Hard Work = A Miracle

Bull Run Regional Park — Centreville, Virginia
Temps: Lo 30F / Hi 48F (-1C / 9C)

After picking up the motorhome from storage yesterday afternoon, we drove the short distance to Bull Run Regional Park (BRRP) and got settled in site 109 (FHU for the jurisdiction rate of $41.50/night + tax). That done, we went out to celebrate our retirement with dinner at Copper Canyon Grill, located not far from the park.

Mui ordered the wood-fired rotisserie chicken, which is CCG’s specialty — roasted throughout the day, the meat was literally falling off the bone. I opted for the pan-seared crabcake sandwich, served with a rémoulade that had just enough zing to make it interesting. Overhearing us toasting our newly-minted status as retirees, the manager comped us one of the two desserts we ordered. We enjoyed half of the huge slice of key lime pie at the restaurant; the other half will be dessert tonight. As for the second dessert; well that’s a treat for tomorrow morning and the subject of a post of its own ;-)

When we returned home, we decided to overlook the mess around us. Instead, we watched the latest episode of Muhteşem Yüzyıl (Magnificent Century), a Turkish TV program that can best be described as a soap opera based on the life and times of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent. With our recent switch from Millenicom’s aircard to its 4G/3G mi-fi, we had great signal strength to stream the show with no hiccups and use up at least some of our 20GB data allowance for November.

After a good night’s rest, we spent today tackling the mess of boxes and bags that were haphazardly piled on every available surface. The task seemed quite daunting … until we took out the trikes, which we were temporarily storing under the dining table, and loaded the car with all the stuff designated for the storage unit. That done, the job became more manageable.

It took a lot of hard work, but we went from this last night …

… to this by 4:30p today. It’s a miracle what can be accomplished when one sets one’s mind to the task at hand. A miracle indeed!

There’s still plenty of fine tuning to be done, but it feels good to know that we’ve been able to put everything we want to take on the road with us in the many nooks and crannies of the Phaeton. And we still have room to spare ;-)

We’ll be at BRRP through Monday night. Probably won’t have much of interest going on during the day; we’ll be busy working around the motorhome. However, we plan to go out one night to enjoy the park’s annual Festival of Lights. Those staying at the campground — and there is a surprising number of us — get a small taste of the holiday cheer for free as we come and go from the park after nightfall. If I can unearth my tripod, I’ll take some photos to share. (For those who are local, there’s a $3 off coupon here; it’s good for weeknight admission.)

[Banner image from the BRRP website]

The first day of fulltiming was a good one!

Lake Manawa Reconnaissance

So it was in the upper 60s early afternoon, sunny, and very windy. For mid-March, I had to get out and on the bike. After all, it had been 3 weeks since my last ride. With the wind, it seemed to be a good day to check out the trail work that has been done at Lake Manawa.
The trails were underwater most of last summer - Missouri River flood waters. It was my favorite trail. Was a great place for me to ride.
I had commented that it would look that the trail system would need to be built from scratch. Recently, word was re-designing and trail work has started. A trail day was scheduled but the weather was nasty. Was some other work day while I was in Albuquerque.
Anyway, weather today was for riding in the woods (or at least trying to ride in the woods). Manawa bound.
Past the kiosk and the fence, I found the "Blue" arrow trail marker. A couple bikes have been down the new trail, leaving ruts. Except for the silt deposits, the trail looked that it just needed tread work (at least a lode of bikes riding the trail).
As I continued walking or riding my bike. I started seeing some problems with the trail. This was no longer the easiest trail in the area that I used to ride. It was not that the trail was re-designed, it was confusing. Coming out of on section, the trail changes to a "green" arrow trail. Then back into a "Blue" trail. Thought I was still on the same trail. No junction, just new difficult designation.
As I came to the old log crossing area, the new trail does not look to be sustainable. At the new ditch, the I noticed the trail becomes VERY narrow. The trail corridor width is for a black trail. There were more and more log crossings with no bypass, and I would judge at least needs black skill-level rider. Yet, I am still on the ONE trail.
At 0.9 mile, I bailed off the trail and hiked the bike up to the levee and rode the levee back to the parking lot.
Now, lest you think I am just complaining, I tried to offer helping with the trail design. I have seen some great trail designs during my travels. Lake Manawa needs lots of work (trail surface, by-passes, trail corridor). Otherwise, I will have to forget dirt riding, except for out-of-town trips. The local trail for unwinding, riding dirt, and getting into the woods, is gone for me.

