A customer works on research in Bellville's Ohio Genealogical Society's library behind a model of The Mayflower; the sailing ship that brought Pilgrims to the US in 1620.   Please stop by Saturday as we take a peek at this very modern facility just west of town.

MEMORIAL DAY--

 Long may she wave!

Photo done on Veteran's Island

Vero Beach, FL

MAMMOTH CAVE 
A Kentucky National Park

While boasting the world's longest cave system, the surface area of this national park covers more than 80 square miles.

No one knows how big the underside is.  So far, more than 365 miles of the five-level cave system have been mapped and new cave systems are continuously being discovered.

Two layers of stone underlie Mammoth's hilly woodlands.  A sandstone and shale cap, as thick as 50 feet in places, acts as an umbrella over limestone ridges.  The umbrella leaks at places called sinkholes, from which surface water makes its way underground, eroding the limestone into a honeycomb of caverns.

Most visitors see the eerie beauty of the caverns on some of the 10 miles of passages available for tours. Rangers dispense geological lore and tell tales about real and imagined happenings 200 or 300 feet down. The tours are hikes inside the Earth.

A popular demonstration done on many cave tours is to have the visitors seated or standing still while the ranger turns the lights off.  It's hard to imagine absolute darkness.  I suppose dunking your head in a barrel of black ink comes close.

Nearly 500,000 folks tour the cave system annually.  Sue and I enjoyed our visit while returning to Ohio after four months of snow-birding in Vero Beach, FL.  We had swung west of our usual route and added the states of Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky to our list of states in which we have geocached.

I-65 northerly from Birmingham rolled past the park's entrance after our overnight in Bowling Green, KY entroute Louisville and I-71 home.

Cave tours range from the least arduous, a 1/4 mile Frozen Niagara tour to the most difficult, a five mile, six hour belly crawing Wild Cave tour.  If you try that one you will have a clear understanding of the meaning of spelunking!

That's Sue in the top photo as we leave the visitor's center for the staging area of the bus ride to our cave tour's entrance.  The middle photo shows the vastness of some chambers that have been hollowed out by gently seeping to wildly flowing water over geologic time.

The bottom photo shows a delightful example of flowstone where calcium has hardened into the shape of the flowing water that created it.


This one should be on your bucket list!

AN EARLY RECORD RIDE--

We rumbled our bikes into the parking lot of the little mom and pop restaurant in Millwood that recent morning and passed some customers evidently wary of our presence.  The likelihood of danger from we strange bikers was mitigated, however, when the collective quantity of our gray hair became obvious.

"Pshew," one of the customers chuckled when Ken joked with his favorite tale about us setting out that morning looking for some rival bikers' clubhouse then choosing, instead of that potential ribaldry, to enjoy the local, blue-plate special.

We had ridden from Bellville through Butler and Mohican State Park, turned south on SR 3 to Jelloway then sluiced our way through the hilly curves of SR 205 through Danville to Millwood.

The weather was perfect, the route was made for motorcycles and the breakfast was dandy.

I could really get to like this I mused silently; my first outing with Ken Johnson (right above) and his longtime pal--and brother-in-law--Dick Stauffer.  A saddlebag full of years ago, Ken met Dick's sister Joanne and proposed marriage to her on their first date.  The rest as they say is happy history.

We chuckled our good-byes to our new friends at Millwood and rode back through Danville to Brinkhaven for the above photo.  That's Ohio's longest covered bridge in the upper background.  Our plan to head on to Killbuck and Glenmont was thwarted by a detour on US 62 so we headed north on OH 514, a local road that deserves to wear the crown of a state scenic highway.

My status as a rookie rider was evident when I failed to anticipate the slick little wave with which riders salute each other in passing.  Twice.  Cyclists simply drop their left hand slightly below the handlebar with the palm extended flatly and flick their wrist.

You can be sure I didn't miss any more of those the rest of the ride.

In Greer we turned left and headed up the Wally Rd, toward Loudonville, another scenic dandy which was paved the last time I had passed by.  That day we encountered gravel soon after Greer and had long stretches of that cycling treachery.

Can you imagine roller skating on a floor covered with ball bearings? 

I was leading that segment of the ride, dropped into granny gear and eased gently along with my heart in my mouth each time a tire would ricochet through especially loose and often muddy stones.  We stopped a couple of times to consider our alternatives but rode that stretch safely and ultimately concluded it was a good baptism of experience for yours truly.

As we said our "good byes" in the Bellville area I noted I had 85 miles on the cyclometer so I whistled by my home road and continued down Rhinehart to Possum Run to SR 95 to Butler and back to my home road; rolling down my driveway with105.2 miles clicked into the log book.

