The deed is done. No friends. No pictures. I didn't see ONE single person today. I did however break the 'cardinal' rule of riding on the right side of the 'path'. As I rode down (south) on the canal path, I went to the wrong side. Call me a rebel. I felt a little funny. But as I was riding I thought to myself, "Here I am breaking the rules, riding on the left side of the path and next to the canal. Now, if I mess up lose control of my bike, I will probably be going into the canal. Whereas if I were on the right side I would only go down the steep embankment and into the mudbog. Hmm.. Possible drownage - or - muddy shoes, pants and bike. So, I rode down the middle of the road. Not quite the rebel anymore, but only because of safety issues. I can handle the mud, but the fish and ducks, muddy, rushing water, I just don't know if I can handle that. So, I will leave you with one thought. I love the smell of a running dryer that is venting out in the air. I don't care if it is Bounce, Downey or Purex dryer sheets, I love the smell of them all. This might sound weird, but those of you who like it too, know exactly what I'm talking about.

Plus Equals

I had friends with me this morning. Jason and Carolyn. We left the house about 8am, so we could leave the little boys with Allan and Shannon before they had to catch the bus for school.

When we started, as you can see, I was in the lead.

I think they were conspiring to 'overtake' me right at this moment.

I don't think they liked me taking pictures of them while we were riding. As you can see in this picture of Jason. I have to give kudo's to him. He was the instigator in getting us out riding together this morning. And that was after he had already gone to the gym! You go, Jas...

When we got to Southern, Carolyn went to the other side of the canal. I'm not sure why. It's not paved. Not really made for comfort riding. Before I do that, I need to buy some 'gel-seat-pads' to on my normal bike seat.

From that time on her bike sounded like it was about to fall apart. She also had a large sized dog, something like a St. Bernard type, chase her for a short while. She seemed to speed up during that time.

Scary!

Here we are near the end of our ride. Now you can see where I ended up in the pack after riding 20 minutes. Hmm. I don't even know if you can see Jason in this picture. He really took off. I believe it was because he too got chased by a dog. More the size of a chihuahua dog.

Too Scary.

I did ride an extra 1/2 mile and my time was 25.89. Not too impressive, but at least I rode! Now I can come home, bake some bread and be able to eat it! It's my mom's recipe. It has oats and molasses in it and it's delicious!! Allan loves it. Oh, Allan had a Track and Field Day yesterday at Brimhall. He got 5.55 in the mile run and for his 800 meter he had 2.48! Good job Allan. They turned out great, thanks for the recipe Mom. Here's my bread!!

Today, for the first time, I didn't want to go riding. It took me a couple of hours, but I fought through the feeling and donned my coat, sweatpants, earmuff thing-a-magiggy, put on chapstick, found my ipod, my earphones and my camera and set out. The only thing that excited me was thinking of what I could take pictures of today.

You're in for a treat.

The first thing I saw was this:

What is it? Weed control? And why is it heavy in some places and then there are places with none at all? Can I have my lawn sprayed with this stuff? These pictures do it no justice, though, because it is one of the prettiest shades of aquamarine I have seen. Those of you who live nearby, hurry, take a ride down our canal road before the next rainstorm comes and washes it away. It's worth it.

Next was this

I want a treehouse.

And then came this:........Look really hard at the first pictue, do you see them coming. AAHHH... a major riding group. Probably 10-15 riders. As you can see, we all obeyed the 'road rules', each of us riding on our predetermined assigned side of the path. There were a couple of them who, it seems, had to ride right next to their best buddy. Or perhaps they were assigned riding buddies. Just like at gradeschool when you go on a fieldtrip.

"Now Frank, don't go away from the group and be sure that you and Cecil stay right by each other. Your buddies now."

So, they, the buddies, gave me only a small section to squeeze past them. That's what my second picture is.

See. See how they're in pairs? The first two bikers, the 'teachers' of the group are not in pairs. How come? I guess as you get older, you don't have to obey certain rules. But wait. If I remember right, all of the bikers WERE older than the leaders!

I left my home before the sun fully came up today so I didn't bring my camera. I did however pass 9 people and 3 dogs. Crazy busy. I'm not sure I like it so busy. I can't sing my loudest: I can't weave back and forth on the canal path: I kinda have to follow the 'rules of the road'. Which brings me to one of my funnier thoughts. Whenever we all go to a grocery store, why is it that we 'drive' (push) our grocery carts on the right side of the aisles? Is it a known rule that we must follow? Did our highschools have a 'supermarket' etiquette class that I missed? And has anyone been 'parked' on the wrong side of the aisle to get something off of the shelves and you almost feel like you have to go 'out of your way' to go around them: ( a 2 to 3 foot arc). I literally have laughed out loud at a store when I notice peoples reactions of having to go around someone on their side of the 'road'. It makes shopping fun for me.

