Generator and Chainsaw Ride

I did a 27 mile loop through Merrimack and Amherst, NH today on my lunch ride. There are still a lot of people out there with no power. What a mess. I sucked plenty of generator and chainsaw fumes. Some streets still have wires and poles laying in them, five days after the storm. Our power came back on last night. My house went nearly 90 hours without power. My wife is a real trooper for dealing with this while I was away. Several guys commented they would have been in the dog house had they been away when this storm happened.

The cheap generator I bought back in 1998 finally paid for itself. The power companies are telling people in out-lying areas that it could be another week before they have their power restored. More rough weather is expected tonight with potential for freezing rain.

I really lucked out on the weather in Arkansas. It rained heavily during the days before I went down there, and it has been raining since I left, including winter advisories this week. I never got rained, snowed or sleeted on. I have ridden in 16 states so far this year. Arkansas and Oklahoma are new states, bringing to 42 states where I have sampled dirt so far. The other new states added to my list this year are Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. Michigan over the holidays will make 17 states ridden in 2008.

The Digital Rebel and FX-100 side by side.

I finally got a chance to look at the Canon Digital Rebel photos. Even though this is now an older SLR camera, it takes infinitely better pictures than my fairly new compact Panasonic FX-100 with twice the megapixel count. I'm currently eyeing the Panasonic LX3 to replace this small point and shoot disappointment. Panasonic actually listened to people, ignored megapixel count, increased sensor pixel size, and put a real lens in front of the sensor. I'm not a photo buff, but reviews say the LX3 is two stops "faster." I know that will be a big improvement over my FX-100 which took very noisy pictures, even at ISO 100 in daylight. I simply can't lug a heavy, fragile SLR camera on all my rides. The new LX3 is bigger than the FX-100, but still small compared to the Rebel. As a bonus, the LX3 will take even wider pictures than the FX-100 at 24mm equivalent. You give up on zoom. I primarily capture scenes, so I will take all the wide lens Panasonic can give me. I'll leave you with a few pictures captured with my 6MP Digital SLR camera. Thanks for reading.

Rime ice on Talimena Scenic Drive in Oklahoma. This was in the morning on the drive over to Talimena State Park. Shot at about 2000ft above sea level. This was not heavy ice. It was more like dense frost. The FX-100 totally chokes capturing images with bright backgrounds like this.





Talimena Scenic Drive in the afternoon taken during ride. Looking back east along road the road that follows the ridge line for 21 miles to next exit. Note rime ice still at higher peaks. I belive this goes much longer than 21 miles, but this is only section I drove/rode.

Hwy 309 climbing Mt Magazine, last switchback cresting cliff that runs length of the mountain.

Mt Magzine summit view, looking east along bluff that follows ridge for a few miles.