I got a chance to chat with Mr. Beardsley at length. He was signing books and chatting with the crowd. Because I was a volunteer there I was able to catch him when there was no one around. I really enjoyed my 10 minute conversation with him. I bought the book he wrote several years ago titled Staying The Course: A Runner’s Toughest Race.

Staying The Course is an autobiography of his running career and his involvement with and recovery from addictions. The first half of the book takes the reader through that famous Boston Marathon while the second half leads you through his spiral into substance abuse. Unlike Duel in the Sun though, this book has a much more satisfying conclusion. While Dick Beardsley’s story is not yet over, this book concludes with an air of certainty of where his life is headed. At the end of Duel in the Sun I was not sure that Beardsley had gotten in control of his addictions. Staying the Course removes my doubts.

If you ever get a chance to meet Dick Beardsley you will find that he really is as upbeat and positive as his book portrays him to be.

As I was reading the book I was struck by how much I enjoyed reading a man brag about his accomplishments. Of course he has to tell about what has taken place in his life, but you don’t feel like he is bragging. The man makes his living by going to races and talking about himself. He has learned how to talk about himself so that the audience does not feel he is being braggadocios. Therefore his memoir is readable and not boastful.

The writing style did not flow very well at times. Some passages had to be read over to understand what was being said. However, when I was reading those same passages out loud to the family, they seemed to make more sense. I think some of the writing was probably just a transcription of speeches he has given. It sounds good to the ears, but sometimes hard to read for the eyes and brain. People talk about being conversational in your writing style; this book may be a bit too conversational.

The book contains some swearing, which was a big reason I did not like Duel in the Sun and considered taking it back to the store. But the amount of foul language in this book was minimal. And, unlike Duel in the Sun, it was limited to direct quotes.

I highly recommend this book. My opinion of the book may be skewed because I have met the author and had a good experience with him, but that is part of the “Dick Beardsley Package.” How could I have a bad opinion of the man who indulged me enough to sign my New Balance running shoes?

Staying The Course by Dick Beardsley. 2002. University of Minnesota Press. 203 pages.

Like last year, this race was fraught with rain and wind. But unlike last year, we went into this weekend having a week of record low temperatures for the area. Last year the puddles were seen as a neat opportunity to goof around in the rain. This year people were scared to get out in the cold water because we might all get sick and die. Last year the starting temperature was 68 degrees and this year 57. It really was not that cold, but it was cold enough to keep the crowd small.

Because I turned 40 recently I got to move up in age division for this race. Now, instead of being the old man in the 30-39, or 35-39 age group, I was the young whipper snapper in the 40-44 age group. ¡Viva la Grandeza! (Long live old age!)

As we started the race I was not aware of anyone in my age group even competing. There was hope that I would be the only one. In total there probably were not more than 70 people in the whole race. I knew I had a chance to place even if I did not win my division.

This was a three lap race. After the crowd thinned out, but only about 1Km into the race I was passed by a girl half my age. She pulled in front of me, but never too far out of reach. She became the only person I was determined to beat. When I went by the water stops I asked the workers to trip her on the next lap around, but they did not comply. Towards the end of the second lap she and I caught up with another young lady who was apparently her friend. She pushed the friend along and they both stayed just out of my reach until half way through that last lap. They faded slightly and allowed me to catch up. I slowly pulled away from them as the lap came to a close.

I finished the race in 29:30. Not a great time for a 5K, but I am not in my best running shape either. I was pleased with the effort. This was my longest run of the year.

According to the man calling out the splits I ran the first lap/mile in 9:20, the second in 9:25 and the third in just under 10:00 (if I remember right). Then the rest of the time was made up in the .1 miles at the end.

