In late summer 2022, we decided that it had been too long since we had taken a bike trip, and we started discussing where to go for a fall trip. We didn’t really want to fly anywhere, due to concerns about COVID-19 as well as the hassles of transporting bicycles on airplanes. We discussed going …
Continue reading “Cycling and Ferry Hopping in the Gulf Islands”
2022 Kia Niro EV — Road Trip Notes
As noted in our previous post, I (Jennifer) recently bought a fully electric car, a 2022 Kia Niro EV. During the month of November, we took a road trip from our home in the Spokane, Washington area to southern California (and back) in my new car. Here are some notes from the trip. Warning: some …
Miscellaneous Adventures 2021
We’ve had a pretty busy 2021 so far, especially the last couple of months, filled with home improvements, new cars, outdoor activities, and trips — so it seemed like time for another Adventures blog post! In January, Zach purchased a Toyota RAV4 Prime (plug-in hybrid). Since this car was not being sold in Washington state, …
Road Trip in the Time of COVID-19
Since March, we’ve been following a pretty strict physical distancing protocol. We’ve kept up our hiking and cycling activities locally, but we have only been seeing people either outside while maintaining our distance or online (aside from masked-up essential trips to get groceries, doctors, etc.). It has kept us healthy so far, but we have …
Maps are back!
You may have noticed that the maps that used to be on this site stopped working for a while, and have just started working again. Here’s what happened, if you’re interested… Google used to offer everyone free use of its maps to embed in their site, so about 8 years ago I wrote a WordPress …
Thailand
After our 3-day visit to Tokyo, on the evening of November 15, Zach, his mom Virginia, and Jennifer headed to Narita Airport and flew to Bangkok. We arrived late at night, so we spent the night near the airport, and started our adventure in northern Thailand the next morning. Trip Overview Here’s a brief overview …
Tokyo
On November 12, Zach, his mom Virginia, and Jennifer set out in the early morning on a new adventure: we flew to Denver and then on to Tokyo! We spent 3 days in Tokyo, riding the somewhat confusing subway system around and seeing the sights. There are at least 4 different companies that operate subways …
Cycling the Oregon Coast
We had a busy summer this year, but hadn’t been on a bike tour in a while, so we decided to go out and ride part of the Oregon coast. We started our trip to Oregon by putting our bikes on Jennifer’s car and driving to Portland the day after the Labor Day holiday, where …
Coffeeneuring 2017 – Ride 7
Today we could have gone cross-country skiing (more snow up at Mount Spokane!), but instead we decided to take our seventh “coffeeneuring” ride for this season (see the post on our first ride for more information), which means we completed the coffeeneuring challenge! It was another cold November day, and threatening to rain. So, we …
Coffeeneuring 2017 – Ride 6
Today we took our sixth “coffeeneuring” ride (see the post on our first ride for more information). Our previous ride was almost two weeks ago: Zach went to his third board gaming convention of the year, and we also got our first good snow, so we’ve been cross-country skiing instead of cycling. But it got …
Coffeeneuring 2017 – Ride 5
Yesterday we took our fifth “coffeeneuring” ride (see the post on our first ride for more information — also, the inventor of coffeeneuring just posted again on the subject). We decided to ride to the ScrumDiddilyUmptious Donuts, at 1201 Barker Road in Spokane Valley. That’s the donut shop that we attempted to visit in coffeeneuring …
Coffeeneuring 2017 – Ride 4
Today we took our fourth “coffeeneuring” ride (see the post on our first ride for more information). We tried to go to a donut shop, but arrived about 10 minutes after it closed (didn’t check the hours, doh!). So, we circled around to a few doors down from where we went on our third ride …
Coffeeneuring 2017 – Ride 3
Today we took our third “coffeeneuring” ride (see the post on our first ride for more information). We left after lunch. The temperature was in the low 50s, with partly cloudy skies. We got a few short sprinkles of rain, but it was quite pleasant riding. We took the long way to Liberty Lake, via …
Coffeeneuring 2017 – Ride 2
Today we took our second “coffeeneuring” ride (see the post on our first ride for more information). It was kind of a blustery day, and we had some things to do this afternoon, so it was a short ride: 6.2 miles round trip to the Far Cry Cafe at E 24921 Trent Avenue near Newman …
Coffeeneuring 2017 – Ride 1
A week or two ago, I came across a blog post with a “Coffeeneuring” challenge. Zach and I thought it would be fun, so yesterday we did our first coffeeneuring ride. What, you may ask, is coffeeneuring? To understand that, you need to know about “randonneuring”, which is the formalized sport of self-supported long-distance endurance …
Summer 2017 Photos
We had a very busy summer this year — we didn’t go on any big trips, but we had quite a few small adventures. And we didn’t get around to blogging or posting any photos until now… Better late than never, I hope? Zach spent most of June on a road trip, which Jennifer didn’t …
Spring 2017 trips are for the birds (and other animals)
We recently returned from the second of two spring trips. In April, we visited friends and relatives in Florida and Georgia, and in May, we visited friends in Costa Rica. It was great to see all the friends and relatives that we don’t see all that often (plus Zach’s new nephew Bo!). And we also …
Continue reading “Spring 2017 trips are for the birds (and other animals)”
Jennifer’s New Bike (and project)
After our Natchez Trace bicycling adventure, I decided I wanted to get a different bicycle. I’ve really enjoyed riding my bike (a Volae Century recumbent bike) for the past 5 years or so — it’s comfortable and rides well with or without a load on it. But it was difficult (to say the least!) to …
Cycling the Natchez Trace Part 2
When we wrote our last post, we had reached Kosciusko, Mississippi on our 3-week Nashville to New Orleans bike trip via the Natchez Trace Parkway. So… let’s see. From there, we continued riding south, and took two days to reach the area of Jackson, Mississippi. When we got to Ridgeland MS (a suburb of Jackson), …
Cycling the Natchez Trace Part 1
The past few years, Zach and Jennifer have taken a bike trip in the fall, and this year, Jennifer suggested that we bicycle the Natchez Trace Parkway. Part of the reason she suggested it was because it goes through Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, which would get her down to missing just Alaska in her quest …