Blogs from Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, North America

We're having a couple of days of rest. We were frozen for so long, it will take a couple of days until we are fully thawed. Last night was a good night's rest in a normal hotel - Homewood Suites by Hilton - Thanks Maureen! This morning it was already in the 70's when we got out to the bike and it quickly rose to the mid to upper 80's, a typical Florida fall day. We rode into Lowell, and spent most of the morning just wandering around through some of my old neighborhoods. We visited Burnside St where I grew up, St Margaret's Church and St Margaret's School where I went to church and school as a child. We also went by my first apartment and over to B St and our first house. In ... read more

The United States has many athletic based fundraisers. Altruistic outdoorspeople can run, bike, swim, hike and much else to raise money for charity. Few, however, offer the opportunity to raise money by white water rafting. Today, I did just that. The Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust arranges the trips, and we get the chance to raft a river with an unusual combination of natural excitement and industrial history. Lowell, one of the oldest industrial cities in the United States, sits at the confluence of the Merrimack and Concord Rivers. Its founders chose this spot due to a series of rapids on both to power their mills. The Merrimack River has the big one, Pawtucket Falls, which fueled the city’s famous tex... read more