Saddington - Smeeton - Debdale round

With Maureen, Barry and Gordon. 8.5 miles approx. Three and a half hours including pauses. Weather sunny and warm.





We started from Saddington, and walked along the Smeeton Road to Bridge 72. I intended to take a footpath for part of the way, but we didn't notice it as we passed it. Then along the canal and over Saddington Tunnel,

North western end of Saddington Tunnel

descending to the tow path on the left of the canal. We left the tow path at Fleckney Bridge, where we used the two hand gates and crossed the bridge, taking the path through Mill Field Wood at right angles to the canal here.

By the Mill Field Wood millenium stone

Past the MM stone and across the fields to the Kibworth-Saddington Road, and over into the mud and gravel track which becomes Mill Lane just before entering Smeeton Westerby.

We turned right into the village centre, then left at Debdale Lane. We followed this past Bridge Farm and Bridge 67 cookery school.

This ad was on an old container-cum-shed near the cookery school. I googled and it seems it has now gone out of production to the chagrin of many cooks.

Through a farm gate and we followed the track uphill until we reached the canal. Just before the gate and stile we found an inviting patch of shade for a snack and water break.





At the canal we turned left toward Foxton, passing the large narrowboat yard at Debdale Wharf, under a couple of bridges.

Fine display in a boat garden.

We crossed the first footbridge over the canal. We took the path along the right-hand edge of the field, and across another, past some farm buildings and uphill thorugh a field where they may or may not have been a bull - there was certainly a herd of creamy and white cows, along with a lone horse.





The path led uphill with Gumley Wood on our left, across rolling countryside - the hilliest and most scenic part of the walk was saved until the later stages. We crossed the small road from Gumley to Debdale, a little way short of the junction. A brief walk through thistle and butterfly country cut off a corner, and we crossed the road from Gumley to Smeeton.

Thistle and butterfly country

The path is a track between two hedges, then turns right to follow the edges of fields, clearly marked and climbing gradually, until, just before Smeeton Gorse, the Leicestershire Round path from Gumley joins our path. A short steep climb over grass leads to the highest point, with good views and a strategically placed bench. (To the right of this is HIll Farm, Smeeton Hill, according to the map.) We followed the Leicestershire Round path along the 'ridge' then downhill , crossing two footbridges and going through a number of stiles before climbing to Saddington where we emerged along an enclosed path into the village, directly opposite the well-hidden footpath sign I missed at the start of the walk.

