Catching up

You have a lot of time to think as you bike down the road - especially on an 89 mile day like today.
I couldn't help but think about the terrible tragedy back home and the more I think about it the more that I feel that those are "our " kids.  They are the same age as ours, with the same kind of lives and interests and ambitions... there but for the grace of God go I... any one of our children could have been at that party - it was just ordinary kids at an ordinary party in an ordinary Calgary neighbourhood.  Even though we didn't know those children, they could have been the ones that we helped with reading in kindergarten, or who played on our son's soccer team or against our daughter's basketball team - if they didn't actually touch our lives, they would have been somehow connected in some way.  And I know that Calgary is the kind of place where we care about our children - and all the children around us.
Thus we all mourn and question how this could happen and feel so deeply for the families and we are so grateful to the police and EMS people that had to - will continue to have to - deal with the aftermath.
And we can never keep our children safe from this - because no-one could ever have predicted that such a thing could happen.  It makes you wish for the days when you could tuck them in at night and know that they are safe and sound and always within your protective arms.

And back to my ride...  which seems rather trite and meaningless and even selfish of me right now - or self-indulgent??  In any case, it is what I am doing right now and just in case you still want to hear about it...

I last left you after just entered Louisiana - now Louisiana is really not a very exciting place to cycle! The roads are flat so you just keep pedalling and pedalling.  Some of the roads are really bad and some are really good, some with wonderful wide shoulders, some with none at all.  We have encountered more unleashed dogs - and those dogs love to defend their territory!!  Once gentle soul - Joyce - has revealed an incredibly deep and scary voice that she uses in an attempt to scare them away - I am not sure just how afraid the dogs are, but I have visions of the Exorcist when I hear it!!
Ah - rice fields and crawfish farms too - who knew??  My only regret so far is that I haven't mustered up the courage to try a "boudin ball" which our token Texan of the group claims is very tasty!!
There were frog legs on the menu in the restaurant that we went to today.... didn't try those either!

Oh - big news!!  April 14th was a 96 mile today so I added a few and did my first century!!  For those non-cyclists, that means I did one hundred miles in one ride!!  Whoo too!!!  It was actually a pretty easy day - no hills, a tail wind at times, nice and cool - such a contrast to my last attempt.  The forecast for the day had been rain and thundershowers, but it had just started to sprinkle when I pulled in and a really fierce thunderstorm hit within half an hour - sooooo lucky!

We stayed in St. Francisville for a rest day - half of us at a B&B on a former plantation.  Not such a great breakfast, but I had my own little cabin - the Chef's Cottage.  It was freezing cold that first night - it may even have been a record low.  So strange that I will go home having experienced only cold weather in Louisiana!
Road kill here seemed to be a lot of snakes - I did see some nasty big one in a water-filled ditch - must be careful now - now I am starting to worry about alligators.
We are doing a few long mile days now - to make up for the shorter rides when the road was hillier, but we seem to all take it in stride (so to speak) - 83, 96, 89 miles today... a piece of cake!!

A bit of a crisis of faith a few days ago - "why am I doing this?"  "why would anyone want to put their body through this?"  "what is this all for??"  but then I had a couple of fun days again and although I still can't really answer those questions, at least I am not fretting over the answers anymore!
After all - to quote Grease - "there are worse things I could do!"

Kiss and hug your children today if you can - and because mine are so far away from me, give them an extra one for me please!!