At the end of the race we were given a card and shown the clock. We had to write down our own time and drop it in the box of our age division. I was thrilled when I found the 40-44 year old box and there were no cards in it. But then equally disappointed when I was told that was the ladies’ box. I searched for the men’s box and had mixed emotions about seeing a card already in there. That meant I did not win my age group, but there was only one man in front of me. I took second place. There was at least one other 40-44 year old since they handed out a third place ribbon.

While winning second out of three with a less-than-stellar time may not seem like something to brag about, I feel pretty good about it. I did not go fast, but I went a lot faster than all the other men in my age group from the church and community who did not even make the effort to get out and run with us today. Just showing up guaranteed me a better chance of winning than those who were still drinking coffee at 8:00 on a lazy, rainy, cold Saturday morning.

There has to  be a sermon illustration in there somewhere.

Running
My goal was to run 1000 miles again in 2009 like the goal was for 2008. I missed it both years. 2009 was thwarted by starting the year with a stress fracture in my left foot. I was able to recover and was doing well by the middle of the year. However when I ramped up my mileage for marathon training in August, I went too far too soon. I had taken the first half of the year too easy and the longer miles caused another stress fracture in the left foot by the end of September. That slowed me down once again.

It was a learning year. I now know to respect the 10% rule a bit more (10% rule=no more than 10% more miles from week to week or month to month). I did not train for any half marathons in 2009. I went from no specific training goals to marathon ambitions thinking that I was physically as strong as I was the year before. I take more experience and wisdom into 2010 because of this.

I also had a goal of 2 half marathons and a full. Since I was injured I scrapped the half marathon plans and just went for the full. That was a mistake. I also planned to set a 5K PR. I only ran one this year and it was on an injured foot, so I did not even try to race it. Only enjoy the experience.

Total mileage for 2009 was 525 miles in 138 runs. That means I averaged a run every2 to 3 days (once every 2.6 days). Which means I ran fairly consistently, but my average run was fewer than 4 miles.

Reading
The goal was to read at least 800 pages a month and not have any month drop below that number. I did not do too poorly on that goal. I struggled a couple of months, but most months I exceeded the goal. Starting in August I somehow fell off the bandwagon of keeping track of my books and pages read. October through December I read so many books that I just had trouble remembering which ones I read to even write them down. If I missed any 800 page months I probably made up for it in those three months. In a 2 week stretch in December I know I read more than 900 pages. I need to do a better job of keeping records this year.

2010?
I am still working on my 2010 goals. I will try to get something written down and shared here in a few days.

The book is about running. It is presented by sharing a story involving an indigenous Mexican tribe in the Copper Canyon that is made up of extremely gifted athletes. The point was that we can learn their secrets and become better runners as well. The use of a great narrative made a potentially dull book about putting one foot in front of the other much more interesting.

I did not read the book, but rather listened to the audio-book version while I was driving around in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. I have to admit that I was very engrossed in the story. I did not have any close calls by not paying attention, but I did get wrapped up in it a couple of times enough to have to wipe the tears away when certain events were portrayed. Even though I already knew the outcome of some of the races that were described in the book, I was still on the edge of my seat waiting to hear how it would unfold.

My standard disclaimer has to be said here though. I cannot really recommend this book for young people. The language in it was appalling. As I have said before, I know people really talk like that, but that does not mean I want to read (or listen to) all the foul language.

Well written book, but I cannot give it a full recommendation because of the language.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, 2009. Christopher McDougall, Knopf publishing. 304 pages.

As soon as the morning started I felt the world conspiring against me. There was confusion about when breakfast was going to be ready. I thought I would actually get to eat with the family instead of rushing out before everyone was ready. It was not to be. While breakfast was started in time for me to sit down and enjoy it, it ended up being delayed by more than an hour. I ate alone once again.

A block into the ride I remembered that I had a problem with my bottom bracket (the “axle” for the pedal crank arms). The last time I rode the bike I noticed that one side was beginning to loosen. I did not take the time to fix it after the last ride. I turned around and headed back home to fix it.

