people are pigs

Tomorrow school begins. The heat has broken. There was no reason why I shouldn't go for a walk. So I did.

Before there was Uber, I Ubered people all the time. It's amazing how many people in my family don't drive/have cars. today I took my sister to BJs and Aldi. Then tonight I pick up my niece at the Steel, take her to someone's house, and then home. At lunchtime I took Lyds to get her test read and we headed out for a walk. I have to do more than Uber during the day.

Her appointment was on Cedar Crest Blvd, near the hospital. We had three choices to walk: the fish hatchery, and either side of Cedar Creek Park. We probably could have added Trexler to the list. Lydia picked the pool side of Cedar Creek.

The lot was full. The pool was still open and the playground fairly full. There was a fair number of  differently abled people and their aides using the park as well. We headed out the road toward 19th street. We immediately noticed that the lake was covered with algae which is odd because it has —or at least had—aerators.

Then we noticed something else. The water fowl was missing but there was stuff floating in the lake. Upon closer inspection it was trash. People liter while using the park, then we have a flash flood, the park floods and the trash lands in the lake. It was disgusting.

We circled the lake and went behind the pool. Then we walked on the road to Cedar Crest, and headed back in the driveway to the car.

Miles/Steps:           1+ miles

Weather:                73, sunny, 63% humidity

Wildlife:                  we found the ducks next to the island. And another group being fed bread by some children. Didn't we learn that was bad in the 70s?

golv: monocacy park

Today's GOLV walk is in Monocacy Park. No great excitement here, it's three miles from my house on foot. I could walk there and back. Oh well. Lydia is working and I forgot to contact Debbie so I was on my own.

For those of you who don't know, in 2017 Wildlands Conservancy did a major restoration of the stream in Monocacy Park — removing rock dams that prevented fish movement, removing unhealthy trees, and planting native flowers and shrubs for riparian buffers. The mill, built in 1856, was a grist mill until 1915. From 2001-11 Liberty High School students restored the building and created an environmental center at the mill which is owned by the City of Bethlehem. The mill os now an event venue, as well as offices for the Appalachian Mountain Club.

We began the walk headed towards the waterfall built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936. We did not walk on the path but along the creek. A few weeks ago the city removed all the "locks of love" but a few were back. After using the restroom,  we headed back on the other side of the creek to the parking lot. After reassembling, we continued into the more "natural" area of the park. I had email Christine after Lydia and I were there a few weeks ago to tell her about fallen trees and eriosion on the trail. Two places were pretty impassable. They walked the trail in advance. The city had cleaned up the trees, and in the one eroded spot Bill sood in the hwhole and helped people balance as they walked across. the other we avoided totally because they made a runaround thru the forest.

After crossing the railroad tracks, we headed thru the new meadows and climbed the hill to the pool and dog park, and then continued on the path back down to the main trail. In this section there are ruins of the industries that helped spur the Industrial Revolution in America. We turned down another small path toward the creek to see the pond. An a pond of toxic polluted water. It looks pretty, but don't swim, fish or drink the water. Upon returing to the trail, some continued on to Burnside Plantation. The rest of us turned back. When we reached the natural area, we had to go back the way we came. The non-creek part of the loop trail was flooded and muddy.

We returned with a bag of trash.

Miles/Steps:           3

Weather:                70, sunny, 63% humidity

Bathrooms:             I didn't go in

Wildlife:                   about 20 mallards, 2 white geese, swallow tail butterflies, bees. The normal things.

sunflower trail

Today we walked the sunflower trail at an orchard in Washington, NJ. It's across from the community college.

It rained this morning so we knew it was going to be muddy. It was overcast most of the day. It drizzled at the orchard.

We left the barn/store and headed toward the fields. Past the berries, the peach trees and the apples. We arrived at dead sunflowers! What the hell? We could see yellow in the distance. Now I know that these fields are planted in succession, maybe 2-weeks apart so that there is always something blooming.

