Our Sore Fun Bike Ride

Last fall, my friend Hannah and I decided to take our second trip into town by bike. On our first trip we had enjoyed our ride very much and liked the fact of not paying any gas money to go to town.

Hannah just bought a new camera for her photography business, so she was having fun trying it out on our nice autumn ride.

I love observing the tiniest of details while out in nature. These curly, twirly leaves looked very intriguing to me. I was busy snapping pics here while Hannah was busy taking pics there.

There she is, busy being a shutter-bug! :-)

Hannah near the field of corn we visited.

I'm not sure what type of plant/flower this is, but I thought it looked interesting.

Some more twisty dried plants.

A gorgeous fall day!

A fall colored leaf.

On our way home from town, we experienced something we hadn't on our first trip to town. Since it was fall, our hours of daylight were limited. While in town we ate lunch and then stopped to get a couple ingredients for our supper. We knew that we couldn't spend a long time in town since we needed to get home before dark.

There we were back on the trail, knowing we needed to keep on biking with little time to stop along the way to rest. We weren't even halfway home when our legs were aching. Ouch! We had to keep on biking, we could see it was starting to get dark. We stopped briefly at a couple points, but our legs continued to hurt us. The darkness continued to creep in. I wanted to quit. We kept on going with Hannah leading the way. By the time we got to the last tree tunnel it was dark. We could not see much of anything and I thought I noticed a black shadow moving ahead of us. Yes, there it was, a shadow of some guy walking out in the darkness. Creepy! We finally got home after our painful ride.

We have been trying to come up with theories about why we were so sore this second trip. Some possibilities are:

On our first trip to town we had more time to rest our legs since we saw a movie. Plus, the cooler temps probably caused our legs to ache. And we also couldn't take a leisurely ride home like we did on our first trip. Regardless, Hannah and I will never forget our second trip to town.

Missed seeing our fun first trek?

Nature Trek, part 1

Nature Trek, part 2

Here's a post about a watercolor ride we went on,

A Watercolor & Marsh Adventure

A Watercolor & Marsh Adventure

Anne Frank ~ The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.

The quote above is a favorite and it makes me wish for warmer weather and more time to spend outside on the nature trail. Within the last few months, my friend Hannah and I have had plenty of fun on the nature trail, rain or shine, 20 mile treks, you name it. Our last outdoor adventure was in September. On this particular outing, we packed up our watercolor gear and biked along the trail to find just the perfect spot to spend the afternoon.

Since I live right near the trail, I've been able to venture out more often than Hannah. On some of my solo rides, I kept my eyes open for a spot for us to watercolor. There were a couple of spots I had in mind before our watercolor ride. At one spot along the trail there is an open path that leads to a large field of wild vegetation. I thought we could park our bikes in the open path so they wouldn't block the actual nature trail.

This was the path that led us to our destination.

Upon arriving to this spot, we rode our bikes along the open path closer to the open field. Along the edges of the field it was more or less cleared out. We decided to walk along the edges of the field as we looked for a prime spot. As we walked we continued around the corner edge of the field still not satisfied with a spot to watercolor. Thus, we kept on going leaving our bikes in the distance. This was all unchartered territory and it was fun to discover new places. Awhile after turning the field's corner, we noticed some water between the tall grasses and plants to our left. Then I vaguely spotted an Egret sitting in the water. As the vegetation thinned and we could see the pond more clearly, our new Egret friend started to fly away.

Hannah taking photos by the marsh

We were thrilled to find this peaceful sanctuary to set up our watercolor workshop. We got our blanket and set up shop for an afternoon of watercoloring and snooping around the marshy area to take photographs. And of course, I brought along one of our favorite snacks to eat, dried apricots.

Hannah watercoloring her masterpiece

We saw flowers, cattails, frogs, dragonflies and more while venturing around the marsh taking photos of anything that caught our interest. At one point, our Egret friend was flying over head nearly landing in the pond once again, but then abrupty changed his mind. Some ducks visited the pond and when they flew out of the pond, we could hear and feel their wings thrust against the air. Our time spent there was simply wonderful.

