Category: Bike Rides and Routes

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Palm Beach Stambaugh Cottage Move

When seven-year-old Grandson Malcolm went on his first ride on the Palm Beach Lake Trail, he never dreamed he’d get to see a house being moved.

Video of the ride and house move

 

The first part of the video shows the start of the ride; the second part is the move of the Stambaugh Cottage.

This is the first time I’ve ridden with Malcolm in six or so months. He pedals to school every day, so he’s probably got more miles under his seat than I do for the year. Today’s ride – about 12 miles – was one of his longest, Dad Matt said.

I was really impressed with the way the kid could maintain speed and hold a straight line. When we had to get off the trail and onto city streets from time to time, I didn’t feel any qualms about his ability to ride in light traffic.

Palm Beach landmark being moved

When we were several miles into the ride, a fellow on the trail warned us that it was closed ahead. That’s when I remembered hearing that a landmark Palm Beach building was being moved.

The Stambaugh Cottage, built sometime around 1910, had been used as a golf course caretaker’s home for decades. It had originally been occupied by Orrel Stambaugh, who helped build many of the area’s roads. A story in The Palm Beach Post said that the golf course had planned to tear down the building to put up a new groundskeeper’s house in its spot. Some of Orrel’s descendants put up money to move the house and the golf course donated the building and the money they would have used for demolition to the cause.

As of now, the cottage is sitting on a barge while a final destination is worked out. It took a little over two hours for the house to be moved to the barge after all the initial prep word was done.

Gallery of Stambaugh Cottage move photos

Thanks to Matt for shooting the stills while I concentrated on the videos. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to mover through the gallery.

 

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St. Louis Moonlight Ramble

I was stuck in Cape Girardeau, Mo., waiting for a rebuilt transmission to be put in my van so I could return home to Florida. Brother Mark, who lives in St. Louis, encouraged me to come up for the 48th Annual Moonlight Ramble Saturday night / Sunday morning. It attracts 10,000 riders and kicks off somewhere around midnight.

I told him I didn’t have a big problem with midnight, but that I didn’t like the idea of being on streets clogged with a mix of riders.

He assured me that he had ridden the event several times and that starts are staggered, the streets are wide and the 13-mile route is long enough to let everybody have plenty of space.

Mother loaned me her Mazda

I didn’t bother to even try to see if my Surly Long Haul Trucker would fit in my mother’s four-door Mazda until Saturday mid-afternoon just before the two-hour drive to St. Louis. I figured that her two rear seats fold down, giving access to the trunk, so loading my bike would be a piece of cake.

Well, the seats DID fold down, but the access hole was way narrower than I thought. There was no way I was going to get the bike in THAT car without taking off more than I was willing to take off for a 13-mile gaggle.

Enterprise rental is just up the road

I’ll just rent a car. No big deal. Except that Enterprise closes at 1 p.m. on Saturday and it’s after 3. I put in a call to Wife Lila, who tells me that there’s a Hertz dealer just down the road.

They closed at noon.

I’ll buy a rack

I have a Yakima Kingpin 5 on my van, but it’s stuck in the transmission shop. I don’t trust strap-on racks for good reason. Still, I pulled into Cape Bicycle, folks who wouldn’t steer me wrong. They HAD a rack that looked sturdy enough to hold my LHT, but it cost $149. Too much for one-time use.

How about U-Haul?

College is starting up. They didn’t have a piece of rolling stock to rent me, even if it hadn’t been too expensive. They sent me to Budget. They were closed, too.

At that point, I called Bro Mark and said I was bailing. “When you foul off that many pitches, the next one is either gonna be a strike or a beanball. Somebody’s telling me that I shouldn’t be doing this ride. Even if I could FIND transportation, I have this fear that there’s a tanker truck with my name on it somewhere between Fruitland and Old Appleton.”

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard reward

Mark said he’d document the ride with his iPhone, and that’s what he did. It appears that the Ted Drewes Frozen Custard at the end was the high point of the ride for him. (Either that or he was picking up some product placement payola that he didn’t share with me.)

Moonlight Ramble Photo Gallery

Click on any image to make it larger, then click on the left or right side to mover through the gallery.

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Fishing on the Mississippi River

Whenever I go back home to Cape Girardeau, Mo., I take a ride down an abandoned stretch of U.S. 61 that has been bypassed by I-55. It deadends at a boat ramp on the Diversion Channel. That stretch of road has been underwater from the spring floods until just recently, so I was curious what it looked like now that the river has dropped.

Great day for a boat ride

I ran into Ed and Melinda Roberts, who were cast netting for bait to use on their trotlines. After a brief conversation, they invited me to go with them down the Diversion Channel and into the Mississippi River where they planned to set up their lines.

Ed’s goal is to put 400 to 500 pounds of catfish in the freezer to tide them over the winter.

How-to on trotline fishing

 

Here’s a video of Ed and Melinda setting out their trotline. You can read the whole story on my Cape Girardeau blog.

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Meandering Ride on The LOST and Buckhead Ridge

Anne and I headed up to the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail this weekend, not so much to ride the LOST as to go past the paved trail at the northwest corner and ride through the small neighborhoods in Buckhead Ridge.

Most of the residents are snowbirds from the Midwest who are like Jimmy John Shark who love fishing and rural life.

We only logged about 20 miles, but we saw an interesting mix of homes, waved at a bunch of people, snagged what I hoped was a wild orchid to replace one I found in Okeechobee years ago (it wasn’t) and let Texas Gal Anne moo at some cows.