We followed the trail and it was pretty depressing. Thankfully, the second field was not as dead. The field hand took this picture and said that there was a new field opening for the weekend. But I want to go now.

The trail thru area two was better, but still pretty depressing. We headed back to the farm. The direction sign now had two arrows. Could we really go? I walked to the barn and asked. Yes we could. We would be the first people in the field.

It was spectaular. The trail serpenteened thru the field. And every flower was prettier than the next. Lydia was freakin a little with the bees. I kept trying to tell her they wanted the flowers, not her.

Miles/Steps:            2-ish

Weather:                low 70s, overcast, humid

Wildlife:                  Butterflies and bees, of course. The dead fields were loaded with birds. Almost, but not quite, Hitchock-like.

phone in the fishtanks and other tales

 It's been more than a week since I've posted a blog entry. It's been a while since that happened.

Let's work backward. Today I went with Bonnie and the munchkin to the fish hatchery. We walked around, feed the fish and made a 5-year -olds dreams come true. Even better—they had a backhoe. He was in heaven.

We were walking thru the aisles feeding the fish and making sure the munchkin wasn't throwing food in the "do not feed" areas. A woman came toward us with two kids and a stroller. We moved out of the way and she took the stroller over the bump, and her phone flew out and landed in the overflow tank. She had to go back to the white house/office and get assistance. The munchkin was so happy when the employee came driving a John Deere cart. He was having quite the day.

We headed to the trail that starts as a large hill. Erosion from all the storms have hit it hard. The child was busy talking about the monsters in the woods and fell twice. He no longer wanted to walk. Neither of us had a band-aid. Band-aids are magic. Instead of walking to the covered bridge, we turned at the bridge for the Leni Lenape museum and headed back to the parking lot.

Miles/Steps:            2

Weather:                 mid-80s, sunny, humid

Bathrooms:             I-4.5 at the hatchery 

Wildlife:                  A blue heron at the fish hatchery. That's why the tanks are covered with nets. Bonnie called it a blue flying chicken. Black swallowtails

Monday we babysat the munchkin in the morning. He is done with day care and is waiting for kindergarten to begin. It was Grumpy's turn to watch him but he's at my house fixing my collapsed cellar entrance. So we babysat. 

At 3:30 Lydia and I went to the Sunflower Experience at Grim's. It was okay. The flowers were beautiful. But unlike a maze or a trail it had no paths cut. You walked thru the rows of sunflowers. Lots of bugs, bees and butterflies. 

Miles/Steps:            1+

Weather:                 92, sunny, humid

Wildlife Insects:      at least four types of bees, butterflies including swallowtails, monarchs, and buckeyes. 

The rest of the day last week were uneventful. 

roadtrip!

Saturday I came home from hiking and found out we had my nephew Bubba for the day. Actually, until at least 10 PM. I spent the day playing new versions of classic games. The old versions were better. When he was picked up I was under the impression that he would be back Monday evening.

Sunday I was telling the fam about my brothers trip to Steamtown in Scranton. Lydia says, I have off Monday, l et's pick up the kid up early and take hime to Steamtown. It beats playing games all day.  Bonus. There is an AVA walk in Scranton.

Bubba is now 11. At five he was obsessed with Thomas the Train and railroads. I texted his grandmother to ask if it was okay. Sorry, no, he had plans in the afternoon with his friends. Lydia says, let's go anyway. She's a little obsessed with trains as well.

We left for Scranton at 8 and arrived at about 9:40. Not bad considering it was rush hour. The volunteer at the Steamtown Visitor Center did not look at us odd when we asked for the walk box. The first 1K was walking around Steamtown.  It took a long time. If you read everything you could probably spend an entire day there. The space is round representing a roundhouse. And wishing each section of the circle was the visitor center, the repair shop, technology, and history. Inside the round building, but outside on tracks, were quite a number of restored trains. 

The National Historic Site is free, but the train excursions are not. But they don't run Mondays so we couldn't take one.

