The Wild West Part IV -- River Deep, Mountain High

This part of the trip is covered by the Track My Tour app which you can follow here if you wish. Get app, thanks again Chris!

We hadn't really thought about it being around the 4th July that we had planned to come out to Jackson and hereabouts. Apparently two weeks ago, it was empty but this is the busiest week of the summer. Certainly traffic in the national parks was pretty brisk. Also wherever there was a significant spot (like Old Faithful) there were a lot of people. It also showed itself in our booking for accommodation. Both availability and pricing. But it did mean we'd be in a small town USA for the 4th July parade!!

Our hotel. We stayed in the little annex to the left. Ski runs all over.

The first night back in Jackson we went to the rodeo, just walking distance (we didn't as it rained) from our hotel, Snow King Resort. I'd booked a Mountain View room with the room rate reflecting that premium nature but found that the mountains rather than being over a lake away as at Jackson Lake Lodge were in fact less than 20 yards away so impossible to view with other than a cricked neck. Looking upwards that is.

The rodeo was wonderful. The heavens opened as we arrived but luckily we were under cover so rode the storm for the next hour or so until the skies brightened and became a starry, clear night again. Bronco riding, cow riding, horse racing and turning displays, cow roping and the simply wonderful sheep scramble where every child under the age of 12 went onto the ring and chased down 3 unsuspecting sheep trying to pluck something off the sheep's collars. The children kept coming and coming and coming! Tons of them. Just madness resulted.

A couple of teenagers were sitting next to us and we started chatting. They were from Texas and had driven up from Dallas a day or so before. The boy's name was 'Judd' and he was 16 years old. I asked if he had a car. He said 'Yup'. What kind, I asked. 'A truck'. He got out his phone and showed me a picture of a huge flat bed truck with cow bars front and back. Of course his name was Judd and of course he had a truck and of course he spoke in single syllables. He's from Texas! At a rodeo. What else would I expect?

It was still clear on the 4th July morning and we made it to the parade area, just down the road and this time we did walk. I'd mentioned it to Viv last night at the rodeo that I do think that the Americans have a wonderful respect for their flag, their nation and their vets. I don't know if this 100% true of course but the way the rodeo did the intro, the various flags -- town, state then stars and stripes -- and then the national anthem. It was all very rousing and inspiring. We Brits tend to be almost apologetic about it and find such outpourings of emotion to be rather cringeworthy and shy away from it all. But I was happy to cheer at the end.

Same at the parade. Huge cheers for everyone and everything and I do wonder just why all these people show up to parade, but then again why not? It is the collection of all the theys that make the community, town, state and country. The rodeo girls from last night carrying the flag, the ambulances, the fire fighters, the local organizations and of course Chewbacca on a skate board wearing the stars and stripes. Who would miss him out?

It was still clear so we jumped on the ski lift to the top of the nearest ski mountain as there was a hiking trail all around the peak. It wasn't the longest trail and definitely not the most difficult but it certainly ranks up there as one of the most picturesque. Just stunning actually.

Grand Tetons

Jackson the town and the 'Hole' further along the valley

It was so enjoyable that we decided that rather than catch the ski lift down, we'd walk. It was only 3 or so miles down the mountain in a sort of zig zag fashion. It did enable us to check out some of the ski slopes on the way down. The double black diamond one called fuzzy bear or something like that was almost vertical!

The mountain bike trails were not the ones we walked down. Those were far too wimpy for the bikers. Theirs were almost vertical like the ski slopes and followed a sort of in and out pattern through the tree line with jumps, rocks, streams.... I thought it was impossible to even walk down until I saw a group of kids skipping up the trail, probably whistling or humming.

Not the bike trail

Our hotel was only 5 minutes from downtown (did I mention that Jackson is actually a pretty small little town?) and after our exertions we felt that something cool and cleansing was required to hold us over until the fireworks planned for later that night. We chose the fabled Million Dollar Bar on the square and found it everything a modern western saloon should be!

Fine local brew!

As a result, Viv went out and bought a pair of cowboy boots (sorry another pair) while I contented myself with a hat. I know, we just have to come back out here again so we can wear this stuff. OK then.

