Day 1 - C & O Canal Bike Tour

On Monday, July 27th, my brother-in-law (Nekee's husband) piled us (Nekee, PlainoldKristi, her husband, and me), our bikes, and our gear into a big van to drive us to Cumberland, Maryland to begin our bike tour. On the way we stopped at Wal-mart and
REI to pick up food and a few extra things. After arriving in Cumberland we ate at the Crabby Pig, got a kick stand for Nekee's bike, loaded up our gear, took a few practice spins on our loaded bikes, and began our tour. Trust me, riding on a loaded bike is quite different than riding without gear.
Above is a picture of the bike gang just before beginning the tour (me, Plainoldkristi, her husband, and Nekee).

Us with our loaded bikes. Check out Nekee's and my yellow Ortlieb panniers (money well spent-especially when your caught in a downpour). These panniers are water proof. We can vouch for that because the last day of the trip we had a downpour.

The trail that we did was 184.5 miles (we rode our bikes a total of 196 miles including all of our off the trail stops). The trail is called the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal trail. Here is a link to get more information about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeake_and_Ohio_Canal. The picture above is what the trail looked like when we first began the tour. Nice and shady. Occasionally we would see deer dart across the path, turn and look at us, and then dart into the woods. The weather was beautiful!
Plainoldkristi's husband, our tour guide, tire changer (fortunately we didn't have any flats) and biking expert.
A picture of my bike equipped for loaded touring.
Since we got off to a very late start (around 4:00 p.m.) we only rode twenty-five miles and setup camp. This was the view from our campsite. This is a picture of a Lock keeper's house. The Lock keeper would collect tolls and keep records of commerce on the canal.

Our tents set up for the night.

Now for a funny story. When arriving at the totally desolate, in the middle of the woods camp site, and after setting up our tents, Plainoldkristi noticed several piles of animal poop. We thought it could possibly be bear or horse poop. Since none of us have ever seen bear poop we were not positive of what it was. Plainoldkristi's husband was pretty certain that it was horse poop, but we were still not sure. Nekee called her husband to send us some pictures of bear poop on her phone so that we could compare. My cousin who was visiting Nekee's husband and Nekee's husband thought it would be great fun to tell us that the way to tell was to taste a little bit of it and if it tasted grainy it was horse poop and if it tasted like berries it was bear poop. Of course we all declared that we would not taste it, but instead broke the poop apart to discover a lot of hay. The poop was declared to be horse poop, so we decided to stay. However in the night we are pretty sure we heard a bob cat scream close by, and a very rude frog who continually croaked throughout the night.

Got Bike, Got Gear, Going Touring!

I ended up buying the Cannondale Touring 2 bike. If a bike can be beautiful, it is beautiful. I love riding it--it has a very smooth ride. I've also purchased all of my gear including Ortlieb Panniers (I was told these were the best and I would never need to purchase anymore). Other than splurging on the Ortlieb panniers, I purchased most of my biking items from the REI.com Outlet. I think I purchased some real good bargains, and I am ready to try them out. My poor husband spent most of his afternoon helping me install lights, flashers, panniers, bells, and everything else I was too helpless to do. I did my best to evenly pack my panniers so that the weight would be distributed evenly. Every now and then my husband would say, "You really need to learn how to do all of this if you are going to be a biker." My reply was, "Why should I? I have you to do it for me honey bunches, sweetie pie." Honestly, it would have taken me two weeks to do what he did in one afternoon. Thanks Keity-Q Chocolate Chip.

Anyway, I am leaving tomorrow for the tour. I will fill you in when I get back from my daring adventure (at least daring for a 43 year old woman).

What Do You Do on a Rainy Day?

This has been one dry summer in Louisiana. However, when it rains, what do you do? Well.........this is something you can do....

Stare at the rain from the front porch.

Listen to the pleasant sound of the rain falling on the roof top and pouring out of the gutters.

Take a nap on the front porch with your favorite buddies.


Or....bake a cake!

(check out the huge knife the chefs cut the cake with)

First you collect all of the ingredients and tools needed...while making a huge mess. The mess makes the cake baking process much more exciting and fun!

