Al's Blog-o-Sphere

I drove Melissa to school today. It was a beautiful fall day, warmer than the past week or so and the rain is finally gone. I looked to the south and saw a long line of fluffy clouds. The entire rest of the sky was blue with a few cirrus clouds. These clouds stood out and I realized they weren’t ordinary clouds, they were caused by the mist from Niagara Falls!

This is something that you don’t see every day. I’m sure there is plenty of times when there is moisture in the air due to the falls, but you don’t notice it. Either there are so many other clouds in the sky, one more doesn’t stand out, or the wind is different and they don’t build up like that. The wind today was pretty steady and it kept the clouds of mist moving to the east in a long line.

I stopped near the intersection of Mapleton and Lockport Roads to take these photos. The one above is a HDR shot – a combination of three shots at different exposures that I used software to combine and enhance for the effect. Here’s a single shot, what it would look like straight out of the camera.

and another HDR shot:

I finally got the trike out for an overnight trip. I heard about a thing called the Niagara Velomobile Happening and found out that there was free camping for those attending. Seemed like something interesting and a good way to do a shakedown cruise with the gear on the Trike.

I’m usually the ‘cycle that gets the comments and stares whenever I go out for a ride, but with this group, I was the conservative one. In case you haven’t heard the term velomobile before, it refers to a vehicle that is usually based on some form of human-powered vehicle and often has a full body, or at least some windscreen.

These enthusiasts took that to heart and many velos there were fully enclosed and electric motors to assist pedaling were very common as well. Some were home made, some were commercial products. They were pretty much all very interesting.

Like going to a robotics event, the same concept often resulted in a wide variety of solutions, some odd at first, some elegant, but all original and very cool. In this crew, my basic trike was boring… Continue Reading…

A quick ride today of about 20 miles. I went out with no pre-conceived plan and just rode some country roads. I found some that were pretty nice riding too: few cars, good pavement, some of it new. The sun was out and it was warm enough that the wind didn’t bother me at all, it just felt good.

I’ve had a lot of fun riding my recumbent trike lately. I keep calling it a bike, but as you may know, technically, it’s a trike. Three wheels and all that, but who’s being technical. Technically, they are all Human Powered Vehicles (HPV) or as Pennsylvania calls them in it’s own quaint way, pedalcycles. I find it interesting that Pennsylvania uses a more general term to be more inclusive, while New York keeps referring to “Bicycles or skating or gliding on inline skates.” They also refer to “Toy vehicles.” Shows what the attitude towards cyclists is…

Anyway, Monday, I rode a 37-mile ride on Labor Day. The bike club I belong to held a ride with a picnic following it starting at a nice little private camp in North Tonawanda, right on the Canal. I elected to ride the longer option. Partway out the ride, I stopped to help another rider who had a flat tire. Changing a tube is easy to me, but a couple sets of hands makes it go quicker. The rider held the bike. I removed the front wheel and changed the tube. Another rider pumped it up. It only took a few minutes. Continue Reading…