Memorial Day, Park Exploration, and Biking

"How can you ride a bike in this hot weather?" the 7-year-old girl asked me after I gave her and her friend a dollar for a Dixie cup of cold lemonade and a small macadamia nut cookie.

The money was to help one of the girls' fathers who is raising money for the Pan-Mass Challenge.

The girls had set up a stand at the bottom of their driveway, asking for donations across from Maudslay State Park. The parking lot was nearly-full to capacity at 3 p.m.

I thought for a moment before answering, tasting the cookie and wondering if it was really a nut or a melted white chocolate chip.

"Riding my bike, with the wind in my hair, it doesn't feel as hot out."

In retrospect, I must have sounded nuts.

After watching the Memorial Day parade march up State Street from the saddle of my bike, I followed the participants to the the Veterans Cemetery and shot some pictures.



I noticed Ed Cameron, Tom Jones, Steve Hutcheson, and Kathleen O'Connor Ives among the marching troupes. Where were the other councilors? I didn't see the mayor either.





Before riding to the cemetery, I knew I would continue biking around town. The only question was to where?

First stop: Atkinson Common. I'd driven by the city park dozens of times but never ventured inside.



Newburyport's Civil War soldiers and sailors are remembered here, but where are they buried? The Old Hill?

I walked around, peered inside the no-longer-functioning tower, gazed at appreciation tablets, and spied a girls' softball team from high above the Pioneer League field.



Leaving Atkinson Common, I headed toward Maudslay. That was another place I'd driven past but never seen up close.

At one point, I saw Tom O'Brien walking.



I didn't look at any maps of the Maudslay property so was completely lost. I have a good sense of direction, though, and after exploring the eastern paths I found myself at a rear entrance to Arrowhead Farm.

I spied pigs there.



Biking through the farm's grounds, I chatted briefly with Dick Chase. I don't know if he remembered me, but he was focused on some flowers. Apparently, the farm was selling flowers at Market Square today I later learned.

After exploring the western part of the park, I met the girls at a time when my water bottle was empty. The lemonade quenched my thirst...until I arrived at the Mobil gas station on Storey Avenue when I learned, to my joy, that a 2-for-1 Poland Spring bottled water sale was ongoing.

Over the coming weeks, I'll return to Maudslay, though maybe by car next time. I need to figure out what these triangular objects are.

Route 1A bridge work continues

I shot this photo last weekend looking north at the Route 1A bridge construction project over the Parker River. (I had just eaten at the American Barbecue in Rowley; my review is here.)

As of this week, the project is 45% complete. Status updates may be viewed here.

Buy local

No offense to whoever owns this Salisbury farm, but when I drove by it recently, I couldn't help but snap a picture. Any guesses what is, err, sold here?



Delicious enough for Universal Hub to appreciate.

Newburyport photographers?

Filling a void on Flickr, I created a Newburyport-only group that allows anyone to share a photo taken in the city.

The URL is http://www.flickr.com/groups/newburyport/

To start momentum, I shared two recent photos I've taken and like.

Signs

An ugly sight lies at the corner of Water Street and Ocean Avenue.



I acknowledge that everyone wants free advertisement, especially to point tourists to Plum Island, but this is city land and I believe that only the DPW has the right to post signs here. A-frames and other non-city signs should be removed and violating business owners ought to be fined. There's an easy way to boost the city coffers.

More to the point, the haphazard sign placement does more harm than good as the visual line of sight is skewed looking all over the place. A better and more enterprising solution would be a larger billboard-like sign, similar to at the entry to Port Plaza, that lists every business (or those who choose to pay for the service) and has arrows to the left and arrows to the right.