After a short repair I was back on the road. It was 52 degrees when I started out. I dressed just like I would for a run at 52 degrees. I found out that running and biking have different clothing requirements for the same temperature. When I am running I am going approximately 6 MPH. Biking can be 20+ MPH (but averages a bit less). That is 3 to 4 times faster wind speed blowing the cold air across the body. It was very cold.

Within a mile of taking off the second time I had already decided to cut the ride shorter and go to my second favorite trail running area. The trail is only 3 miles long, but it seemed appropriate for the shorter bike ride to get there. Shortly after that though I noticed my bottom bracket was coming loose again. I had to stop on the side of the road and fix it twice in the 5 mile ride that I did. I just went back home.

I then parked the bike and enjoyed a 3 mile run on the roads around the neighborhood instead. Wasn’t what I had planned, but since I am no longer training for anything specific I could go out and do the run without any pressure to accomplish any particular task.

This year I was running from Mom and Dad’s house in Pensacola, FL. I have already called off a marathon later this fall due to a stress fracture in my left foot. It is not serious yet, but I don’t want to do too many long miles. I am still running, but mostly 3 miles or less at a time. However, you don’t run a half marathon at only 3 miles, so there was work to be done.

I got 7 miles into the run when I knew it was time to stop. I walked from that point on. It took me 3 and 1/2 hours to do the 13.1 miles, but I stuck it out.

I had a “first” on this run. A black snake decided to visit with me a short time. I have seen snakes on runs before, but this was the first time while running “in town.” Or, at least on roads and not trails. I also strongly considered a DNF on this run. Even though this was not an official course with other runners around me, I entered this run as a race and felt like I had to give myself my first DNF if I did not finish.

Physically I did fine. It was mentally tough to stay at it. By walking the last 6 miles I did not give any more pain in my foot, but it sure took a long time.

This will not go down in my record books as being a special race/run, but I did accomplish the task.

Wednesday
6 mile tempo run. That was really supposed to be a 4 mile tempo with a mile warm up and cool down. That is basically the way it played out. Not quite the total 6 miles, but it was close enough.

This was a Eureka! day. Not because anything super special was discovered in my mind, but I found loot on my run. I have rarely found things. And almost never anything of value. But that day I found 2 hitch pins and a toy lizard.  The first hitch pin I saw I just took note of it in my mind and thought it was curious. The second one caused me to stop and think that maybe I had a collection started. I picked the second one up and then turned around to get the first one.

After rounding the corner on my way back to the house I saw a little toy lizard. I was not convinced it was a toy at first, so I was careful when trying to grab it. Since we had just started a meeting in a church with a group of friends, I determined right off that the lizard was going to go to church with me and be used to scare some ladies. What fun!

I got home with the loot and showed the lizard to my 5 year old daughter and told her she could have it after I used it to scare people at church. When she prayed for breakfast the prayer was something like this: “Heavenly Father, thank you for letting my daddy find a lizard that he is going to give to me after he takes it to church and scares some people with it. Amen.” Somehow she forgot to pray for the food. The lizard was too exciting for her.

By the way, it was mostly just the older ladies who screamed at the lizard. The younger mothers seemed to be used to creatures being shoved in their faces.

Saturday
16 mile long run. This run was done completely in the rain. 3.5 hours of torrential rain. At times I had trouble seeing the cars on the road, I am sure they had trouble seeing me. The hills were a bit of a challenge (I was in east Tennessee near Gatlinburg).

The ugly truth
I think I am out for this marathon. At least for doing a good time at it. Without any warning or previous discomfort, during the long run on Saturday I felt the pain of a stress fracture in my left foot after 12 miles. I made it the rest of the way home, but my foot definitely needs to heal. I have babied it since with just shorter runs. Now, a week and a half later, the pain is almost completely gone, but I know there is damage in there.