Fireworks were fun and happily ended just before a rainstorm of epic proportions crashed down all around. The thunder and lightning actually did have the nod over the fireworks in the end.

Great visit. Too brief. Again.

The Wild West Part III -- National Parks

I tracked the tour for this segment of our road trip so if you'd like to follow it moment by moment, you can do so here. And of course, thanks Chris for the great app!

Our plan for our stay in the Jackson area was to spend a couple of days in the Grand Teton National Park, in Jackson Lake Lodge to be precise, and during that time visit Yellowstone and generally cram as much in as we could in the relatively few days we'd be there. Luckily, it was great weather so we didn't suffer too much seeing as we'd omitted to know that Jackson is 7,000 feet high with many of the places we'd be visiting substantially higher than that. with mid-summer average temperatures in the 70's, this meant it could get chilly at times. Personally I wish I'd thought of that and remembered to bring a pair of jeans rather than just the shorts and T-shirts. But you live and learn!

It wasn't long enough but the location and views were breathtaking.

One of the smaller lakes along the way. The tallest peak is something over 13,000 feet
 

View from our balcony

Our day trip to Yellowstone was great. Bus tour with a dozen random people. The area itself is underpinned by a dormant volcano with the bulk of the park's area being its caldera. That is why there are so many geothermal areas, over 10,000 at last count and increasing all the time as new hot spots suddenly emerge and burst into the open. Most are small but there are a few larger areas with larger pools. Old Faithful is but the most famous of these.

Old Faithful is the most predictable of the pools that erupt. It is about 1 hour 20 minutes plus or minus 20 minutes between eruptions. Of course we had to stay!

The park area itself is so immense that it was impossible for us to do anything other than a shortish circle and hit a few high points. People come from all over the country to spend their family vacations camping, in a RV, fishing -- trout fishing is amazing there apparently -- hiking, biking... you name it. Really a special place. I am really glad there were visionaries around to make sure it stays unspoiled.

One of the things I am impressed by are the rangers and forest management. You get the feeling from media reports these days that forest fires are all over the place due to drought conditions brought on by climate change or whatever, but many of the forest trees have evolved so that they may only produce seeds and spores once the tree has been through a fire. This is an all natural event which Mother Nature has devised ingenious ways to accommodate. Obviously some fires are more severe than others. The guide said that the last big one in the 1980's had over 10,000 fire fighters at its peak. It does help that the entire area is dotted with lakes which this year are overflowing given the amount of rain that has been happening (but thankfully not when we were there).  In the park are huge areas of dead trees from the last/recent fire but in all instances you can see small saplings pushing up to replace them. It also helps that areas like this make it easier to spot the critters that are meant to abound here. We didn't see many because traffic was so busy (it was 4th July weekend!) but did see quite a few bison, elk, brown and grizzly bears. Not Yogi though.

Great time. Sadly too short. This place is a keeper!

The Wild West Part II -- Jackson

The town is called Jackson NOT Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole is the entire valley in which Jackson is situated at the southern end, with Yellowstone National Park in the north. The Hole was in fact first 'discovered' by western fur trappers, actually one Mr. Jackson after which ... you get the idea.

The 'Hole'

When you look back at history from say a couple of hundred years perspective and get past the old history book notion that history was just a series of unconnected dates, you do realize that they are not and it all goes back to Napoleon.

Why does that guy keep sticking his nose in everywhere? Years ago I was reading a PG Wodehouse book where a not very deep conversation between a couple of airhead drones touched on old Boney whereupon one of the savants came up with the glorious comment... "whatever did that poor fish do other than getting hammered at Waterloo?" Quite a bit actually including this. Tangentially this time though.