After overdosing on trains, we followed the volkssport instructions thru the parking lot and over a pedestrian walkway that crosses the railroad yard. This is filled with trains in various states of restoration—from the very rusty to the maybe this can be saved. I kept joking that the pedestrian walking was 1k. It was sizable. The walkway leads you into the old Steamtown Mall, rechristened The Marketplace at Steamtown. Like many malls it's seen better days. You entered at the food court, but everything was closed. I found out later that the food court is only open weekends and is now a "public market".  We headed thru the food court to the stairs.  All the empty stores had murals on the front of them.

As I turned to go down the stairs I noticed that the Lackawanna Community College had a branch location in the mall! As I was astounded by that Lydia is saying Gayle look! An aquarium in the mall. It was so obvious I couldn't see it. Lydia wanted to go in and we did. Don't get me wrong, it's small. But it's very nice. It's a good introduction to aquariums for young kids. Or a great place to go if you've pithing a half-hour drive and don't feel like driving a half day to Baltimore.

As well followed the instructions out we saw butterfly wings. We had to stop and take photos.

To be truthful, we didn't do the whole walk. We did parts of it. There was a lot of loops to see historic buildings like the railroad station which were incredible. Those loops are great if you haven't spent the previous four hours looking at trains and fish.

After walking about an hour  we found ourselves back on the instructions and worked our way back to the mall, the food court, and the pedestrian walkway. Instead of returning to the car, we headed the other way across the lot to the Trolley Museum. 

Before we left Bethlehem I checked my email and other accounts. I had a posting from Uncovering Pennsylvania. On it was the ruins of the Scranton Iron Furnaces. (Bethlehem Steel, and the limestone kilns were also on the list.) While I was waiting for Lydia I looked it up. It looked like it would be within walking distance of Steamtown. After some discussion we decide to drive there on the way home. It turns out it was 4 blocks off the volkssport route, behind the train station and next to the U of Scranton. All the front faces were gated off. I reached the end of the building and the lawn was mowed next to it. It looked like at the top there was a brick wall you could look over. I climbed up. On the far side I noticed the entrance had a gate and it was open. I came down the hill, went to the other side and it was. It looked like it was open intentionally. But it was well hidden from the casual visitor. Lydia went inside.

Miles/Steps:            5+ for the day

Weather:                 low 80s, sunny

Bathrooms:             At Steamtown I-4.5. At the mall  I-4. There was no paper.

golv: upper mount bethel

Yesterday was the Get Out Lehigh Valley in Lower Mount Bethel. I've been there before with the international girls, and as part of the Passport to Fitness in 2013. It's a narrow park which runs parallel with the Delaware River. The main trails are blue and orange. They pretty much run the length of the property.

I picked up Debbie at the Rt. 33 Park and Ride and we headed up to Mount Bethel. We arrive early! I think that's a first. There was a large group and a guide—John Mauser, the land acquisition and project manager for the township. He's a retired 8th grade teacher. He made all the bad 8th grade jokes to keep our attention. His excitement for the land and the environment were contagious.

We took the blue trail past the observation deck and ended at the turtle rock. We stopped a lot and learned about logging, the river and the forest. The blue trail is narrow, rocky and has many routes

Coming back we took the orange trail which was logged a few years ago to open the canopy. An unexpected benefit was the creation of man-made vernal pools and the introduction of amphibians to the forest. The orange trail is sunny and wide. At times it's muddy and often uneven. But one can walk quicker on it. I almost took a header on a root. Thank goodness I had my hiking stick.

When we reached the road, we turned into the meadow and headed back to the car.

Miles/Steps:            4.5

Weather:                 mid-70s, sunny

Bathrooms:             There are three: Outside 24-hours I-4.5, Inside 5, On the trail P-4.5 

Wildlife Amphibians:  dozens of Leopard frogs, American Toads, wood toads, and two juvenile snapping turtles. 

Wildlife Insects:        Long tail skimmers (a type of dragon fly), black and yellow swallowtail butterflies

musikfest, day 5

Today Lydia had off, so instead of heading into the woods we headed to the north side and to Musikfest. It opens at noon. We left about 11. That was maybe a hair early, since a lot wasn't even uncovered and open yet.

