More Skiff Progress

Finished Varnishing

This Friday night we finished varnishing the skiff, mast rudder tiller and boom, now we can start painting and rigging. One more coat. . . . just didn't hurt.

Progress on the skiff

Ben is applying the final coat of varnish to the skiff. We should be done painting and start our rigging Friday night.  Hopefully we will have some good photos and video to share before the weekend. This isn't the best shot as I took it with my iPhone...

Another Entry

Christopher on his Lightspeed. Now it is your turn to send us a photo of you on your bike!!! Visit our gallery here.

New Bike Contest Entries

Two new entries to our Bicycle Photo Contest. Now it is your turn... send us a photo and we will post it here and add it to our gallery.  We will pick a winner on the first of January who will a prize... and it may be one of our model ships! Send your entry to benandpappa@gmail.com today.  Check out our gallery here

And remember you should never use your cell phone while riding... Kathy!!!!

Ben and Pappa - Thanksgiving Day Ride

Happy Thanksgiving to all who watch our videos

Crabbing Skiff -- Video of Part 2

Here is a short video of our latest progress. As you can see Ben is actually doing most of the work and Old Pappa is here for support and guidance.

Crabbing Skiff Part 2

Today Ben and Pappa spent another couple of hours working on the crabbing skiff. Here are a few photos from our work session. This first picture is the way we left off last time, with the centerboard trunk installed and trimmed.

Our first task today was to build and install the Mahogany seats and the mast step and king plank in the bow.

Then came the tedious bit of installing the chines

We also had to completely cover up all the detail work we had just made. 

We installed the decks fore and aft.

And then Ben cut 44 strips of 1/16" square stock for the ribs. These were then installed by both Ben and Pappa then trimmed and sanded flush with the sides.

So this is our progress for today and it is beginning to look like a boat! 

Ben may come over tomorrow evening and we will work on the skiff some more. 

First Contest Entry!

David and his bike about the year 1968

Well we finally got the contest off the ground and with a real bang! What a great shot of David and his bike.  Don't be left out, send in your photo today and we will post it in our gallery. Enter now and you could be the big prize winner!! Get the whole story here.

Building the Crabbing Skiff Part 1

Ben got a model made by Midwest Products, the Chesapeake Bay Crabbing Skiff, for his birthday.  It is his first wood ship model. It was purchased at the Apponaug Color Shop in Warwick (a great hobby store). This seems to be a very good kit for him to learn on. We will chronicle the progress here on The Adventures of Ben and Pappa blog.

Work began with the construction of the building jig, the stem and stern posts and the bottom plank.

At this stage progress went fast, we cut out the parts, sanded them and within an hour we were looking at the bottom plank perched on it building jig. The next step was to sand the edges of the bottom plank to accept the side planks.

In the picture above Ben is 'finger clamping' the final side plank to the sternpost. Then the edges of the side planks had to be sanded flush with the bottom plank.  We had made several small sanding blocks with varying grits of sandpaper before we began. Most of the tools we already had, and we are using regular old Super Glue as an adhesive.

Once the sand was finished and we were satisfied with the fit of the side planks we then cut the skiff off the jig. This left the stem and stern posts way too long. They needed to be trimmed.

The shot above was taken before we trimmed the posts, which we did but failed to take a picture of the hull trimmed. Ben then began work on the centerboard trunk. He cut with an X-acto knife and sanded all the necessary pieces and glued them together. And then the sanding began once again. The short video below shows some of the process.

Ben and I enjoy model shipbuilding and this Midwest kit is the perfect first project for Ben. Next up we are going to model Lewis & Clarks keelboat Discovery. At least that is the plan right now... Ben wanted to start with Nelson's HMS Victory --- ambitious little bugger!

Wack

Ben gets a present, and a surprise from his Uncle Jason. Couldn't help myself from posting this one and messing with it just a bit. Happy Birthday!!! What a bunch of caring adults. . .seems as though we see humor just about everywhere.

Ben Turns 10

Ben is 10, and here is what he had to say on the eve of turning 10. It has been a really good time hanging out with Benny for the past 10 years and I am looking forward to many more adventures. I think Ben could have added a few more things to his bio, like he now has a sister!
Pappa

Bicycle Photo Contest now open

Ben and Pappa are having a bicycle photo contest.  You may be selected to receive our grand prize, which we don't know what it will be just yet -- but maybe it will be a piece of art made by Ben and Pappa, or something cool for your bike. Here is the full story. So send us a picture and we will put it in our gallery.  Send your picture to:  benandpappa@gmail.com

And visit our Bike Photo Gallery here!