So... the French Revolution in 1789 brought forth many changes, one of which was almost endless war with practically everyone in Europe until said occasion in 1815. Wars are expensive so by the time Boney took over and completed his looting of the countries nearest to him, Switzerland and Italy, he realized that the loot so acquired was nowhere near enough so he cast around looking for any other family silver that wasn't cutting it whereupon one of his aides named Junot came in with yet another horrendous report from Haiti. The revolution there was going really well but for the wrong people; the freed slaves. They had been fighting against the revolutionary government in France who was acting in a very non revolutionary manner ever since the Revolution began. Despite Junot's genocidal tactics, whenever the French looked the other way, something bad happened that usually included French soldiers getting massacred in hideous ways. In short it was a total mess. Now Boney, had a strategic desire to create a major port in New Orleans and use Haiti as a stepping stone to upseat the British in all their Caribbean locations but that required time, effort, money and resources .... none of which Boney had to hand. Just this bloody European war. But the American colonists were friends of theirs, weren't they? And that feller Franklin something was ambassador. He was always droning on about this or that. But it did offer a neat way out. Sell him (well the Americans) the huge Louisiana territory and raise some cash which Boney really did need and could put to use at once. That other strategic thing was a nice thought but really he had to take care of business at home first. And of course, you never go broke by taking the money.

So Boney got the money and the Americans a huge new territory about as big again as what they had already. How they financed it is another fascinating story! The Americans certainly didn't have that kind of ready money. But it was done. And now they also had a huge new tract of land to explore and do something with. I mean they bought it, right? So it must be theirs irrespective of who was actually there right now. Read about the full story here from Wikipedia.

You got a lot for your money back then. 3 cents per acre.

This all took place in 1803 and towards the end of that year, the then US President Thomas Jefferson hosted a couple of roughnecks who had a mad cap idea to head out in canoes and explore the new territory starting in St Louis and then heading north or wherever the Missouri River led to in the end. Presumably the western ocean somewhere. Their names were Lewis and Clarke.

Their story is one of the great pioneering stories and is all the better known by virtue of the fact that they kept sending back reports to GHQ. This must have kept reducing the number in their party over time and it was on just one of these side trips one of the guys (John Colter) took in 1804 was with this just in mind. However he took a wrong turning by mistake (this is all river bound and rivers do look pretty much alike I think, certainly then) and tripped over and into Yellowstone Park, kept on going south and well as they say the rest is history.

You can see how a wrong turn back then would get you to a whole new place

The history books report all of this with such veneration that it almost behooves me to not do that as I can just imagine Lewis & Clarke rushing back to the president gushing with the news that this new area is millions and millions of square miles of virgin land with forests, lakes and rivers and such just waiting for new settlers from the east and elsewhere. To which I presume TJ saying something along the lines of what did you think would be there, if not that? But I am sure he didn't. He congratulated them and gave them comfy sinecures somewhere miles away from both the new lands and also TJ himself in Washington, so there was no chance of them bumping into him and asking how the settlement program was coming along. He would have filed it all away for future generations to figure out just what on earth they do with this enormous new land they had acquired as there were no new settlers to spare from back east just then.

Settlement didn't start until the 1820's but only sporadically as the entire valley was snow bound for seven months a year which wasn't very encouraging with the technologies then available. Think Grizzly Adams and the Revenant movies. Then make it a lot worse. However this also meant that for large parts of the year, there were no Indian tribes around either. In fact across the plains, there were few permanent Indian settlements courtesy of both terrain/weather but also the migratory patterns of the critters that they preyed upon. Given the size of the country and the few numbers of mainly itinerant people around, I find it amazing that anyone could find anybody else. So for many years, there was relative peace. Into the 1850's anyway.

We visited the Little Big Horn Battlefield Monument -- its actually about 7 hours drive away in south eastern Montana -- and in the visitor centre there is a picture of the agreement of 1851 which set aside vast tracts of land for the Indian tribes. The land size was virtually all of South and North Dakota and more than one-third each of Montana and Wyoming. Given that at one of the peak gatherings of several tribes on the eve of the battle itself encompassed some 6 tribes and 8,000 people, this seems to me like a tiny number of people with a huge amount of land.

