Aug
2022

Back to the grind.

I had my friend Flo stay at the trailer with me! We had so much fun!

He said

Well with having a full week of vacation up at the trailer, it meant the week I would come back to would be a bit of a stretch – and rightly so as the week off was my break. And, if I am being honest it wasn’t a true stretch as I had Thursday off before going into the weekend Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the store. But the flip side of that was I did have Monday (today) and Tuesday off work so as soon as work was done yesterday I hurried home threw together some things in the truck, got changed and hauled my keister up to Auburn to meet Danielle and Emelia who had been there for the weekend together having fun. With today being a holiday for Danielle, thankfully it meant there was overlap for us being at the trailer together. This has been what we’ve tried to maximize all summer.

The bike fun this week was that with Thursday off, I could take in a longer route than the daily 20km I do on the Thames Valley Parkway. Wanting to add to the 30km route I call The Big Kahuna that I do out to Byron and back, I decided to start with that route and then venture further west rather than just come back to the house which ended up being an hour and a half, 40km route that I will keep in the bank for other times. But it has also inspired me that I could conceivably make a route that marries both the West Branch, North Branch and the West Branch of the TVP in a full loop that I am guessing might give me something over the 60km mark. And with tomorrow as my other day off this week, I just might find out what that ride is like!

The other bike funnery this week was that the beauty of getting back up to the trailer – even if it was for less than 24 hours – meant that I could get in a run on the G2G Rail Trail for my usual 26km route in from Auburn to Blyth and back. So without an alarm today – which was a godsend because starting work at 8am on Saturday and Sunday meant I was getting up at 5:40am both days – we woke when our bodies decided to, had a coffee, and just after 9:30am I headed out. It was a great ride and to my surprise there were a lot of people with the same idea of getting in a G2G ride. And while the winds didn’t seem to ever give me a solid tail push, I still managed to get up to 55km/h on the highway coming back into Auburn which was real fun!

Lastly I signed up for another cycling event this summer, this week. When I was thinking about this year and what I’d like to accomplish I decided that I wanted to one significant biking event each month for every month I am able to ride outside. March I wasn’t able to do anything save for getting outside for rides a lot more than inside (12 rides), but April saw me do my first ever bike race in the Paris to Ancaster (PSA) race. May saw me inaugurate the GT Bike and get in my first ever ride on the Trans Canada Trail in Kanata (Ottawa). In June, I got back out onto the G2G for the first time, and in June I did a team-building event with my Cowbell team which was a ‘poker run’ to raise funds for our MS ride. July saw me get 120km in before having to pull the chute at Auburn with leg cramps going at the full End To End (E2) run of the G2G trail starting in Guelph and trying to make it to Goderich (the good news is Steph & Justin made it). As well I did the MS Ride (83km) with Justin & Steph. So this ride in August – The Dusty Nostril – will add my event to August and take care of that. So, all that will be left will be think about what I can do in September and maybe in October!

She said

What a fun-filled weekend! What I thought was going to be a quiet weekend for Emelia being up with just me for most of the weekend turned out to be a fun-filled weekend for her. A few weeks ago I reached out to our friends Marion and Rob to see if they would be okay with their daughter Flo had another visit at the trailer. Emelia and Flo met a few years ago at cheer and have become very close friends. Flo is a sweet kid and Emelia adores her.

Friday after work Emelia, Flo and I headed up to the trailer for the night. When we arrived the girls quickly set up the tent and got settled in for the night. They were quickly off and having a blast with their camp friends Cara and Miley. Emelia came back after a few hours to let us know they had met new friends from the group camping site. The kids were gone for most of the weekend and had an absolute blast. The entire weekend was all about Emelia hanging out with her new friends, the kids were off hanging out to all hours and she came home with some amazing memories and new friendships.

Today we had to head back to London a bit earlier for all the right reasons. Once again Emelia was hanging out with friends. One of her close friends from school who she also plays softball with turned 15 this weekend. So we packed up ahead of lunch and brought her to Cheyanne’s house and she was off for a few hours with a huge group of her friends, a ton of friends from school and her softball team were all there having a massive pool party. After 2 years of missing out on these sort of teenager experiences it was so incredible to come in and see a group of teenage girls having the time of their lives. 

All in all it was a great weekend, Emelia declared this to be one of the best of her summer and we could not be happier to see our girl so happy with her friends and making new ones as well. 

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