Fells, lakes, wonder

2009-01-12T21:29:00.008-05:00

Table of Contents

Time to dream, a travel decision

Thinking, planning
Manchester to Manchester: Is it even possible?
Me too, me too! A note from Rover
Wings to Manchester: Flight plans? Done!
Jumping closer... soon
Stuff, stuff, and more stuff... a packing saga
Remembering... with a cube made of glass

Afternoon & night

Rocks & tires: The kindness of strangers

Lake District wanderings
A meeting & a walk: Up Glenridding Dodd
Place Fell: Hiking up, looking down
Photos: Up & up
A jumble of a day and a much needed rest
Photos: Speaking with the animals
Level ground between the mountains: Walking Grisdale
Photos: Morning visions
Photos: Up vale
A change in focus
Explorations by camera: Learning, shooting
Photos: A few of the birds
Photos: And back to the landscapes
Stop, look, absorb, think, click: Circles
Photos: A sampling of the day
Sunrise, sunshine
Photos: Morning's greeting
Photos: Panning play
Photos: And a few more...
Winging west, homeward bound
Next time... group or solo?
Images for your eyes...

Images for your eyes...

2008-10-05T12:00:00.001-04:00

Denise has been really focused on going through her photographs ever since she got home. It's so much easier to select the photos to share on her normal "big" computer instead of our baby travel computer.

This journal contains some of the photos that jumped into Denise's camera in England, but most of the photos live in her photo galleries.
You can view the photos splashed across your whole screen if you'd like - just click the slideshow button in the upper right of the photo gallery window. (If you're in the gallery slideshow, you can get control of your computer back again by moving the mouse and clicking "return to gallery" or by just clicking the Esc key.)
You can enter the galleries at Fells, lakes, wonder to choose from the four photo galleries for this trip. Or you can jump right into a specific gallery:

Up... dodd & fell, a late day walk up Glenridding Dodd was a welcome change from long-distance travel, and the next day's hike up Place Fell brought ever-changing scenery.
A jumble of a day, The morning held an uninterrupted drive to Penrith, but the afternoon? Denise stopped wherever her camera wanted to play... at Dalemain to visit deer & sheep, at Aira Force, at...
Down... lake & dale, morning mist on Ullswater, a drive over hill and dale, a walk up Grisedale...
Circling, changing places, jumping across different locations in the Lake District was part of the 3-day photography seminar. These images were taken (and taken again) as Denise experimented with camera settings & filters.

I hope you've enjoyed peering over our shoulders on this trip. The Lake District is really beautiful.
--- Rover

Next time... group or solo?

2008-09-27T17:00:00.001-04:00

Will I start going taking more 'group' trips like this one? It's not likely, for much the same reason that I stopped doing supported bike tours. I have a strong preference for choosing my own destinations, for deciding how long I want to stay at each location, for selecting where & when I'd like to eat, for having time to just sit and do nothing if (or perhaps I should say when) the mood strikes.

Don't get me wrong, I have no regrets about attending this seminar. I spent three days with other photographers who were eager to capture views of the land around us, and I believe that I enhanced my skills with my camera both by just doing and by absorbing information from our leaders and from some of the people in the group.

I really enjoyed the time that I spent with Caroline. We hiked together, and we spent time on our own too. I could easily see myself on a trip with one other person where we are both independent spirits with no requirement that we spend all of our time together.

What's next?

Maybe, just maybe, a trip out west somewhere, probably sometime in November or early December. I still have some vacation time left, and the relative warmth of the southwest at that time of year is appealing. Death Vally may be beckoning again, or I may surprise myself and wander to an entirely new location.

Winging west

2008-09-27T12:00:00.003-04:00

...homeward bound

Quiet... I don't want to wake Denise. She must be really tired because she doesn't usually sleep on airplanes. Her eyes are closed; I think she's taking a nap! I guess it's a good thing she pulled the baby computer out of her carry-on bag so I can do a little bit of writing.

We flitted across Ireland before heading over the Atlantic Ocean, and the pilot told us at the beginning of the flight that we would be flying over Boston on our way in to Newark. It's really a shame there isn't some kind of parachute service so that we could get off at home instead of flying over it and then flying back. You're absolutely right; while I would love to jump out of the plane, I don't think Denise would step out into the cold air to fall a bit before the parachute caught her.

It was a good week away, too short, but good. It was an exploration of a beautiful place, a place I suspect we'll be returning to some day. Where? Both England and the Lake District. There's lots of good walking there, walking for Denise and bouncing for me. And oh! there are so many dogs that do those long hikes with their owners. The people think they are taking the dogs along, but I think it must be the dogs who are in charge, don't you?
--- Rover

Rover's right; I'm sure we will be back again. There are other places that I'd like to see in England, but it wouldn't take much for me to go back to the Lake District again for more wandering.