It was that battle and the events that followed it that spurred greater settlement in the Jackson region but what took Jackson to all new heights was Theodore Roosevelt and the sheriff of  Deadwood, Seth Bullock. They were big friends and TR stayed with the sheriff when he was out west and just loved to roam around Yellowstone to the point that the pair of them decided rather informally that the scenery and location was of such grandeur that it should be protected in virgin state forever. This was before development so the perfect time to do this, and of course miles and miles and miles away from any other development like say Chicago. And no trains. And no roads. So they got together a state wide agreement to set aside the land and then jointly took it to Washington for federal approval. This took place in 1872 and so Yellowstone became the first national park in the US.

Soon after, train tracks were built and tourists started arriving and where should they find to stay but that charming little western town of Jackson.

The Grand Tetons

150 years later it is still small but still charming and has expanded its ambitions to encompass the Grand Teton National Park in 1929 (huge mountain range) and discovered that for some insane reason, otherwise perfectly rational people had this massive desire to launch themselves off the top of mountains down impossible slopes in winter, by tying sticks to their feet, and in summer, by bike. Same paths, I kid you not.

There are roads now and also traffic jams...

... but not everywhere

Oh yes, and those economists also like it.

The Wild West Part I

Now I cannot remember whether this is Part 1 or whatever for this title but as it chronicles our visit to Wyoming and car trip back to Chicago across the prairies, that's what I will call it. More parts to follow.

I don't know if I've mentioned before in this blog that Viv and I have the notion to visit every one of the 50 states in the USA, so we do and this trip ticked off a lot of new ones for us. But of course that isn't the reason for wanting to do this trip, it's that Viv and I enjoy road trips and the US is so big and so diverse that it makes it really interesting, fun and easy to do. This time... and it really never occurred to me before in this way ... I really do see why the Americans love their driving, their big cars (bikes and trucks too) and not that infrequently do not feel the need to get a passport as their country is both big enough and accessible enough for anyone.

We were in Toronto after our Bermuda trip and whilst not exactly wondering what to do with ourselves, had a couple of notions of things to do whilst we were in North America. My first thought was to circumnavigate the Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is one of them so the start and end point wasn't too far away and as the lakes spread out across the continent, they take in a mass of both US states and Canadian provinces.

The Great Lakes

Then we remembered we'd have to hire a car and cross the international border at least a couple of times, if not more. And we've heard about the increased delays with all the Homeland Security stuff so thought it may be simpler to just stay in one country which meant looking for a flight west somewhere and then onwards. So Plan B (again mine) was to hire a car in Chicago and then drive out to the Rockies... and back. In a week or so. Viv said isn't that quite a distance so I looked on Google Maps and discovered that yes indeed it was a long way. About 3,000 miles there and back actually.

So onto Plan C.

Viv suggested flying out to the Rockies and then hiring a car and drive back. Now this was a better idea and of course the driving distance back would be just about half of Plan B, so much more manageable. And we'd get to spend some time way out west too instead of just driving there and turning right around.

Next question was where? Then I remembered about Jackson Hole which is in Wyoming.

Being a nerd, all I knew about Jackson Hole was that it was the home of the annual Fed jamboree, sort of like a Davos but in the USA. It takes place in August each year. This is what the Kansas City Fed website (the sponsors) say about it:

'The Jackson Hole Economic Symposium is an annual symposium, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City since 1978, and held in Jackson Hole, Wyo., since 1981. Every year, the symposium focuses on an important economic issue that faces world economies. Participants include prominent central bankers and finance ministers, as well as academic luminaries and leading financial market players from around the world.'

Pull the other one, I say. What a load of nonsense. They could do this symposium in Cleveland or Dodge City even if they wanted to stay in Kansas, but by chance selected the most picturesque little town on the edge of the Rockies with plush resorts and 5 star dining everywhere you looked. Does the 7,000 feet high mountain air really clear the boffins' minds or is this just a total bean feast? Yeah, right.

... which of course was great for us as (a) the great and the good would not be there and (b) it sounds like a really spectacular place.

It was.

Booking flights, car, accommodation and tours was of course a breeze but before we left we went for dinner to a friend's house in Toronto and he told us that Jackson Hole was THE Mecca for skiing in North America. We didn't know this but then again he and his family are big skiers so they do know even though they've never visited. He backtracked later that same evening and said that Jackson Hole was A Mecca, rather then THE but still its reputation was pretty darned good.

