Kaitlyn and I riding our bicycles on the Towpath Trail in Canal Fulton

Sometime in May, i took the training wheels off Kaitlyn’s bike. Kaitlyn is my four year old daughter. She had been riding a very small bicycle with training wheels all around the first floor of our house, as we have an open floor plan in the house. Secretly, several weeks before I removed the training wheels, I moved them up so that the wheels would not touch until the bicycle was leaned over a good amount. I watched for a couple of weeks as Kaitlyn rode around the kitchen and foyer, the training wheels were almost never touching the ground. She was riding a bicycle and keeping her balance very well, so that is when I took the training wheels off and the bike got moved outdoors.

Kaitlyn’s first experience outdoors on her bicycle without training wheels went very well. Kaitlyn started in the grass with me holding her up and doing the “run and release” start. Kaitlyn told me to let her know when I was going to let go, but she had already been riding 50 feet and didn’t know that I had let go. She rode for hours that night, eventually grasping the concept of turning, but taking many tumbles to get that concept. We made Kaitlyn wear long sleeves, long pants, and her helmet, as we expected far more falls than she actually experienced.

Fast forward several months and several trips to the local baseball field for riding practice. I needed to keep a promise to Kaitlyn. On the first day of riding without training wheels, I told her that I would reward her with ice cream. She immediately said that she wanted to ride her bike somewhere for ice cream, something that we could not do on her first day riding, but I promised her that “one day” we would ride somewhere for ice cream. It was time to make good on that promise, and Kaitlyn had not forgot about it. We loaded the bicycles in the van with the stroller. We headed out to the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail in Canal Fulton, OH. Amy pushed Ashley, our two week old baby, in the stroller and Kaitlyn and I headed north from Lock 4 Park toward the Cherry Street Creamery in scenic Canal Fulton. My speedometer battery was dead on my bicycle, as I had not used it in several years, but I estimated the distance to be about one mile to the ice cream shop. We ordered our ice cream and enjoyed it on a bench in front of the shop, then we headed south again on our bikes. When we reached Lock 4 Park, Kaitlyn was upset that the ride was over, she wanted to continue south. When Amy caught up to us, she agreed to take the van to the next trailhead and pick us up (the next trailhead is about 1.5 miles away). Kaitlyn had just ridden between 3 and 4 miles on her first real bike ride! I was amazed and excited.

Two days later, Kaitlyn wanted to ride her bicycle again, so we went to the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail again at Lock 4 Park in Canal Fulton, OH. We rode into town and had breakfast, then returned so Amy could get the van and meet us at the next trailhead. Kaitlyn was not ready to stop after 3.5 miles, she wanted to keep going. Keep going is what we did. After 8 miles, I had to stop so that I could make it to work on time. Kaitlyn was disappointed that our ride was over “already.” I promised her that I would take her on a longer ride tomorrow and she was happy again. We drove to the local bike shop and bought a bell and a basket for her bike, then went home.

The next day arrived, and we went to Canal Fulton again and rode north into Summit County. We rode the Towpath Trail through Clinton, OH and continued north past Locks 3 and 2. We stopped at 5.5 miles from the van and we headed back. We arrived back at the van after riding 11 miles. This was the first time that Kaitlyn was not upset about not continuing a ride. She was tired and after our ice cream, she fell asleep within minutes of getting in the van. She later talked about how fun it was taking a long ride on her bike. I am sure that I got to hear her new bell for the bike for all 11 miles. She took her teddy bear “Max” with her on the ride (he rode in the basket).

Kaitlyn riding through the ruins of a lock on the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail

