Amos, a dog.

Amos is a very good dog.
Amos is about 10 weeks old and weighs 15 pounds.
Amos is a mixie and he has webbed feet.
Amos only pees and poops outside.
Amos loves kids and dogs but he's not so sure about dads.
Amos especially loves to snuggle.
Amos gets lonely in his crate at night and he makes a lot of noise.

Trail Riding

We'll get to the rest of the ETR eventually, but I wanted to get this posted first. I've always loved mountain biking. Maybe here in Michigan it shouldn't be called that, given the lack of mountains, but the MMBA has worked with many of the local parks to develop some really fun and challenging trails. I've been anxious to give them a try.

Friday night we ran down to REI in Detroit and got Quinn set up with a geared mountain bike in the form of Scott Scale Jr 20. We used our REI Dividend and a gift-card my mom gave Cindy and I for our anniversary to help offset the cost. Quinn was nothing short of ecstatic. I'm not sure he deserves it, the lucky kid.

Saturday morning I dusted off the other mountain bikes (those that needed it) and put some gnarly tires on those those wearing street shoes. After lunch, while Cindy was at work, the kids and I packed up the bikes and headed north to Sleepy Hollow State Park for some trail riding. The idea had been to follow the bicycling trails in the park around the 10-mile loop that circles Lake Ovid. I would run and they would ride. As you might have guessed it didn't quite work out as expected.

Sleepy Hollow's trails are very well marked, and there are designated bicycle trails and equestrian trails. Maps and signs are located at all critical intersections, making it really nice trail system. However, most of the park's visitors spend their time lounging about the swimming beach, and apparently don't do much riding. Although there are periodically foot races, triathlons, and off-road bicycle races at the park, some of the trails don't see much use and are quite overgrown. Others are under water.

It was a really hot and muggy day with the temperature reaching about 90 F. The mosquitoes were loving it. And loving us. In this first picture, we are on the trail, it's just a little hard are to tell. In the middle of all that grass is a muddy rut.



You can see that many of the trails were mowed this year. In some places the riding and running was really nice. Here Quinn is making use of those low gears. Not low enough, by the way, a significant complaint I have about all the available 20-inch kids bikes.



Did I mention that some of the trails were under water? We negotiated our way around several large, buggy swamps, but this was the end of the trail for us. We'd pushed ahead for more than an hour, but it wasn't all that much fun. I must say, the kids were doing their very best to keep their spirits up. Quinn's lifted by the new bicycle; Abbey's lifted perhaps only by her desire to make sure my day was a success. She's very thoughtful, you know.



After that last swamp, we backtracked to a little abandoned two-rut road that's used only by horses now. We buzzed down it to reach the road that runs through the park, and logged a couple miles of road and took some pictures on the dam before we called it a day.



Surprisingly, the kids were ready for another go of it next morning. This time we brought Cindy along. I was keeping my fingers crossed for a better experience.

The trails in the Riverbend Natural Area and Burchfield Park are adjacent to the Grand River. They parks are very close to Lansing and get more use and more maintenance than those of Sleepy Hollow.





The trail system comprises a smooth easy loop with a bunch of twisting challenging routes woven around around it. We rode the easy 'blue' loops first, and then tested out some of the more difficult routes - 'purple' and a little of a 'red'. We found nothing we couldn't ride. It was difficult to take photos in the forest because the dense canopy of trees blocked so much light.

Here we took a break at some benches along the trail. It was hot, but the shade was pleasant. There were plenty of mosquitoes, but they were tolerable.



Near the end of our ride, the trail was smooth and rolling and fun, so I opened up my lungs and blasted way ahead stopping when I found this sunny spot for some family photos. I found a nice spot where we had the pleasure of climbing this sandy little hill. Although it doesn't look very steep in the photos, from bottom the hill it looked like it would be a challenge. Quinn went first and powered his way up.



Then it was Abbey's turn -- another successful ascent.



And Cindy brought up the rear on her old 1997 Scott Boulder. Tange steel frame and Rock Shox Indy C. It's a really good-looking bicycle and has been serving as her commuter recently. I'm sure it enjoyed the day.