So much to look forward to then. One thing that was a pain was the flight leaving Toronto to make the connection to Jackson Hole. It was at 6.30 am which meant a ridiculously early start. Why couldn't those important people complain about the ungodly hours? Oh yes, forgot. They use their private jets.

Cool airport!

Bermuda retrospective

Six weeks or thereabouts in Bermuda has gone like a flash. Well not to start with of course. Things never go that way but by about half way things had picked up to the extent that we added an extra two weeks onto our expected stay. Happily it was to see our children who on their own without prompting by us visited Bermuda.

Highlights of course were being with the children but in addition it was all about reminiscing. Would things be like they used? Would there be changes that exponentially change the place? Have things actually moved on, ahead or simply further along? What change to the political environment which when we first left on our travels had just seen an election with a change in government?

So in no particular order, this is what struck me.

1. Bermudaful but...

Well this one is easy. We all knew this but it still gets me that the place is so stunningly beautiful it couldn't really have been manufactured. It has happened thankfully in the typical laid back, somewhat shambolic manner in which Bermuda typically operates. Sounds pretty bad when written like that but for as long as I remember (and that is quite a long way back), there really hasn't been a plan in Bermuda. From an economist's point of view, this isn't ideal but for people living there really it has been a dream. Things meander along for the most part peacefully. People get along more or less and the environment is staggeringly beautiful.

Flatts Inlet

However behind the scenes, maybe under the surface even though it isn't really. Pretty much everything is known within seconds of it happening... often before. In a small place, this is pretty typical as everyone knows everyone else. Viv tells the story of how she was walking along Queen Street in Hamilton when she ran into a couple of old ladies struggling to open a door to a building. She proffered help and was met with "do I know you?" Viv didn't but sort of recognized a family resemblance to a friend so mentioned this and of course it turned out that these two ladies were her aunties and as Viv looks rather like her friend, so the ladies did a momentary double take too. These ladies as it turned out wanted to visit a betting shop but finding it closed decided on a Plan B that included KFC just down the street. Viv said it took an hour to walk the less than 200 yards down the road as these ladies stopped to chat to every other person that happened to walk by. When you are Bermudian and reach a certain age, you know every other person as either a relation, friend or child of a friend. I imagine this is typical in other places with a 60,000 population like Bermuda, but it is also something that makes the island what it is.

A couple of years ago, one of the three Bermuda banks did an IPO (one being sold to HSBC many years earlier and the other involved in transfer of ownership to a private equity firm) meaning that no longer would any Bermuda bank be Bermuda owned. This is important for as a previous CEO of the Bank of Bermuda (sold to HSBC) once famously said to a management meeting "the decisions we take here may not always be in the best interests of the bank... but they will be in the best interests of Bermuda". This has changed with profit motive taking over. Disturbing, for the banks were typically very large employers of Bermudians and just before we arrived in mid-May, this bank laid off 40 staff in one swathe. Most being long time employees. Couched as being an exercise in encouraging early retirement, the reality is simple cost cutting. Something US listed companies do all the time courtesy of their need to report ever improving quarterly financial results. The simplest thing of all to do is lay off staff. I fear that this is not an isolated event but do hope otherwise.

2. Sports

It is that time of the year when the northern hemisphere moves into summer and with that outdoor summer sports. And my goodness there are plenty of them.  Overseas were the US Open (golf), French Open (tennis), World Cup (cricket) and others. I have been riveted to these although I prefer to play rather than watch. Most of all it was tennis at Pomander Gate but increasingly it has become pickle ball too.

Southampton Princess golf course

Tennis at Pomander Gate

So what is pickle ball? It is a construct that appears to me to simply enable older ex-tennis players to play a similar kind of racquet and ball game. The court has the dimensions of a badminton court (without the tramlines) and the net is much lower than on a tennis court. You play with what sounds like a wooden paddle and a large, yellow plastic ball with holes in it. Simple rules that you can grasp on the first try. Simple to learn too as the mechanics of everything are something like table tennis but on a larger scale. Both racquet and ball are light so available for all ages.