While researching rides to take with my four year old daughter, I looked at riding the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail north from Akron. During my research, I discovered that the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad has a program called “Bike Aboard.” Bike Aboard lets you park your car at a train depot, ride the trail, and pay $2.00 per person and ride the train back to the depot that your car is parked at. Kaitlyn loves trains. She asks me all of the time if we can go ride a train (again). This is the perfect ride for her. I decided to try Bike Aboard out. We parked our car at the Akron Northside Depot and rode north on the Towpath Trail. Kaitlyn marveled at the scenery the whole way. We passed ruins of old locks along the canal, and crossed over new boardwalks and bridges. We got to see the train running south, then it passed us going north again. Kaitlyn was not told that we were going to ride the train, but that there was a “surprise” waiting at the end of the ride. We rode past two depots, and Kaitlyn stated both times that she felt great and wanted to keep riding. I calculated that we could make the Peninsula Depot with about 50 minutes to spare. We pushed on and arrived at the Peninsula Depot with 55 minutes to spare. Kaitlyn actually kept a faster pace toward the end of the ride than she had all day. When we arrived at the Peninsula Depot, we rode to a store to buy snacks and some juice, then rode back to the depot. Kaitlyn had just ridden 15.81 miles!!! We boarded the train where she continued to eat fruit and a Powerbar. After arriving back at the Akron Depot, Kaitlyn asked me if we could go somewhere else and ride our bicycles some more! She never said that her legs were sore.

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad arrives at the Peninsula Depot in Peninsula, OH

Kaitlyn has talked about her bicycle rides to anybody that will listen. I have always loved riding bicycles. My father used to ride with me all of the time when I was in school, and I hope it was half as enjoyable for him as it is for me. It has been great spending extensive amounts of time with oldest daughter. I can’t wait until my youngest daughter, Ashley, is old enough to ride in the bicycle trailer with me!

I know that it is winter in Northeast Ohio, but we have had some terrible weather for riding a motorcycle.  We have had one “clipper” after another for much of the fall and now the winter too.  A couple of weeks ago, we did get a short two day break from this weather pattern.  I woke up in the morning, got ready to go to work, got my daily weather briefing and found that it was almost 60 degrees at 7:00 AM.  We had had a few days of rain prior to this, so all of the salt was washed from the roads.  I went outside and fired up the BMW R1200 RT and rode it to work.  It ended up being 68 degrees that day.  The next day on my ride home from work, it was 47 degrees, not quite as warm, but a heat wave compared to what we have had for over a month.  I managed to put 300 miles on the motorcycle in two days of riding.  Normally, 300 miles in two days is not worth mentioning, but in the last week of December, it deserves and honorable mention.  I do not care how cold it is, I can ride at 0 degrees with the excellent gear that I now own, but ice and snow and salt on the roads will make me drive my cage.


Since the weather has been pretty bad, I have not had much new material to post on this site.  I promise that I will try to go through some old photos and post a few ride reports of past rides I have done.  I have been updating some other sites, and this one has taken a back seat if you will, due in part to the weather.  A friend of mine “The Beach Bum” introduced me to blogging and I have enjoyed it.  Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas are past, I hope to have a little more time for updating my sites.  I have recently updated my blog for those who have switched to Mac computers from Windows based PCs.  I have also been updating the site for my union Jackson Professional Firefighters.

 I have started a new blog to provide information about the new red light cameras that Canton, Ohio has decided to install.  This blog is brand new and will probably end up with heated comments on both sides of the issue.  I have not made up my mind about these red light cameras yet.  Visit the site if this topic interests you.  I know that I am willing to listen to both sides.  I have seen dirty tricks played when Cleveland installed the red light cameras, will Canton do the same?

I am sorry for the rambling nature of this post.  Hopefully I will get to ride the motorcycle more soon, however January and February are not usually great months to take too many rides around the frozen tundra of Northeast Ohio.  I think I will go read about the beach at my friend’s blog.

WOW!  What a bad stretch of weather we have been having.  Since I got back from Tennessee about four weeks ago, we have had snow, freezing rain, or both almost every day.  The days that we do not have snow or ice, we had enough the night before that I cannot ride to work.  While the RT is a very capable bike, I don’t relish the thought of sliding to work on the ice.  I will have to look through my older photos and post some ride reports for rides that I have taken in the past three summers.  I am sure that I have some photos somewhere, as Amy is really good about taking them.  When I ride alone,  I am bad about not taking photos.  I get focused on riding and forget to take photos.

