Time to Ride

The rain that has been so persistent during the month of May finally stopped last week and that meant that I finally got to log some miles on my bicycle. This month I was only able to ride 102.18 miles and 64.5 of them have been in the last 7 days. My muscles are weary but it is pretty motivating to see the miles add up. Of course - John rode more miles - as he has almost every month that we have been riding together. He encourages me with the words, "you do other things too - I ride a bike." That is true and I am not sorry that I do other things. I just wish I had time to do it all. (Maybe that's called retirement.) Our goal is still 50-62 miles in the Tour de Rock in 2 weeks. That's a long shot but I'm going to do my best.

Mother's Day Weekend

With Mother's Day at hand, visiting Jenn in Columbia was just the thing to do. Mother's Day happened to coincide with Art Night at the Vet School. John and I left after work on Thursday and were 2 weary pups when we got to Columbia at 2:00 on Friday morning. We had a great weekend visiting with Jenn and Michael, going to Art Night on Friday night, visiting bike shops on Friday and
Saturday, and riding with Jenn on the Columbia spur off of the Katy Trail - which is a "Rails to Trails" multi-use trail that spans most of the width of Missouri. As for details - Art Night was Jenn's funding-raising brainstorm last year and it was so successful that she had to spearhead it again. Quite a few of the students in Jenn's class and the one below her participated in one or more of 3 areas - visual arts, performing arts, and culinary arts. Jenn had some of her paintings and photography on display, made a couple of dishes for the Culinary Arts portion and performed in the closing act of the night. We ate all kinds of food, placed bids in the silent auction and enjoyed the art and performances. Columbia has several great bike shops and we both found cold weather cycling jackets for 50% off. The bike trail that we rode on Saturday was not paved, so the going was slow but the area around the trail was beautiful. Jenn rode my Trek and enjoyed it so much that I left it there for her to ride since so many of her friends also ride. As is so often the case, we delayed the return trip too long. John didn't get back to Hope until midnight Sunday night.

It's Almost Thursday!

It is Wednesday night. Tomorrow - right after work - I get to leave for Columbia, MO is visit Jenn. We talk often, but that isn't the same as seeing her. I'm taking my last vacation day for this school year on Friday so I can have an extra day. John is leaving Hope shortly after lunch so he will be here when I get off work. Everything will be packed when I leave for work tomorrow so we should be able to get out of town pretty quickly. It will be a long drive and we won't arrive until after midnight BUT I will be in Columbia when I wake up Friday morning. It's hard to wait...