Communing

Many times if nothing else is happening, we will go do something on Saturday, and will use Sunday afternoon as our "day of rest". This weekend, we didn't plan it this way, but we had no energy or desire to do anything yesterday, so when we were free today, we felt like getting out and about. So after a lunch of bacon, eggs and toast, we got ready and drove out to a local reservoir to go on a nice hike.

It was a really pretty day for it. It was 85 degrees, which means it could have been too hot and muggy to hike around, but there was a lot of wind today which helped cool things off. Today was the first time this year I'd put sunscreen on Kaylee, too. We walked around the water, into the woods, found some little paths, followed some big paths too. Two roads diverged into the woods, and we, we took them both, including the one more traveled, and we're okay with that. ;)

Kaylee spent a lot of time finding sticks and branches to hike with, toss into the water, dig with, lift up, sit on, and do in general whatever she felt like. She tried to swing on vines hanging from the trees, but they were always too long and she never did get a good swing in. She played in the water, played in the grass, played in the trees, just played. Seems like a good way for a kid to spend a Sunday afternoon to me. :) About halfway through, she decided she was tired, hot and thirsty, but fortunately she made it back to the Jeep without a problem-and once she got there, she did pretty much chug down an entire bottle of water.

We decided to stop in a nearby town and have an ice cream cone, and when we got there we noticed a lot of people standing around holding flags, that the street was lined with flags, and that there was obviously something about to happen. We're fortunate we got there when we did, because a minute or two later and we would have been seriously out of luck for a long time. A police car followed by a truck with a big sign on it stating something like "Motorcycle Ride For The Troops". Following that came more motorcycles than I have ever seen in one place at one time. We had a non-stop parade of bikes the entire time we were ordering and eating, then we stood and watched for 10-15 minutes after we were done, and they were still going by. Not slowly, either. They were riding by at cruise speed, wave after wave after wave, non-stop. There had to be a couple of thousand motorcycles that went by. I've never seen anything like it, and I didn't even know that many motorcycles existed in this area. I wonder from how far away people came to do this. When I got home, I Googled it, and it's an annual 75-mile ride in honor of the troops. We just waited there for however long it took them all to get by. I saw about four women on (the front of) bikes, though I'm sure there were more, and I saw a handful of helmets out of the whole group. Probably about 5% or fewer of the riders had helmets, something Kaylee noticed as well. That was one loud "parade"; while there were bikes of every make in there, the Harleys seemed to dominate. At one point I was trying to take a picture of a lady holding a dog and a flag with a stream of bikes going by, but I tipped up my hand, and plopped my entire chocolate almond ice cream cone down the front of my shirt and to the concrete. I jerked, and even the picture was worthless. I went back to the ice cream window, and they gave me another one free of charge, which I thought was really nice and unnecessary since it was my own fault! So we stood there and sucked down our ice cream cones as fast as we could before they melted all over us, by the side of the road in small town, Indiana, and watched bikers going by and waving at the small crowds standing off to the sides. An impromptu show for the afternoon.

We got back home and I took my annual "in front of our flowering pear tree" photo. I did this with Devon when he was born, and continued the tradition with Kaylee, and every year we get our picture together in front of the tree. It's so pretty, delicate white flowers all over. The problem is getting a nice shot. The first one I tried to take myself had the two of us in it, and not one white flower. So I hauled Steve out there and he took a few for us. You can see all the photos from today if you wish, and I even put up a new picture on her main home page. It's a little fuzzy but I love her smile. :)

Laundry, cleaning rooms, dishes, and other household chores finished off the day, and here we go getting ready for the next week already. The next week of yucky weather, again, might I add...