Category Bicycle Tours and Rides

New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Wellington, Part One

January 8 – 10, 2024 Bright and early the next morning the Quigley’s shuttled us to the bus stop in town for our four-hour ride to Wellington.  The bus driver checked us in on an iPad and after storing our luggage we climbed aboard and settled in for the journey.  Arriving in Wellington, we pulled […]

New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Whanganui, Part Two

January 5 – 7, 2024 On the way back to the house in two cars, ours made a brief stop at Cooks Gardens, a multi-purpose stadium that is currently used mostly for rugby union matches, athletics and cycling.  The main stadium, known as Westpac Stadium, can hold 20,700 people with 3,500 covered seats and while […]

New Zealand/Australia 2024 – Auckland, Part Two

December 28, 2023 – January 1, 2024 Our first full day in New Zealand would turn out to be an exciting one, with a long and exciting e-bike tour in the morning capped off by a nice dinner and then trying to manage to stay awake until midnight.  It was a challenge all around but […]

West Coast Fall 2023, Part One

October 10 – 19 October rolled around and we planned a three week road trip that would take us to Oakland to celebrate Jessica’s milestone birthday (I won’t reveal what age that is), Kamp Angst, Bishop, Henderson, Meadview (to visit 90 plus year old Uncle Dick), Flagstaff, Sedona, and Tucson, giving us lots of opportunities […]

Thanksgiving and Christmas 2022, Part Two

November 16 – December 31 The drive the next day would not be particularly long, but we wanted to get to Henderson early in the afternoon in order to stand in line to pick up a Honey Baked Ham, a lengthy process given the popularity of that product at Thanksgiving.  We timed our departure to […]

Europe 2022 – Lucca, Part Two

June 20 – 22 After breakfast the next day we set out to discover all we could about this charming walled Tuscan city of 89,000, with a provincial population of 384,000.  Lucca is known as one of the Italian’s “Città d’arte” (Arts town), thanks to its intact Renaissance-era city walls and its very well-preserved historic […]

Europe 2022 – Loire Valley, Part Six

June 9 – 14 As Joanna needed to leave early the next morning to catch the one bus that would take her to the town where she could get on the train to our final stop in Chinon, I enjoyed the breakfast at the hotel for a reasonable 10-Euros.  When I first arrived downstairs, it […]

Europe 2022 – Loire Valley, Part Five

June 9 – 14 At 34 miles and about 600 feet of climbing, this would be the longest day of the three of riding.  Our destination would be the small town of Villandry, chosen simply because the distance was just about right for the day and there is a chateau there that Joanna could visit.  […]

Europe 2022 – Loire Valley, Part Four

June 9 – 14 After another hearty breakfast at the hotel, we packed up our bags, checked out, and then walked just down the block to Detours de Loire, the company I would be renting a bike from.  In addition to the rental, they would be transferring our bags from stop to stop.  We’ve embraced […]

Europe 2022 – Loire Valley, Part Three

June 9 – 14 We had some time to relax at the bus stop before its arrival, and then a ride of 20-minutes or so before landing at Château de Chambord for the rest of the afternoon.  We walked from the bus stop to the entrance to pay our entry fee of 14-euros apiece, the […]