How will I proceed from here?
I am going to limit myself to shorter runs (2 to 5 miles) for a few weeks. I am also going to ramp up my cycling. I will try and keep my endurance up with that, but cycling is no substitute for running. You can’t prepare for a marathon on a bike. The muscles used are a different set. I will do some strength training work on those important running muscles and keep running the shorter runs. My goal is to see if I can get a couple of longer runs in just a couple of weeks before the marathon and see how my foot does. I only have 7 weeks to go before marathon day. I am not out of running and I am not giving it up, but I am going to do more cycling to let my foot heal and come back stronger.

What caused it?
I suspect I know the cause of the stress fracture again. Too much too soon. Last year I had been running much more consistently when I started my marathon training. While I have been running well this year, I have mostly done shorter runs. When I looked up the cause of stress fractures in the foot I found a picture of me by the definition. Trying to run either too fast or too far without working up to the speed or distance. I just added the miles too quickly this year. I have also put on an extra 25 lbs. That added weight just adds to the stress on the feet.

Week 8
Monday
Ran 2 miles with friends. Nothing fast nor fancy.

Wednesday
Nothing.

Saturday
20 mile bike ride over into Alabama. Since I don’t listen to my iPod during bike rides I tend to meditate more on scripture. That day the verse “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help.” (Psalm 121:1) came into my head. Hills and cycling are not what I consider a great combination. At least not for someone who is biking in flat Florida.

Week 5
Monday
2 easy miles. This was a continuation of the previous week which was a rest week. I ran 2.02 miles in my Vibram FiveFingers shoes. This was not my first run in them. I snuck in a .88 mile run on Saturday just to test them out. No problems with this run. I kept it slow at just over 11 minutes per mile.

Wednesday
Tempo run, 6 miles. That included a 1 mile warm up and cool down. So only 4 miles at a tempo of 9:31. I did not do so well on this one. I decided to do 3 laps of a 2 mile route that I have. I am not good at loops. When I get close to home I just want to stop. I did 2.65 of the 4 miles at 9:06 pace. Too fast, but it worked.

Saturday
I took Saturday off this week since I went on a 3 day hike. We were going to cover as many as 45 miles in the three days. We were very surprised to only accomplish just under 20. We really only hiked 2 days since on the second day we walked in rain all day and ended up with blisters.

XT Week 5
I did a spin class on Tuesday and Thursday. 1 hour each class. I also ran a short time (about a mile maybe) on each of these days after class. I ran on the treadmill and worked on some running form exercises. I had been watching videos to help me learn a better stride and landing method. I think this is the key to taking care of some knee inflammation I have. It has really helped to clean up my running style. It puts more work on my muscles and less on my bones and joints.

Week 6
Monday
After the hike I was not running. I wanted to get out and do the prescribed 2 mile run on Monday, but my legs and blistered feet would have none of that.

Wednesday
7 mile interval run. That included a 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. The tempo pace was a bit faster this time, 8:54. I took my Vibram FiveFingers to the treadmill and worked on my form in the process. These were 1 mile intervals with a half mile recovery. I did the 3 interval miles, but did not spend as much time on warm up and cool down as I should have. I only did a total of 5.5 miles.

At the end of the run I knew I had overdone the workout with the new shoes. These are minimalist shoes and are essentially running barefoot with no cushioning. I curled my toes under (which I apparently do in my shoes too) and ended up with blood blisters on 2 toes of my right foot. This went with the blisters I had on another toe and the ball of my foot from the weekend’s hike. Rough week for feet.

Saturday
14 mile long run. I mapped out a 13.3 mile route last night. This morning I could not find my CamelBak. I had it just last week. The gnomes hauled it off. I had to do this run without the aid of constant hydration and being able to carry all the nutrition I needed. I stopped at a convenience store about 5 miles into the run and bought me a 32 oz. electrolyte drink that I carried the rest of the run. I made a wrong turn in my route and ended back at home with only covering 11.5 miles. That was fine. It will just make the 16 mile run next week seem a little more daunting, but knowing that going into this week may help me prepare for it.