Made me feel like I want to live forever.

 

 
This blog story began life as an email to my sons, my daughter and my ladyfriend.  It mentions part of a day during the first week of my first-ever ownership of a motorcycle; a 2008 Honda Shadow Spirit 750cc shaft driven sizzler with but 5920 miles on it's cyclometer.  I bought it in early May just days after Sue and I returned from four months of snowbirding in Florida.

That's it above in its first official portrait along a rock garden wall in my front yard driveway.  You notice, of course, the sexy blue mood lights beneath the seat and under the tank.  Half afraid to ride it anywhere at night where the chicks are gathering for the hunt.

I won't be safe until they discover the driver, of course, and not the bike qualifies for antique license plates. 

*               *               *

email from:  twolf@coldmail.fun
         to:     bwolf, cwolf, tjwolf and S.Brooks

Hi!

Life gives you a bonus afternoon once in awhile and today (5/14) was one of those.  I hopped on my new ride and headed up to Brian's digs for his first peek at my little blue treasure.  After a suitable amount of "ooooohs" and "ahhhhhs" the lawnmower went in the garage, his big Yamahauler came out and we trundled south on US 42 in loose formation, turned east on Hanley Rd., and made our next course change in Lucas.

Rolled east a bit on SR 39 then north on SR 603; headed to the boat dock area at Charles Mill Lake to check on their recently launched pontoon boat.  Good a reason as any for a motorcycle ride.

My confidence seems to make my age ignore itself as the hilly, curvy, fun-making miles roll up behind us.  What a nice feeling knowing the rider in the slot is one's oldest son who is likely as amazed as his dad that this episode has blossomed in our rapidly advancing years.

From the boat park we sluiced west on SR 430, meandered through Mansfield and dropped our next anchor at Sue's condo off S. Main St., near Cook Rd.  Brian and I smiled at the occasion's conclusion and shared a mutual hope for many more.  Soon.

From there Sue and I wandered down to our home golf course--Kelly's of the miniature variety across from the grown-up Possum-Run links--where we purchased season tickets and I promptly lucked my way to a par round for this season's first 18 holes.

Somehow visions of Leaning Tower subs overpowered us about that time and we wound up our day munching our impromptu dinner in the sub shop's parking lot.

Not exactly a Cinderella story but one of those blips on the calendar of living that give credence to the phrase, "Life is Good!"

--Love, Dad

OPPORTUNIST--

MUSINGS--

By the time you read this we already should be re-settled in our Ohio digs after four months of snow-birding in Vero Beach, FL.

As I scribble this on the last day of April I have mixed emotions about leaving our FL friends and the boatload--sometimes literally--of activities available to us in this sub-tropical paradise.  Already I have enjoyed a head-boat deep sea fishing trip, some freshwater bass fishing with another local boating friend and a day's outing on a casino ship which does day cruises out of Port Canaveral.

Still on the boating bucket list is a chartered, deep-sea outing in search of trophy sail fish--catch and release variety--and, maybe some leisurely kayaking with a geocaching friend I met here late this winter, in addition to some repeats of those previously mentioned. 

Yet, I will be heading home with great anticipation of seeing family and old friends once again.  With roots as deep as mine, there truly is, no place like home.

And I will be rolling northward with visions of even more new experiences dancing in my head.

My bicycling friend, Ken Johnson, is the proud new owner of a Honda motorcycle.  I was delightfully astonished to hear this news.  You will remember him as the fellow I bicycled 70 miles with that day a few years ago when we celebrated our mutual 70th birthdays.

Turns out he has a relative whose company he can best enjoy if he joins him on a motorcycle ride.  Also turns out there are three or four other geriatric friends with an assortment of motorized two-wheelers who are assembling themselves as riding companions.

Ken invited me to join them.

Wow.  My dad always dreamed of one day having a then K model Harley-Davidson.  Best he ever achieved was a motor scooter.  That dream continued through my life.  It was heightened as my sons brought motorcycles home in their youth.  But, the best I ever achieved was a Cushman Eagle motorscooter too.

Until now.

With serious guidance from those sons and lots of research with other experienced friends it looks like there is a motorcycle in my very near future too.

I really chuckled when Ken told me about he and his, ahem, mature buddies planning an outing this year where they expect to plunder the clubhouse of some competing riders and take off with their women.

Or, maybe they will just ride to the local Panera eatery for a quiet breakfast, depending on the mood of the day.

Hope you can see the smile on my face.

If I had to choose a bike this very minute it would be this one, a 2008 Honda Shadow Spirit 750cc currently in inventory at the Mid-Ohio Honda shop in Mt. Vernon, from whose web site I borrowed this picture.