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.

I had a meeting with a friend yesterday to help her with a website for her business.  This lady writes grants for nonprofit organizations and for government agencies to fund various projects.  She doesn’t understand much about the internet, other than it is a great way to get information on the grants that she writes.  I agreed to help her out with setting up a Wordpress blog so that she can get information to others about grants that are available to them for their projects.  If you have a project that you want to have funded by grants, contact Didi or Vera of Gatchell Grant Resources, LLC.  Their site is www.ohiograntwriters.com .  

I used the meeting as an excuse to get to ride my motorcycle (as if I needed one).  It was 75 degrees and there was not a cloud to be seen.  This never happens in November in Northeast Ohio.  I left early for my meeting, stopped at McDonald’s and had “hotscakes” and then went to the meeting.  Anybody that ever watched “Green Acres” knows that Lisa Douglas called hotcakes “hotscakes.”  I always order them as “hotscakes” at McDonald’s to see the looks that I get from the employees.  

After eating my breakfast, I went to the meeting.  I think that I learned more than they did (not in a bad way).  I never realized how many different grants are available.  I also didn’t know about all of the application processes, and the administration of grants.  While we were in the meeting, there must have been ten phone calls from clients.  There were some that had just been awarded grants and had questions about what to do next, and some calls from people looking for applications for grants.  It was crazy how busy these two ladies are.  I hope that they are ready for more calls when their website gets discovered. 

After the meeting, I took the long way home.  There was nothing really special about the ride other than the beautiful day.  I haven’t seen as many motorcycles out riding as I did yesterday for weeks now.  I wished that I had more places that I could have taken the bike yesterday, but I wanted to spend time with my family.  

After I got home, Amy and I had to go vote.  Kaitlyn was funny at the polling place.  We told her that the rules were “Like on an airplane.”  She had flown with Amy to Atlanta one time and Amy told her that she had to be quiet or they would be thrown off of the airplane.  Kaitlyn, being a three year old, took “thrown off” literally.  She was a dream child at the polling place, making hand gestures to communicate because she did not want thrown out.

Yesterday, we spent the day cleaning up the downed trees from when Hurricane Ike blew through.  We had been without power from Sunday evening until Thursday night.  I know that there have been longer power outages in the world, but this has been the longest for us.  I have a small 1800 watt generator that worked for a few days, but the coil went out in it.  I have planned on ordering a whole house standby generator for backup power, but I have not been in a hurry to do it.  This incident just moved the generator up on the priority list, as this is the second time in 3 years that we have been without power for at least 4 days (there was a tornado 3 years ago that narrowly missed our house),  What I have planned to order is a 20Kw Guardian generator, as our house is all electric and I do not want Amy to have to worry about how to hook it up and start it if I am at work for 24 hours when the power goes out.  We had about 16 trees blown down and have been cutting them up.  All of our neighbors have had trees blown down too.  Every evening the smell of burning leaves fills the air.  

Amy and I got to take two short rides yesterday.  The first ride was to a neighboring town to buy some supplies for the chainsaw.  Amy has been getting fairly comfortable on her ‘82 Honda CB650SC Nighthawk.  She wanted to ride her bike with me. She did really well.  Later in the day, we needed to go south and take her bike to a friend.  Our friend rides a Honda 1100 Shadow Sabre and needs to take his test to get his license.  His bike is a little large and not really all that maneuverable.  He has taken the test once on it and we decided to let him use Amy’s bike, as it feels like riding a toy after getting used to a large bike. We gave him he bike a few days early so that he can have some time to get used to it.  He said he loves how agile the bike is.

On the way to our friend’s house, we turned onto Dover-Zoar road, which I ride all of the time.  The had just chipped and sealed the road!  The main road that I use to get to the town of Bolivar will not be the same for some time, as it is all loose stone right now.  On my BMW R1200RT, I don’t mind so much, as it handles on the stone fine, but Amy is nervous on stone.  I pulled over and asked if she wanted to continue on Dover-Zoar road, and she said keep going.  She rode this mess of a road and gained a ton of confidence!  I was proud of her.  There have been times when she doesn’t want to ride a road in the past because of a stone or two on our driveway, but she was a real trooper yesterday.  

After dropping the Honda Nighthawk off at our friend’s house, we drove to New Philadelphia for supper.  We ate at Texas Roadhouse.  After supper, we rode up to the Belden Village area (or Westfield Shopping Town if you are not stuck on old names).  We needed to stop by a store.  We arrived five minutes after closing time.  Oh well, we will have to ride back another day.  

I will have to write more another day.  I have some family coming over to help cut up these downed trees today.  We supply several family members with firewood every year, and in return, they come by and give a hand when we need it.  I have trees, they have a log splitter and muscles.

OK, I have found what my employer needs.

Firefighting equipment on a BMW R1200RT. I could like being assigned to this unit!

Those of you who know me know that I am a career firefighter. I am volunteering to be the operator of the new apparatus. What I have found is a “Fire Motorcycle.” Now Harley Davidson has what is referred to as a “Fire Bike” but it is basically one of their everyday bikes with some different badges and paint, it does no firefighting. The bike that I am talking about is an actual firefighting vehicle. This would be a dream assignment for me, as it is even based on MY BIKE! That’s right people, it is a BMW R1200RT that has two tanks of water and a SCBA tank to propel the water. There is a booster reel where the trunk sits on my bike. Because this bike uses a foam solution for firefighting, it appears to be very effective in their propaganda videos. I would love to see this work in person and see how well it does work.

Another photo of the BMW R1200RT outfitted with firefighting equipment.

I can see the big advantage of this fire motorcycle would be the ability to get through heavy traffic faster than a fire engine. Even if there was not enough water to extinguish a larger fire, the water applied by the motorcycle could at least slow the development of the fire until a real engine crew can get there. It is a pretty cool concept, at least I think so. I love my job, and I love riding, so what could be better than being paid to ride?

This unit is being made by Firexpress A/S.  They have many videos and data sheets on their website at http://www.firexpress.com/script/site/default.asp .

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

This thing looks great! I would love to ride one at work (I already ride one to work).

 
……