Touring the coffee shops of Hogtown

The Mrs has taken to the Brompton bicycle well and we’ve been out twice this week, once to Queens Quay, about 12 miles, coffee outdoors by the boats. Locally doing the weekly shop with both bags deployed, about 3 miles, coffee at the Good Neighbour on Annette Street.
Pic by RLT.

Dream combination for a great day out

Can you fit two Brompton bicycles in the early version of the smart car? Answer: yes! We drove to the Caledon Trailway for a 12-mile round trip cycle ride, proving that minimal motoring and folding bicycles make for a great day out.

After a thorough clean the new, old, red 2000 Brompton was ready for a first proper excursion in Canada. We started by taking coffee and fried egg sandwich at the Trailside Bistro, Caledon East. We then headed west towards Inglewood, along the old railroad bed. Parts of the trail reminded me of the Cuckoo Trail in Sussex - there can't be many Brompton bicycles that have been on both trails. This was ideal cycling on a hot day as much of the trail is shaded by woods. The surface is dressed with crushed limestone - just about good enough for the Bromptons to cope.

We bought an ice cream at the General Store in Inglewood, our turning point. We had visited here before when riding the Forks of the Credit railroad. The more sporty cyclists were missing out on the wildlife. I stopped quietly to observe some birdlets, which I think were kinglets. We were back home by 14:00 after a pitstop at Bulk Barn for trail mix and Garibaldi biscuits.
More tours are in prospect as the potential of the smart/Brompton combo dawns.
Pics by RLT.

Brompton unboxed

I unpacked the red 2000 Brompton 5-spd for a short run with Annette this morning. I brought the bike back with me from the UK after the recent ride in France. Annette is pleased that we are now a two-Brompton family. We ride up to Creme Fraiche, a new neighbourhood coffee shop and treateria, appropriately on Annette Street.

The bike only needs some TLC. I am pleased to note there are Schwalbe tubes in the Brompton-brand tyres – I think fitted for my less than 100-mile tour in France in 2008 which took us to Gacé. See PunchBuggy Passim.

Over the last two days I have ridden 12 miles on my normal run to Queens Quay and back (hot), 8 miles back from smart dealer service on Dundas St East (damn hot), on the yellow Brompton.
I think the two Bromptons will go in the back of the smart car.
Pics by RLT.

To and from Dixieland

Overnight at Franklin, TN, and next morning to Dotson's, 99 East Main St, for breakfast. The grits are a bit watery, but they are forgiven for offering sliced beefsteak tomato as a side dish. Veggies are hard to find on the road. The cafe walls are covered with pictures of country musicians, notably the Judds and Kathy Mattea. We head for the Lane Motor Museum, 702 Murfreesboro Pike, Nashville - $7 a head. This place warrants a second visit - a haven for European cars in an unlikely spot.

We head north into Kentucky for our second visit this year, passing the railway museum at New Haven, a stop in the spring, on the road to Bardstown. We check out Frankfort, but the town is confusing with roadworks and diversions, so we carry on to Lexington, a home to horse-racing, pausing at Versailles for diesel. We stop at the Holiday Inn Express and dine at the DQ (Dairy Queen).
Next morning eastbound in the rain we stop at Olive Hill, KY, for the post office, where Railway Street is much boarded up. This is not postcard country. We reach Huntington, WV, named for Collis Potter Huntington of the C&O, close to the Ohio river. The railroad station has been unsympathetically restored and the ALCO #10 engine is left out in the weather, a rotting national monument. Still worth a visit.
We take a salad lunch at the River & Rail Bakery, snapping up the last two Snickerdoodle cookies. We press on for Charleston in a monsoon, resolving to spend the rest of the day indoors at the WV archives, looking for distant relatives of Mad Jack Fuller. Next morning we search for the Fuller and Kries family graves in the Mount Olivet cemetery, on top of a hill.
We head northeast stopping for diesel at Clendenin, WV, where the customers are straight from Central Casting. We are in oil and gas country. A stop at Walmart for supplies was followed by a roadside picnic. We crossed the Mason-Dixon line to Morrisville, PA, overnighting at Waynesburg, PA, close to the Marcellus shale gas field. Motel rooms are hard to find.
We drive into Pittsburgh, PA, following the GPS to Bicycle Heaven, in an industrial estate, mostly featuring Schwinn krate bikes. The NOS parts are priced for restorers only. We take the backroads to Jamestown, NY, in time to visit the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center late afternoon. The prerecorded shows were filmed by Desilu in front of a live audience; taping them enabled the bonanza of reruns that has kept Lucy front and centre down the decades.
On our tour we have driven over hundreds of miles of freshly-layed tarmacadam - if resurfacing roads leads to economic salvation then surely America is on the way back. But I am not so sure.
Just when you have despaired of North American road engineers, with their endless stop signs and stoplights, you reach Hamburg, NY, which features roundabouts and bike lanes, looking the epitome of modernity. You could be in Holland. Even dear old Buffalo, NY, has streetcars. Across the Peace Bridge and we have Toronto in our sights.
Pics by RLT.

Elvis and Tammy

July 21: Up early Saturday morning to Tunnel Hill, GA, which featured in the Great Locomotive Chase. The hooter of a northbound freight is heard long before the CSX double-header comes into view. We head into Chattanooga to ride the Tennessee Valley Railroad through Missionary Ridge Tunnel, quite the best short rail excursion anywhere. The new VW factory is nearby and the Passat is being shipped by rail.
Heading west from Tennessee and Georgia into Alabama we stop at the Fame recording studios in Muscle Shoals. Unfortunately, tours can only be arranged in advance and there's nobody there to help. After a quick stop at a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Florence, we dip south and travel the Tammy Wynette Highway into Mississippi, to Tupelo, the birth place of Elvis Presley. Evidence of his (former) presence is everywhere from a lake named after him to a cardboard cut-out in the hotel lobby.
Sunday morning and it is very quiet at the Presley birthplace. The family's two-room home, with front-porch-swing, remains original (but is it on the original site?). A $4 million museum/auditorium complex is under construction just behind. It is slated to open in August to commemorate the 35th anniversary of his death. On display is a 1939 Plymouth, similar to that which took the Presley family to Memphis.

We meet a friendly couple from Wales - turns out he is a teacher and she comes from the same part of the country as my late father. They join us in a visit to the Tupelo Car Museum, which boasts a complete set of Elvis movie posters and a car that he gave as a present to the Denver, CO, Chief of Police. This 1949 Allard caught my eye. Recommended.

We head northeast on the Natchez Trace, a tourist highway devoid of trucks, but with precious little of interest along the way. We stop at the gravesite of Meriwether Lewis, with its ongoing mystery as to cause of death.
Pics by RLT.