The very narrow roads with steep grades don't appeal to my cycling sense so a return to the Lake District will probably be on foot (yes, with the assistance of a car!). I'm not very good at steep ups & downs, and regular grade signs in the 13 to 17% range kept popping up on those one-lane roads. There were some that were much steeper too. I saw some signs indicated grades above 20%. Yikes! I wouldn't like to drive those in a car, let alone on a bike. I really have a lot of respect for the cyclists I saw climbing those steep and narrow roads. Oh, and I strongly prefer roads with a little bit of a horizontal shoulder rather than vertical rock walls that lined the narrower bits of roadway.

I think I want to be Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz right now, clicking my heels together, chanting 'there's no place like home, there's no place like home' - and being transported there instantly instead of flying for 7 ½ hours from Manchester to New York, waiting, and boarding another flight to Boston. I still wish I could have pulled off a Manchester to Manchester flight! Oh it wouldn't have been much shorter, but hey - wouldn't you like to check in for a flight in one city and tell the airline's agent that you are going to the same named city?

Photos: And a few more...

2008-09-26T17:45:00.001-04:00

Photos: Panning play

2008-09-26T17:30:00.002-04:00

A stand of trees beckoned, time to experiment a bit more with panning, moving the camera with the shutter open to blur the image...

I borrowed Charlie's tripod for yesterday's panning play because mine has a ball-head on it and is a bit more difficult to move straight up and down (as opposed to throwing in some unwanted side-to-side motion). Today I decided to try the technique again using my own tripod. After all, if I want to try this again I will need to train my body to pulling this off with a ball-head mount on the tripod.

Success!

And in spite of my needing to control the movement of the tripod head in both vertical and horizontal directions, I think these pictures are better than those I took yesterday...

The first photo below is a motionless shot of the stand of trees that is shown in the following two shots with a vertical pan.

Photos: Morning's greeting

2008-09-26T17:15:00.001-04:00

Sunrise, sunshine...

2008-09-26T17:00:00.000-04:00

...a little more wandering

Knock, knock, knock... early morning, a quiet knock at my door. Caroline stopped by to let me know that the sky over the lake was turning pink, a view visible from her room but not from mine. Hmm... I thought all of two seconds, then threw on some clothes and headed outside. It was a quiet sunrise, still beautiful.

It was a good start to a too short photo day. I suppose that short is better than not at all though.

We made two stops along the Thirlmere reservoir, the first with the sun peeking out from behind clouds, visible rays leading to the water.

At the second stop, I found that there weren't any features of the landscape that jumped out at me - but oh! there was a stand of birch trees. It seemed like a good time to practice vertical panning again, this time using my ball-head tripod and discovering how to move the camera in a straight line. It was easier using Charlie's tripod yesterday with a head that moved in one direction only, but I think I've figured out how to control the movement of the ballhead. I'm looking forward to seeing the photos on a larger screen than the one on the back of my camera.

What's that loud noise? We looked up to see jets, RAF training runs, streaking above the lakes...

We finished up at about 4, a bit earlier than our normal end-of-day stopping time the last two days. I stayed at the hotel until 6:30, visiting, looking at photos, and waiting out the Friday traffic. (You're right, the problem traffic wasn't in the Lake District; it was around the cities, people heading home from work, and people heading out for a weekend escape. Better to wait than to sit in traffic...) The time to head for Manchester rolled around; I headed north in order to drive south in an attempt to get to the motorway more quickly. It was a bit longer from a mileage standpoint, but I skipped the skinny-laned drive over Kirkstone Pass.

I finished the drive with a ridiculous number of circles around the Manchester Airport. I was looking for the rental car return - which definitely could have had better markings / signs / directions. I finally found the place in the garage to drop the car, only to find all of the rental car offces closed. Now what? Oh, there are instructions on the door telling me where to drop the contract and the keys. OK, done.

On to the hotel, one more night in England before heading out over the Atlantic Ocean. I'll fall asleep tonight to the sound of jets roaring into the open windows.

Photos: A sampling of the day

2008-09-25T17:15:00.002-04:00

Stop, look, absorb, think, click

2008-09-25T17:00:00.000-04:00

Denise said her head is spinning from all of the wandering, camera play, and learning she did today. I told her I'd add a quick update to our joural before sleeping in preparation for more photo play tomorrow.

Another day, more wandering... Wait! Have we been here before? Today's travel took us to new places, yet we did travel over some roads where we've been before. We visited new places that had new scenery to fill the cameras.

Our first stop was an old slate mine, with broken slate underfoot, with white birch trees scattered about, abandoned rail lines near a deep pool of water. Denise & I didn't wander down to that water; she was too busy capturing odd shots of trees. Did you know that moving the camera while it is taking the picture will blur the images? No, not by accident. She was deliberating moving the camera. Very interesting.