Living My Dream

If I could pick the perfect life for myself, this is what it would look like: I'd live close to a small town and about an hour away from a large one. I'd live in a small, quaint cottage with a white picket fence smothered in red roses. I'd have three cats, a dog, and chickens. I'd have a fireplace to cozy up to in cold weather and screen doors to let the cool breeze in when it's warm. I'd have wood floors with no carpet, handmade quilts in the bedrooms, and stacks of books everywhere.
Outside would be cottage gardens and boxwood hedges. A huge woodpile would be close by to heat the fireplace and stove. There's be brick walkways everywhere leading to outdoor rooms and secret gardens. There'd be fields beyond the gardens with large oaks here and there. Underneath the trees would be black and white cattle. A river would run through the fields where the children could splash and catch minnows. There'd be a huge tin-roofed barn where square bales of hay were stacked for cattle feed and childrens' hideouts.
I'd spent my days hanging my laundry on the line, preserving food from our garden, cleaning and scrubbing, teaching my children, cooking everything from scratch, weeding and planting, making our clothes, and being thankful for such a wonderful life.
I'd stay home enough so that going to town is a treat and not a chore. I'd look forward to church on Sunday instead of dreading it as "another trip I have to make somewhere." I'd have young mothers over for tea and inspire them with my knowledge and wisdom about childrearing. We would have other families over for Sunday dinner and linger long around the table until almost time to go to evening worship.
So this would be my ideal life. How close is it to the real thing? Pretty close. Here are the differences: House- My climbing red rose died and hasn't been replaced yet. Everything else is just like I dreamed it would be.
Gardens-I need to work here and there to make it my dream garden. Gardens are so hard, especially in South Georgia, because things keep growing! I get one bed perfectly weeded, but it'll only stay that way for a week or two. My dreams when I laid out the gardens are WAY too high maintenance. I'm looking now to simplify things. But I do have good bones in boxwoods and old brick pathways.
Outside-Our barn is just a pole barn; which means it's open on all four sides. Not my idea of a proper barn, but most farms down here have them. Besides, that's what my husband wanted. Since he let me have my way with the house, I figured he could have his pole barn! It's not very attractive though. There's no hay in it either. I was describing the barn and fields of my childhood. I'm very thankful that at some point in my life I got to play in the hayloft with my cousins. We also don't have any water flowing across our land; also a memory from my childhood. We have fields but no trees in them; just around the edges. And we have no cows, but we can hear our neighbor's mooing and can smell them, a pleasant sensation to me.
My days-I do spend my days doing all the things above that I love only not as much as I'd like. I have to make too many trips to town; about seven a week. I can only think about one of those that I can eliminate right now. They all involve taking Darcie to her various activities and my weekly shopping.
Hospitality-I've gotten out of the habit of having people over on Sunday. I want to have families and young women over. I'll have to do it enough until it becomes easy again.
So the bottom line is.....I pretty much have the kind of life I want. I am very thankful to God for blessing my husband with a good job so I am able to stay home and be a full-time wife, mother, and grandmother. I'm also thankful for having a stubborn will and hard head that enables me to see what I want and then go for it. Our country is so rich, and most people in it live better lives than the rest of the world. I'm truly blessed to have choices.
I guess that's the thing-I chose what kind of house to build and where to build it.   I chose the furnishings.  I chose to stay home and for that to be my only job. I also know that many women don't have choices. I hate that for them. I can't imagine a world where I have no choices, because I've never had to.   And for that, I thank God, really.

Full Moon Ride

The gnarly burn seems to be getting better. It will be a while - still areas of dead skin needs to be removed.
The hardtail has a bike rack. Yeah, something wrong about a mountain bike with a bike rack. Oh well, it takes stuff off of my back. Yesterday, I took my tools, etc out of the hydration pack and arranged all in the bag for the rack. Charged up the headlight, ready for a bike ride.
Windy evening, so Blaine recommended that we ride the Wabash Trace because of the sheltering trees. Randy arrived on his bike. Zack (and Night Train) brought up the rear (soon passing us).
Rode up to Margaritaville. Stopped for a rest, took group photos, and 3 of us headed back to the shop. Yes, the even got me in one of the photos.
Felt good to be back on the bike. Glad I was only planning to ride the 15 miles. Tired when I got home, but could not sleep.

A Working Weekend, That's Fur Shore!