XT Week 6
I did spinning class again on 2 days this week. I also spent some time on a real bike. I know I need to work on some upper body exercises and did a little, but probably not enough to matter.

Week 7 Preview
Monday 2 miles easy. Wednesday 6 mile tempo. Saturday 16 miles long run. I will be traveling this week which will make the Wednesday run a bit more complicated, but I should be able to do the Monday and Saturday run without a problem.

Wednesday: 5 miles easy
It was Wednesday that I realized that I was on an easy week. My training did not do this last year, but this year I have every 4th week (I think) that scales me back a bit. I ran the same route as Monday a bit faster.

Thursday: XT day
I intended to ride my bike 30 minutes or so since I had not been on a bike in several weeks. I was having so much fun that I was a long way from home before I got turned around. I ended up being a 15.8 mile ride which took me an hour. The interesting thing about this ride was that I did not have to stop for a single light until I was 1/4 mile away from home. The very last light caught me. But that also meant that I did not get a chance to stop and let my backside rest. I was a little sore the next day.

I bought a mirror a few weeks ago (before leaving on our last trip) but never got a chance to use it. It is the kind that clips onto my glasses and I can see cars coming from behind. It was very nice. It gave me much more confidence while riding.

Friday/Saturday: 5 miles easy
The long run for the week was just a 5 mile easy run. But I know I will not be able to run a long run this coming weekend, I decided to mix up my plan a little. Since I had to scrub the 10 mile run from the previous week, I decided to run 11 miles this week. I ran on Friday because it worked better for my schedule. My next long run was to be 12 miles, but I will be on a 45 mile hike when I am supposed to be running that. So I will pick up the next week with a 14 miler to get me back on target.

Shamefully my 11 mile long run this weekend was the longest run since my half marathon (13.1 miles) PR back in November. I can’t believe I have not been more consistent with the longer runs. I used to always feel like I could get out and run 8 miles any time someone wanted to go out for a run. It is embarrassing that I have let that slide. But I am determined to get back into good form.

Friday I also bought me some new shoes. I got a pair of Vibram FiveFingers Sprint. I have already done 3 miles in them. I have been reading and watching videos about running form and how the barefoot running is supposed to help me run more efficiently. I look forward to the bio-mechanical benefits more than, necessarily, an increase in speed. I don’t plan to run my marathon barefoot (or shod with FiveFingers), but I might. It depends on how the transition goes with these shoes. I need to build some muscle strength in my legs to be able to go the distance in the FiveFingers.

Week 1
I am running 3 days a week for this program. I would have liked a 4 day a week program, but this actually is a bit better for my traveling schedule. If I miss a run it is much easier to try to fit it in during the week since I have extra days off.

Monday was a 3 mile easy run. Those should be no problem throughout the course of the training. Wednesday was a tempo run of 5 miles. I got that one in just fine as well. The 8 mile long run on Saturday had to be pushed to Sunday. Fortunately our church in Mexico does not start until 11:00. That always gave me extra time to get a nice run in if necessary. (In contrast, our church we go to in Florida starts at 9:00, which is never enough time for lazy me to get a run in before church.) I only ran 7.7 miles since that was the best route I could come up with that got me home close to the distance.

Week 2
Not so good. Monday’s run did not happen at all. Oh, look! Neither did Wednesday’s run. Saturday’s long run of 9 miles ended up as a 4.5 mile run. That was the week we were traveling from Merida, Mexico to Florida. We were up and out the door early each day. Early being a relative term. Anyway, not much time to run.

Week 3
Monday’s easy 3 mile run ended up as a 3.32 easy run. Just an out and back course that I may make a regular route. There is a nice hill about 1/4 mile from the house. I go down to leave the house and then back up to get home.