We stopped at a lake in Coniston for a lunch break, and then walked down to a pier to see what kind of images we could create. The water was absolutely still, which made for some interesting reflections.

The next stop was a favorite, and it was an accident! We came upon a line of cars waiting for a lorry to be 'unstuck' from the middle of the road. Instead of waiting we turned right and headed to Elterwater. Green fields, mountains in the background, Belted Galloways were all reflected in the river. Very nice. We were only supposed to stop there for a half of an hour, but that expanded into a full hour. Cameras were pointing everywhere!

The last stop of the day was at Castlerigg stone circle. I know that Denise would like to go back there on a day with more interest in the sky, but when I peeked in her camera it looks like she captured a couple of interesting images there.

Oh! We only have one more day to play here. How can the time fly by so quickly?

--- Rover

Photos: And back to the landscapes

2008-09-24T17:30:00.001-04:00

Photos: A few of the birds

2008-09-24T17:15:00.001-04:00

Explorations by camera

2008-09-24T17:00:00.000-04:00

...learning, shooting

After yesterday mornng's misty greeting, I thought I'd plan to get up and out early, just in case. Quiet, a clear sky, and a lake without ripples greeted me, no mist today. I think I'll try again tomorrow...

It was a driving and stopping day, with a bit of walking thrown in at our photo stops. I was very very glad to be riding in a mini-bus and not driving today. Most of the roads under our wheels today were two-way roads that were only one-lane wide, curvng, hilly, steep. The land we passed through was amazing, and the weather wizard gave us the gift of highlighting the hills with sunshine.

Three hours of shootng at Watendalth was a good start to the day. A small lake decorated by ducks, surrounded by green grass, darker greens of trees, hills...

Time for (a late) lunch, ta stop at Derwentwater, perching on a pier, watching movement in the water, watching birds, watching people.

Next was a quick stop along the side of the road as we headed to Buttermere, another small lake. We were once again on a 1-lane road. Dave pulled our little bus slightly off the road, off enough for others to get by, as we grabbed cameras and tripods to set up for a chance to capture the landscape. Two more stops, Buttermere, and then Honister Pass.

It was a day of beauiful scenery, of good light, of learning, of enjoying the company of others drawn by the magic of photography.

Photos: Up vale

2008-09-23T17:30:00.002-04:00

Ah, I kept trying to remember that I needed a shot of a kissing gate!

What? You don't know what a kissing gate is? This was the first time I'd encountered them, gates that allow people to pass through but do not allow livestock access. You open the gate to enter the small enclosure, close the gate that you entered through, and open the gate on the other side. Yup, that's a pretty small space in between the gates.

Photos: Morning visions

2008-09-23T17:15:00.001-04:00

Level ground between the mountains

2008-09-23T17:00:00.000-04:00

...walking Grisdale

Early in the morning, I was awake, just not moving yet. I heard a quiet knocking. Again... It took a couple of knocks before I realized there might be someone at my door, not a door down the hall. I popped up to find Caroline there to let me know that there was mist on the lake. Ah, the cameras are calling!

The mist was floating above the surface of the lake, moving, changing. Even with the mist, the mountains were reflected in the water, sometimes as smooth as a mirror, sometimes ruffled by the dogs jumping in to play.

After the mist seemed to lift a bit, we headed up Kirkstone Pass to see if there was any mist up there. Luckily for both of us, Caroline drove. The road up the pass is a very narrow two-lane road, and some of the other roads we rolled down were even narrower. Somehow those one-lane no shoulder, two-way roads that wind about and have steep ups & downs make me a bit nervous. I wonder why?

Back from our early morning activity, it was time for a quick breakfast before heading out again. I chose a flat hike for the day, figuring that I could use some quiet time in the late afternoon before this evenings start of the photography seminar. I thought the walk description was a little odd:

'Though not perfectly level this walk should be well within the range of even the most unenergetic of walkers, yet from it can be appreciated some of the wildest mountain terrain in the Lake District.'

Unenergetic? No matter, it was beautiful.

The sky was an absolute gift today, sunshine against a bright blue background, decorated with occasional clouds. A paved narrow road became even narrower, eventually turning in to dirt and switching to a narrow trail. It was a gentle walk up a valley lined with mountains, passing through one kissing gate plus many other gates across the road, walking, looking, absorbing my surroundings.

Loose sheep were wandering, eating. Sometimes they would stay where they were when I approached; sometimes they looked at me and turned the other way. And yes, I did watch where my feet hit the ground having no desire to need to clean a smelly pair of hiking shoes. Success! I managed to end the day with clean soles!

As I headed back, I crossed paths with a man carrying a bundle of wooden stakes and boots on his pack. I did a double-take but too late to ask him what he was up to. A few minutes later a woman approached who was carrying a similar load. I asked if they were doing some trail work. Nope. Apparently there is some kind of (odd) arts festival going on. They are placing hundreds of Wellies upside down in a field. Apparently it will take several days to carry the boots up to the installation location. Interesting, odd, but it could be interesting to see.