Here's the van, bristling with a bunch of bikes. Quinn's fits in the back. We had a great time and everyone's looking forward to doing it again.

Eastern Tandem Rally Adventure Trip 3: DC and the Inner Harbor

This third installment of the ETRAT tells of our adventures on Tuesday, 7 July, and Wednesday, 8 July. This is not a real-time blog. Obviously.

We started Tuesday's adventure by putting on our walking shoes and loading up some bags and backpacks for a day of traveling by foot. Of course, then we got in the van and drove to the Greenbelt Metro station where we parked the van and traveled into DC by train. We got off the Metro near the National Archives in DC, and with Laurie as our tour guide, began to explore The National Mall, which wasn't actually a shopping mall.

One of our first stops was the National Gallery of Art. It was a huge building that reminded me of a large conference center. We didn't spend much time there, but Quinn took some interesting photos. The mirrored glass pyramids are actually windows in the ceiling of the rooms below.



Here, Quinn reflects on self, others, and the world.



Next, we went to the National Museum of Natural History, where we saw many bones and images of dinosaurs and other ancient creatures. I always find it a challenge to take away very much useful information from a museum in which I'm overwhelmed with crowds and information. We saw some really cool stuff, and the kids really enjoyed the bones and the animals. Quinn captured these teeth.



Some of the fossils on display had amazing detail, with intact protrusions like I'd never seen before.



After a lunch of gymnosperms and hadrosaurs at the museum, we continued our journey westward toward the monuments. We first walked around the Washington monument, which Laurie explained was the largest un-reinforced masonry structure in the world. I explained to the kids that it was also an escape rocket for the President that would take him directly to Mars. We visited the National World War II Memorial, an elaborate and proud expanse of towers and pools and fountains. Lots of folks were cooling off in the pools. It was getting to be a warm day in DC.

We continued west along the reflecting pool to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which presented an entirely different aura than did the WWII Memorial. It was subtle and powerful and sad, with it's most prominent feature being the names of more than 58,000 Americans that had died.

The Lincoln Memorial stood not too far away. We sat on north side out of the sun where the stone was cool and comfortable. We walked around the memorial. It was large and Quinn was small.



We tried to visit the Obama's; thought they might like to have lunch with us, but we couldn't get close enough to ring the door bell. We saw quite a few secret service squirrels out in the yard, though.



After visiting the White House, we took the Metro back to our van and headed back to Laurie and David's. After another nice dinner, we were off to sleep.

And Wednesday we were out the door early for a day in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It was really fun. We traveled around by water taxi, so we got to see all sorts of old buildings and new ones from the water.



There was also quite a lot of walking about Fell's Point, and the heat, and the miles, and the lack of rest began to get to Quinn. Here, on a dock by the harbor, he collapsed. It took quite some effort, a bit of scolding, and very long piggy-back ride, before he'd recovered.



It wasn't until later that I realized just how tired and woozy Quinn must have been feeling. Even some of the pictures he took during that time were fuzzy and tilted.



Before we left Fell's Point, we were hanging around this crab making jokes about crabby Abbey when a nice man stopped by to tell us just how bad the economy was in Michigan, and then volunteered to take our picture.



After leaving the harbor, we went back to Laurie and David's, packed up our stuff, and headed up to Strasburg, PA, for the Eastern Tandem Rally.

Marathon Post 2: 70 days

Why am I doing this?

Today I ran 17.6 miles. Quinn, on his bicycle and wearing a new Camelbak hydration pack, was my support crew. It took us about 2 hrs and 35 minutes. That time includes a ten minute pee and snack stop at Lake Lansing Park, and probably several more minutes spent waiting on traffic signals. But I'd have to drop 21 minutes off that to have done it at my marathon goal pace of 7:38 (that's min:sec per mile).

Believe it or not, it's actually quite a challenge to run for 2 1/2 hours - whatever the pace. It makes my legs tired. It makes my stomach hurt. It makes my toe nails fall off. So I guess it's going pretty well, all things considered.

For the last couple of weeks my mileage has topped 40 miles per week. I've run 135 miles in the last 4 weeks. Quinn has been at my side for nearly all of those miles, and Abbey has probably been there for at least half of them.