Stop Motion Fun

Ben and Pappa had fun messing around with the camera today.  Sorry it has been so long since our last post, but just about everything got in the way.  We had two weddings and just a lot of interference. Maybe we can get back on track.... the bikes are mostly done for the winter but we have a lot of other things planned.

How to change a flat tire

Ben shows how to change a flat tire using the thumbs only method for reinstallation.  This assures that you do not pinch the tube when you put it all back together.

The Washington Secondary Trail

Today Ben and Pappa were back on the road again, this time in Cranston along the Washington Secondary Trail. Although it was a short 9 mile ride it was good hanging out again.
. . . and we found another ice cream stand.  This time coffee Ice Cream, mmmmmmmmmm
Check out the route here.

After the Ride - follow up

After the Sunday 43 mile ride Ben and I relaxed by painting the ceiling in Pappa and Nana's bedroom. . . and then some electric experiments.

The Big Ride - 43 Miles

Today Ben and I rode our biggest ride this year so far... from East Providence, Rhode Island to Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.  A distance of 43 miles. And then we painted a bedroom when we got back - always a fun day. Thanks Uncle Bobby for the ride home. Here is the ride map.. with a few gaps and omissions... I keep forgetting to turn the cyclometer on. We left at 8:00 and got to our destination at 1:00 not too bad for an old guy and a little kid.

A short ride

Tonight we did a short ride as darkness closed in on us. We were riding on the roads tonight instead of the bike path so we made it an early night. Ben is really looking forward to his first long ride this Sunday.

East Bay Bike Path with Ice Cream

Tonight we got a bit of a late start and darkness overtook us at the end of the ride. Thank goodness we ended up at the Ice Cream stand. The days are certainly getting shorter. This may be the last week of the evening rides. We rode eight miles this evening fro the Dari Bee in East Providence down to the Barrington YMCA and back. We are trying to get in as many miles as we can because we are planning a bigger ride on Sunday. East Providence, Rhode Island to Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.  Let's hope for good weather.

Delaware and the Grapes

A look at the great grape stomping of 2010 - a vintage year for Benny, Momma, Nana and Grace.

Monday night on the EBBP again

Tonight as we started our ride we met Krista walking her dog Kona along the East Bay Bike Path.  Krista is the lady that sold Ben his Trek at East Providence Cycle. The evenings are getting shorter as the sun had set by the time we returned to our start point. I don't think we will have many more of these evening rides in the daylight.  It may be time we start shopping for really good lights, or wind trainers.

MIddletown Ride

Ben is off visiting friends in Delaware so Pappa is riding alone today. I went to the Newport Boat Show with friends and had a good time and then off for a ride in Middletown from the High School down to the St. Columba Memorial Chapel (Panorama I shot of the chapel here)  then down to third beach - over to Second beach and back up Paradise Avenue (all up hill, slight but long) and back to the high school. Apparently my GPS on my iPhone didn't kick in until I was well into the ride so it has my first mile at 5 mph and has me starting far from where I actually started. Check it out here.  I did an accurate measure on Google Earth and the route is really just over 9 miles as I had suspected.

East Providence Cycle

The sign I painted in 1972ish

I know we mention East Providence Cycle a lot in this blog.  Now seems a good time to throw out a couple of stories. The sign in the picture above was painted by Pappa in 1972 or 1973 and I traded it for some bike parts (if memory serves me correctly I got racks and bags) That was the period of time when my love for cycling had just begun. I had a small sign painting business going in Rehoboth, Mass and did signs for several bike shops. I went on to work as a sales person and mechanic at Somerset Bicycle, A.J Spokes and Rainbow Bicycles while building my house and going to college. Today we no longer live in Rehoboth but right here in beautiful East Providence, just about a half mile from East Providence Cycle so it is a very convenient shop. It is also a very good shop and the people who work there are friendly, cheerful and always helpful.  It gets five stars from Ben and Pappa.

A message from Ben

Trek Ember Tail light Review and evening Ride

Our Thursday evening ride before the weather takes a turn. It was a short ride this evening as thunder, lightning, rain and high winds were predicted. They were right about the weather - but it all moved in after our ride. Also in this installment, Ben reviews the Trek Ember tail light that we got at our local bike shop, East Providence Cycle.

Wood Stacking Day

No exciting bike rides today. . . we spent our evening stacking wood. We had a very generous cord of oak delivered today. Ben was a huge help stacking and hauling wood. The truck couldn't dump in our back yard so the wood was dumped at the end of the drive and we moved the pile to the back to be stacked in it's proper place. This short vid shows what a great help Ben was. And a special thanks to Nana too!!! After stacking the wood Ben and I went shopping for a new video camera to make this a better blog - we are still shopping.