Yes, it was another good day. And the weather wizard has definitely been smiling!

Photos: Speaking with the animals

2008-09-22T17:15:00.001-04:00

A jumble of a day

2008-09-22T17:00:00.000-04:00

...and a much needed rest

Hey - it's my turn to write! After all I can't let Denise have all of the writing fun, can I?

The first puzzle of the day was finding a place to get a new tire for the rental car. Unfortunately, our flat on Saturday was a bad one, one that meant a new tire was needed. And no, that's not covered by insurance. Denise tells me that it wouldn't be covered on her own car either. She called Hertz, and they referred her to the company that does tire replacements for them. Then she called that company, and they actually suggested finding a closer place since they were in Carlisle which is about 40 miles away from here. Those phone calls happened yesterday, and this morning Denise asked one of the people at the front desk for a suggestion. They sent us to Harold's Tyres in Penrith, and before we knew it we had a new tire (or tyre?). Great service!

I'm really glad we didn't need to go to Carlisle because the 15 mile drive to Penrith took a long time. Denise was really surprised when she was handed multimap directions that said "distance: 14.13 miles, about 39 minutes". And yes, it did take that long to traverse a mostly 2-lane (or maybe I should say less than 2-lane) road.

As long as we were in a larger town, we stopped at a real grocery store to pick up some fruit and other snack food. The selection of fruit in the little shops in Glenridding has been abysmal, and Denise said she had a severe case of banana withdrawal. I convinced her to get some ginger oat biscuits; that combination of ingredients sounds really good to me. Funny, I forget to tell her to get some chocolate.

I thought it was time to head back then, but the ruins of Penrith Castle jumped out in front of us. We had a quick stop there. Well, it took a little longer than it should have because we parked the car along the side of the road in an area with signs saying you needed a disk to park there, and that all of the local shops had them. Denise tried three places. Each one said they didn't have any and suggested we try the next shop. After that she decided to chance it and just hope that we didn't get a parking ticket. It was our lucky day, no ticket.

Then, it was time to head down the road again, to try to understand the signs as we circled two roundabouts, back to the very narrow route A592. Our first stop on the way back was at Dalemain. At first I thought it was a bit odd that we were stopping there; Denise tends to want to wander outside and she usually skips house tours. Oh! I see why she turned in here. She wanted to try to capture a field full of sheep with the big camera. She's going to keep tryng, but I don't think she's going to be happy with the results. It was a fabulous stop though. As long as we were there, Denise started to walk towards the house. She saw a field full of deer, a bit too far away. She kept walking, and there was a garden area with a sign saying that visiting was welcome. She walked in because she saw a cage housing what looked like a squirrel, a squirrel dresse in pure white. And there was a man standing at a fence feeding some fallow deer. He saw Denise with the camera, and he asked if we'd like to come closer. We went right up to the fence. And oh! the deer were beautiful. There were funny chickens running around too, chasing each other, grabbing and dropped food.

Once the deer had scattered, conversation continued in the garden, and the man we were talking with filled his hand with seed and held it out for the birds. A couple of birds came and snatched a seed. It must not have been eating time since they spent more time jumping and flitting among the flowers.

Ah, finally, the spot for our short hike through the woods to the tumbling waters of Aira Force. It's a waterfall where the Aira Beck tumbles down a steep slope, There was a bridge a bit below the falls, reachable by traversing a set of very steep stairs, a good place to stand to view the falls from afar. And there was a bridge sitting above the top of the falls too. And Denise did her usual wander off the path to try to catch a closer glimpse of the quickly moving waters. I barked to tell her not to walk on any slimy rocks. After all I didn't want to go swimming in what I suspect was very cold water.

On the path between the bridges, there were steps of stone, tall steps. There was one that was as high as Denise's knee. Wow, that was a really big step for her, and I don't think that I could have bounced that high by myself.
Denise just reminded me that if you know the version of English from the west side of the Atlantic Ocean, you might not know what a Beck is. A Beck is a stream, in the case of Aira Beck, a quickly moving tumbling stream...
The shores of Ullswater beckoned a bit later, and we headed down to the lake to have some conversations with two pairs of mute swans paddling about.

It was a good day of wandering, a good day of talking with strangers, and a much-needed light activity day. Resting can be a good thing.

Tomorrow? One more day of walking on our own. And tomorrow evening will be the start of our photography seminar.

--- Rover

Photos: Up & up

2008-09-21T21:00:00.001-04:00

Place Fell

2008-09-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

Hiking up, looking down

It was a respectable time for greeting the morning, not too early since breakfast here doesn't start until 8, but acceptable. With a 5-hour time change, it was still in the wee hours of the morning at home. I could have happily slept longer, but forcing myself to stay up all day yesterday seemed to work for jolting my body in the direction it doesn't like to go. For some reason, time adjustments to the west seem to be a lot easier for me. (Of course I could find that statement to be totally untrue when I return home next week.)

