House is Progressing

This is the bundle of hot water tubes that will carry solar energy from the solar panels to the various warm walls and warm floors in the house. Michael Wasserman, the solar guy, is still working on these. Each is numbered according to where it goes.

This is one of the warm walls, soon to be covered with adobe bricks. Another warm wall is visible in Anrahyah's office space beyond.

These two photos are of the drywalling process in the upstairs bedroom and bathroom areas.

Autumn Color Run

Our amateur radio club is asked each September to provide communication along the route of the Autumn Color Run--a footrace from Cottonwood Lake up in the mountains, down into Buena Vista.

The runners are bused up to Cottonwood Lake in time for a 9:00 start. Using ham radio, we're able to coordinate the start of the race so that people at both ends record the start simultaneously.

We take up positions along the way. These are places where the race committee establishes aid stations to serve the runners with snacks, drinks, and other services. Now and then, we'll take an injured or sick runner in from one of these stations. For example, in another race we've helped with, a runner collided with a deer one time! He collided with the deer--not the opposite.

When the runners come, we generally record the numbers of the first three males, and of the first three females. Then there's usually the matter of waiting for the very last runner, who is probably not running anymore.

These photos are all around the finish line, which is very near the (only) Buena Vista traffic light. Buena Vista is going to be in trouble if we ever get another one of these. Nobody will know which light is meant.

The top photo is the finish of the course, seen from inside Buena Vista's new library. This was my first time inside the recently-opened new building.

This is the scoring board, where results of the race are written.

A finisher crosses the line.

---Blog Layout---

Remember, in blogs a story moves from bottom to top! Most of mine involve more than one individual post, so these flow from the bottom post up.

Enjoy!

The End, August 20, 2006

Arrival at the end, which was at a dock just beyond Battery Park. There, trucks and buses waited to take some of us (those who had signed up for the shuttle) back to Albany with our bikes. Our baggage had already gone there from our last camp.

With bicycles in the truck, some of us ate at a restaurant that was about 100 yards away (a New York advantage!).

The bus ride up the length of Manhattan was fascinating. I hadn't been there for a long time and I remembered nothing. Mostly, I saw a great variety of almost everything! Foreign food restaurants, other kinds of shops, everything. As cities go, this one seemed amazingly compact and accessible. Arrival back in Albany was around eight that evening and I went directly to my friends' house across the river. It had been an informative trip, to say the least.

I did manage to leave a bicycle water bottle in the restaurant. It's replaceable, though that bottle had carried water for me in Vietnam and in Myanmar. The night before, in Nyack, somebody stole my bike computer off my bicycle. It was still a good trip.

Manhattan, August 20

Eleven miles to go! That's how long Manhattan Island is. We were off the George Washington Bridge and onto the very nice bicycle/pedestrian path along the Hudson River side of the city. This pathway was so nice, it was impossible to believe we were actually in NYC--so famous for robbers and other malefactors.

We were on city streets only briefly and these were no problem. At the very beginning, about halfway down Manhattan where construction was happening along the bike path, and then at the very end to reach our final destination.

We (Gretchen, Jerry, and I rode this stretch together) stopped at one point for hot dogs.

Here is Battery Park, with a view toward the Statue of Liberty.

Gretchen photographs Jerry

Me along the bike path. Photo by Gretchen.

George Washington Bridge into New York City, August 20

I'd driven a truck across the George Washington Bridge, but I sure hadn't been across on a bicycle! There are sets of metal steps leading up, over a roadway, and down the other side onto the bridge. But once you're there, it's a great view.

A pedestrian/bicycle path goes along the northern (upstream) side of the bridge.

Trail and Bridge

This the underside of the George Washington Bridge which carries Interstate 95 over the river at the northern end of New York City. The wonderful path shown below takes you right under the bridge. But getting onto the bridge with a bicycle is trickier. It involves a very steep set of metal steps.

Riverfront

A large marina exists here, photographed through a chain link fence.

Stony Point

Stony Point was of significance in the Revolutionary War.

Hot Dogs!

I came upon this hot dog stand, and met the proprietor of hot dogs! I quickly bought one, having gone without lunch one day because I didn't find a place to eat. That wasn't gonna happen twice.

The proprietor recommended that some of his wife's onions be put on my hot dog, and I agreed. This was a fortunate stop.

United States Military Academy, West Point

From a bluff over the river on the West Point grounds, and on the route of our tour, I photographed this barge being pushed up the Hudson.