Pickle ball at Pomander Gate

The growth has been startling to me. This time last year, the club had two nets that it simply lifted onto a tennis court. One on either side of the net. It was a busy day when 6 people turned up to play and those that were were usually organized by the same two people who had first come across it in Florida where it is very popular. This year, the club has taken over the centre court and whilst leaving the net in place has repainted the remainder of the court so as to create 4 permanent courts, 2 on either side of the net. These days it is typical to have 16+ people come to play... and they play Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. And Sunday mornings too. It has attracted so many people from outside the club that it created a new pickle ball membership which has proved to be very popular. Far less so with the tennis players who sadly for the club actually don't play that much. Certainly when pickle ball is taking place, it is rare that the tennis courts are in use.

Most interesting to me is the dynamic. This time last year, comparatively speaking nobody played the game. Today there are 40 people that regularly play with more turning up to try it all the time. Quite a few have given up on tennis to concentrate on pickle ball and have become very good players. So much so that there is already the growing question of people not wanting to play with others that aren't up to their standard. Last year, it was great just to play. Now things have moved on very quickly as people's competitive natures kick in.  The first tournament was last week. I took part, lost more than I won but along the way hammered the winner and lost quite comfortably to one of the perceived weaker players. Personally I am just happy to play. I am looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

3. F&B

Being visitors, we spent a lot of time eating, drinking and being entertained. Both in people's homes and out and whilst my waistline expanded at a greater rate than my steely will evaporated, boy are things expensive. Noticeably so since last year.  For sure, we spend a lot of time during the course of the year in Penang, which is a lower cost environment, but really. On our first visit to a supermarket, we saw a cauliflower priced at $11.99. It has always been the way that local produce was expensive, but it didn't feel like this. On the other hand booze and beef in supermarkets aren't that expensive but put them into a restaurant and vroom! Apparently restaurants mark up wine a minimum 4 times these days so good luck with finding a $50 bottle of wine at a restaurant.

This said I did go through my list of favorite things to eat in Bermuda. Pretty much.

 i) Multi-grain roll with tuna fish and chopped egg, lettuce and tomato, butter on the bread and those cute little yellow peppers that go pop in the mouth. 

Only from my friend Paul at Hickory Stick on Bermudiana Road in Clarendon House. I used to eat this sandwich probably three times a week when I was working just down the road. On the other days it would be Paul's fish cakes on Tuesdays and on the other day I'd go somewhere else. I know... traitor. Creature of habit...me? No way.

 ii) Beef patty

Quite a few places do patties but I found one of the nicest to be from Supermart on Front Street. Find them in the hot shelf near the whole chickens. One is not enough, two is too many. These are great hand held foods for maybe a morning after. On such days, an apple doesn't quite cut it.

 iii) Club sandwich with coleslaw

OK, with French fries!

Loads of places, some up market, do perfectly adequate club sandwiches but my favorite is at The Spot on Burnaby Hill. It may not be the best but I like it. You eat at the counter and get to drink their famous coffee which they generously refill whenever you want.

 iv) Bermuda fish sandwich. Layered pieces of fish, lettuce and tomato, butter on the white toasted bread, ketchup, tartar sauce and lots of hot sauce on top.

Mahi Mahi 

Many places do fish sandwiches, most aren't that good. The best tend to be in the least attractive looking places. Viv went to Woody's in Somerset and raved about it. I went on a search for a fish sandwich on a public holiday and found none of the best places open so had to settle for a very poor second best. However I was recommended to the Seaside Grill on North Shore next to the Clay House as the fish was purported to be really fresh. We went twice, the first being mahi mahi, the second and best time being when I had red hind. Boy, was that good.

 v) Liver and onions, maybe with bacon but always lots of gravy

I really like liver from several places but finally settled on the Red Carpet on Reid Street which serves it with mashed potatoes, veggies and lashings of gravy. The maitre d' Chris asked me how I'd like it done... cooked of course. You don't have liver medium rare. It is the gravy that makes it for me and this was pretty terrific.