EBBP - Tuesday Evening

Another great ride along the East Bay Bike Path in East Providence Rhode Island. Another trip down to the Dari Bee to have Ice Cream. Ben loves the soft serve twist in a cup... Pappa had a taste but is dieting so didn't get a cup of his own. Hopefully dieting and riding are a good mix. This was a shorter ride this evening than yesterday but when we got back to the car Ben decided to ride the hill a few more times making four round trips up and down the hill.  We are hoping to make a longer journey this fall down to Mattapoisett to visit Uncle Bobby. We have a route all planned out through Rehoboth, Dighton Freetown and so on with no major roads or traffic involved. Our average speed this evening was 13.5 mph.  Getting better.

Monday Sunset Ride

What a beautiful ride on the East Bay Bike Path along the bay with the sun setting in the west. Even though we had the wind in our face on the ride down to the ice cream stand the ride was still perfect.  With the days getting shorter it seems as though our rides are getting shorter too. Today we rode just under seven miles and the average speed was confused on my iPhone cyclometer app as I kept forgetting to turn it off when we stopped. We really were flying on the way back with the wind at our backs - 16 - 18 mph! Ben's feet were flying!

Then we played on the hill - this is about the only hill on the length of this 14 mile path.



The ride map and stats are here - but I am beginning to doubt the accuracy of my iphone app.
BTW - The Dairy Bee on Bullocks Point Avenue in East Providence is a really good ice cream stand.... our favorite and nicely placed next to the bike path.

To the end of the East Bay Bike Path

Today we rode a short ride from Warren, our normal turn around point, to the end of the East Bay Bike Path in Bristol a little over 4 miles down the road. Although is was a short ride it was a good one as we were joined for a few minutes by our friend Christopher.  Chris was doing his weekend sprint from Barrington to the Mount Hope Bridge and back.  Chris commutes most days about 25 miles each way on his Kestral.

Blackstone River Bikeway - Part 2

Well we got this edited.  The problem is that I am shooting the video with an iPhone and my editing software just isn't too fond of working with iPhone footage.  Hence the wait. But we had a great ride and all is good.  Hope you enjoy this video even if the edit is rough and it runs a bit long.

Blackstone River Bikeway Part 1

Ben and Pappa road the length of the Blackstone River Bikeway today - from Valley Falls to the end in Woonsocket. We tacked on a bit at the end of the ride to fill out a full twenty miles. We had a beautiful ride and passed a lot of other people enjoying the bike path... what a beautiful place. We like this course because it is really FLAT and we discovered that just past the end in Woonsocket there is a Dunkin Donuts!! Thanks mystery rider for the good information which we will share here.

If you are careful crossing the roads you too can have a delicious cholocate glazed donut.  See the map below.

Also check out our route with this link.  As you can see by the header this is part 1 - Part 2 will be the video which Pappa is still editing and hopes to have it posted very soon. It is an epic video which is almost eight minutes long with lots of good views of the path and the river.

East Bay Bike Path short ride

Tonight we did a short 4.5 mile ride on the East Bay Bike Path to  keep our legs limber for tomorrow mornings ride along the Blackstone Bikeway.

Ben's New Light

Ben got a new tail light and wanted to do a full review but the darned camera (iPhone) operator messed things up, but here is a quick look.  Ben will do a  full review at a later date.

East Providence Ride - Thursday Evening

It's Thursday Evening and Ben and I took a 6 mile ride around the neighborhood and even stopped by and visited Nana. It sure is getting dark earlier and earlier. This wasn't a particularly fast ride this evening - just getting the legs in shape. My butt is getting tougher and maybe one day I will actually loose the weight I would like to and be in decent shape.  Ben and I are planning to ride every evening we can and this Saturday we have a longer ride planned - 15 miles+ on the Blackstone Bike Path. This evening's ride map is here.

Pappa's Wednesday evening ride

Well this evening I went riding without Ben as he went out to dinner with his family and his other Grandpa and Grandma. It was WINDY - which helped early on but it seems as though it is always in your face coming back... that's just the way it goes.  I am finding out just how out of shape I am YIKES.  Well I rode 6.88 miles and averages 11.4 miles and hour - which is really an average because my last two and a half miles were SLOW, about 8 mph! But it all helps put me back in shape and burns some calories.  Here is the link to tonight's ride map.

Why we ride

Found this and had to share.. enjoy. Pappa

The First Post

This is our first post to the Adventures of Ben and Pappa.  We rode out in Rehoboth, Mass, a short ride of six miles. We had several hills which was good for us and we were able to break the speed limit... we did 27 mph in a 25 mph zone. Yoohoo!!! Here is a link to a map of our ride - unfortunately I forgot to turn on my iPhone cyclometer so there is a 1 mile gap in the route - click here