Cape Cod – Day 8

Jim says:

Yesterday I took Mary on the most scenic bike trail in the United States…that I am aware of.

The Cape Cod Bike Trail (south side) is 6.5 miles long, mostly flat and runs along side of the Cape Cod Canal. It was a beautiful sunny morning in the low 70’s, with relatively low humidity and a great breeze to keep us cool despite the pedaling. We went the entire distance and then doubled back for a total of 13 miles. With several stops to enjoy the beautiful scenery, we took about 2.5 hours to complete the very enjoyable ride.

The beginning of the 6.5 mile Cape Cod Bike Trail.

The Bourne Bridge frames the Cape Cod Railroad Bridge in the distance.

A tug boat passes under the raised railroad bridge.

Here’s an informational website link…
http://www.capecodbikeguide.com/canal.asp

After the bike ride we went to the nearby Sandwich (name of the town in which it is located) Glass Museum. I wasn’t initially excited about going there (I mean, how exciting can glass be?)…but Mary really wanted to go…so I went with her.

I was pleasantly surprised as to the several thousands of pieces of exhibits. it hard to describe the scope and craftsmanship that went into these pieces.

The most pleasant surprise was doing abstract-style photography that I have not done in many years. Years ago I had an expensive camera and several lenses and was quite serious about my photography…which…by the way…is a lot of hard work. But once I retired in 1995, I no longer wanted to work that hard at photography…so I sold all my expensive equipment. For the most part all my photography since then has been of scenery and people…all a lot of fun…but not terribly skill-challenging.

With my limited digital camera set as always to the lowest pixel setting and an uncontrolled setting, I actually did some abstract-style photography in the glass museum.
I was pleasantly surprised how nice the 43 photos turned out. So much so, that I’ve decided they deserve to be show-cased on their own. So if you want to see them, you have to tune into tomorrow’s blog entry. To entice you to do so, here’s just one of the 43 photos you’ll see tomorrow…

A sample of tomorrow’s 43 photos from the Sandwich Glass Museum.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2009
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com

The Marshlands of Southern Louisiana

Jim says: Yesterday Mary and I drove about 75 miles (the scenic route as opposed to the straight route of about 35 miles), much along the Bayou Terrabonne to Houma, Louisiana. The upside of driving along a Bayou is the beautiful scenery with the many variety of boats, etc… to be seen. The downside is since this is waterfront property valued highly by the locals, there a few places for a motorhome to pull over to take pictures. In addition, Louisiana’s secondary highways are quite narrow (about the with of our wide-body motorhome) and driving on them requires attention…never mind about taking pictures.

The first unique event of the day was a stop by a local sheriff at an insurance checkpoint. In my time I’ve been through a few checkpoints for drivers license, registration or driving under the influence of alcohol…but never solely to check insurance papers!

The first in 53 years of driving!

It was nice to experience a number of miles of marshland with no human habitation.

Average elevation in this area is 3 feet above sea level.

Throughout Southern Louisiana there are numerous canals and swinging bridges to wait upon while boats pass through the canal.

In the small town of Dulac, we stopped at Schoompy’s Restaurant, recommended by the Louisiana Culinary Guide. I enjoyed a delicious shrimp, crab and corn bisque and a small French meat pie. Yummmm!

Like most structures (including residential) Schoompy’s Restaurant is built on stilts.

Here’s a Wikipedia informational link about Dulac, Louisiana…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulac,_Louisiana

To see an additional 10 photos I took, click this kink..
http://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver/SouthernLA022610#

We continued on to Houma, Loiusiana where we are parked at an American Legion Post and expect to spend the weekend in this area.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2010
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.panamaorbust.com