Mar 21 - air pockets

My last two loaves have featured large air pockets under the top crust.  Googling that, there are lots of suggestions that mostly relate to hand made vs machine made bread.  Shaping the dough, slashing the crust etc. are suggestions.  Another suggestion is to use less oil, which I will try.  I'm not always around to slash the crust, so that's not the best solution.  I suppose that I could always try less yeast because I don't really care how dense the loaf turns out.

I'd forgotten one of the activities from Sunday -- I went for a 70 mile Harley ride, basically covering the same ground as I'd ridden the day before with Judith.  I swear that I was more tired riding the Harley !  Certainly I was more stiff as I don't get to change position as much.  Clearly if I ever had the urge to ride across the country or do any extended touring with a noisy  bike, I'd need to upgrade my ride !

I spent a bunch of time yesterday dragging roads -- using Google and ridewithgps, that is.  I'm working on the new Manitoulin 1000k ride and trying out various routes.  Thank heaven for Google, both for its mapping as well as street view.  I can check trails and roads to see what they look like -- trails at intersections, of course, as the Google camera car didn't actually drive down the trail.

This is a work in progress -- https://ridewithgps.com/routes/12701259

This is version 4 ...  I've got some rerouting to do in Sudbury, at the very least, with some suggestions from Peter Grant.

The other route that I've been working on is Barrie to Stratford and back --   https://ridewithgps.com/routes/12650294

It should be interesting, going right through the campuses of Waterloo and Guelph.

I did see Jessica yesterday and she gave my biceps and abs a workout.  My hamstrings are still recovering from the work the other day, believe it or not.

Sandy did a bunch of cleaning and bed making yesterday, prepping for the Thursday arrivals.  That was almost messed up as Melanie was convinced that we were riding Saturday to Sunday, not Friday to Saturday.  I had missed the reference in her email to Friday; caught by Sandy; and then I called and talked to her, Jim Solanick (who Melanie had told Saturday), and John Ward Smith.  I'm pretty sure that Paul is on board; couldn't get him live but did leave him an email.

The thunderstorms originally predicted for Friday that had moved to Saturday are now back to Friday.  I can only cross so many fingers at a time, but I hope that those don't materialize !

We had Lane Snapper for dinner ... we eat well.

Onward ...