Back to Tipperary for Cormac's 1st birthday

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Working backwards, we had a 2nd (in 6 weeks ) stay with Meghan in Roscrea, Tipperary. Cormac's first birthday had been the week before, but Meghan had a party while we were there.

The wee laddie did magnificently and loved all the attention. His little smile at the cake cutting ceremony gave us all a huge thrill. He's a fine little fellow, bright and full of charm but nonetheless a handful for his dear Mum and Dad. What fun we had with them all. Other highlights of the trip were the very special dinner we had with Meghan and Dennis courtesy of Flannan and Mary, the beautiful day M and I had cycling to Loch Dearg from Nenagh ( following the epic train journey ( reminded me of Crossmichael to New Galloway in about 1950 ) from Roscrea to Nenagh ) and then all the way back to Roscrea, and finally a day with Meghan , Dennis and Cormac to Rock of Cashel with a very nice lunch given to us by Meghan and Dennis at at a delightful little cafe in Cashel.

And finally back to USA - to see go back 5 or so blog entries !

Braemar

Back to Morrone. Jane and Johannes there throughout our stay there and much discussion , trip to Aberdeen, meetings with prospective caterers, wine suppliers etc for May wedding.

A very special day trip to Edinburgh with Jane , she just having got word that her Edinburgh University PhD clinical psychology thesis was acceptable for her doctorate. Here she is outside the printers collecting the finished article for final submission. Clutching it pretty tight it seems - and proudly and rightly so.

J & J preparing ( hardly ! ) for a testing first drive on the 1st at Ballater.

Setting off from Linn of Dee .

The beauty of the right to roam. Nothing , however specatular the mountain setting , spectacular scenery , glittering snow peaked tops , in the Colorado Rockies can match - for me I hasten to add - the experience of just ' striking out ' ! This was taken after leaving the Glen Derry path and heading towards Beinn Bhreac.

Edinburgh

the Braid Hills indicator . Always a nostalgic return visit here. GSR and his good friend John Bartholomew were responsible for this. A wonderful legacy to the people of Edinburgh.

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Likewise this seat at Hillend. The original recently deteriorated so badly , it had to be replaced. Fortunately at the expense of Edinburgh Council . The last to get in under the wire under new budgetary constraints and regulations. Well done Jean for pressing to conclusion.

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with sisters Barbara and Rosalind outside National Portrait Gallery , Edinburgh

M , Johannes and Jane outside the quaint little one bedroom flat we rented from Sharon and Tony Martin in Stockbridge. Bicycles , kindly transported by J & J from Braemar, were all we required. With the appalling traffic problems in Edinburgh, the ideal transport mode.

Highlights were meeting up with many old friends including this game of gold at Muirfield with Ian Ballantine, Mike Macintosh Reid and Stu Briggs.

Highlight also a day biking with John & Jane to Dalmany, dinner with Keith and Fiona Griffiths, dinner with Barbara and Bill and catching up with many old pals.

Thanks Clarissa for setting up this lovely flat for us in Stockbridge - not to be confused with this very much grander Butters' flat at 30 Moray Place above where once again John and Jane entertained us .

Thanks too to Mary's Balerno HS teaching friend John McIver who couldn't have been kinder to us.

We had a day cycling round West Lothian including a ride up the hill from Linlithgow to our old home at Parkley Craigs - oh dear ! - attended the 11 service at St Michael's , invited back to sing in the choir with Ian Scott et al ( they were incredibly generous in presenting us with a check for the Fox Parkinsons Research Foundation - hugely appreciated ), visit to the Grants and the Crebers and a delightful west wind assisted ride back to Edinburgh. Could have done with more of that in North Dakota.

London

Harry outside his flat in Clapham complete with new lampshades.

My nephew Jeremy taking a break from his studies at Kings College , London - subject Wagner. Fresh from his 1st in a Masters musicology degree at Clare , Cambridge

Mary holding the prized and hugely appreciated gift of tickets from Duncan & Katy for Traviata.

