The Tale of Two Thanksgivings

The original plan for Thanksgiving this year was to have quite a few of the kids home for the holiday.  It was going to be nice.  But then life happened. Heidlebeere had put her house on the market and it sold quicker than anyone could have dreamed it would sell.  Then the process of closing on the sale began and Heidlebeere learned that they would need to be out of the house by November 30th.  That was compounded by difficulty in finding a new place to move into. When all the stars had finally come together and lined up, it looked like she was going to have to spend her Thanksgiving vacation moving.  No joy, but you do what you have to do. So Erdbeere suggested that we take Thanksgiving, such as it could be in the middle of moving, to Heidlebeere's house so we could give her a hand; she put our thoughts into words.  We took a quick inventory and found that, while not everyone would be able to make that work, those that could had no trouble at all with that little alteration to the holiday.  And that is how our Thanksgiving this year came to be bifurcated.

For those unable to go to Heidlebeere's, we had a Thanksgiving celebration on the 10th at our house.  Same feast, different day.  We had Schwartzbeere, Maulbeere, and Himbeere over and had turkey with all the trimmings, except the sweet potatoes.  We totally forgot the sweet potatoes.  They were in the fridge all ready to go but nobody remembered to get them out and cook them.  Ah, well. 

Everybody pitched in and helped get everything ready.  Quite a crowd in the kitchen but we made it work.

Deviled eggs were never a part of Thanksgiving when I was growing up but somehow it became a tradiiton with the next generation.  And a delightful addition at that!

Schwartbeere was put in charge of carving the fowl and did a very nice job at it.

Grandma was in charge of keeping the youngest addition occupied while everything was readied ...

... spelled occasionally from that arduous job by Grandpa.  Being the grandparents definitely has its advantages.

Pretty soon everything was done and ready.

Maulbeere even got extra fancy with a veggie tray!

I'm always amazed at the planning, preparation, and timing that gets it all to the table together, at the right time.  Like an orchestra, all those instruments coming in together to hit the right note together, at the right time.

Brombeere likes to set the table up nice for this once a year meal.

It is times like this that I'm extra mindful of how blessed I am, how blessed we all are.  Surely God is good.  Everybody gathered 'round and it was every bit as yummy as it looked.

As Schwartzbeere has always said, there's the dinner shelf and a dessert shelf.  So no matter how much dinner you eat, there's always a place for some dessert.  And because tastes vary so widely, there are always a large assortment of pies to choose from.  I, of course, had the cherry pie, along with some ice cream.  Everything else pales in comparison.

The next two weeks just zoomed by and pretty soon it was time to head for Heidlebeere's place.  Because we were unsure of what was still unpacked, we took way more than normal.  Kitchen stuff for cooking, bedding for sleeping, and other things to help with the move.

Including our trailer.  It isn't real big but it would help.

So pretty soon we were loaded and on our way.  Thanksgiving at Heidlebeere's house was pretty simple.  It was in the middle of all the moving that was going on.  Brombeere fixed a non-traditional meal of spaghetti with some side veggies that we figured the kids would eat.

We had hauled a load of stuff in the trailer over and while we unloaded and unpacked, Brombeere fixed lunch.

By that time of day, everyone was getting a little hungry and the menu went together very quick and easy.

Not quite as eye-appealing as a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Also not served with all the trimmings and show of a normal Thanksgiving day feast, but it was every bit as good.

We thought we may be enjoying the first meal eaten in the new home but Heidlebeere said she had stopped by a day or two before and had pizza.  So we couldn't claim the first meal.

But it was the first family meal, with everybody there!  That counts, right?

So we sat around, on the floor because none of the chairs had been moved over yet.  We rested and had lunch and it was very nice.

Seating was wherever you found a spot.  Me, I opted for the stairs.

Maybe it was spread out a bit, because we didn't have the customary pie for dessert until later in the evening when we got back over to the other place.

But there was pie, and it was good!

So, yeah, that was the second Thanksgiving feast, in all its glory.  The move, which was the real reason we were there, began for us the day before.  We arrived on Wednesday to find Heidlebeere had already done a bunch of packing and cleaning.

So it wasn't a whole lot of work to get up Thursday morning and load up a bunch of stuff and throw it on the trailer and in the cars.

Once loaded it didn't take very long to drive to the new place.  She wasn't moving very far.

She was moving into a cozy little house several miles away from the old place.

So we pulled in and began unloading.  Once all the stuff we'd brought on this trip was in the house Heidlebeere set about unpacking it while lunch was being fixed.

The kids quite liked the tire swing hanging from a big tree in the back yard.  The one trip was pretty much all that got done that day.  At least, as far as loading and moving stuff to the new house.