Then you mix up the ingredients (of course you need a favorite person to do this with) and pour into pans to bake. (Love them hair dos-these dos are called Cake baking dos)

Next, you do a little dance around the kitchen, while wearing oven mittens, as the cake bakes....
(This little dance is called the "Cake Dance")

Once you begin to smell the cake baking, you continually check the oven to see if the cake is completed, all the while doing the cake dance in between. In case no one knows this, the cake dance makes the cake taste much better.

Wallah! The cake is done. Next....you remove your cake and let the entire family enjoy.

What do you do on a rainy day?

Urgent - Please Pray!

Just a quick blog to ask anyone who reads this to pray for four precious christian young ladies from Christian Life Center in Gaithersburg who were involved in a bad car accident yesterday evening. Please pray for them and their families. Prayer is needed urgently! I also want them to know that I am praying for them and that I love all of them dearly.

Memories of a Very Snowy Day in MD on a Very Hot Day in LA!

I have so many wonderful memories of my time in Maryland. Just in case anyone who reads this blog doesn't know it, for approximately one year my children and I lived in Maryland after our home was severely damaged in hurricane Katrina. During this time, we were very blessed to have a fabulous church to attend, Christian Life Center in Gaithersburg, MD, a wonderful family to live with (the pastor and his wife), and we were able to make many great new friends and experience some new and exciting things.

Well, on this hot day in Louisiana, I thought I would share with you one of these experiences. Snow! Not just a little snow--a lot of SNOW!

This is a picture of the beautiful home of the family we stayed with. This is a picture of what that beautiful home looked like when we woke up on this particular morning. My littlest was so excited (he was three at the time) he ran straight out the door, still in his PJ's, and fell flat on his face in the snow.

This was the view out of the front door. Simply breath taking! I was so amazed at the beauty of it all. My brother-in-law drove over in his truck, picked me and my children up, and then away we headed to their house for a day of snow fun!

This is my brother-in-law hurdling snowballs at my sister while everyone else gawks. If you enlarge this picture and look close enough you can see the snowballs flying through the air.

This is my daughter practicing her balancing beam skills.

This is my nephew snowboarding down the hill. Wheeeee!

Isn't it amazing how the snow settles on every little branch?
I could not get enough of looking at it.

Doesn't my niece look precious with her rosy cheeks
and bright blue coat?

Here's my booger. His favorite thing to do in the snow was make snow balls and eat it! Every time I looked at him he was sucking on snow.

Here's my daughter sledding down the hill. Wheeee!

Triple pile up. My brother in law sledding down the hill with his kids! Wheee!

Afterwards, when we were completely exhausted, we retired to my sister's cozy kitchen in front of a toasty fire blazing in the fireplace and drank a mug of steaming hot chocolate! We had such a fun time! I must do this again one day! But for now, I need to get back to work on this HOT Louisiana day!

Who is this man living in my house?

Twenty-two years and eight days ago this sweet little blue eyed bundle of joy came into my life.
My dear friend below, "Bebesie", helped and encouraged me as I struggled to bring this sweet little baby into the world. During the process, I urgently warned her to never ever have children. She didn't heed my warning and now has two of her own. Thank the lord!

The baby has grown up, and I now I have a man living in my house who strangely still looks very much like the dimpled little blue eyed baby born just over twenty two years ago. This man loves to eat, work out at the gym, and play the guitar at all hours of the night. Another favorite activity of his is to chase his little brother around the house, tickle him, and annoy his sister, all the while laughing, blue eyes sparkling and dimples deepening.

I love this man, and I am proud to call him son.

Happy 22nd birthday Gene!

See Ya Later Mr. Gator!

On Sunday, we had an unwanted vistor in the bayou right across the street from us--MR. GATOR!

On Monday, we told Mr. Gator goodbye--thanks to some really nice alligator wrestlers who cornered and trapped him in a culvert. Unfortunately, he had to be sent to gator heaven because he was a serious fighter and posed a danger to the neighborhood. The debate over his length ranged from six feet to ten feet. The final measurement was nine and one half feet long.

My little bayou boy touching Mr. Gator.

Everyone came from near and far to see Mr. Gator--Grandpa, grandma, aunts, uncles, neices, nephews, brothers, sisters, etc.. What an event!

We were all glad to see Mr. Gator go, except for my nephew who informed me that he and his dad were planning on catching him and eating fried alligator. Sorry Milmil, maybe next time.

See ya later Mr. Gator!