It's very hard to woof with your mouth full, but we gotta turn this bloggerino into a braggerino today. Me? Nahhhhh... I 'nq-ed in my Open B class and luckily there weren't any photos. Jes' didn't feel like dropping on the recall, if you know what I mean. Today, it meant that Momma expected me to come running towards her at 122 m.p.h. and... any time now, Mom.... yell "DOWN" in a loud voice, which is what I am supposed to do - yeah... like in motion - hah! I crouched intead of "downed" and flunked. Anyway, here to tell another story.
See my sister, Avalon up above there? She qualified in her ginormous Novice B class and guess what? She earned her third leg and got her CD title! Congrats Avalon! She got that nice little medallion! And there's more...
Above is a picture of Ronan, Avalon's brother, who qualified in his Novice Rally class on Saturday afternoon, then today, got second in the same class! Congrats to Ronan! There is more...
Above, right (in an awful picture... c'mon Momma!), is a photo of River. Well today, he got a second prize in a runoff in that ginormous Novice B class that Avalon was in. We are so furry proud of him! Congrats River!
And in the picture above... is Sporty (Mom - that's a terrible picture of Avalon's purty Momma) who is River's, Ronan's and Avalon's Momma standing next to Christine! Congrats to Sporty! She got a second in her Novice class and earned her CD title as well today!!!
Twin CDs - mom and daughter! Thanks to Don McKee of Topflight Photography for providing the above photograph!
So cool! Congrats to everybuddy! And.....
... last, but certainly not least, here is our pal, Shanti, who already has her UDX, but is working on her OTCH and will probably get it soon. She passed 10 UD trials in a row - yikes! In another Utility class today, she nailed a fourth - congrats to Shanti and Sue! What a weekend! Thanks for letting us braggerino!

More Travel Photos from Britain

A few more images from our last trip to the British Isles.
This path was on the hill overlooking Tintern Abbey in Wales. I love the moss and the exposed roots.
The next one is of a barn courtyard. What I love about this photo is the contract between the red bricks and the blue doors with the large black iron hinges.
The last one is of canal boats. We stayed on one for a week. It was close to Nottingham. I thought it was quite an adventure. Husband was less enthusiastic. It was cramped, for sure. But all we did was sleep there anyway. I wouldn't want to do it again, but I'm glad we did it once. We didn't go to Sherwood Forest, because friends who had gone said it is too commercial and to skip it. So instead, we went to Burleigh House. It was well worth the visit. You can read that post here: http://artfulaspirations.blogspot.com/../07/burleigh-house-my-ancestral-home.html

WMR on the Wabash Trace

The morning was damp and overcast. From the rain overnight, no dirt this morning. When I went into the garage, looking at my bikes, I said it was a day to ride the 4300.
Blaine and I were the only riders. We decided to check out the Wabash Trace - good shape for riding. Up the Trace we go. There were 2 small dead falls across the trail from the storm last night. Did our good deed for the day, clearing the trail.
At Margaritaville, I look at Blaine and asked "should we continue on to Mineola?" We did. Rested a little in Mineola and headed back up the hill. Another good ride.
My Trek 4300 is a great bike for the Trace. Think I will keep it - for now.

Cooler Weather

The heat broke - for a little while, anyway. Today I could ride a little later in the morning. Was a little cool while loading the bike on the car rack - wore a light jacket.

Ham Radio friend John decided to ride, too. Met at the Wabash Trailhead. By 8am, and ready to ride, I did not need the jacket. We headed toward Lake Manawa.

My heart monitor was giving high reading, telling me I am in A-Fib. Took it a little easy on the ride.

Wind from the NNW. Rode counter-clockwise (not our normal way. Wanted the ride down Indian Creek Trail WITH the wind. At the intersection of Veteran's Memorial Trail and Indian Creek, we had a decision - ride further or head back toward the car.

While I was feeling good, with my A-Fib, I figured it was better to just head on back. On the way back, I asked John if he had ridden the connector to the lake. He had not. So rode to the lake where I took today's photo. View of Omaha from the campground boat ramp.

The wind was kicking up by the time we headed back North along Mosquito Creek, Was enough for me.

Back to the car, loaded up the bike and headed home. Didn't really do much anytihng else the rest of the day. Seems that while I do not know I am in A-Fib unless wearing the heart monitor, I get tired easier.