Wednesday’s 5 mile tempo was pushed to Thursday afternoon. I was taking a seminary class and had to be up early each day trying to get my reading and studying in for the day. I was up by 6:00 each day, with some days up well before 6:00. My best time to run was Thursday afternoon before I had to be at an appointment. I was physically beat by the time Thursday rolled around. I only got 3 miles done and it was not even close to tempo pace. I do not feel badly about this since I at least attempted the run. It was certainly better than just scrubbing it and not running at all.

The long run on Saturday was supposed to be 10 miles. I made several mistakes during this run that doomed me. I am somewhat glad it happened this early in training. I have not been doing runs this long in a while and I had forgotten a few basics. I did not fuel or hydrate well. When I knew the run was falling apart I adjusted my route to make it a 7 mile run. But by doing so I also eliminated the last couple of gas stations that I could have stopped at for more food and drink to get me back home. At 6.5 miles I had to make the phone call to have someone come and pick me up.

Lessons learned and I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks being able to be home enough to get back on track with the training. Rough start, but I am not discouraged nor feel like I have put myself too far behind.

Mississippi Coast Marathon
I looked through Marathon Guide to help me pick a race. My requirements were that it be a Saturday race and that it be within a couple of hours of some place I am going to be in my travels for the fall. I also needed a race late enough in the year to get a full 16 week training plan going. In the past I might have been able to shave a couple of weeks off a plan and not be too set back, but this year my running has been less than stellar. I have been running enough to stay in shape, but not enough to say that I am ready to consider a marathon a few weeks out.

The Mississippi Coast Marathon fits everything I needed. In fact, a full training plan allows me to start today and finish 16 weeks from now running the race. It is run on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I have not made my travel schedule that far out (boy am I behind), but I do know the plans are to spend Thanksgiving with my parents and some friends in Pensacola, FL. This marathon is about 2 hours from Pensacola.

Training Schedule
I chose the same training plan I had last year. It is a computer generated plan from Runner’s World. I will be running 3 days a week and cross training the rest. The mileage is a bit higher than the plan I chose last year, by just a couple of miles a week.

Last year I did not have any time goals since I had never run a marathon before. My only goal was to have fun. Now that I have a time to beat, 4:32:10, I have specific training pace goals for each of my runs. These should be reachable goals. May be too easy right now. Today I ran 1:50 per mile faster than the training plan called for.

Pre-race Plans
I am thinking of going over on Friday afternoon so that I can get a good night’s rest going into the race. Then if any family wants to come over and see the race on Saturday, they can get up and just drive over for the finish. Not sure if any are interested in that.

What to expect?
As a way to get myself back into blogging and keep myself motivated with the running, I will try to give you a weekly re-cap on my running like I did last year heading into the big weekend.

When we left Mexico back in August of last year, we packed up most of our stuff and put it in a storage room. We did not know where we were going next at that time. There was a possibility that we would be staying in Mexico, but not in this area. It made sense to not sell all our furniture until we knew what part of the country, or world, we were going to next. Now that we know where we are going, we need to get rid of this stuff. Most of it is impersonal household items like couches, fans, trash cans and office supplies. Having been apart from these items over the last year, it seems to be a bit easier to put a price on something and watch it walk away.

Currently we are just selling to our friends. Later this week we open the floodgates to the general public. There is still a lot of processing to do to get ready for the opening of the garage sell on Friday. Coupled with that, we are preparing for a camp next week. There is a lot to fill our time with this week that could throw us off our goal of being packed up before camp starts on Tuesday.

As I said, this move is in stages. After this packing up time we will be taking what is left back to the US and putting it in storage there. We will continue to travel throughout the fall and then figure out how to get the necessary items into a few suitcases and start flapping our wings towards Argentina.

Among the things I have enjoyed doing while back in town is running on some of the same roads and paths that have become so familiar in my running career. I have not logged a lot of miles since being back, but I have enjoyed them.