The West Point cemetary is like reading a United States history book. Here is the grave of Edward White, an astronaut killed in a fire at Cape Kennedy, Florida. The grave on the left may be that of General William Westmoreland.

The West Point chapel is a beautiful structure as one might expect, given the closeness between the army and religion. Chapel attendance is no longer mandatory, though I wonder just how optional it really is.

This is the "barracks" area at West Point. Intramural athletic fields are close, and each cadet must participate in a sport. The classroom facilities are nearby, and the sports stadea are centrally located.

Over The Hill

We had an easy way around this mountain...there was to be a trail around its end, thus avoiding the climb over its top. But the trail was closed! There were trees and power lines down, according to the "do not enter" sign at the beginning.

So it was up and over the mountain. Not terrifically steep, but quite a long way.

The top at last! Nice views down, both to the north and of a power boat going up the Hudson River. In the bottom photo, note the Franklin D. Roosevelt Bridge across the river. The line seeming to go up the hill on the other side of the river is a street.

Mill Details

This piece of paper was posted on the wall inside the apparent mill/print shop. It must have been a sample of the printer's work. I do not claim to know the significance of this particular sequence of sentences.

This old printing press was inside.

The waterwheel just outside

Rest Stop, August 18

The stop was at a small park. There, the PTNY folks had erected a tent. Nearby was this small mill. Or at least it looked like a mill. It had a waterwheel, but inside it looked more like it had been a small print shop.

Mid-Hudson Bridge

The Mid-Hudson (or the Franklin D. Roosevelt) Bridge over the river.
We crossed the bridge and bicycled down the west side of the Hudson

The end, but a new beginning

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882-1945
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1962

Polio

Roosevelt was stricken with polio in adulthood, after he already was an officeholder (not president, yet). His wheelchairs were not cumbersome and large, but were office chairs fitted with wheels. There were several of these in his house.

That Roosevelt had had polio wasn't a particular secret, but that he was disabled was certainly not advertised. This would not be possible today, but was then.

Roosevelt's reason? Some people are so ignorant and crude as to believe that if a person has a physical disability, zie must have a mental disability as well.

The elevator to the second story in Roosevelt's home. He would pull himself up or let himself down, using an arrangement of ropes. FDR had a powerful upper body. He never electrified this elevator, for fear there would be a fire, the power would be out, and he would be stuck.

This is the lane into the Roosevelt home. FDR set as his goal that he would walk this long driveway, but I don't know that he ever accomplished this. I may be wrong. I know that he would be exhausted after walking only a short distance.

Franklin Roosevelt's Home, Hyde Park

This is FDR's house, where he liked to go while president. Eleanor Roosevelt would go there with him, but if he were not there, she would go to her own house nearby. This was to escape her rather troublesome mother-in-law.

This was President Roosevelt's desk, kept much as he had it arranged at the White House.

A room in the Roosevelt home

The family dining table

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Aug 17, 2006

At the home of Franklin Roosevelt just south of Hyde Park, the National Park Service conducts tours and has built a vistor center of good size. This statue is part of it, and so is the store. The name of that store speaks for itself!

I bicycled less than two miles to this place on the afternoon of our layover day. It was time well spent.

Camp for two nights at Hyde Park, Aug 16-17, 2006

Bicycle resting near my tent.

This was the central tent, set up at each camp for distribution of literature about the next day's activities, the sale of cold drinks, or just visiting. Our camp these two nights was at a Catholic girls' school in Hyde Park.

A "shower trailer!" Cyclists need nothing more than a good shower after a day on the road. On some days we were able to use gym showers at schools we camped at. But here, we used this innovative trailer that contained ten shower stalls, appropriately divided.

Neighbors for the moment, visiting.

The bicycle mechanic who accompanied our trip and who would set up a bike maintenance shelter each evening. I had a slow leak later, and he quickly installed a new tube.

Near Hyde Park

North of Hyde Park. A walk out nearer and overlooking the river, but I didn't go in.

Entrance to the Vanderbilt Mansion, immediately north of Hyde Park on huge grounds. Our layover day was in Hyde Park, so I bicycled back out here then.

This is the Vanderbilt Mansion.

Franklin Roosevelt lived just south of Hyde Park, in a less pretentious but still very nice house on large grounds. Vanderbilt called Roosevelt a "traitor to his class!" Good for FDR.