As much as I love bicycling, there was nothing much inspiring or exhilarating about Day 3 of 30 Days of Biking.
Monday’s glorious sunshine was long gone and the seasonal blustery rainy weather returned.
I took the opportunity to return a Blockbuster video and stop at the store on the way home.
Before the video chain downsized, that would have meant a 4-mile bike ride. But a couple of years ago Blockbuster closed its nearby store so it gives me an opportunity for a 10-mile round-trip to Renton to make exchanges. I suppose that’s a good trade-off for being a couch potato while I enjoy the movies.
Miner cemetery
Along the way, I veered off the main drag and followed a pipeline trail and side road that bypasses this old coal miner cemetery in Newcastle, near Lake Boren.
The cemetery is protected by a locked gate. The tombstones up in there are very fragile and date from the 1880s, which is ancient history in these parts. A sign says the cemetery contains the remains of Welsh, Scottish, English, Finnish, Italian, Irish, Belgian and Swedish immigrants who worked in the mine.
A couple of years ago, genealogists found the graves of two African-Americans separated from the others.
Newcastle’s beginnings as a rough and tumble coal-mining town are incongruous to its present-day status as an upscale bedroom community and home to the swank Newcastle Golf Course.
30 Days of Biking
Total days — 3/3
Total miles — 39
1 comments
Hi Gene,
Glad to see you’re sticking with it. I wound up with two rides today, a wet one in the morning for my morning coffee with Christine and a drier one this evening to get ice cream.