Weekend Trip

This past weekend Dave and I were invited to go to the mountains with our friends Todd and April to celebrate Todd's birthday. It's in/near Lansing, NC which is about 45 minutes north of Boone. April made all the arrangements and they were FABULOUS!! We stayed in this adorable house which was absolutely beautiful inside.

Here's the view from the back porch. It was so peaceful and perfect!

The house is one of 3 that sit on (I think) about 200 acres of private property. There is an old barn that the owners renovated into a little house and a new, larger home that is absolutely gorgeous! If you ever want to get away for the weekend, I highly recommend this place! Click here to check out the website.

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On Saturday, we went biking on the Virginia Creeper Trail. We had the best time! The weather was great, the scenery was breathtaking, and the entertainment was top notch! (That would be me!! Story later.) Here's a great picture of Todd and April. Todd kind of has the Kenny Chesney look/pose going on!

We did a 17 mile portion of the trail and I loved it! I mean, I knew that I'd enjoy it, but I don't know if it was the pretty, cooler weather, or being out on the open trail with my man, or what, but that was the best time I've ever had while doing any kind of excercise! I had my good camera slung around my torso the whole time. I considered taking the smaller one so that it would be easier to take pictures while I was riding, but I decided that great pictures were worth the risk! Like, here are a couple of good pictures...

I loved all of the many bridges we rode over!

Oh, and here is my sweet husband just after he swiped my lollipop!

Look at this beautiful scenery!!! It was like this all along the way. If it wasn't an old barn, it was the beautiful stream that followed us to the end of the trail. Gorgeous, I tell you!

So, for anyone who doesn't know, Dave and Todd met and have been the best of friends since the 2nd grade! They spent tons of time together as kids, played tons of baseball together as young men, and now just spend two nights a week beating each other up in their almost full contact martial arts class! And pretty soon they'll just spend tons of time on the phone with each other because that's all their bodies will be able to handle!

Wow- 30 years of tight friendship!

Oh, yes, the lovely couple! 17 years of bliss!!

Again, we rode over more bridges than I could count. I loved it and wanted to get pictures of all of them! I rode as fast as I could to get across this one so I could stop at the other side and get a good picture of Dave coming toward me. Yay! I got it!

Then I would lag behind and take pictures of the scenery on the side of the trail.

Again, very pretty stuff. A couple of times, I lagged too long and I guess the boys stopped to wait and see where I was. As I was riding back toward them, I kept thinking how funny it would be to practice one of my "rooster tails" on them. You know, the one where you slam on the brakes, push your back tire to one side and kick rocks all over whoever is standing in your path. Well, I had done that clever move several times that day and was feeling a little brave. I petaled a little faster and came up upon Dave and Todd, staring at me, wondering what in the world I was doing. I was almost there...I went to slam on the brakes.... YOU IDIOT!!! NOT THE LEFT HAND BRAKE! What was I thinking???!!! I hit the wrong brakes HARD and my front tire skidded to a halt and my back tire flipped over the front of the bike with me and my expensive camera on it!!! It was like it happened in slo-mo! I can still hear myself screaming in my head, "Not my new camera!" And I clearly remember the looks on Dave and Todd's faces- Todd thought it was the most hysterical thing he'd ever seen and Dave had that unamused look that was saying, "Serves you right! That's what you get!"

Seriously, this is all I got- chunks of asphalt caked up in my hand.

I don't know how I walked away with an intact camera and me with no other scratches or a broken face!! My hands were a little tender for a couple of days, but I'm good to go now!

(IGNORE THE MAN HANDS AND CONCENTRATE ON THE INJURY!!!!)

Todd has a picture of me on the ground, with the bike laying on top of me and my camera. So, as soon as he sends that to me, I'll post it!

Show off-

I was a little scared to try this move after the accident.

Here was our end point- an ice cream shop! Perfect way to end the ride- replenish all the calories we just burned off!

Thank you, April, for a super fun weekend!! We needed that. :)