Our Weekend Trip

At 8 a.m. last Friday morning, the four of us left on a weekend bike trip across our long state to visit Motherkitty & Tomas and to see the new addition to Kitten Yarn's family... young baby Talon.

Zac, Jimmy, Sharon & Me

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Here we are. We've had our breakfast and we're all gased up and ready to go. Maybe I should re-phrase that last sentence and say, our bikes are all gased up. A very nice lady who was also pumping gas noticed that Sharon was about to take our picture when she suggested that Sharon go stand with her family, and she would take the picture of all four of us as we begin our trip.

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After a fine start, traveling through familiar territory we reached Somerset, Kentucky at which time we were going to stay on nothing but country roads. They always put me in the lead and I told them that no matter what I do...like take a wrong turn...just follow me so that we all stay together. Well right off the bat, I didn't make the right turn and was now on an interstate highway speeding along with all of the traffic. It took several miles of traveling at a high rate of speed before I found my way back to the simple pace of a country road. From this point on everything was nice. We stopped when we wanted or when we saw something interesting to see. Zac spotted a Har*ley shop full of bikes, clothing and other stuff so we stopped to take a look and to browse around. And of course, we had to stop and eat lunch, something we normally don't do at home because we usually eat brunch.

All was fine until we got 45 miles away from our destination and then the sky opened up and down came the rains. We had gotten onto the highway again which had the right lane closed off due to construction...see the orange barrels in the picture above, or in the picture below? I could hardly see where I was going and I spotted the bridge, so I made it passed the orange barrels, I wasn't sure if I could maneuver between the barrels and then headed for the cover of the bridge. Of course, I missed the bridge and got stopped out in the rain. Jimmy came over and helped me push my bike backwards under the bridge where the other bikes were parked. The wind was blowing, the thunder was booming and the lightning was all over the place and it was raining so hard that the passing cars were splashing us and a river of water was rushing in to fill the low spots making it difficult to stand anywhere.We climbed up the slanted concrete embankment and sat up there taking pictures and making videos for about 30 to 40 minutes waiting for the rain to either stop or slow down a bit. We sent the pictures we took to my brother's computer and then called him to tell him not to delete the attachments, that were on his computer from a strange email address which consisted of numbers.

Zac showed us how to use our BlueTooth (sp?) so Sharon & I exchanged the pictures & videos we took with each other and also I emailed them home to my computer. Isn't technology wonderful? Jimmy was the only one who didn't have a phone or a camera to play with, so he just resorted to old fashion conversation with the rest of us who had our noses pressed into our picture phones. hehehe. We also had our digital cameras and took pictures of each other with those too. We laughed and joked around and generally just acted silly. What else can you do in a situation where you are stuck up a steep embankment? I couldn't even walk upright like the rest of them and had to crawl on feet and hands, with my butt in the air whenever I changed positions. I just hope no one got a picture of that and that I don't find it somewhere on myspace!

We finally arrived at Tomas & Motherkitty's home and not a drop of rain had fallen there. The sun was shining and it was hot. Just about 2 miles from their home the rain stopped as if you had drawn a line across the road. All the way from the underpass we rode in rain and had very poor visibility. I even ran through a puddle in a low spot on the road that was at least a foot deep that really threw me for a loop and covered me with water from head to toe. I slowed WAY DOWN after that scare to a mere crawl. The cars behind us weren't so appreciative of being held back to a crawl, but on such curvy roads that looked like rivers, I wasn't about to take a chance on getting hurt.

Zac with wet pants and Jimmy with a wet shirt.

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None of us should have gotten wet because we have rainsuits & helmets, but some of us only wore our rain jackets and some didn't. When we arrived Motherkitty came running out with towels for us to dry ourselves off with and when we had changed into dry clothes we were treated to a hot supper by Motherkitty which she had been cooking all day long. It was a delicious chicken dish with amish noodles & vegetables and garlic bread on the side. It hit the spot and was so good & tasty. Afterwards we were treated to fresh turnovers filled with either peaches, apples, blueberries & cherries.

Sandy, Dalton, Landon & Hannah

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Then came Saturday...The big day for the cookout and the day to meet young baby Talon. Unfortunately Kitten Yarn called with sad news that Little One was running a fever and that they would not be able to attend the cookout. Kitten Yarn was very upset to the point of tears as were the rest of us...But we understood that things like this happen especially when you have young children. Don't worry, we'll be back soon and get to meet that precious little baby boy.

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After a "Feast fit for a King" prepared by Motherkitty we all jumped into the pool. Some jumped in before our meal too, like Motherkitty. The meal was so large that I can't possible name everything that Motherkitty had so lovingly prepared and I wouldn't want to leave anything out, so I will just say that it was DELICIOUS! And I know that she worked very hard in preparing it. All the rest of us could do to help her was to put things in bowls and carry things out to the waiting tables on the deck. Thank you Motherkitty for all the things you did to make our stay as pleasant as possible. And thank you for all the fine food that you so lovingly prepared.

My brother Tomas

Motherkitty talking with her long time friend Saundra

Parker

On the outside of the pool are Parker's parents, Tina & Allen, and inside the pool with Tomas is Hannah their daughter and a foot also belonging to one of Tina & Allen's children. Believe me! no one drowned at the cookout.

Allen is the new manager of the local Wal*Mart store near Tomas' and Tina is Matt's sister. Tina is now here in Berea, just arrived today to help take care of her grandmother Delores who fell recently and broke her shoulder. Tina normally comes to visit nearly every other week, and has been doing so even when she lived in North Carolina. Driving long distances doesn't keep Tina away from her family and now that she lives a mere 4 1/2 hours away I'm sure she'll still be popping in to see her dad, mother, brothers and grandparents just as often. Allen feels the same about his family also who live in N.C.

Later that evening, after the cookout we gladly snacked on leftovers and Motherkitty made us all a banana sundae and oh was it good. It was more like a banana split with two kinds of ice cream and all of my favorite toppings. We ate it and watched a very funny movie together. Sharon, Zac & Jimmy

On Sunday morning, after a hot breakfast prepared by Motherkitty, we headed for home, stopping along the way to sight see. We traveled beside a lake for part of the way which was a beautiful ride picked out for us by my brother who had traveled this road many times with Motherkitty. He told us that it was a very pretty road to travel on and he was right...it was very beautiful.

Zac & Jimmy

This was one of our stops, the Jeffer*son Memorial. It's so tall that you have to get way back in order to take a picture of it. We also passed many carriages of Amish people traveling together nearby. It was quite a sight to see and I'm sorry that we didn't stop to take any pictures of them traveling down the road in such a large group. They must have been going to some kind of gathering or to worship. Each carriage was being pulled by a horse and there were many carriages...more than I've ever seen before in one place.

We had a wonderful trip and of course Motherkitty gave us things to take home with us. Last night Jimmy couldn't wait to pop some of his amish popcorn that Motherkitty had sent home for him. He, like Motherkitty, loves the taste of the old fashioned popcorn. Jimmy puts a little oil in the bottom of a pan, tosses in some kernels of corn, turns the burner on high, sticks a lid on the pan and starts shaking. I hear it's a good form of exercise for your arms, hehehe, as long as you don't put any butter on it.

If you want to see more pictures....Click on Motherkitty.