Even though there has been lousy weather for riding the motorcycle, there is some great news.  As I am sure you have noticed, the gas prices are getting back down to where they should be.  Today, as I was driving to a friend’s house to work on a computer, a gas station in Waynesburg, OH had gas for $1.38.  I haven’t seen a price that low in years.  The CEO of Gulf oil was on Fox News the other day and he said that gas WILL fall to $1.00 per gallon.  I can’t wait.  The politicians want to talk about economic stimulus, well giving Americans the extra disposable income that they will have by cutting fuel prices to $1.00 per gallon will do far more than anything a politician can do.  In case you haven;t picked up on it in other posts, I am not one to wait on the Government to help me.  I tend to think that Government involvement is what messes so many things up.  I know one guy who doesn’t have a real job, he sits around mostly and complains about his situation, says that his chosen politician will fix everything, and wonders why he is in the same situation 30 years later even though he has been through several administrations in Washington.  That life isn’t for me!  The only person that can improve my situation is me!  Enough about my political views though.  Gas prices are plummeting despite OPEC’s best efforts and I am thrilled.

Look for my next post a little sooner than this one came.  I have been very busy with Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations.  I know what you are thinking, “He said Thanksgiving and Christmas!”  That’s right people, I said it, unlike the employees of most of the stores you will do your Christmas shopping in this year.  I find it funny that they want me to spend tons of money on Christmas gifts, but then say they might offend me if they said Christmas.

This really is a photo of Kaitlyn and I. We were covered in a cloud of steam just as this photo was taken as the locomotive pulled forward to dump its ashes.

Here is another photo of Kaitlyn and I in the steam, you can actually see us in this one. Kaitlyn doesn't go many places without "Max" her bear.

Warning:  Today’s post has nothing to do with motorcycles other than us being passed by a BMW R1150RT and a K1200GT.  We also saw a Kawasaki Ninja, Honda Nighthawk S, and a Harley Davidson Heritage Softail.  Today’s post is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease.

Yesterday, I had a day off from work, so Amy, Kaitlyn and I all went down to Byesville, OH in Guernsey County to take a ride on the Byesville Scenic Railway.  This weekend was the “Coal Miner’s Festival” and the trains were being pulled by the Ohio Central Railroad’s 1293, a G-5 4-6-2 steam locomotive built in 1948.  According to the Ohio Central Steam website:

 

 

 

 

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OHCR 4-6-2 No. 1293 Specifications
Builder:	Canadian Locomotive Company, Ltd.
Built:	June 1948 Bldr. No. 2450
Wheel Arrrangement:	4-6-2 (Pacific)
Driver Diameter:	70 inches
Boiler Pressure:	250 psi
Tractive Effort:	34,000 lbs.
Engine Weight:	234,000 pounds
Weight on Drivers:	151,000 pounds
CPR Class:	G-5d
Fuel:	Coal
Status:	OPERATIONAL

Built for: Canadian Pacific Railway Company as 1293
Sale: 12/1963 to Monadnock, Steamtown & Northern Amusements Corp., Inc. at North Walpole, NH
Transfer of corporate assets: 1964 to F. Nelson Blount
Transfer of corporate assets: April 1965 to Green Mountain Railroad Corporation
Sale: 07/1973 to Steamtown Foundation at Bellows Falls, VT; moved to Scranton, PA in September 1984

Although they were among the last steam locomotives purchased by the Canadian Pacific, the class G-5 bore more than a passing resemblance to other CP 4-6-2’s built as early as 1905. Combining the reliability of an old and proven design with the efficiency of latter day steam technology, the G-5’s were instantly successful, and found favor over virtually all of the CP system.

Six of the G-5’s are still around today. 
No. 1201 is preserved at the National Museum of Canada, in Ottawa.
No. 1246 is on display at the Danbury Railway Museum, in Danbury, CT. 
No.’s 1238 & 1286 are privately owned by Jack Showalter and are stored in Staunton, VA. 
No.’s 1278 & 1293 are at the Ohio Central’s Morgan Run Shops
1278 stored pending future restoration (see 1278) and 1293 stored serviceable.

1293 was run at Steamtown in Bellows Falls, VT in the late 1970’s having been restored for Vermont’s Bicentennial. She ran from Riverside to Rutland and Riverside to Chester, VT for Steamtown operations and last saw service in 1980. At the end of 1979, she pulled a five car train painted in matching black and silver for a month of movie work on the CNR near Montreal filming “Train to Terror” for Astro Films.

