66: wendall, keeping maryland beautiful, woolly caterpillar, field basketball, another staring contest, flying saucer meets tree trunk, a bale of turtles and some cool collectives, a non-green green heron, wodb?, home in an alley, flooded cumberland

June 17, 2025

Paw Paw to Cumberland

I had a pleasant chat with Wendall, from California. He's riding with his wife and son, heading in the opposite direction. Fortunately for him, he's already done the muddy part east of here so he's getting a ride to the paved section.

I saw 20-25 bikers in the first hour, but after that were only a couple until I got closer to Cumberland. One of those early birds was wearing the exact same RAGBRAI jersey as me. We realized it at the same time and as we passed simultaneously yelled: “Nice jersey!” and “Nice shirt!”

I took this picture to show you that there is nothing at all....

...near this basketball goal out in the middle of a field.

Wet, but no muddy patches all day, though the humidity is >80%.

We stared at each other for a full minute before he got bored and slowly started eating again. I never got bored.

At first I thought these were some type of mushroom or fungus growing on the tree, but upon closer inspection it looks like it might be part of the tree itself. Still not sure, though.

Although they could be flying saucers that collided with the tree and remained embedded. That's also quite likely.

This was taken seconds before their Synchronized Swimming performance began.

When I was trying to find the collective term for a group of turtles (a bale), I came across some other interesting group names:
a shrewdness of apes
a destruction of wild cats
a peep of chicks
a quiver of cobras
a bask of crocodiles
a parcel of deer
a charm of finches
a flamboyance of flamingos
a tower of giraffes
a siege of herons
a cackle of hyenas
a bloom of jellyfish
a mischief of mice
a parliament of owls
an ostentation of peacocks
a bouquet of pheasants
a drift of pigs
a shiver of sharks
an escargatoire of snails

Cherpumple Mike calls carp "big, slow, and conspicuous," which is exactly how I feel at times.

Lockhouse 70 - I hadn't found any of the lockhouses to be the same until this point. This one, at first glance, appears to be identical to Lockhouse 68, the one three pictures previous. However, upon closer inspection, there are some differences... besides the fact that this one is in focus.

Lockhouse 71, not far from 70 - sometimes they're close to each other and sometimes they aren't

I hear bullfrogs croaking all day, and even more so at night, but this is only the second one I've seen since I started riding on the towpath. He was gone a split second after I took this picture.

Cumberland, upon seeing it for the first time from the trail, seems like a quaint town. Still not there, though.

The last lockhouse, number 75. Lockhouses 6, 40, 41, 47, 53, 55, 59, 60, 61, and 67 were swept away when the Potomac flooded in 1936, and several others had significant damage. It wasn't even a major flood.

This picture of the St. Patrick’s Day flood of March 1936 was hanging in our B&B.

It was great to see Heather after these past few weeks. We went into town and had some ice cream, then, after a couple of hours, massive amounts of Italian food (me, not her), then some ice cream (me, not her).

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Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 1,752 miles (2,820 km)

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Suzanne GibsonI love your collectives! Then - and I didn't make these up- there's a whiteness of swans and a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

Great journal! I wish you less mud and fewer mosquitoes in the days to come, even if your descriptions have been highly entertaining.
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6 months ago

Mark BinghamTo Suzanne GibsonHow perfect! Thanks so much, Suzanne!
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6 months ago

marilyn swettHere's another couple of group names to ponder- a squadron of javelinas and a murder of crows.
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6 months ago

Mark BinghamTo marilyn swettI've heard of the crow collective, but not the javelinas. I love it!
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6 months ago

The Blog MotherYou and Heather are so similar in that you’re always learning. Not sure how much reflects innately higher baseline in curiosity versus a need to know versus the allowance for space to muse “I wonder…”
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5 months ago