Five days in London went in a whir. Many highlights including going up to Ely to see Johannes's mother and a tour of the magnificent Ely cathedral. Also met up with Mary's sister Martha and spent a happy lunchtime hour at the Degas exhibition.

Many thanks Harry for your customary welcome to Clapham and gracious hospitality. I'll need to bring Mary more often though !

Beaconsfield and Bramley

Norman & Dave Jackson, Duncan Robertson - Beaconsfield

Greg & Di Desson - Bramley

Hired a car at Gatwick on last afternoon of LSGS v WSGC tour and drove to David and Desiree Jackson's house in Beaconsfield. David had organised dinner in a local restauraunt followed by golf next day with old University pals Duncan Robertson and Norman Jackson. A happy trip down memory lane and a lot of good banter.

Then drove down to Bramley to stay with equally good old pals Greg and Di Desson. This was the evening the pace of the preceding week caught up with me. Di was my guardian angel. Fortunately the next morning could be delightfully restful , with long breakfast in their conservatory in this beautiful piece of leafy Surrey a few miles from Guilford followed by a good lunch at the Bramley golf club.

Many thanks to David and Desiree and Greg and Di for laying all this on for me . As an ex pat, these friendships take on a new dimension. Very special. Come and see us in Aspen though. In Greg and Di's case , come back !

S.E England and Royal St George's Golf Club, Sandwich

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A superb week ar Rye and Sandwich for 50th anniversary of the 1st golf match between WS Golf Club and London Solicitors Golfing Society. 4 days of golf , reunion with masses of old friends, dinners , bridge and generally epic comeraderie. Bill and Debbie Richards get special mention for all they did to make this tour such a momentous one for me.

From top
1 With Spencer Patrick and David Rae on 8th green at Rye.
2 Roger Davies, John Rink and Jonathan Chalton on 9th green at RSGS.
3 Peter Morley Jacob, Roger Davies, Bill Richards and Jonathan Chalton

Back in USA - Asheville , NC

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The last post on this blog site preceded the start of our transam bike trip. We finished that trip in Bar Harbor Maine mid September since when we've been in Boston, New York City, Ireland, South coast England,London,Edinburgh, Braemar, back to Ireland, back to NYC Asheville and finally home to Snowmass. To update the blog on all legs of this fabulous "home" visit, I'll work from the last to the first i.e. Start where we currently are - Asheville,NC
Attended a stunningly good Remembrance Day ( called Veterans Day in USA )service at the Deerfield chapel where we had a 2 minute silence at 11 minutes past 11 on 11/11/11. There was a superb address given by one of Betty's co residents George Boon, a WW2 pilot, who told of his remarkable escape from a burning B42 over Romania in 1944 and his subsequent capture and imprisonment and eventual repatriation. The 4 hymns we sang were hugely moving - 719 Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies, 720 Oh say can you see... ( the National Anthem ), 717 My Country 'Tis of Thee and 597 Almighty Father Strong to Save.
Highlight of our stays wth Betty are our bridge session. Here we are playing with a dear friend of Betty's, Maisie, who has been a superb player in her time and is currently recovering from a 3rd major stroke. Her perserverance here was an inspiration to us.

Staying with " Granny " is always a restful experience and this stay is proving to be no exception. Lots of good eating , sleeping , shopping and bridge. At 89 she' doing very, very well.

A bonus for us here has been seeing Duncan & Katy who had driven down for a long weekend to stay in Montreat. We had a good dinner with them to celebrate Katy's birthday and then lunch the next day at Black Mounatain. They're both looking so happy and fit. A real delight to see them. They had biked Montreat to Lake Lure before our lunch on a beautiful morning .

Unfortunately can't load pics from my IPad since changing to gmail. They'll be added next week when we're back in Snowmass. Early snows mean resort opening 1 week BERORE Thanksgiving.

New blog site

I'm now transferring , till conclusion of trans USA bike trip starting on June 22, to a new website - crazyguyonabikeabike.com. This has been set up specifically for cycle tours of the sort Mary and I are attempting and should be much more user friendly not just for us as a journal and record of our expedition , but for occasional readers of this blog and , we hope the supporters of the Parkinsons charity The Michael J
Fox Foundation for whom we hope to raise significant funds. To donate please log on to www.teamfox.org/2011/georgeandmarytransam

So ....... transfer now to www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/georgeandmarytour2011
for all further posts of our activities until end September - assuming we have made Bar Harbour , Maine by that time !

