Sunday 10.18.2009

Dan had set his alarm this morning for another possible golf date, depending on the weather. When it went off at 0800, the sun was shining. He got up and did his morning stuff then came back to bed. It wasn't too much longer until his phone rang. He would be leaving in about an hour.

I got up and had breakfast, not sure what I was going to do today. After a while I decided to try the bike rack on the G6. It didn't take much re-adjustment to attach it. Then I put the bike on it. I looked around the outer garage and finally found a long bungee cord that ended up working well to secure the bike to the rack. I had lunch, then went over the Burchfield County Park.

I had never been there before, but had been to the website. It showed that there are marked trails for biking, hiking, and cross country skiing. So I went to check it out.

It's a large park that is along a river. Lots of picnic shelters (pavilions). The trees were beautiful in their yellows, oranges, reds, and greens. The leaves are falling, almost like snow.

I parked and got the bike unloaded, strapped on the helmet, and took off on the "easy" trail. Well. It may have been "easy", but I discovered a few things: 1. it's really bumpy, going over tree roots, bumpy trails, and fallen branches 2. one needs to look down at the trail in order to follow said trail as it curves around trees and such 3. on the few occasions the trail did not need my full attention and I was able to look around, I was going too fast to look around 4. biking is noisy--I couldn't stop fast enough to see what was scampering in the leaves (probably a squirrel) 5. it was a lot colder outdoors than I thought it was, and 6. the bumpy trail really aggravated my left shoulder. So, after doing the "short loop" I parked the bike back at the car and went back out on the trail on foot. Much better. I saw several squirrels and could stop and watch them, I could look up into the trees or down at the river, go up and down the steps of the boardwalks, shuffle step through the fallen leaves, and put my gloved hands in my pockets if I wanted to. I saw that the trails do seem to be marked well, and came across a stationary map, which stated that the trails are groomed for cross country skiing. Cool! I hope that's still true, what with budget cuts and all.

Anyway, I'd been out long enough. I loaded my bike and headed home.

Dan called not too long after I got home and he arrived shortly after. I had made a grocery list and went out to Meijer while he showered and warmed up and rested. When I got back I had a bite to eat, visited with him a bit, and he went off to bed. I took tylenol/motrin and wrote here. I was so hot when I got back from the store. Dripping like it was 90% humidity. Ugh.

Tomorrow is a workday for both of us.

Thank you for reading. Hugs.