Reflections on Christmas Past

I still haven't packed away any decorations. I'm aiming for Thursday when we'll be coming back into town. I'm headed to Tennessee for a few days to visit my parents.
These three ornaments are all that's left of the set that adorned the Christmas trees of my childhood. I don't hang them on my tree for fear of them falling and breaking. So they're safe on the dining room table. They make me happy.
These little Gurley candle choristers are so sweet, aren't they?
In the month of December, I only read books about Christmas. I found quite a few new ones and revisited some familiar favorites. By far, my favorite was A Sister of the Angels by Elizabeth Goudge. Such a sweet English story told in her usual quite way. I feel so at home in her stories.
Another good one was Finding Noel
by Richard Paul Evans.
And I found another Christmas story by Miss Read called A Village Christmas. I had read her The Christmas Mouse some years ago. I always love her writings. I definitely have a thing for small English village life.
I'm making some decisions about my .. reading and will be sharing those soon. On this trip I'll be finishing up The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon. I need to have read by Friday Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport for my bookgroup. Anyway, more on reading later.

The burn

I don't know if it's possible for a day to get any more hot and humid than New year's day was here. I saw an ambulance go past at 9am, almost certainly treating someone for heat exhaustion. That looks even worse when the usual two-hour response time for emergency services around here is deducted. As it was, I managed 103km in Tallebudgera and Currumbin Valleys. In truth, conditions were a little more bearable deep in the valleys once I got away from the coast, much like the scenery in those areas.


The most exciting part of the day was realising I would be short of distance in Currumbin Valley, and opting to climb out on Bains Road, toward Tomewin. This climb has, for some reason, acquired a fierce reputation, but after climbing it I'm none the wiser as to how that came about. The early part of the climb is steep, but it's also very short and didn't present any major problems even in the difficult heat-wave conditions. After that it flattened out across the top of the ridge. To be honest, the ride home against the hot northerly wind was far more difficult.
Still, at least that climb is done now. I'm sure I'd still be thinking about it if I hadn't put it to the sword.

Chipping sparrow

Poor little stunned Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina).
Birds do still occasionally fly into our windows, dirty as they are.
I found a sheltered spot in the woods and left him there to recover on his own. Later I googled, and it suggested that we should have kept the bird in a towel-lined, dark shoebox for an hour or two.
-----
Don't forget to visit the Friday Ark.

Coq au Vin - Finished

Coq au Vin, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Here's the completed coq au vin, with pearl onions, mushrooms, and little pieces of bacon. The chicken became unbelievably tender, and so did the pearl onions. Coq au vin is fairly easy to make, and a great dish for a cold winter night.

Stiffness

Seemed a little strange to me that the stiffness apparently resulting from my crash should start kicking in now, but kick in it did last night. I had trouble getting comfortable for a while after I went to bed, but I still managed to get a decent amount of sleep regardless. This morning I awoke again to find a landscape covered in bushfire smoke. It's a real crisis around here at the moment, and it seems there are still people around who think lighting fires is "kewl, man!". In a way it was good, as it allowed me to rediscover something I hadn't seen in a while -- Piggabeen.

It's a while since I last ventured out that way, and sadly, urban development seems to be extending westward from the coast now (is nothing sacred?), but it's still possible to get clear of it out that way right at the moment. There are a few charms out there still, even though it's pretty dry and relatively barren right at the moment, not that anyone would realise that from this view of the Cobaki Broadwater.



Even some of the dirt roads I rode out here last time around appear to have been sealed now. Sad really, because for a while it offered the chance of something different. Still, I intend to enjoy it out there while it lasts. I've already said that I don't intend to remain on the Gold Coast forever.



Tomorrow's scheduled for the Tweed Valley, and once again nobody seems interested in joining me. Mind you, it could be my only escape from the bushfire smoke, so I'll go anyway, and just hope the weather cools down a little.