The biggest problem I'm having is with my toes. I started this training with new pair of size 12 Nike Zoom Elites. They've served me well in the past. But as the mileage creeped over 10 miles, I started having toe trouble. I've lost three toe nails so far this year. So I switched to a size 12 Nike Zoom Triax, which I bought a year ago, but had not worn much because they weren't very cushy and they seemed a little wide. But the width seemed to help my toes. I still didn't like the feel under foot, so now I'm in a pair of Asic 2140s that seem really nice. They are a B width, very comfortable under foot, and my toes have been doing better. I'm actually rotating the three pairs of shoes, which seems to help lessen blisters and calluses, but using the Asics for all my long runs. I thought the Asics had eliminated the toe nail problems, but I think today's long run killed one of my brand new nails on a toe where the old purple dead nail hasn't even come off yet. Most of the experienced distance runners I've talked with have pretty much said, "Welcome to marathon training."

Will I make my goal of running a 3 hr and 20 minute marathon? Not if you do the math on today's pace, but the race is still weeks away. I'm running my shorter runs of seven or eight miles well under that needed pace. Either way, it doesn't really matter whether I hit that qualifying time, but it's fun to have a lofty goal to push me through the training.

Eastern Tandem Rally Adventure Trip 2: The Mt. Vernon Trail

The next segment of our trip was spent with Laurie and David in Baltimore. The weather in Baltimore was much more cooperative -- even hot and sunny -- so we were able spend plenty of time outside.

On Monday morning, we loaded up the tandems and Laurie and David's bikes and drove into D.C. to ride the Mt. Vernon Trail. We parked the cars and unloaded the bikes in large park along the Potomac a short distance south of Alexandria. We pedaled just a couple of miles north into the old red-brick city of Alexandria where we stopped at a little cafe for some yummy egg salad sandwiches. There was a bike shop, too, but we didn't go in.



We continued north a few more miles to the Ronald Reagan Airport, where we stopped right at the end of one of the runways and watched airplanes fly overhead. It was almost frightening.



After watching the planes for a while we turned around and rode south to the park where we'd left the cars. This was a nice way to ride this trail because there was a bathroom and water fountain in the park.



Continuing south along the trail there was less development, and we found ourselves winding through forests and wetlands and even climbing some nice hills. We reached Mt. Vernon around 5 p.m. and the place was pretty much shutting down -- it was too late to catch a tour of George Washington's home. We were a little disappointed that we couldn't even see the old place without passing through a museum, a food court, several gift shops, and paying out a bunch of cash for a tour. Oh well. We enjoyed some ice cream and snacks in the food court. We were hot and tired and still had several hilly miles to go to get back to the cars. Once back on the bikes, however, it was quite apparent that Mt. Vernon really was a mountain -- or at least it was on a hill -- the return ride seemed much easier and faster. In fact, in some places the hills we had climbed became winding descents that were dangerously fun. Quinn and I pretended we were on a pod racer.





That evening we had a delicious dinner of vegetables and pasta in Laurie and David's kitchen. We were all nice and tired.

Next up will be a day of train rides, monuments, and museums in D.C.

Eastern Tandem Rally Adventure Trip I: Visiting The Dobbs Mob

Way back in early July, we took a trip. We'll call it the Eastern Tandem Rally Adventure Trip - the ETRAT. It was a long trip and it's taken me a long time to find time to write about it. Even now, I'm sure I'm neglecting something as I sit here and write. This post covers the first segment of the ETRAT, in which we visited The Dobbs Mob and their 52,000 chickens in Virginia. It was fun, but it was rather short visit and was complicated by heavy rain.

On the way to Virginia, crossing the Allegheny Mountains, we caught just a glimpse of some nice Appalachian scenery as we detoured along a few miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We'll definitely keep it on the list for a future extended bicycle tour.



We arrived at Jill and John's place mid-day on a very hot Fourth of July. After spending a long day-and-a-half in the car we were anxious to get out and walk. So anxious that we forgot to bring our camera or any water as we started walking a lengthy gravel road through the farm. After walking through a recently cut field, we stopped to explore one of the creeks that runs through. The water in the creek was cool and clear, with smooth cobble underneath, and had less algal growth than one might have expected on a cattle farm. A quick survey of the macroinvertebrate fauna on the underside of a few rocks suggested a diversity of critters in a healthy stream, although John mentioned the existence of a fish consumption advisory.