Breakfast, conversations, and a visit to the shop across the sreet to pick up some snack food left me almost ready to wander. Caroline & I meandered into the mountain shop since she was on the hunt for a hat. I ended up buying a Buff after a quick demonstration. Funny, I had looked at them in the past, but somehow seeing someone demonstrate its use made so much more sense than trying to understand the drawings on the packaging. What is it? It's a tube of light fabric that can be worn around your neck as a crumpled scarf, spread out a bit more for some protection, and in several variations of hats. It looks to be a good extra layer, a quick hat, thin enough to even fit beneath a cycling helmet.

We decided to walk together today, Caroline, her Border Collie Bessie, and me. It was noon by the time we headed out on the trail, amazing how fast time can just disappear, isn't it?

Our destination for the day was Place Fell. There were varying descriptions of the hike in the three guidebooks that I managed to accumulate, from 'A steep climb up a moderately high fell overlooking Ullswater' in the tiny Walks Ullswater to 'Place Fell rises steeply from the curve formed by the upper and middle reaches of Ullswater and its bulky mass dominates the head of the lake' in one of Wainright's classic guides. I had looked for the Wainright books at home, but the only way I could have purchased on before flying over the ocean was to order it from the UK. I would have happily done that, but there were so many different Wainright guidebooks that I didn't have a clue which one I needed. Not only does the Wainright book include notes on the trail, it also points out the sights that can be seen from the top.

The hike started in Patterdale - the next town to the south of where I am staying. Since it was a very short walk between the two towns, we started our walk from Glenridding. The 'trail' started with a short stretch down a 1-lane 2-way road. I first encountered these tiny roads on my two-wheeled trip in Ireland back in 2003. They surprised me then, and they surprise me now.

We went through a gate, and the trail started headinng up. Ah, a split in the trail, shall we take the upper path or the lower one? Look - there's a bench up a bit on the upper path. That was a good decision point, a walk to the bench, a bit of a rest, a chance to experiment with (camera) filters for a bit, and then we continued our upward walk.

Up, up, and then a decision point. Ah, follow the path to the left. We were close to the top when the trail headed up through some rocks in a path steep enough that I thought I'd have a problem coming back down. I opted to stay there while Caroline continued to the high point of the trail. Lucky for me, as soon as she climbed up that steep bit she saw a trail lower down (and close to where I was waiting) and called down to tell me about it. i didn't see the trail at first, but then I saw a couple coming down that way. I'm so glad that I was able to join Caroline and our hiking pal Bess at the high point of Place Fell.

The scenery was beautiful even though the valley seemed to be softened by gray haze. It wasn't really hazy, but it wasn't sunny either. I'd love to see the sights from Place Fell on a day that was more brightly lit.

There were sheep scattered through the hills, and as usual i was trying to grab their images. They weren't very cooperative though; as soon as I looked at them they turned tail and trotted away. By the end of the day I decided I needed a non-existent lens for my camera. I'd love to be able to get close-up shots of animals but still maintain the panorama behind them.

The hike was described as a loop. By the time we reached the high point it was quite late in the day, so instead of completing the loop we chose to reverse our hike. I wonder, does that mean that I need to do it again?

On the way down, Bess kept turning around to look at us, as if to say 'can't you walk any faster'? Oh, to have a dog's feet!

A meeting & a walk

2008-09-20T19:00:00.000-04:00

Up Glenridding Dodd

After the somewhat exciting end to my drive, I settled in to my room and did a quick loop through town (yes, on foot!) to get my bearings. I picked up a map and trail book, then wandered down to a snack bar at the edge of the lake. A little bit of food was in order before I headed out on a late afternoon walk with Caroline and her dog Bessie.

We headed up Glenridding Dodd, up and up. Up some more. The sun was sinking lower, painting shadows on the hills. I was a little concerned about having enough time to finish in daylight (since we started hiking quite late in the afternoon), but no problem. Sunshine continued to light our way all of the way down again. It was a bit of a steep walk down, with a couple of sections that made me more than a bit nervous - steep, and with loose terrain underfoot. I'd much rather head up than down, but there isn't any getting away from coming back down again. Maybe one of these days I'll get over my lack of comfort with steep downhills. In the meantime, I'm still walking!

A dodd? That's a new word for me too. According to the (little) walks book that I picked up, and a dodd is a rounded hill.

Rocks & tires

2008-09-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

...the kindness of strangers

Morning rolled around, sun peeking over the horizon and coloring the sky. An airport morning... First stop, immigrations. First dumb Denise move? Not bringing a copy of my itinerary showing my return flight. It never occurred to me to bring a printed copy of my flights since I know I can easily access them online. Oops. Luckily, , the receipt for my photography seminar showing the end date served as a somewhat odd substitute. I realized the reason that I didn't run into this problem when I was in Ireland - during my last flying international trip - was that I had a paper ticket for that trip. This one? Electronic only. Next time I suppose I'd better bring a copy of my itinerary.