Not knowing how much we were going to walk, we took the car and parked it near the Banana Factory. It would save us a mile both ways. I put 3 hours on the meter because parking fines are doubled during "special events".  Then we headed out Second Avenue and up the ramp to the bride.

The Hill to Hill bridge was infested with spotted lanternflies. Either carcasses of the dead, or the soon to be squashed living. So many I thought I was in Reading. I did not get them all. Those little devils are fast. Lydia did not take any pictures of me doing the SLF Stomp or the carnage that remained behind.

The bridge had many signs saying that the sidewalks are closed, but they were clearly open. I think what they meant to say is that they were closed at the stairs, because they were.

We headed down the stairs and over to the area where the prisms were. I think they call it Zinzindorf Platz now. The name changes every couple of years.  I'm not sure what I think of this pop art representation of one of our founding mothers.

Other than the prisms, nothing held our interest here. Nothing was really open yet. But it's become clearer and clearer to me over the years that Musikfest is about three things—mostly free music, selling food/beer, and commerce. If it's early in the day and the music hasn't started all that's left is the food and commerce. Boring.

Plaza Tropiahell hadn't begun music yet either. The main concourse down Spring Street was all food. Main Street, coming down the hill was corporate sponsors. If you wanted free stuff go there.

After passing the television station, the entrance to Festplatz was fairly empty. The 18-wheelers weren't there promoting stuff.  But all the booths leading to the bridge were promoting or selling tickets, food, or merchandise. I sense a theme. It's not until you write it out that it really shapes in the mind. Now we add beer to the mix. We looked at the food because we planned to eat lunch. I brought my vintage 1999 mug to use for my annual MF beer. Then it was off to Volksplatz for more of the same. Since we had arrived we didn't hear one note of music. By the time we walked thru Handwerk Platz the polkas had begun.

Lydia went for her annual taco. I got my annual beer and we headed back the way we came.

When we reached Lehigh Street we turned left and followed the creek to come back the Fahy Bridge.

Almost immediately, the SLF Stomp began again. I missed a lot, but there were other people stomping, so maybe we got most of them.

Miles/Steps:      2.5

Wildlife:             blue heron, so many spotted lanternflies

Weather:           78, with 53% humidity. Overcast too sunny.

a new local walk.

Is north of Bath local? I think so.

Driving home from Coumicile two weeks ago I saw a sign for the Graver Arboretum. I thought what? I didn't know that was there. Lydia had the morning off and we needed someplace different to walk. I googled it.

"The Lee and Virginia Graver Arboretum of Muhlenberg College, located in Bushkill Township, north of Bath, Pennsylvania, is used as an outdoor classroom by the biology and other science departments. 

The arboretum serves the educational mission of the college by providing an outdoor space for course activities.  Field experiences at the arboretum take students out of the classroom into an environment where they can ask questions, conduct field research and experience beauty and wonder.  Others enjoy the arboretum by hiking through the inviting trails or by finding a quiet place to relax and reflect."

There are four trails and they give you estimated time to complete and difficulty. White is easy. Green is hard. Red is long. We chose blue. It took us to the sign we saw on the road. We saw several ponds, several research areas, the bird blind and best of all it was mostly shady.

When we arrived back at the lot, Lydia headed toward the port-o-potty. The caretaker was in the lot on his golf cart. He said to her, "Are you headed to the bathroom?", she said yes. "Would you like to use the INDOOR one?" Really. "Sure, I'll unlock it." We jumped into the golf cart and he took us to the classroom and the indoor bathroom. That's never happened before. Then he said "I have this door set to lock. Turn out the light and close the door. Check that it latched." AND LEFT.

Wowzers.

Miles/Steps:      2+

Wildlife:             black swallowtail, chipmunk, heard frogs in ponds, heard a lot of birds and crickets

Weather:           77, with 45 humidity. Sunny.