Lighthouse framed in ice

This is the result of last night's high winds and waves. The blowing spray from the waves froze onto these shrubs along the Grand Marais harbor. It wasn't a very big area that was covered in ice like this, but nonetheless I had a blast photographing there. I tried several different angles to compose the ice around the lighthouse, this was my favorite. Captured with my Canon 100-400mm lens.

_____________________Nick Hall______________________

It's been one long year since we lost you.We won't ever forget your friendship or your style.Thanks for the inspiration to do more, do it better.The mountains are still out there.We're still climbing.Miss you a ton.

Repairs and Shopping at Camping World

Let's back up to Monday night. With the looming trip to Camping World in New Braunfels, Texas (45 minutes away), Bob and I started getting the 5th wheel ready to move. We re-stowed books, loose items, outside folding chairs, and door mat.

Tuesday morning while Bob was at work, I finished putting wall hangings like photos and barometer where they wouldn't get damaged in transit...on our bed. The laptops and air card, loose magazines, pens, and notepads all get put in one of the Costco cardboard boxes. The box is secured where it can't move. The dining room chairs were strapped down, loose items in the shower were stowed either in cupboards or on the floor of the shower...you get the picture. We have two Velcro straps which I use to close up cupboards so items won't break free during transit. [Note to self: Buy more Velcro straps for the other cupboards!]

Before closing the slides this morning, I took a broom and cleared all the spiders/spiderwebs off the outside of the rig. Thankfully, the spiders were all benign; mostly daddy long legs and a little white garden-variety-type spider.

Our appointment at Camping World was at 2:30 p.m. When Bob came home at noon, he did the outside chores--emptied the black tank, put the bicycle on the bike rack on our ladder, closed the awning, partially filled the fresh water tank, hooked up the 5er to the truck, latched and locked the exterior compartments, and removed the chocks. We put up the stairs, folded in the handle and locked the door.

Because the rig had been sitting so long, our first stop was two miles away at Treds (yes, it's spelled like that) where we had the ladies fill our tires to the recommended level. (Side note: It's all women who work at Treds. They replace tires, do wheels, make "house" calls to RV parks to assist RVers with their dilemmas, i.e., come with a large jack to lift someone's car off the end of the tow dolly, etc. See another article and video here.)

Then we were off on a (short) road trip to Camping World to have our refrigerator and badly leaking kitchen faucet looked at.





When your 5th wheel is your home everything travels with you. So when it came time for Camping World to take over possession of our 5th wheel, we had to take the cats with us. I popped them into their carriers with Sunnie sliding right in - no muss, no fuss, and Bowie with his paws extended, claws out and "I'm-not-going-in-there" fuss. Cat, resistance is futile. You're going in. And he did, but unhappily.

We took the two cat carriers and a small, disposable kitty litter box out to my Escape pod. Remember this is around 2:30 p.m. The day was dark and foreboding; it had rained on us during our drive north. While we moved the kitties, no rain. I put both carriers in the back seat and the kitty litter box in the back cargo section of the Escape.

Bob headed back to work. I sat in the car with the kitties. However it was lunch time so we drove off to find food. As soon as I started the car, the skies opened up and the downpour began. I followed Bob out of the Camping World lot. We could barely see the road it was raining so hard. The freeway access road was like a river...luckily there was good drainage. The freeway was crawling along at about 30-35 mph, the same speed as the access road. I'm guessing a couple of inches of rain fell in about 15 minutes' time.

I drove toward New Braunfels looking for a fast food restaurant where I could drive through with the kitties in tow. The downpour was crazy. When I got to an intersection where I could go under the freeway, I went for it. That's where the most water was, but it wasn't very deep so I followed the guy in front of me through. (No problem.) Finally found a Whataburger and bought my lunch. I let the cats out of their carriers to explore the car. They went everywhere, including all over me to get to every inch of the inside. They were much happier after exploring and checking out everything through the windows.