After waiting and waiting and waiting for luggage, I finally collected my bag and walked outside and into the car rental office. Paperwork done, I headed into the garage to find my car for the week. And - in the spot where my car was supposed to be waiting for me, there was a large van. Yikes! I'm driving on the opposite side of the road from my driving comfort factor, and the car waiting was huge. I went back to the rental office, and the agent said (again) that the car was a small Ford Focus. Hmm... I headed back to the garage once more and discovered that the car in the spot noted on my rental envelope did not match the license number on my contract. Time for a car hunt... Yes, there really was a small Ford Focus waiting for me. And yes, it was an automatic. It was enough to focus on driving on the left without needed to remember to shift with my left hand.

Finally, I was on the road, rolling north, driving on a high-speed road and trying to keep pace with the other cars. There was no posted speed limit - I suppose you're just supposed to know what the speed limit is on a motorway. I thought it was a bit odd.

I stopped at a couple of service stops to get food, to rest. And then my route to Glenridding veered off of the high-speed roads & took me on a series of very narrow two-lane roads. Not only was there no shoulder, the road was lined with walls made of stones. All of a sudden I heard bang! Somehow, I must have clipped a rock or hit a hole with a tire (in a very strange way). Somehow it was clipped seriously enough that there was a hole in the tire. Not what I needed today, a rental car, a flat tire on a lightly traveled very narrow road. Ouch. Bad luck, but good luck too. A cyclist heading uphill added to his workout by helping me change the tire, and three women from Australia stopped to help too. It took all of us to figure out how to get the last (trick) nut off of the wheel. It needed a funny extra attachment for to the wrench. Very odd.

My thanks go out to the strangers who helped me on the road today with a promise to (continue to) help people I meet along the way.

Tire changed, I finished the uphill climb and started the long down into Glenridding. I checked in to the hotel, then walked back to the car to get my bags. As I was walking down the hall to my room, Caroline opened her door to say hello. Finally, an in person meeting! Tea and conversations were a good relaxation. Ah, I'm really here!

Afternoon & night... flying

2008-09-19T12:45:00.000-04:00

Two flights, two planes, very different...

My first flight, from Logan to Newark, was a late afternoon packed plane. There was a large business traveler presence, a large contingent of people carrying multiple very large pieces of luggage onto the plane. It's flights like this one that make me appreciate Southwest Airline's no assigned seat policy. I'm sure I'm not imagining that boarding the flight to Newark took much longer than boarding a Southwest flight of the same size. Very interesting.

Entering the international wings of the day was much more peaceful. More people were traveling with little in the way of carry-on luggage, and boarding the flight was a much faster process.

Individual seat-back entertainment systems showed me our position in the flight, the time remaining, our speed and altitude. Hey - we just flew over Boston. Now why couldn't I just jump up in the air from home to board my flight?

Hey Denise, it's a bit cold out there - minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit. Yikes! And I'm good at jumping, but I don't think even I could jump up to our current altitude of 36942 feet! But oh! look... we're currently flying at 564 miles per hour. No wonder airplanes get us places so much faster than traveling on our bike! Let's see, by (loaded) bike I think we average about 12 miles per hour. What a difference! Hmm... maybe we could go a little faster if I helped Denise to pedal.

Remember - this is slanty writing. That means it's Rover writing!

I managed a quick catnap as we were waiting to take off from Newark. Now I'm wide awake again, probably not a good thing. I don't sleep well on planes, and yet... I need to be alert to drive in the morning. Not only to drive, but to drive on the other side of the road. Remember Denise, drive on the left. Left, left. (Yes, I am talking to myself. Don't you?)

Remembering... with a cube made of glass

2008-09-19T12:15:00.001-04:00

I arrived at the airport early enough that I could wander over to Logan Airport's just dedicated September 11th memorial. If you happen to pass through Logan, it's worth a stop.

A glass cube surrounds glass panels containing the names of the passengers & crew of the two flights that left Logan that fateful day. The outside of the structure isn't solid. Instead it is made up of thin slabs of glass, alternating in placement, each panel offset from the next and previous. Looking up, there are floating pieces of glass. Two simple benches stand within the structure, a place to sit in quiet contemplation. It is a place of peace in a busy airport.

A beautiful structure, a memory of a terrible day...