As some of you know, I save hearts. My darling DIL (daughter-in-law) had read my blog and must have felt bad for me that my sidewalk heart had not lived up to my expectations.

She was making deviled eggs and wa-la!

It is great and WALL-WORTHY!

Thanks, Celynda your the best!

I didn't time myself today. I took my camera instead. I thought I'd have a little bit of fun.

First fun-ness: I have been riding this new route 4 or 5 times now. As some of you know I have an obsession with hearts of 'nature'. As I ride up Maple, I have noticed what seems to be a heart, thus, I have brought my camera, just in case it's something I think is 'wall' worthy.

Here it is:

But upon closer inspection; I could not call it 'wall-worthy'.

Here is what the canal looked like this morning. Blinding:

Two mud-bogs still present after a weekago's rain.
This is what I would have fallen into had the 2-old women (previous blog) not shared the pavement with me and my bike. You can't really tell, but it drops down quite a bit.


Also, I took a few pictures of people along the way: #1 Jogger. Glad I'm not doing that.

Here he is dangerously crossing Broadway.

My competition.

Wait a minute, THIS was my competition. Hmm.......You can't really tell, but she's fast. Super fast. Super duper fast. Sonic boom fast. Bullet fast. Blink of an eye fast. Hummingbird wing flap fast. Okay, maybe not. But I was exhausted by this point and she seemed fast.
Maybe tomorrow I can give her more competition.

9:33. I'm home. Off. 22:18:18. And that was with 2 major slowdowns!

Last night sometime, someone, who's initials are SC, (I'm guessing it's you, Susie), came past my home and left a little surprise on my doorstep.

A lovely 'care-deeply' Avon basics lipbalm. You can find it here. Look for a dealer near you. (Someone in your ward perhaps!) She, SC, has read about my plight of forgetfulness and gave me what will change that problem. If I put this on before I leave the house, it will last the whole ride long! Now I didn't forget it today, but I did NOT need to reapply during the ride! Thank your SC!! What I'm really digging about this one is the calendar on it! Those of you with really good eyesite only need to use one magnifing glass, I needed two pairs of my glasses with a magnifying glass!

bummer.

And the calendar not only is in english, but also in French - or at least that's what I think I'm reading. It could be spanish, I don't know. It's pretty small. I wonder if Avon thinks that this lipbalm is going to last all year long? And wouldn't it be funny to be at a business meeting and someone asks when, say, August 14th is, and you whip out your lipbalm and tell them! They will probably all go online and order some right there at the business meeting!

Todays ride. Only one walker today. When I first turned down the canal rideway, this person was pretty far away, but the color stood out very well! PURPLE! Now, I loved the color purple growing up. That actually was my bedroom color for many years. Then came Barney. Hmmm..... Prince the singer.......Donny Osmonds socks....okay, I liked that. And then in one of my older blogs you've read about my 'purple-pedal-pusher'. So, I see this person and I already don't like them. I was sure it was a man. The size was too big for a women, but then of course the purple suit, in my mind can only belong to a women. I'm not talking grey/purple, but a real serious purple. Like this:

So, I'm expecting to see a women, but she will be a large women, I'm sure. Someone like from Russia. I'm nearer now. And...... it's a guy. A big he-man, male with a beard and mustache. Seriously, I almost laughed out loud. We both gave 'good morning' waves and after I passed I had to turn and look back at him. Yep, still purple. I'm going to call him a 'purple-people-pleaser'. He was nice after all.

On. Off. My ride is done. I went this morning with Jason. He was mostly in front of me the whole way. Except for this one time when he almost got cremated by a 13 passenger van. He was riding on the sidewalk, going the way of the traffic, and a van came from behind him and turned into a driveway making Jason slam on his brakes and he had to jump off to not get hit. When I turned around (I heard his squeaky brakes), his bike was on the ground and all I could see was bike tires. Then I saw his two feet walking over to the bike and stand it up. He then talked to the driver. I'm not sure what the said, but by looking at Jason, he was smiling. I'm sure his adrenalin was pumping after that. Anyway, we only went the three mile ride, which was okay with me today. It was another great overcast, slightly rainy day. No rain on our ride however, just the benefits.

I couldn't find my chapstick this morning and I was bummed so I had to bring along this:

CoverGirl wetslicks fruit spritzers.

Now, I didn't bring this for looks, which is what I normally use it for, but today it had to suffice for my non-drying-out lip cover. So, any of you out there who might have seen me, I must have been a sight with my unmakeuped face, my wild bedhead hair and my lovely attire of workout clothes. But I did have my lipstick on!

One observance today. Speedbumps. When we go my 3 mile route, we pass over 9 speedhumps. I have learned the secret in going over these nuisances: start way over on one side of the road and as you get to the bump, go up and with a slight turn to the other side of the road, go down. This takes away the bump on the bumside. Or at least it makes it softer. Either way, I hate them

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