It took a great deal of effort in order to make this trip happen. The first thing that had to be done was cleaning out the van in order to accommodate all the bikes that would need to be transported to the Towpath. This was no small feat and required moving all four of the seats out of the van and onto the front porch. Then the vacuum had to be run and garbage had to be collected and thrown away, so that children could sit on the floor in the back. Next Michelle had to be picked up from Cleveland and her bike needed to be brought down. Finally, on the day of trip it almost all fell apart when it was discovered that the rear derailleur on Patty’s bike was actually broken. Lucky for her the neighbor let us borrow a girls bike.
The day started with cinnamon french toast and orange juice. All the water bottles were filled. The kids decided who was going to carry the book bag. The bikes were loaded into the van and off we went for a short drive and then a much longer bike ride. The bike trip started in north Akron and ended in Peninsula. The original plan was to go further north and take the train back, but it was not entirely clear whether or not the historic train was running that day. The train has not been running part of the summer and signs indicated it was due to “budget constraints”. The train was in fact running, but we did not find that out until it was too late.
The trip almost had to be cut short, once again, because the bike that Patty borrowed had a loose head unit and the handlebars were sliding all over the place. It was very fortunate that we were in the valley and could stop at Blimp City Bike & Hike. I did not know that the place existed until now. The man that greeted us had a very friendly dog and he was extremely helpful in putting the handlebars back and tightening the head unit, so that we would not have anymore problems. He even took a little extra time to sort out the cables in the front of the bikes that were all twisted up. The bike is not ours, but I still appreciated the effort. I will definitely be back to that bike shop when it comes time to start looking at road bikes.
One of the things that the children always enjoy, and this was Michelle’s first time visiting, is stopping at Szalay’s Sweet Corn Farm. The children all got ice cream. We have never seen them with booths open and selling ice cream and sandwiches, but that is what they were doing. Next time we will probably split a fresh fruit sundae. They had blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, and banana’s there for the sundae. It was nice sitting for a bit.
We continued north and stopped in Peninsula. I promised that was as far north as we were going to go that day. We stopped at Fisher’s Cafe and Pub. We each split a wrap and had eggplant fries. None of us had those types of fries before and they were really good. The place unfortunately was ridiculously expensive and I simply cannot recommend anyone going there. I would not have thought to look at a menu to make sure that three children ordering soda and tea would come to over $8 (if you consider the tax). I would recommend going to the Winking Lizard if you are in Peninsula. While we were waiting for our food Michelle taught us how to make an origami swan. I do not think that Patty was learning how to make one, because I believe she already knows how to make one, but Eddy and I struggled through the process. It was a great deal of fun though and we left them all on the table.
One the way back we stopped at the beaver marsh. There were a great many pictures taken. Michelle and Patty wanted pictures of the water lilies. We all wanted pictures of the big turtles that were swimming around in the water. Several pictures were taken of the turtle that was sunning itself on a stump out in the water. We also saw carp and cat fish. Michelle was very interested in a goose that looked as though it might have been burned. Interestingly enough we had just learned that the loud bangs we heard while riding on the Towpath were propane guns. They are black contraptions that can be found in the corn fields to keep birds from eating the corn. The beaver come out during the evening, so we did not see any of them. The bike trip was a lot of fun and I hope to do it again before the snow starts falling.
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This week was also the start of Michelle learning to drive a manual transmission car. It could be argued whether or not in this day of vanishing manual transmission cars whether or not this will be an important life lesson, but it is happening anyway. She drove around a parking lot learning how to use 1st gear and shift into 2nd. We then ventured out into the road where she proceeded to stall the car several times. Personally, I have talked to people who never had a problem with first gear, who never lost control of a classroom full of high school freshmen, and who generally can not comprehend why some people do not do everything perfect on their first try, but I think those people are all liars and need to keep it to themselves. I think my favorite place we stalled the car was in the middle of an intersection. Lot of happy people behind us and blocked from going south bound on Arlington that day. She did a good job, especially for her first outing, and I even let her drive us back to her house.
