Plans Have Changed

Before I tell you about our change in plans, I wanted to highlight my little birthday party today. I asked my daughter last week if she would look for a "special" cake for my party, and this is what she brought. A beautiful Genoise cake from Wuollet's bakery in the Twin Cities. I absolutely loved this cake, which was wrapped in marzipan with whipped cream filling and raspberry filling too. Thank you Becca....how special for my 50th.

I'm guessing we had around 20 people for my party. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and southern winds.

Not only was it my birthday, but my twin sister's birthday too.

The Son and I got a little goofy in our small kitchen. He was cutting the meat and I was busy pouring the red wine!

What the heck? Artena was showing her "don't mess with me" side!

Of course Jerney Girl came along today as well. Jerney had fun experiencing the real country-side....lots of room to run around and have fun.

Ok, now to the change in plans. Late yesterday, I received news that my dad has a serious medical condition that need immediate attention. On Wednesday, he will undergo a biopsy to determine if he has cancer. What a blow to our whole family.....my dad has always been fairly healthy. Because of this, Bike man and I have cancelled our bicycle trip since my dad will be having surgery within the next week or so, most likely in Madison. There is no possible way we can take our bike trip. My emotions were running high last night and I just decided to go to bed at 8:30 am and deal with life in the morning. Life is not always fair, but I'm reminded that we have to make the best of it. I love my dad and my mom, so their life comes first in my own life.

Hang in there dad.....we'll get through this ok? Sorry you couldn't be here today. We missed you dearly.

Maintenance Priority

The bicycles are getting their maintenance work-over before our trip, which begins on Sunday. Bike man and I are taking off on Sunday and heading towards the Mississippi River. We plan on crossing the river at La Crosse and heading south along the Mississippi through Minnesota and into Iowa. Once we reach Dubuque, Iowa we will turn around and head back into Southwest Wisconsin. Once back in Wisconsin, we will head towards my parents house for a two-day rest break. After that we head north back to Tainter Lake. Approximate travel time will be two weeks! I'm excited and can't wait to take off by bicycle.

I really need to confess something my fellow blogger friends. As of today, I'm a half a century old!!! Oh Geez. I called my mom this morning to thank her for giving birth to me (and my twin). I know it wasn't easy giving birth to twins, but she was a real trooper.

What has been the best part of those 50 yrs? Getting married and having two children. I can't even imagine my life without my children. Our children are now adults, but heck, they will always be kids to me!

Fall Is Coming

Beautiful cool, breezy weather conditions today. Too bad I had to be indoors most of the day! Tonight was a quick trip over to check on my mother-in-laws house, so didn't get anything done tonight. Hey, did you all see the moon tonight? Just beautifully full and bright.

Bike man is still trying to figure our bicycle route for next week. So I heard that we need to be careful about some sort of Creepy Baby that is out and about in the Dubuque area! Should we be scared?

Let Me Continue.......

Getting back to Sunday afternoon, Bike man and I invited the youngins over for a meal. These are the young people that Bike man worked with this summer with all his lake and stream monitoring.

Jake just happens to be an Americorp Vista worker at UW-Stout, and that's his wife Erin, who is working on her Masters at UW-Madison and has spent a lot of time in Northern WI lake monitoring. I made a bunch of food.......used lots of vegetables from my garden. We had a good time Sunday afternoon. So fifteen minutes after this group left, I received the call from Jim and Julie looking for a place to crash (Warmshowers)! We haven't been that busy on a Sunday in a long time. I loved it.

I was actually very tired yesterday and today so decided not to ride. Instead, I will devote most of this week to packing for our bicycle trip. Can you believe all that stuff in the photo above? Ha.....that's just my stuff!!!! Really, I'm trying to go lighter this time. I basically need to have everything packed and ready to go by Friday since Saturday I'm hosting a birthday party for myself and then we take off on Sunday mid morning for our big trip to Dubuque, IA. Maybe, just maybe, if I get everything put together for the bike trip, then hopefully I can do a trail ride on Thursday.

Warm Showers

I love warm showers, and I don't mean that physically either!!!! I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Bike man and I are registered on this international website called Warm Showers, which caters to bicyclist who are traveling and are looking for a place to sleep for the night, plus a warm shower and possibly a nice home-cooked meal. Well guess what?

We received a phone call last night from a couple looking for a place to stay. I was so excited! Before Jim even asked if he and his wife could stay at our house, I was already saying in my head......yes, yes, yes, please come! What a lovely couple. As it seems, they have been biking around the United States since mid June. Jim and Julie are from Stratford, Ontario, Canada and have cycled cross-country and will finish up somewhere around the first week of September. You can read about their adventures on cycle for elisa.

We enjoyed talking with Jim and Julie about their cycling travels, and it really motivated me to rethink our own bike trip coming up this Sunday. Julie described her bare bones clothing and supplies.....I certainly need to learn from this sweet lady. One of everything is her motto!

After breakfast we took a few more photos and then we said our good-byes. I was all ready to follow them on my bike this morning, but oops, I needed to go to work! Darn

Bye Julie and Jim......God's blessings and enjoy your last two weeks. Maybe we'll meet again someday. I love warm showers.

I still have more to tell you about our young guests earlier in the day......I'll tell ya tomorrow.