In the past, kitties didn't get to go free in the car, but since they were out of the carriers, I let them be while I drove back to Camping World. As soon as the car starting moving faster, both of them disappeared. When we parked, I saw them both come out of one cat carrier. It's only a medium-sized carrier so they must have been pretty cozy in there. (Sunnie is 16 lb. and Bowie is 10 lb.)

No sooner was I parked than Bob drove back to the Camping World parking lot. What? He had headed off to work. He came over to wait in the car with the cats and me. Said the freeway was crazy, the rain was insane, and it wasn't worth driving back to San Antonio in the downpour. So he is going to work this evening.

Here we are in the car, waiting...

Sunnie loving Bob's attention.

Bowie looking skeptical.

Sunnie: all settled down.

Sunnie says, "Bowie, can't you just relax? Ommm."

With Bob in the car to keep an eye on the kitties, I was able to shop in Camping World. The Camping World flyer that came in the mail showed a vacuum on sale that had what I was looking for. The Dirt Devil® Scorpion™ is what I would call a cross-over vacuum. It's hand-held and small in size with attachments: an upholstery brush, a "Turbo" tool, and a crevice tool. When you have two cats in a 5th wheel, those attachments are much needed to get cat hair off the furniture, valances, window shades, and kitty litter out of edges. I used it last night and LOVE it!

Pros:

• It plugs directly into the wall, no charging stand, so running out of battery power is not an issue


• "Turbo" tool


• Upholstery brush


• Hose with crevice tool


• Shoulder strap to use when you want to reach up high or just an easy way to carry it around while you vacuum

Cons:

• The on/off switch is hard to use


• The attachments are difficult to attach


• It gets hot pretty quickly

The pros outweigh the cons and I am happy with the purchase. Original price was $47.99. Sale price was about $33, but with the Good Sam discount at Camping World, the price was close to $30.

My other purchase was a nice pillow, normally $24.99 which I got for $17.99. Bob liked the pillow so much he asked me to buy one for him Wednesday.

The repairs could not be finished on Tuesday, so we needed to spend the night at Camping World. They put us next to the repair building where there was a plug-in with 50 amp power. Electricity is important for light, A/C, charging our computers and phones, and for me to try out the new vacuum! You can see how wet everything is.

There's Rigamarole on the left before we hooked up shore power.

Today's post is long, so I will end here. Wednesday is another story altogether. Stay tuned for "the rest of the story."

The end.

Travel Bug out.

Fatsia hands

Success on Wood Chopper

Usual Friday Night Ride at Manawa.
Not riding that well on warm-up. Heading up the East side the trail is blocked by construction equipment. (See photo) I was able to ride through the area, blazing a reroute.
When we started group ride, I lead the group to the West side. This evening it was the first time I was able to ride the blue section of Wood Chopper without stopping to get through those 2 tight trees. Success! Now, if I can now ride the reroute at Wood Chopper exit and climb the ditch...
It is getting dark very for our ride. Within the next couple weeks will have to stop the rides or ride with lights.

I Made It!

The engagement party went off without a hitch on Friday night.  We had a cookout at a local state park.  Here's the cake I made for them; camo and girly pink.  It was a cute idea, but my execution left a lot to be desired.  Cake decorating is not on my list of talents!  Oh well, everyone thought it was cute anyway.
We had a crowd for Easter dinner.  Lots of good food and fellowship.  The kiddos had a great time hunting the eggs.  I had a great time hiding them.  I kept finding myself smiling and remembering the past when all the cousins would gather at Grandma Collins' house to hunt eggs.  I was telling my mama what a good time I had hiding the eggs and remembering all the hunts we had at Grandma's house.  Mama said that she just loved hiding the eggs too.  There were probably a hundred or more since there were so many cousins hunting them.
So hopefully this week will be a little slower and calmer; at least until Friday.  The whole weekend will be spent in celebrating our church's 25th anniversary.  There'll be lots of friends back to help celebrate, so it'll be good to renew relationships.  Summer, please come quickly!  I'm ready for a laid-back state of mind.  All these schedules are makin' me crazy!