Autism can manifest itself in different ways. According to the ASDa website there are 5 different disorders that are on the autism scale. These disorders mainly affect the individual in areas of communication, social interaction and behavior. ASD stands for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Someone who is autistic is said to be “on the spectrum” based on which of the 5 disorders they have.

While people affected with autism are limited in different ways concerning communication and behavior, they often have unbridled athletic ability. Athletics are an area where an autistic person can excell.

I did not run this race with Terry as a fund raiser for ASDa, but I did try to help promote the cause by wearing an ASDa shirt. They do have an event coming up in the next couple of weeks that is a fund raiser for them. They are the beneficiaries for the Tellico Sprint Triathlon on June 21. ASDa is looking for volunteers to help them with promotion of the event and sponsors to help raise money for their efforts.

Please take some time to visit the ASDa website and see how you can help Terry and his efforts to bring a physical outlet to people who may be limited in one area, but can excell in another.

I may still be able to PR next weekend, which was the goal of doing the race, but I don’t think I can hit the time I was going for. I am going to adjust my goal, but still shoot for a PR.

Yesterday I got a chance for a nice long run as prescribed in my training plan. This was the first time to do a long run in my home town. It was amazing to me how small the town is when broken down to an 8 mile run. I was able to make a loop out of the top left quadrant of town and do the distance.

While my speed is not great, it was fun to run around town yesterday. It was a great way to start a very busy and fun-packed day.

We were wanting to do some canoing on this trip, but did not want to pay the price of a canoe rental. I have a friend with a kayak who said I could borrow it at any time. I took him up on it and picked it up a couple of days before heading out. At church on Sunday I asked another friend who I thought had a kayak if I could borrow his. He no longer has it, but recommended another friend who had a canoe. I called the canoe friend to find out that his canoe is in disrepair. He gave me a name of another friend that might have one I could borrow.

We checked around and did not find another canoe, but the man with the busted canoe said he had a couple of kayaks I could have if I wanted them. Not just have for the trip, but have as in “take out of my back yard and don’t return with them.” Though they are not in great shape, I think I can do something with them.

The morning we were planning to leave I called another friend to borrow a couple extra life jackets. I knew he would have them. Doug has everything. He offered the use of his canoe too. Great! For a family with small kids, canoes work out better than kayaks. So we ended up with one good canoe and one good kayak for the trip.

After Dad and I got the boats to the house along with all the needed equipment we had to figure out how to get them both strapped to the top of the van. In the process we forgot to transfer the life jackets from his truck to my van. That caused a frustrated hour and a half trip to town to buy some life jackets. Took time out of our play time to do that. But we ended up good and tired by the time the afternoon was over. We probably would not have played much more in the water.

Monday we got camp set up and grilled hamburgers. That night was a great night for looking at the stars, but the trees were too tall around the camp ground area. All we could see were stars right above us. We had not explored the area well before it got dark on Monday. We did not know that there was a large parking area just a couple hundred yards from the campsite that we could have easily seen the stars from. Then, of course, the next night it was cloudy and we could not see any stars.

Tuesday we at a sausage casserole cooked in the dutch oven. A man named Bob Sharp in Utah bought me that oven as a gift about 12 years ago. We have had some good meals out of it. Lunch was sandwiches as we prepared to go to the river. For supper we had some great steak and a cake baked in the dutch oven. I am out of practice on baking in the dutch oven. I burned the cake a bit. But it was still edible.

Tuesday morning I also went running. I found a nice 2 mile section on the Juniper Creek Trail to do an out and back course giving me 4 miles. A wrong turn here and there and I ended up running almost 5 miles. I got to get up close and personal with an indigo snake too. It was about 5 feet long. They can get up to 8.5 feet in length.

Wednesday we had pancakes and went hiking. Lunch was sandwiches eaten while lounging in the hammock I made last week.

We had a great time. It was fun to turn off the electronic world for a couple of days.

Pictures to follow when I finally pull them off the camera.