Bathrooms:       I-3.5, P-4

A woodpecker high-rise.

home improvement sunday

I like to garden. I like to do home improvement. I like to do pretty much everything. What I don't like doing, is doing it alone. It took me years to figure it out. Sadly, alone is usually how things get done.

My nephew is 17 and was looking for summer odd jobs. Lawn mowing, dog walking, that type of thing. I told him I had a lovely project, the cellar door. I should have taken a "before" photo.

The other day his mom messaged me and asked if it was time. The heat wave had broken. Okay, for me the heat wave hadn't broken. It was still humid and in the high 80s, but the paint said 90, so we were good.

As with any project here, this one took multiple trips to the hardware store. Many people borrow tools and equipment and don't return them (Except his grandmother. She's great.). Or worse, return them broken. We had planned to work Thursday afternoon, so Wednesday I went downstairs to get everything and make a list of what I needed to buy. I plugged the sander in and it ran, but the gizmoo to put the paper in was jammed. Even the "helpful hardware guy" couldn't get it fixed. I had to buy a sander, and paper, and primer.

Thursday he spent almost three hours sanding. As he was sanding I realized I forgot the little sponge sander for the nooks and crannies. I'd also need more primer. And tact clothes. Back to the store.

About 3:15 the sky became black and we hustled to put everything away before the storm hit. The primer can said 15 minutes to a touch dry. Did we dare? We threw caution to the breeze and primed the outside. I was not re-sanding it after it got wet. It did not rain. The primer coat was attractive, but it got the job done.

Saturday after walking I stopped at home depot and got the paint and caulk. (As he was sanding the old caulk just vanished.) And a caulk gun because I was sure ours would be broken. Or missing.

Yesterday we finished both the inside and out. We worked for about 4 more hours. I even drug out the shop vac. Of course the old caulk gun did not work. Neither did the new one. We ended up going to the hardware store again. This time I got expensive caulk in a tube.

While the kid sanded and painted I got busy on the back door. The white paint on the glass was from two or three times ago. I need to get a razor to scratch it off. There was enough paint left to do the garage door. My sister says I need to put a red light out there because it looks like a whore-house. Mission accomplished.

another weather effected trail

Today I went to Emmaus to walk the South Mountain Trail from the Gate Head to Alpine Street. There is one trail that takes you straight to Alpine Street, and another that loops up to "Highland Park". Normally I take this loop coming back. Today I took it first.

The entire hill going up was an erosion ditch. I was especially careful walking on the edges so I didn't get near poison. The weeds in the forests are so overgrown and high this year with the wet spring.

I finally get to solid trail and what do I see in front of me? A downed tree. I couldn't go over it, so I had to go under it. I don't bend like that. And I didn't want to get down on all fours and ruin my pants. Vain, I know. But when you are fat and getting fatter, clothes that fit are important.

I finally reached the straight trail and headed toward Alpine Street. There are two sections of board walks. The second one had holes. Swell.

I turned around and headed back the straight trail.

Miles/Steps:      about 2

Wildlife:             Doe and fawn nearly scared to poop out of me. I screamed and they ran away.

Weather:           79, with 90% humidity. Overcast.
Bathrooms:       None

musikfest, day 1

It's that time of the year again, Musikfest. Today Lydia and I walked partially down to the Southside location to see the prism art. Of course the festival wasn't open yet.  That's the best time to go.

Outside of the NMIH we saw this cool dragster. That set a good tone for the walk

They moved the glass works to the Southside, as well as the kaleidoscope meditation chair art. If you remember last year the area near the waterworks where these are normally located washout, maybe twice.

There's about 8-10 prisms on the south side. As you turn them they reflect light differently. They also cast shadows that are colors. At night they light up and from photos I've seen look really cool. I'd like to see that, but I have no desire to be at Musikfest at night with the crowds. I think that makes me officially old. Maybe if there's a rainy day. That will keep the crowds down.

Enjoy the festival.

the trail almost washed out.