This 4-6-2 was moved to Scranton, PA with the rest of the Steamtown collection in September 1984 where she sat dormant until 1996, when the Ohio Central purchased her. She received a 13-month restoration and was returned to service in the fall of 1997.

She debuted at Sugarcreek, OH, on Thursday, September 18, 1997 and after six Sugarcreek to Baltic roundtrip excursions, starred pulling mainline varnish for “SteamFest ‘97″. She has had zero over-the-road failures since.

This photo provides a little perspective as to how large these steam engines are. I am 5'10" and the wheels were as tall as me.

We arrived at 9:40 AM and we could see the black smoke and steam from the boiler being fired over a mile away.  It was great being there early, as the temperature was only about 40 degrees, which made for some impressive photos.  We were able to get our tickets with no wait.  Kaitlyn asked for the next hour, “Can we get on the train yet?”  We walked around taking photos, watching the crew, and even got to climb up in the locomotive.  We got photos of almost everything we did this day, except when Kaitlyn and I climbed up in the locomotive, as some craft vendor kept Amy busy.  Amy never dreamed we would be allowed to go in the locomotive, so she didn’t pay attention to us. 

Here is the diesel locomotive that the Byesville Scenic Railway used to pull the train south. If you know what this locomotive is, leave a comment.

At about 10:45 we boarded the train and were pulled south out of Byesville, OH by one of the diesel locomotives in the BSRW fleet.  I am not sure of the model of this diesel locomotive.  If anybody knows what it is, leave a comment.  We traveled about 4 miles south, then the diesel cut out of the train and we were pulled back to Byesville by the Ohio Central 1293 steam locomotive.  During the whole ride, there were volunteers in each coach telling the history of the area and telling what it was like to be a coal miner.  These volunteers were very entertaining and informative.  Coal was the major industry of the area.  There used to be 12 deep coal mines along the 3.5 miles of the Marietta Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad that we traveled.   There were many swamps and ponds that the guides explained were mines that had filled with water and collapsed.  During the ride back to Byesville, the engineer of the OCRR 1293 was more than generous with the whistle.  A couple of times along the route, coal smoke was thick outside of our windows.  I love the smell of burning coal.

 

The Ohio Central Railroad 1293 steam locomotive approaching the Byesvlle, OH depot.

After we took our ride, we walked a block along Second Street to the Rotary Park.  The Byesville Rotary Club was cooking whole chickens over an open fire.  We saw hundreds of chickens cooking on racks over a huge fire when we arrived in the morning.  This was the best barbeque chicken that I have eaten in years.  We sat at a picnic table, being chased by yellow jackets.  We moved to a table in the shade, away from the trash cans, and the bees were not quite as bad.    

After lunch, we waited for the 1:00 PM ride to depart, and we went to a grade crossing to get some photos and video.  Kaitlyn found a smashed penny and a railroad spike.  She sat for about 45 minutes and played with another small girl.  They explored the rails and played in the dirt.  Amy gave up on trying to keep Kaitlyn clean.  When the train came, Kaitlyn started yelling for everybody to “Get off of the tracks!”  She can be heard on the videos as the steam engine is approaching, after a long blast of the whistle.  Amy and I had as much fun sitting and taking photos as we did actually riding the train.  

Ohio Central 1293 4-6-2 steam locomotive. Amy likes this photo.

We are fortunate to live in the area that we do.  The Ohio Central Railroad has ten steam engines and they use some of them for excursion rides.  They used to have daily service in Sugarcreek, Ohio just south of us.  I miss the days of seeing the steam locomotives all of the time.  It has been said that the insurance costs too much to continue the frequent use of live steam.  Several years ago, there was a steam tractor that exploded in Medina, Ohio killing several people and there has been a steady decline of steam events ever since. 

I am sorry that this post had nothing to do with motorcycles.  I enjoy trains very much, and I know others do too.  This is the first time that I have had the chance to ride a train pulled by a steam locomotive.  I have seen many steam engines in the past, and I am fascinated by them still.  This trip was a great day spent with family and enjoying trains.  Maybe next year Kaitlyn will be big enough to ride with me on the motorcycle to this event.  If the 1293, or any other steam engine is there, I will be there too.