News and Articles

I thought of Great Uncle Karl as we rode this morning to Memorial Park. Karl was killed in World War I. Growing up my Grandmother, one of Karls’ sisters, shared her favorite stories of his youth. She described the young Karl as a bit of a scamp-famous for getting into or starting mischief. My favorite story was Uncle Karl and the meatballs. Picture a large, unattended, bowl of a mixture that was to become meatballs. The bowl is discovered by a young boy and his apparent subsequent delight in the satisfying smacking sound raw meat makes when it makes contact with a kitchen wall, or ceiling, or counter…I do not remember who cleaned up the kitchen if it was my Great Grandmother or Uncle Karl. The other story often told was the sad one-of the family on the porch watching the returning soldiers and the sisters waiting for Karl, but he did not return. The family received the telegram much later with the news. The thing is the Armistice had been signed but the news did not get out in time to all of the battlefields. The wall in Memorial Park includes a description of the background of the wars, the number of Ohioans who served and those who did not return home. Today I got to enjoy riding with my husband and brother and I remember my Great Uncle Karl, his sister who told me about him in story, and her daughter-my Mom.

Recently we rode on the section of the Tow Path trail from the trail head at Fairview Avenue to the Summit Lake area. We observed mile markers of two different colors: near Barberton blue and Akron brown(or maybe it was in the other order). 

I have had with in the past few months the pleasure of speaking with a gentleman who mentioned being involved in a surveying project on the Tow Path trail and who would be placing the mile markers that were color coordinated based on trail responsibility, i.e. Metro Parks Serving Summit County, Ohio Department of Natural Resources.  I neglected to get that persons contact information so I am in the process of checking with my sources on the meaning of these colors, and I will share the received information. 

We rode on Wednesday to Open M to help serve lunch.  The images are of a building spotted along the TowPath trail between before Summit Lake ,(coming from Barteges St.) I love the murals as well as the flowers lining the fence.

It is springtime and that means lots of new birds to be found. Don’t get me started on the increase in Goose population. But as you see in the video, the Great Blue Herons are also busy this year.

There have been and will be many celebratory events this year to commemorate the completion of the Tow Path trail in Summit County. Also daily, or so it seems, I receive news of a new bicycle/multi-use trail opened in Ohio or neighboring state.

While the additions of these trails are great for increasing the exercise rate amongst adults and children bicycles are considered vehicles and are legally permitted on the road. Sadly some of the motoring public is not aware of the legal rights of cyclists, some disagree with those rights, others appear only to be aware of themselves.

I discovered the Ride of Silence website after the fact-the ride is held the third Wednesday of May. This ride is held world wide to honor those cyclists that have been killed or injured while riding on public roads. The map on the website indicates rides in 2011 were held around the globe. The closest local ride in 2012 was in Cleveland.

From Forbes.com-a new data highlight showed that bicyclists in the U.S.save at least $4.6 billion a year by riding instead of driving. Select the link-Forbes.com to read the article.