Hey guess what everyone, the blog is being revived for domestic posts. I
still have a ton of unpublished international material, but for now I
figured my ride today constituted a post here.
I probably should have gone to studio and did work this afternoon. There
is other work I could be doing, but I am writing this because I want to. Perhaps doing non-school related work will clear my head...
Anyways, my planned route was to take the bike trail from Kent to
Tallmadge, then ride northwest to Cuyahoga Falls, then take a different
trail back to Kent.
The ride was going just as planned (boring, routine riding) until I hit Cuyahoga Falls, where I stumbled into an Oktoberfest. There was live music in three different places along Front Street. Too bad I decided not to bring my wallet for food or drink. But the this band in particular sounded good. It was nice to hear some good German music.
Crazy geometric canopies. Funny because we had an in class assignment to develop ideas for Sandusky's lakefront, and using fun canopies similar to this was an idea we had, and we referenced Cuyahoga Falls, so here they are!
Quite an enjoyable for Oktoberfest festivities. And also a bike ride.
Once I decided I had enough Oktoberfest, I rode on back to Kent but stopped at this access point to the Cuyahoga River. This bird in the river was pretty.
I wanted to set up a self timer shot. Didn't turn on the self timer. Whoops.
Fancy self timer photo with my bike along the Cuyahoga River. I'm not cool enough for selfies.
I decided to try and see how close I could get to the bird. Sorry I am not a bird expert. Anyone who knows what species of bird this is, feel free to chime in.
I don't know if this is a normal bird for the area. I am not used to seeing this type. I wonder if it is a migratory bird perhaps?
Either way, I think it is pretty cool to see natural wildlife down by the river. The Cuyahoga River is a pretty awesome natural resource for the Northeast Ohio region.
I was sneaking up a little too close, so the bird flew away. Cool picture, but it is too dark.
Cool picture, but it is too light.
A mile or two further along on the trail I spotted three deer. Two of them were startled and jumped into the woods.
I sneaked to the side (they knew I was there but I did not alarm them enough for them to run away.) Most of my pictures were pretty bad, since the lighting was dark in the woods. This is the best of the bunch.
When I got back to downtown Kent, I stumbled on to this cool percussion group playing. And that is when I realized that this is why I like to ride my bike. If this day was scripted otherwise, I would have woken up, watched Kent get annihilated by Ohio State, then slaved away in studio... But I decided I needed to get some physical activity in. And I got even more. Some cool German music, some awesome animal life along the trail, and now this cool percussion group. I would never have gotten to see any of the cool things I got to see today had I followed the script. But I hopped on my bike, and I got to see these things. This is not the first time this has happened. Back in Italy the same thing happened, where I stumbled on a cool renaissance festival/ event, and then got passed by a mile long USA WWII military convoy. That is why I ride my bike.
Bonus picture! Cartwright Hall, Kent State University.
