My wife had no idea where I was taking her for our anniversary. She was even more lost when I told her we were taking our bikes. I don’t think she had any idea until she seen the ferry boat landing. Then she turned to me and said, “I bet I know where we are heading?” Well, the ferry made it pretty easy at this point. But I didn’t tell her the final part of the surprise.
She figured out the final part of the surprise when I asked her to grab the bag from the back seat. She looked over from the passenger side and asked. “Are we staying on the Island?” We didn’t do that on our first trip to Put-In-Bay. I said yes. Then I told her that is one reason for the bikes. The hotel asked me not to bring the car over because it gets crowded on the weekends. We parked the car in one of the extended lots and headed for the ferry.
We could not have asked for a better weekend. The weather held up nicely and really the Island was not overcrowded because we found it was the end of the season. In our normal adventures when we go away we had to visit the winery and we found one brewery that was out of most of the food on their menu, we found out later it was their last weekend to be open for the year. Oh, the bikes you ask? Well, we rode them around the entire Island and had a good time just exploring on our own.
You don’t have to wait for your anniversary to take a weekend trip. We take a few a year just to unwind from the day to day grind of life and spend some alone time with each other.
Last note. Sorry I didn’t blog while we were on the Island. There was no desk in the room and I am not one for typing long posts on the iPad without my trusty keyboard. So I thought I would just wait until now and give you the update.
It took me awhile but I got the bikes loaded onto the car. These are times I really miss having my truck. I guess if you are used to using a bike rack it would not be as hard to get the bikes onto the car?
I could tell when I took the bikes out of our basement that we have not used them for some time. I first had to hose them off and get the cobwebs off. Next, I had to get the tire pump out and fill the tires. I also found out that I am really not in great shape. I took each bike for a ride to the end of our road and my body was yelling what the heck!
But we should be out of the house soon and be hitting the road. I will let you know later in a post how and if the bikes made it to where we are going.
Not to sound like some kind of a nut or even like I am crazy. You have to admit that your vehicle somehow becomes part of your family. We buy a vehicle and we take out loans for 5 or more years we know this object will be there to get us where we need to go. Maybe you traded a car that you used to take your wife to the hospital to deliver your first child? Then you used it to take that child to their first county fair or other event in your area. It feels weird to me because we traded our truck for a car. My wife reminded me that I have not owned a car for almost 20 years, I have been a truck man. The real truth is that we didn’t use the truck to haul stuff any more and it was mainly used to drive back and forth to work. So looking at the economics of the whole thing it makes sense to have a car and save gas not to mention the added expense that a truck brings. So in the end I know it was the right decision and we know that vehicles are inanimate objects anyway. Just remember when you trade your car or truck in you are also handing over years of memories.
Today we took a ride to visit a local winery store that was recently put into a local shopping plaza. At first I thought from where this store is located that the prices would be out of our range. We were pleased to learn that the prices were on track with many other wineries that we have visited from Virginia to Pa.
Well at least for public school. This is the final school cloths shopping for my senior. This is I guess what you would call bitter sweet. If you children are still growing spend a lot of time with them. Now that mine is getting ready to enter her last year in school and has her eyes set on Air Force Nursing she will trade in her old faded jeans for some blue uniforms.
What ever she does in the future I will be proud of her. Just as I am with my son and other girls. I wanted to share this picture I grabbed while looking for cloths in a local store.
We lasted through a powerful thunder storm this evening. It has been a very wet summer with the ground being over saturated. Sometimes after a storm you get lucky enough to grab a picture. I was getting ready for dinner and looked out the window and this is what I saw.
My wife and the girls visited the bakery today. They could not wait to call me after leaving the bakery and getting into the car. They walked right in NO LINES! Next after getting there I guess the Cake Boss’s mom was coming out to get some air. This is cool in many ways if you are a fan of a show and you get to grab a picture with one of the people on the show.
We went a year ago to Vegas and didn’t have a chance to see and of the Pawn Guys?
Here is the picture that the had taken from someone coming into the store that could not hold the camera steady.
I know this is going to sound kind of funny; but waking to the Mountains seems to feel like the air is fresher and somehow cleaner. It feels like nature has a way of cleansing her self.
All of those years watching Walton’s Mountain and hearing the narrator talking about waking up in the mountains just somehow hits home now that I have experienced it for my self. I did however watch the ground closely while shooting some pictures this morning in fear of rattel snakes.
This is a shot that I grabbed from behind our road side Inn. I will be shooting more today as we make our way to the museum.
I worked for a few hours tonight to bring my Flickr photos over to this site. You will now find the Flickr Photos tab on the top menus. I guess I will be using Flickr even more now.