Me watercoloring at the marsh

Please take a look at some of what we saw during our "marsh-safari" and see the watercolors that each of us created while there.

Some Queen Anne's Lace, so delicate and pretty!

Possibly a dried out Queen Anne's Lace?

Tiny purple daisies!

Oh look, what did I find? Um... I can't remember.

One of our feathered friends left a piece of them with us.

Our marshy view, isn't it nice?

The "watercolorists" with their works of art.

Hannah's watercolor from our marsh visit.

My watercolor from our marsh visit.

Nature Trek, 20 miles round trip, part 2

Here we go back on the trail after spending a few hours in town. Our first trip took us about an hour, how long will it take us to get home...?

Hannah biking home

Me biking home

There were plenty of pretty golden yellow flowers blooming on the fields along the trail. They cheerfully greeted us showing us their vibrant, true colors. I marveled at their uplifting beauty.

A purple prickly plant, not sure what it is.

And here's a field of wheat? No, I'm not sure what it exactly is. Hannah and I were guessing it was wheat. Can you identify what it is if it isn't wheat?

And here's Hannah about to jump in the wheat-like field. Noooo, she didn't actually jump, but I caught her in the act of "pretend" jumping.

Hannah tried to get a pic of me "pretend" jumping, but it looks like I'm reaching out to touch the wheat...wash the wheat? Not sure what is looks like I'm doing.

Here's a close-up of the wheat. I like the bright blue sky in the background.

Hannah on the sixth bridge.

This pic from the sixth bridge was on our way to town. This was the final bridge on the trail before heading into town. It also is the longest bridge on the trail and it turned out to be our favorite bridge. On our trip back, I looked in the marshy water to the left and saw a large crane just taking flight from the water. Its wings looked so large as it flew away. We were bummed out that we couldn't have gotten a better look at such a fascinating bird.

Me on the sixth bridge.

Okay, so how long did it take us to get back home if it took us an hour to get there? An hour? No, it took us about 2 hours to get back, but we stopped more frequently to take pics and we were riding against the wind and we already rode 10 miles in the morning. That's why it took us twice as long. Plus, the weather was gorgeous, so we decided to take as much time to enjoy it. And we did. :-)

Missed part 1 of our Nature Trek? Click here.

A visit with Bob

Today we visited Marlene's husband, Bob, at Bethel Home. We hadn't seen him since last September at Marlene's funeral. It was so good to see him.

Who's Marlene? She was a dear friend and co-worker I've had the privelege of knowing for seven years. During the time I've known them, Bob would drive Marlene to work each day and wait in the parking lot an hour or longer to pick her up from work. Sometimes he'd be waiting in the hot sunny parking lot so I'd bring some soda or water out to him and to say, "hi." He would tell me, "I still likes 'ya." and "Behave yourself and if you don't behave don't tell me about it."

Last year I was fortunate enough to have gone out to eat with Marlene and Bob after work, especially after some of our stressful days. After all that has happened during the last year, those visits with them are all the more precious to me. They were the sweetest couple I've ever met. Marlene's funeral was on the exact day of their 56th Wedding Anniversary in the same church where they were married. Their son told us that they started their lives together on the same day the ended their lives together.

Bob's memory has been fading, but he still remembers his sweet wife. He told us about when they first were married and when they had their kids. There's a song by Mark Schultz called, "Walking Her Home" and it reminds me of Marlene and Bob's relationship. It is a real tear-jerker.

I don't know if Bob remembered exactly who we were, but it was so nice to visit him. His sense of humor is sharp as a tack. While we visited he was quick to have something funny to say right after we said something. He had us laughing and he told us many times how much he loved us. He is such a sweet person that I'm so glad to have met. We are planning on visiting him again now that we know where he is living. I hope that we brought him as much love and joy as he has brought to us.