Some of the girls and Quinn and I took off our shoes and waded in the stream. The water was deep and swift enough that Quinn required my hand to stay upright. We followed Sarah, Jaeden, and Abbey into deep water, under the limbs and roots of tree hanging over an undercut bank. Sarah seemed to have the toughest feet - she moved quickly and seemingly painlessly. The bottoms of my forty-year old feet found the round, tennis-ball sized rocks quite painful, so I moved slowly and carefully. Perhaps I had more pounds per square inch of foot. Jennifer and Dakota chose not to cross the stream in their bare feet, but tested the waters and then wisely chose to stay along the shore, skipping rocks. We had to say no to Abbey and Sarah's scheme to put in upstream and float the river alone in a raft the next day.

After we'd dried, we walked the rest of way to the chicken egg layer house, where we were greeted by at least 10,000 friendly free-range chickens running about their range. Most of them were inside a huge, fenced yard. Some of them were outside the fence, apparently trying to defend the flock by attacking potential intruders and passersby. Again, too bad we didn't have the camera; some were quite persistent! John gave us a tour of the egg collection and packaging facility, but the days eggs had already been collected so the building was empty of other people and the machines weren't running. It was very impressive, and it would have been really interesting to see it collecting and packing eggs.

After dinner that night, the five girls and Quinn spent the evening trying to burn down the farm or perhaps kill each other with sparklers, and then we turned in for a nice quite night in the comfy guest house.

The next morning, rain was falling hard. Not a Seattle mist, and not a short, hard Michigan shower, but something much more heavy and enduring. It never even hinted at letting up. The only photos we got at the farm were of the Farm Store in the rain.



We'd planned a Sunday morning walk up to Crab Tree Falls, but with the rain falling as it was, we probably wouldn't have been able to tell the falls from the road. After a bit of mulling about the house, we decided that it could be nice and dry -- or a least merely damp -- in a cave. So it was off to Luray Caverns.

Prior to leaving on the ETRAT, we'd picked up a nifty little Argus Bean camera for Quinn. It's a not-too-expensive little somewhat armored kids camera that has a handle like a carabiner so it can be clipped to stuff. There'll probably be a picture of it on a future post. The camera went everywhere with Quinn, and he took something like one picture every minute. It's a good thing it holds thousands of images. Walking into Luray Caverns, Quinn had the camera clipped to his wrist and was taking photos of cars, our butts, and the entrance to the cavern. Once inside, after we paid the outrageous entrance fee, each of us was given a little MP3 player-style personal headset that gave information at designated locations within the cavern. However, we saw a bathroom, so we had to use it before we descended hundreds of cold stone steps into the cave. Then, once into the cavern, Quinn realized he no longer had that little camera. He began to melt on the spot. His flow of tears threatened to destroy 7 million years worth of stalagmites. He must have left the camera in the bathroom, but I couldn't remember ever seeing him with it there. Did he set it on the sink to wash his hands? Clip it to a urinal? It wasn't in his pocket, or my pocket, or Cindy's purse, or Abbey's pocket, or Abbey's purse. Quinn and I hopped over a rail and ascended the steps to the surface to search the bathroom. No camera. We returned to the ticket counter, tears flowing, and left a description of the camera and our phone number. It was crowded at the cavern, we thought someone must have found it in the bathroom and kept it. We went back into the cave, but Quinn was devastated. Cindy was saddened to learn that we had not found the little camera, but put on her headphones to begin the tour. And then immediately found the camera in her pocket. It had been hidden in Cindy's pocket by the Luray Cavern MP3 Audio Tour Device. He must have passed it off to her before we went to the bathroom. Everything in Quinn's world was immediately OK, and the image capturing resumed.

After a rough start, we had a nice tour through the caverns. It was certainly no wilderness spelunking expedition, but it was an interesting and informative tour, and all of the kids seemed interested and were very well-behaved. Quinn took more than 150 pictures in the cave. Some of them even worked. It was fun.





After the cavern, it was off to Baltimore...