Curious about the memorial? You might find these links interesting:

>>> Massport Unveils Boston Logan Airport 9/11 Memorial Design, September 2006
>>> Boston Memorial Marks Ill-Fated Planes' Departure, NPR story, September 2008

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff

2008-09-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

Hi, Rover here... Wow, I've never seen Denise wait until the last minute to pack. She just didn't seem to have things together this week. But then again, she has been gathering things together for days. There were piles on the floor in two rooms - camera, lenses, flash cards, filters, stuff in one place, and clothing options in another. There was never any doubt in my mind that all of the stuff Denise carries to create photos would fit in the photo backpack, but the clothes? It really looked like there was no way the suitcase was going to be big enough for clothes plus Denise's tripod. Stacks and stacks and stacks of stuff!

Somehow, everything fit. And you know what? I think she could have fit in even more layers if she needed them.

It was interesting watching the packing decisions for this trip. It's been raining a lot in England, and it's cooler there than here. Denise didn't bring anything heavy other than a pretty serious fleece vest, but she has lots of clothes that can be layered for more warmth. Oh, and she did pack a rain jacket and a rain hat too. People are a bit silly about water coming from the sky, aren't they? My bright red fur gets wet in the rain, but it doesn't take that long to dry. Maybe people should take a lesson on dressing (or not dressing!) from dogs.

Jumping closer... soon

2008-09-16T12:00:00.002-04:00

I can't believe that it's almost time to fly across the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean to find my wandering grounds in the Lake District. The months since I committed to this trip have flown by, and now I'm counting the days. Three days...

I land in Manchester early Saturday morning, and I'll have a bit of a drive ahead of me to get to my stomping grounds for the week. Instead of wandering, I've decided to make Glenridding my home base for the week. That's where my photography seminar will be, so I'll have one bed for the entire stay. (Well, except for the last night, when I'll probably stay near the airport in Manchester.)

Plans? Nope, I don't have any of those. There are plenty of places to walk in the Lake District. Some of my wanderings will be close to Glenridding, some may involve a drive first. Some wanderings will be inside of Lake District, some may be elsewhere. I'm still toying with the idea of heading to Hadrian's Wall on one of my free days.

Let's see, how far north of home will I be? I talked about air miles before, but where will I be relative to where I am now?

My home town is at 42.68 degrees latitude, and Glenridding, my home away from home for this trip is at 54.54 degrees latitude. A degree of latitude is about 69 miles, so I'll be perched at a latitude that is 828 miles north of where I am right now. If I headed straight north from home and traveled 828 miles, it looks like I would end up in a very unpopulated area of Quebec. Turn right and head across the ocean from there, an oh! I think I'll land in England.

The weather? I'm sending strong wishes to the weather wizard for days that aren't totally wet. I'm sure there's no escaping wet weather in England at this time of year, but I can hope, can't I? Oh, you want to see the forecast? Take a look at Weatherline, showing a 5-day forecast for the park.

An interesting answer (and question) from the Weatherline page:

Why does it rain in the Lake District?

"The weather in Britain mostly comes from the Atlantic. When the clouds hit the mountains of the Lake District, they rise, the water vapour within the clouds cools, condenses and falls as rain or snow."

Packing? Yup, I do still need to figure out what clothing is coming with me. I'm using my cycle touring rules, even though I won't be traveling each day. A couple of changes of clothes, lots of layers (because I think it's going to be chilly and damp), clothes that can be washed out and that will dry overnight. Layers, fleece, layers, hiking shoes, layers, rain gear, clothing made of fast-dry fabrics, stuff to keep me comfortable...

I suppose it might be smart to take an umbrella with me. What do you think?

Cameras? More than one? Of course! My dSLR is coming along with a couple of lenses, some filters that I need to learn to use, a tripod... And I promised Rover that I'd bring a little camera for him to use. Two cameras...

I must meet the goals of my trip - to wander by foot, to play with cameras, to enhance my abilities to capture beautiful images with my camera.

Wings to Manchester

2008-05-10T12:00:00.000-04:00

I've been keeping my eye on air fares for my September trip to England. I wanted to wait a bit, hoping that the fares would drop - but as gasoline prices have been jumping higher and higher I figured it might be time to commit to a flight.

I didn't consider many of the flights that are available; I refuse to head west over North America to fly east to Europe. Oh, and I only wanted one flight change. There are no non-stop flights between here and Manchester, but there are 2-flight options. With those two strong requirements I headed off to search for flights. The last time I looked it appeared that I would either be taking American Airlines through New York, or British Airways through London. All of the other flights headed in the wrong direction before crossing the Atlantic.

OK, one more search... and I found another option, an option for less money. Continental Airlines flies to Manchester via Newark. I started looking at flight schedules and found some flights. The outbound flight had a 1 1/4 hour connection in Newark. At first that seemed fine to me, but then I saw a clickable "see on-time performance". Yup, I did click, and I found that the flight I was looking at had a 20% on-time performance. Ouch. That didn't make me very comfortable. I even went so far as to call the airline to talk to a reservation agent. She assured me that it was a legal connection, but suggested taking an earlier flight into Newark if the lack of connection time made me nervous. I had her check the flights for today & yesterday. Today's flight was only 15 minutes late, but yesterday's? Five hours late! Yikes!

