite predictions of overcast and cloudy weather there were a few clear stretches that allowed me to get a few pictures of the eclipse. Even when the clouds cleared there was still a lot of water vapor in the air so the view was still hazy. I managed to get a close up pictures of the moon. One right before the total eclipse.

And a couple after the full eclipse started.

Because of the conditions these aren't great pictures but I'm glad I did get a chance to see part of it. Each lunar eclipse is a little different. This was the darkest moon I have seen during a lunar eclipse. It was almost hard to see. That was probably because of the conditions. A little after midnight the clouds started to close in so I didn't get to see the rest of the eclipse. The next one will be November 7. Hopefully the conditions will be better.

Rainy Weather

As the weekend approaches I always pay attention to the forecast when deciding where and when to ride. Last weekend was a washout so I didn't get a ride in. This weekend the forecast was a little better but there was still the possibility of rain in the forecast. The forecast for Saturday was fog and clouds in the morning followed by heavy showers. The hourly forecast from the couple of sources I use showed only a 20% chance of rain until noon. 

Sunday's forecast was better but Jack had sent out an email wanting to get a ride in Saturday before his trip to Missouri so we took the chance and did an ad hoc ride in Saturday. Now I knew the forecast Saturday was not great and I did expect to get rained on a little but the weather we got was a lost worst than the prediction. 

I did do the blessing of the Holy Kickstand at the start as the insane posse had some health and family issues and I wanted to do something to ward off future problems and protect the posse. The Holy Kickstand does not control the weather so we had to leave that the other bike gods. 

The ride started off with a little fog but that lifted to a hazy cloud cover as we headed south. I was optimistic about our chances to stay mostly dry until it started to rain a little and then got harder. As the rain got harder we had to stop to change one of the four flats that we had on the ride. The rain let up for a little while then started and stopped a couple of time. The rain was harder than the light sprinkle that was predicted and eventually the number and force of the rain caused us to cut it short and head straight back. The only good thing about the weather was that it was warm so we were wet but not cold.

We got back with 36 of the planned 48 miles. One of us didn't make it back as they had a flat a few miles before the end but Jim went back and picked them up.

I know weather is not a precise science but I expected the forecast to be more accurate. I know that weather models use  "Deterministic Nonperiodic Flow" (i.e. Chaos Theory) to predict the weather so there are a lot of conflicting factors in the model that can prevent it from converging to get an accurate result. I could blame the fact that we got caught in the rain on a bad forecast or the fact that Jim and I were on the same ride (which for some reason this year has been very rare) or the fact that I brought my hill bike to a flat ride but the truth is if you ride enough and push the envelope you are some times going to get wet.

Crossing the Delaware

I do quite a few rides near the Delaware because of the interesting roads on both sides of the river. Most of the rides I do involve crossing the Delaware at one of the bridges. This usually means walking across since the law doesn't allow bikers to ride across bridges with pedestrians on them. However the new Scudder Falls Bridge now has ridable bike lane that makes it easier to cross the Delaware. 

This new bike lane has been open for months but I have not had a chance to use it yet so I took the opportunity this weekend to check it out when I did a ride out of Yardley. We did this route which takes us uphill to Tyler State park and then over Jericho mountain before a stop in New Hope for a break. After the break we headed toward the bridge to NJ. I took a new route to the bridge that involved going the wrong way up a one way street, walking over rail tracks and over a bridge with broken and up heaved asphalt. It wasn't as bad as it sounds and the road on the other side is now my favorite way to get to New Hope and over the bridge. 

After the long walk over the bridge to the NJ side we headed uphill and wound our way through Hopewell and the outskirts of Pennington before heading back down to the Delaware. This route has around 3000 feet of climbing but I didn't feel too stressed by it. I was able to turn the peddles up the hills without my heart rate blowing up and didn't cramp. It probably helped that the weather was cool. I of course wasn't as fast as the rest of people with me and I actually think Pete new knee has actually made him faster than before.

The trip over the Scudders Falls bridge was interesting. The surface is a little rough and bumpy but it is nice to be able to ride over the Delaware. I definitely will use it again the next time I need to cross the Delaware in this area.