Atlanta & Asheville

After a couple of delightful days with our friends Dick & Martha staying in their lovely house in Buckhead near Atlanta, we collected Meghan , Dennis and Cormac from Atlanta airport and whisked them ( via a Georgia Crackerbarrel - see pics ) up to Asheville NC to stay with Cormac's great granny . What a thrill for all concerned.

Note the cute pillow which great granny ` Eye ` had had made especially for the visit. After a pretty horrendous journey from Roscrea , Tipperary, you couldn't have imagined anything quite so welcoming. Signalled the start of 7 very special days .

Moab -- White Rim Trail

Fantastic trip. 4 days and 3 nights 100 plus mile trip across a tiny section of the Utah Canyonlands National Park between the Colorado and the Green Rivers a little north of their confluence . Narrative to follow shortly.

Our Aspen friends Lee & Julie Miller expertly and with minimum fuss , but colossal skill , put this trip together and provided their truck as our support vehicle .

A 4 hour drive to Moab, UT stopping for picnic in Grand Junction, we met Lee & Julie at the Moab motel before hiring our mountain bikes for 4 days . Just time that evening for L & J to show us the Slick Rock trail . We had time only to do a tiny section of the practice trail , but what a place. Mountain bike trail on rock stretching some 20 plus miles in the desert signed only by white paint marks on the rock.

Met by our 2 other trip members Susan Cross ( Mary's ski Co boss ) and Mark Batmale at 9 am following morning and after leaving 2 vehicles at the pick up point , drove to visiotrs center , Canyonlands National Park and set off on the White Rim Trail ( an old uranium ming road ) in mid morning. We took it in turns to follow a a couple of miles or so behind in the truck with all our gear. How delightful to be biking without loaded panniers ! Julie , bless her, did the treacherous drive down into the Colorado River canyon. Lee did the steep uphill sections. 4 days of simply staggeringly beautiful and wild country and 3 nights out . Relatively easy biking with only limited technical skills required - thankfully. Lee and Julie did a marvellous job of guiding, and overseeing the catering arrangements . We each were responsible for providing an evening meal for all of us plus our own breakfast and picnic lunches individually.

Pics . Presently trying to get Meghan's help in Asheville to write a negative beside or underneath each pic and also to get to grips with updating blog on new Ipad 2, but no success yet.

Therefore pics from foot
1. Lee and Mary on Slick Rock " practice trail ".
2. Not required fortunately !
3. Packing at Moab motel for White Rim trail .
4. Just before the, "off". Lee,, Mary, Mark, Susan and Julie.
5&6. Our trail down the the canyon floor and where it led !
7. A typical view of the Colorado river and what seemed a precarious boulder. Probably been like that for a thousand years.
8. If you look carefully here , you'll see this is a stone bridge with a drop of about 500 feet beneath . Suggestions that we should cycle the
4 feet or so width span bridge were quickly suppressed.
9,10 &11. First night's campsite. Note the loo. Heat operated ventilation system meant no smell at all. Remarkable.
12. The candlestick.
13. First view of the mighty Green River.
14. You wanted to be sure here of your taking off and landing spots!
15. Mary testing likely "depth " by dropping small stone.
16. Thoughts of " A 127 hours " here !
17&18. The trail up to the 3rd night's campsite.
19&20. Setting off on 4th morning ( George driving and therefore responsible for ensuring clean campsite ).
21. Mary going strong ( and still pedaling ) nearing top of the " climb out " to complete the 100 odd mile trip.
22. By coincidence we were stopped on the drive back through Utah to Snowmass by this daily Amtrak west bound train - Denver to Sacramento - on which we will be boarded on June 22nd at start of our great adventure to cycle west - eastt across USA. Please note I'll be changing website for that trip - see
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/georgeandmary



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