Then I realized there was a flight that leaves Boston a little over an hour earlier. Yes, I may have too much time in Newark, but that means less worrying for me.

Done! I have plane reservations and a rental car. All I need to do now is decide where I'm going to spend the four days before my photography seminar. Should I spend the entire time in the Lake District, or should I wander into one of the other national parks in the area?

Me too, me too!

2008-01-09T16:30:00.001-05:00

Rover said he's coming too. He says that he still prefers biking, but he thought that hiking in Death Valley was pretty cool. Oh, you haven't met Rover? He jumped into my panniers in Vermont just after I started my cross-country adventure back in 2002, and he's been traveling with me ever since.

Hey all - this is Rover! England? I went to Ireland with Denise back in 2003, and we haven't crossed the Atlantic Ocean since then. Wow! now I get to go to England too! I've asked Denise to bring her baby camera for me to play with; this dSLR is kind of clunky for me. After all, it's bigger than I am.

Oh, Denise just reminded me that I should tell you that I'll probably write part of this journal too. If you see slanty writing, those are my words. It's really funny, it wasn't until last year that I decided to jump in and help Denise with the writing. Sometimes she has a day when the words just don't flow, and I discovered that I like playing with words too. So please join Denise and me as we wander.

Manchester to Manchester?

2008-01-09T16:15:00.000-05:00

I wasn't done thinking yet. Should I travel to England for just three days? I've traveled to the west coast for trips of that length - a little short of the distance to England - but this is going to be a vacation and not just a long weekend. I think I'll fly the Friday before the seminar and spend a few days wandering on two feet. Maybe I'll spend the entire time in the Lake District, maybe I'll escape the mountains and the lakes for a side trip, maybe...

Curious about what I might find? Check out the Enjoying page on Lake District National Park's web site.

Before I move off to dreaming of a vacation with my bike for earlier in the year, I started to look at transportation options, and at distances.

The distance doesn't really matter, but my curiosity got the better of me and I looked for a tool to show me point to point distances. I found MapCrow, a travel distance calculator. I suspect the distances shown there are air miles, and it satisfied my curiosity for now. Flying from Boston to Manchester, England shows as 3145 miles (5061 kilometers), and flying from Boston to Los Angeles shows as 2588 miles (4166 kilometers). So my gut feel for distances wasn't too far off.

Manchester to Manchester?

I suppose it's a bit silly, but I thought it would be fun to fly from Manchester, NH to Manchester, England. I live mid-way between two airports, Boston's Logan Airport and Manchester Boston Regional Airport. While it is possible to fly from Manchester to Manchester, the flights between those two cities exceed my annoyance levels. United Airlines flies from Manchester to Chicago to Manchester, but I really don't want to start my trip by flying backwards. Somehow flying 1000 miles to the west just to turn around and fly those same 1000 miles to the east before heading out over the ocean to England just doesn't appeal to me.

OK, OK, I knew before I rambled down the Manchester to Manchester path that I'd probably be flying out of Boston. Manchester is a great choice if there is a non-stop flight from there (on Southwest) to my travel destination, but Boston is the right starting point for this flight. I found two reasonable flight choices - American Airlines via JFK, or British Airways via London. Either way I will only have one plane change. Those travel paths are a little more expensive than the wacky flights that go through Chicago, but I'll choose cash over aggravation. I'd rather pay a little more for my plane tickets and spend less time in the air.

I find it amazing that the price of the flight is just over 53% of the total cost of the airfare, with the remaining 47% allocated to taxes and fees.

Time to dream

2008-01-09T16:00:00.000-05:00

One of my goals for this winter is to figure out my vacations for the year. Last minute planning worked for 2007, but I prefer to plan early, to have something to dream about, to look forward to (as opposed to dreaming about where I might wander). I've been dreaming, and I have an early plan for what will likely be my second vacation in 2008. I still need to noodle through some options for a cycling trip for earlier in the year.

Where am I going? Caroline mentioned a photography seminar run by Light & Land in one of our email conversations, and the dreams started. I wandered through the web site, and my eyes were caught by a photography tour in the Lakes District of England. I emailed the organization with some questions, and I received their response. Hmm... Should I fly to England for a 3-day photography tour? I thought, and I thought. I toyed with different vacation options - after all, I have a limited amount of vacation time, and I need (yes, need!) to have some time to wander on my bike in addition to playing with my camera. Hmmm... a week in England, in a beautiful park, walking, wandering.

Hey - it's time to stop thinking and start doing! Decision made; I'm going to be joining Caroline in Light & Land's Lake District photography workshop in September. The seminar will be led by Charlie Waite, a well known English landscape photographer. I'm so excited!

Ah, a vacation to dream about...