Ken & Amanda!

Mike and I both are pretty beat on Saturday's these days. You'd think sitting on your rear end all day wouldn't make you tired, but I am more tired from sitting down than I am when I am riding 50+ miles everyday. Weird. I am riding about 25-30 miles a day during the week...but I wake up at (literally now) "Oh-dark-thirty" to ride and then I sit down all day. Sigh.

I wasn't sure I even wanted to ride [Saturday] I was so tired---but I headed out anyway and did my 45 mile loop. In Concord, on Lowell Street, I pass over this pond and river and out in the middle of the road I see this black rock...a walking black rock. It was this cute little turtle. Uh Ho. She was meandering across the road and was about to be a flat rock, so I turned around and picked her up and she went inside her shell. Almost. Her mouth opened and it was so pink inside I was mesmerized. I walked her across the street to safety as she scurried towards the pond. She was a cutie!

It was a warm day and when I got home there was a phone message on the machine----from Ken & Amanda! Sweet! I was expecting a call earlier, but she had left our new number in California and had to wait for Palo Alto Bicycles and then the Bicycle Outfitter to open to get our Boston #. (Call a bike shop to find out where Joni & Mike are! Thanks Adam & Dave P. for getting her in touch with us!)

Mike and I rode the "T" into the city and met Ken & Amanda on State street near where the Declaration of Independence was signed (I think) and where 5 people were killed (Did I get that right Amanda?) Boston is so busy. I had no idea. Way more people than I ever remember seeing in San Francisco! While we were waiting for Amanda to walk and meet us, I was "people watching". There was this drunk guy near us with a bottle in a brown paper bag in his hands...he saw an empty bottle of Schnapp's sitting on top of a newspaper stand near the garbage can , but there must have been a drop left...I thought to myself, "Don't do it!". But he didn't hear my thoughts and sure enough he picked it up (out of basically the trash), opened it and put it to his mouth to get the last drop! Gross! Then he put it back near the trash and washed it down with whatever was in his own bottle!

We walked over to an Irish pub and ate and drank and talked the evening away! They were celebrating their 1st Wedding Anniversary---on their way to Maine. The last time we saw each other, neither of us were married. We decided we looked the same (although Amanda looks a little more like "Barbie", as in the blonde Barbie doll---her words, not mine) than I remember--(that's a compliment, AJE!). Mike and I got carded while trying to follow Amanda through the door---I love showing them a Minnesota driver's license. We are still acting like foreigners. California License plates and MN driver's licenses.

A little bit of Northern California in Boston was good for the soul. But now I am REALLY homesick. Especially since I got caught up on so much gossip about so many friends. Happy Sunday!