Surly LHT needed a rest

There was a killer head wind on the way back, but that worked out fine. We were going slow enough that we spotted several gators, a bunch of great blue herons and other wading birds and scores of some kind of eggs along the trail. Someone had, obviously, been chowing down. I’ll have to ask Gary Ritter, who lives out there and rides almost every day, what they were. I’m thinking they might be turtle eggs dug up by raccoons.

My Surly Long Haul Trucker got tired fighting the wind, so I let it rest for a few minutes.

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Eight Bike Tips from LOST Ride

Anne (of lovebug fame), Pam, a new rider – Hillary – and I took off Saturday evening for a ride on what I call Ghost Road 27. It’s an abandoned stretch of what used to be the major north-south highway through central Florida. The stretch we were riding is about 15 miles long between South Bay and Clewiston. It’s slowly going back to nature, and it’s blocked off by about five gates that have to be gone over, through or around.

Dodging gates


The temps were on the warm side of comfortable and we had a strong tailwind that made it feel even warmer, because the technical nature of the road kept us from going too fast. About a mile past where I warned the other riders about watching out for cracks in the pavement, the wide front tire of my Surly LHT fell into one. I was able to maintain control, but I felt a little sheepish.

Non-poisonous snake

We had several dogs give chase, but they weren’t serious. Some friendly folks along the way waved and spoke. We didn’t see any gators on this trip, but Mr. Snake made an appearance. Anne used her Texas snake-charming skills to try to herd it where I could get a better photo, but Florida snakes must be immune to her charms.

I was seriously sleepy

When we got to Clewiston, we stopped at a Sonny’s BBQ for dinner. I was so sleepy I thought my head was going to fall in my plate. When we headed back, the temperature had dropped and our tailwind became a headwind. At dusk, I suggested we stop to don some bug spray. With the wind blowing as hard as it was, I didn’t think mosquitoes would be a problem, but it’s easier to put on the spray when you’re not dancing and swatting. I decided to pull on my knee warmers, too. You Yankees will scoff, but I ride better with warm muscles.

Nothing between here and Europe to block wind

When we got on top of the Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) it became very clear that there was nothing between us and Europe blocking the wind. I told my much younger riding partners that they were welcome to ride their own pace. “You can’t get lost on the LOST. I’m going to gear down, crank up the tunes and get into my own zone.” They quickly disappeared.

A few miles down the trail, I saw them waiting for me. It wasn’t an act of kindness. I had the car keys. I told them that I liked it better when they were a speck in the distance. If they were close, I’d try to keep up with them. They took me at my word and blasted off again.

A couple more miles down the road, I saw they had stopped again. This time it was because Hillary had a flat. The good news is that she had a tube and a CO2 cartridge. The bad news is that Pam didn’t have a light; Anne’s light, which used a rechargeable battery was dead, and Hillary’s light, which used some kind of funky battery was also dead. Oh, yeah, Hillary didn’t have an inflator to go WITH the cartridge.

B&M IQ Cyo R N Plus and Flare 5

I have a ViewPoint Flare 5 LED light on my helmet to use as a flashlight and another one on my bars as a ‘be-seen’ flashing light. A B&M IQ Cyo R N Plus generator light is my primary headlight. It’s nice to have spare lights, particularly when you’re riding with folks who may not be quite as prepared. A generator light will provide power as long as you have legs (although mine were a bit questionable on this ride).

I also have an inflator, so I told Hilary that we’d give her tire a shot of air from her threaded cartridge that would, hopefully get her home. I also clipped my spare be-seen light on her bars and said, “Ride like crazy.” My CO2 inflator takes both threaded and the cheaper non-threaded cartridges.

Pulled out the Topeak Road Morph pump

She got about 200 yards before the tire was flat again. I dig out my tools and we took out the old tube and put the tire back together. A few squirts of air from my Topeak Road Morph Pump with Gauge made it feel like all was right with the world, so I pulled out one of my CO2 cartridges to top it off. It flatted almost immediately. Hoping that it was just that we hadn’t closed the valve all the way, we gave it another shot of air. Same result.

One of the nice things about the LOST is that you’re completely isolated from motorized traffic. That’s one of the bad things, though, because some of the pickup points are seven to 10 miles apart. Fortunately, we were within a mile of one, so I gave Pam the be-seen light and sending her off down the trail to the cars. I told her I’d follow. We left Anne and Hillary to walk to the pickup point, after asking them if they know what a python slithering through the grass sounded like.

Pam beat me to the cars by a wide margin. Wide enough that she had time to get to the car, drive to the non-python-eaten riders and get back just as I was racking my bike.

What 8 valuable lessons can we take from this ride?

  • Bring a light, even if you think you’ll be done by dark.
  • Make sure your batteries are charged and/or bring spares.
  • Carry a backup light.
  • A CO2 cartridge won’t do any good if you don’t have an inflator. You can’t always count on riding with someone who has one.
  • Tire tools make removing the tube easier.
  • Carry a spare tube. If you’re out in the boonies, two is better.
  • A pump will do the initial fill of the tire; you can finish it off with the cartridge, but a pump will provide air as long as you can pump. The cartridge is one-shot.
  • Watch nature programs so you can be familiar with the sound of slithering pythons. If you hear one, don’t warn your partner, just start to move away quietly. Snakes go for the closer prey. (It dawns on me that I was the slow rider on this trip. Maybe I shouldn’t give away ALL my secrets.)