Island Adventure

Here is my current road trip itinerary (check the links for each day)

Friday - Monday
Hang out in London

Tuesday
London to Appleton
230 miles

Wednesday
Appleton to Ayr
285 miles

Thursday
Ayr to Edinburgh
311 miles

Friday
Edinburgh to New Lanark
34 miles

Then Monday I'll whistle back down to London, return the bike, and fly home on Tuesday.
Ambitious. Eager. Excited.

History Lesson

A bit of history on my family, as far back as people with far more time than I, have been able to trace back.

Adam Hardie (1823 - 1879)
Born in Scotland, emigrated to Pittsburgh, PA, and worked as a blacksmith. His widow endowed some land to the city after Adam's death. Today Hardie Way, in Pittsburgh, remains a lasting legacy of the first Hardie on American soil.

George Edward Hardie (1870 - 1949)
Youngest of Adam Hardie's five children, he was an engineer and entrepreneur who had three children.

Joesph Hardie (~1900 - ~1980)
Those dates could be way off, I'd have to ask my folks on that one. Joe was a publisher who lived on Long Island (Rockville Center) and commuted by train every day to NYC. Was married to Edna Muller, my Great Granny who lived to be 102 years old. Great Granny was always very thankful that "her Joe" had taught her how to drive at a time when women drivers were quite uncommon. Great Granny finally gave up driving "the old ladies to church" when she was 99.

David Hardie (1925 - )
Gramps grew up on Long Island, graduated high school early and joined the 10th Mountain Division to fight in the Italian Alps in World War II. After the war, he attened Cornell University, married my grandmother , Joan "Nana" Dickey, and purchased his first farm in Danby, NY. In 1952, he purchased what has now become Hardie Farms Inc and raised his family in the farm house that I grew up in. Well known (at least by his grandchildren) for his slightly offcolor choice of pre-swimming songs: "I like to go swimmin with bow-legged women and dive between their knees...."

David "Skip" Ernest Hardie (1950 - )
My father, oldest of Dave and Joan's three children. Grew up at 31 Holden Rd, Lansing, NY, pursued varies undocumented post high school adventures, attended original woodstock music festival, hitchhiked cross country a lot, did a lot of skiing in Jackson Hole, sometimes attended Michigan State University, and eventually returned to the farm to help out Gramps. That turned into a pretty good idea, Hardie Farms has grown incredibly since 1952 and is a flourishing, state of the art, profitable, smoothly operating enterprise today. Married Mom (Holly Norris) around 1978 and raised four blond kids (me, Cait, Joe, Adam) on the farm. Check out the picture of Adam Hardie from the 19th century and Adam Hardie from the 21st century. I think I can see the resemblence, don't you?

Woe

Remember that nice day I told you about yesterday? Well this is what
it looked like when I left work yesterday. Not exactly gorgeous, but
it didn't rain and I still managed to splash around in the lake and
eat some good food with fine company.

About the weather

Everyone always complains about the weather in Vermont and most of them are just sissies, however, it's been an absolutely horrible summer so far up here. Far lower than average temperatures, higher than average rainfalls, and general miserableness.

Today is the first really nice day in about a month and I am outta here to go enjoy it.

Not quite on pace so far this year

I have been slacking in the motorcycle riding department. As you can see from the graph, 2009 has been a slooooow year for me and I'm not altogether happy about it. I am going to do a nice lap around the state of New York this weekend and that should help things, as well as the big Eurotrip I have planned later in the summer, but overall I'm just not spending as much time in the seat as I would like. Of course the weather has been absolutely attrocious as well. Oh well, onward and upward.

Business as usual

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/us/politics/01climate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

This environmental bill is a mockery of what Obama had campaigned for and yet he still supports it?

Highlights:
$50 Million for a hurricane research center in Florida
Utilities can STILL BUILD new coal burning power plants
Instead of 25% of our energy coming from renewable sources in 2025, it's been reduced to 15% by 2020
85% of pollution permits that are supposed to be auctioned off will be given away for free

And that's just what was reported in the article and what was voted on by the House. Wait until it gets to the Senate.
Mostly it was Democratic representatives who were asking for the concessions.

Peace Corps follow up

My sister's Peace Corps project has been fully funded thanks in part to the donations received by the people who follow this site. Your contributions are very much appreciated by the people of Dumbai, my sister, and the Peace Corps. I included a picture from Ghana so you know exactly what sort of people you are helping. Thanks again!