Yesterday picked up Adonis's ashes.  Lydia mentioned she wanted to walk at Monocacy park and scatter some at his favorite places. Today we did.

Monocacy Park has two very different sides. The park side, built during the Great Depression by the CCC. That's the side with the pavilions, mill, waterfall, ect. The other side is the nature trail side, and that has a loop trail which eventually crosses the railroad tracks and meets the Monocacy Way trail which goes thru Burnside Plantation, and into the historic district.

We headed into the woods to do the creek side first, and then the MW trail, then back the other side of the loop before crossing over to the park, park.

We've had a lot of flash flooding since spring and the nature trail at Monocacy Park has taken a beating. I think this is the first time this year we've taken the creek side and twice I almost turned back. It was so eroded at two spots that we were hanging on to trees. I kept looking at the creek going it's not so deep. And the water looked clean. There were also fallen trees and the trail was very narrow. The weeds next to us were as high as my waist.

We finally made it to the railroad tracks expecting MW to be better, but it wasn't much better. There were large sections with standing water and mud to navigate around. We were almost at the turn around spot when there was a fallen pine tree crossing the road. We turned around and went back.

When we arrived at the turn to cross the tracks I said to Lyd I was not going back thru the mud. She decided to walk the tracks. I decided to continue walking the trail to see where it went.

All the big lawns around the pool, dog park, ice rink, tennis courts have been left to go natural. It's an ecology thing, but it's also a budget thing. Leave things go natural and you don't have to pay a couple men to mow them every week. The path I was on moved toward the left and headed up the hill toward the dog park before straightening out. It ended on Illicks Mill Road and made a sharp left. That's because the grass hill is almost cliff like. They made the path go to the driveway of the pool. I wasn't walking there.

I went down th hill. Backwards. Monkey style on all four's. I'm sure passing traffic was going WTF?

Lydia was eating at the parking lot, and we got Adonis from the car and I grabbed my water. Then we crossed the street and headed to the waterfall where Lydia tossed some of the ashes in.

Returning on the other side of the creek there were sign boards for a story walk. Apparently it's a summer program and each sign has two pages of the book and an activity to do while walking. You stamp your passport and get a free book after reading five story walks.  Had we not been at the end, I would have done all the activities and embarrassed the heck out of Lydia! Each story lasts for two weeks.

When we got back to the car we were both hot and tired.

Miles/Steps:      3

Wildlife:            2 white ducks, 1 Canadian goose, one female mallard, and three mixed ducklings. A black and a yellow swallowtail butterfly, monarchs, 2 chipmunks

Weather:          mid-80s, sunny
      

I didn't walk yesterday morning. I was running around getting everything ready to paint the cellar door. My nephew was coming at noon to sand.

We cleaned up a little early because it looked like it was going to put, and the storm missed us. I took him home and when I returned home decided to walk around the block. Lydia came along. W stopped and talked to neighbors and then finally were hitting our stride and I heard it. An ice cream truck. Everywhere we went we heard the damn tinny song.

Now you must know that the ice cream truck does not stop on my block. He speeds up like there is no tomorrow. It pisses off the neighbors. Especially ones with little kids. (Com'on, it a Pavlogs dog reaction.)

We were headed home and we heard it again. It was coming out Itaska street. I said if he turns up our street I'm standing in the middle forcing hime to stop. He did. I did. And we had ice cream for dessert. He was out of the one Lydia wanted. She ended up getting a cookie sandwich. I got a turtle pop. Both were Blue Bunny. My turtle needed more caramel. But it was good.

Miles/Steps:     >1

Extra:               I have a doctors appointment in October. Because I received the financial aid card from the hospital, I have no excuse not to have my blood work done. And I've gained so much weight, I need to seriously work on that as well. That will give me August and September to get my act together. Yesterday was day 1. I did great all day. I only ate meals and had 1 piece of Lydia's chocolate. And then I hate a turtle ice cream bar. Instead of looking at it like a failure, I'm looking at it as 80% success.