In Ripon: the Canal

July 1, 2024

It’s not my fault that I’ve gotten three days behind on the blog again. For years now I’ve mentally blamed anything bad on Trump, but now there’s the Supreme Court outrages and The Debate that suddenly make it feel like the world as we know it is about to end and pushes me to doom scrolling through the news and opinion sites with my free time instead of documenting our very small lives as I should be doing.

That, and the website. There are too many folks we follow scurrying around out there that temp me to check in on them: Kelly’s taking a breather in Coeur d’Alene, Susan’s luxuriating in the Dolomites, the divine Ms. Jones is sketching in Belgium, Greg’s standing on his head in UPland, Ben’s racing up to Duluth in his Velomobile, Jeff’s dehydrating on the Loneliest Road in America, and on and on and on. It was all so much easier during the Covid year when we were the only ones on the road and posting here. Can’t you folks just stay home and watch the tube?

But here we are. I don’t want to just drop these past few days out of our lives, but they’re getting far enough in the past so that the memory is blurring for both of us and we’re just left with the pictures. So that’s all you get too.

So on this day, I biked to the moor in the morning, which you already read about. Rachael took a walk north in the morning that was another mixed bag and turned back early, and then we walked a few blocks and had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant. Afterwards we came back to the room and hid out from the rain all afternoon.

Some pics from Rachael’s morning walk:

England is a great country for walkers. There’s always a trail or public footpath near at hand.

Unfortunately oftentimes these trails aren’t the easiest to walk along, especially if all you’ve got are shorts. Too scratchy!

And some pond birds. Too bad she didn’t have my zoomer along. I’m sure there must be a new bird in there.

It rained all afternoon, so we were happy to stay indoors in our comfortable, spacious apartment. I wasn’t tempted to step outside in the rain to hear what the anti-abortion protester had to say. I’ve heard it all before and have enough things to be mad about already.

In the evening we both walked south along the Ripon Canal, she of course going much further than I did. I took my time, stopping first to check out the cathedral just before it closed for the day.

The cathedral and around:

I was surprised to see how close the cathedral was. The restaurant is just to the right here, so we were standing here facing it earlier. We never looked up and saw it though because we were studying the map looking for the restaurant.

The Ripon Canal is lovely, and the walk continues on beyond what you see here - to Santiago even! The photos are mostly Rachael’s photos, partly because she walked so much farther but also because her photos were better. Her phone really does better than the zoomer in lower light conditions like these, and has a wider angle view. I’m going to have to upgrade my own phone sometime and relegate the Lumix to what it’s best for. It’s feelings won’t be hurt - it’s an inanimate object.

Like Himalayan balsam, grey squirrels are another unwanted invader here in the UK. Bruce will find it interesting that as an invasive species it’s fine to discourage them but illegal to relocate them - to your unfavorite neighbor’s yard say, or maybe the nearest college campus.

She considered continuing on to Santiago but after checking her watch realized there wouldn’t be enough time.

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Gregory GarceauThanks for the mention of me and my U.P trip, along with all the other Cycleblazers on much more adventurous trips. How you are able ride/hike all day, blog about it, and keep up with other journals while doing so, is beyond me. You and Rocky are true ambassadors of this website.

Per your request, I'm staying at home "watching the tube" for the time being. I resist watching the bad news. Instead, I watch bad sitcoms. To me, politics are like sports. Anything can happen. Anything can change. The favorite doesn't always win. The underdog, with enough support, sometimes rises from the ashes to victory.
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5 months ago

Kathleen JonesI know! It’s just too much! Who can keep track of who’s in Belgium or if they’re really in France? Good thing there’s such a thing as winter so I can catch up on the ones I missed.
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5 months ago

Ben ParkeJust for you I limited my trip to two days :) Even writing the journal up the next day, I’d already forgotten a lot of details. How you are able to do it 3 or 4 days later is pretty remarkable. I’m doing good to remember what I did an hour ago.
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5 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Kathleen JonesOh, of course. I knew that - you just said you hated Colmar. You should have gone thirty years ago in early spring - it wasn’t bad then.
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5 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Ben ParkeOh, that’s so thoughtful of you! I’ll have to think about what to do with all the time I’m saving.
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5 months ago

Rich FrasierI just want to point out that even though the Frasiers are walking the length of the Cotswold Way, I’m not blogging it on CycleBlaze. For obvious reasons…no bikes involved. You’re welcome.
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5 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Rich FrasierThanks, but actually I’d love to follow along anyway. Maybe you could carry along a little mascot tandem and prop it up in photos here and there as your bona fides. Pretty sure that would meet the letter of the law.
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5 months ago