 vi) Auntie Blanche's cherry and walnut cake

This is almost undescribable as it is so sublime. Traditional Bermuda cakes are rum cakes, Christmas cakes laced with rum, mince pies and somewhere along the line fruit cakes the king of which is the cherry and walnut cake. Our old neighbors Blanche and Brenda were great bakers and fine exponents. Blanche in particular did wonderful cherry and walnut cake. She once told me that her secret was the gin she soaked the fruit in. Others are much dryer but Blanche's are moist and simply lovely. She only made these cakes at Christmas time as she would soak fruit in their respective booze for a month or two before and make them a couple of weeks or so before the big day. More latterly she would make cakes ostensibly for me as I am a fanatic about them. As she has become older, these occasions have grown fewer but a week or so ago, she made me a beautiful cake. Simply lovely. Thanks Auntie Blanche!

4. Transport

For such a small island, getting around Bermuda is really key to enjoying it properly and fortunately we had a car at our disposal for much of the time we were there. Thanks Dave and Jeremy! However I had a fantastic time on the local public transport as with the passage of time, I turned 65 and on renewing my driving license, the fine people at TCD also awarded me a Bermuda Senior's ID card. Nice photo too! Amongst other wonderful things, this little card enables me to enjoy free travel on buses and ferries!!! Beat that! So I did at every opportunity and found the number 1 and 3 buses are pretty darned good.

We went for quite a few walks on the Railway Trail which I really do enjoy. I am impatient by nature and do wish they'd rebuild the trail more fully than it was before/is right now. Progress is great but to me painfully slow. Looks like volunteers only at the moment. I wish it were a higher priority.

5. Beaches...

I was really trying not to do beaches again this year but really couldn't avoid it. Truly they are lovely. This year however there were a number of storms out to sea and these storms brought in mounds of brown sargassum weed which is piled high on most beachfronts from Horseshoe Bay to Coopers Island. Still the best I've ever seen.

***

Looking forward to returning again soon.

Bermuda gem

Bermuda does a lot of things well (think pink beaches, sunshine, golf courses, coral reefs, etc) and a lot of things badly which I suppose is common to most places. In Ipoh in Malaysia for example I was disappointed by what appears to be a throwaway attitude to the colonial past even though it is one of the few advertised things attracting you to visit the town. 12 time zones away, Bermuda does just as poorly with the Railway Trail.

Luckily some people do recognize how terrific this little gem is... here is the Smithsonian's take although don't necessarily believe it can or even should be done by bike as shown. Locally, an organization called the Friends of the Railway Trail are trying to put the dots back together again and reconnect the trail end to end. Check here for information. Thankfully back in 1984, the Bermuda government also stepped in to help although their help was restricted to the legal framework of allowing people to simply access the trail again which in intervening years had simply been absorbed into people's back gardens, driveways, etc.  Here is the official story. So plenty of information then but rather than just read about it, far better to put on some walking shoes and enjoy it.

Almost nowhere on the trail is there a bad photo opportunity

Viv and I have been doing that and it is amazing just how much things change. It has been a year since we last visited and in that time several bridges have been strategically placed to reconnect parts of the trail that were inaccessible before. These are in the main between Bailey's Bay down to Crawl. What has happened is stunning and shows what can be achieved by some simple will and desire to show off something that is really special.

Much of it is privately funded with construction crews often volunteers taking their own time to do something that is important to them.

I am perplexed as to why something that is relatively simple and cheap to do is not funded by government. The Railway Trail is a short railway line with a few bridges that need replacing with footpaths that have been put in place elsewhere along the trail already... technology has moved on so this is a relatively simple task. It may cost several million dollars to finance but when compared against the spending that takes place on other things with questionable benefit or which is wasted, this is a simple fix and an easy win. So why not do it?

Flatts Inlet site of new bridge under construction

In the meantime I am just going to enjoy walking the trail and take my hat off to the Friends of the Railway Trail and wish them well in their endeavors. I cannot wait to see the bridge over Flatts Inlet which is under construction right now. It should be spectacular. Next year... then the bridge over Ferry Reach and a boardwalk extending the Crawl section down to Shelly Bay, then...