Back at the old house, packing still went on and the next morning furniture began coming apart.  Beds, tables, and stuff like that which had to be broken down in order to get it out the door and on the truck.  That whole process was supervised by Heidlebeere's cat.  She seemed to always be nearby and out of the way.  Well, most of the time, anyway.

One of the things that was lost in the move was a tooth.  You know how there is usually something or another that gets lost or broken when you're moving.  This time it was a tooth.

The second trip over, on Friday, was during the rain and after dark.  So the mud puddles were hard to avoid.  A little bit of mud got tracked in.  But fortunately mud cleans up pretty good.  We just had to  make sure we weren't tracking it all over the house.

Saturday was the big move day.  That's' when the help and the truck arrived.  By that point, pretty much everything was boxed or bagged and ready to go on the truck.  But even at that, it still took a few hours to get it all out and into the truck.  You have to arrange it as it goes in so that it will all fit.  At one point we actually thought we had more truck than we needed.  But by the time the last few things went on it turned out that the truck we had was just right.

And about that point, the inside of the house was getting to look pretty empty.

With all the stuff out and gone, houses seem pretty empty and have that echoing sound.

Then it was back over to the new place again to unload it all.

Fortunately, we had the perfect day for moving.  Last night's rain had gone and the ground was pretty dry.

So we backed the truck in and began unloading.  As with the loading, the kids were pretty good about helping.

Unloading always seems to go faster than loading.  It wasn't long before everything was off the truck, out of the trailer, and out of the cars.

Then all that was left was the job of unpacking.  Arranging, rearranging, and rearranging yet again in some cases, to get everything where it was going to be when put away.

A lot of the kitchen was mostly done by this point because a lot of the first stuff to get moved was kitchen stuff.  But still, the kitchen was an easy place to set things down as it came in off the truck so there was still plenty to do.  Plus the kitchen itself had to be arranged and, yes, rearranged as things found their final resting place.

Like the house she was moving out of, the house Heidlebeere was moving into had some stairs.  Fortunately, not as much had to traverse the stairs in the new house.

Once everything was in the house then we began putting the big stuff where it was going to go.  That was where all the rearranging came in. Heidlebeere had to try a couple of arrangements to find the one she liked best.  By the time things began to land everybody was getting tired.  It had been a long day.

When Heidlebeere sat down and began to play her piano we knew she was beginning to feel like she was going to be able to settle there.

Making it her own.

This, actually, was one of the more memorable Thanksgivings I've ever enjoyed.  I don't feel bad about spending it this way at all.  In fact, spreading it across a couple of weeks was kind of fun.  And it was nice to be able to help Heidlebeere get moved and begin getting settled.

Another Season in the Books

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus, you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”
Ernest Hemingway

The end of this season's bike riding kind of sneaked up on me this year.  Fall was moving along, beautiful, warm, and glowing with autumn's bright colors and then suddenly the temperatures dropped, the weather turned windy and raining, and suddenly Day-Light Savings Time ended and the season was over.  Just like that!

So, with the season over, I went through my photos and looked back over the summer and all the bike rides I was able to get out on.  I did beat last season's miles, but only by a few miles.  I got in 298 miles in this year, just 6.5 miles  more than last year.  But hey, an inch is as good as a mile, right?  I would have liked to have done more but all season it seemed like I was struggling with the weather.  I didn't get out in October at all, which was terrible, but that's the way it turned out.  Not only did the weather seem to conspire against me, but our schedule did as well.  There were so many days when I got off work and the weather was good but there was something going on I had to do that prevented me from being able to get out on my bike.  Nevertheless, I did get out.  I had a regular Wednesday evening meeting this summer that I even rode my bike to a few times just to get in another ride or two.  And I usually took my camera so I ended up with plenty of pictures.  In fact, after going through my pictures, I ended putting 94 photos from various rides aside for this post.  Well, that's too many so the next job was to pare them down to something more reasonable.  That was a job and a half.  What I ended up with was still a lot, not sure how "reasonable" the number ended up being.  But when you ride in such beautiful places how can you not end up with a lot?

The weather was decent for late March so that's when I got out for the first time. The season started well enough with a fill up of air in my tires that had sat all winter and then a ride through some neighborhood streets.  Not the earliest I've been out but still pretty good.  Did almost six miles.  Not too bad for the first ride of the year.

That first ride wasn't too long but I had good speed.  For me, anyway.  Right around my average of 10 mph.  It actually turned out to be just a little faster than my season average.

But shortly after that first ride the weather turned bad.  It seemed like we got as much or more snow during the next month than we'd had all the rest of winter.  Spent a lot of time moving snow out of the driveway.

It was over a month before I was able to get out again.  But then finally spring arrived for real and I began to get out again.  And what was real cool was that Brombeere began going with!

She hadn't gotten out on her bike much last year, which was understandable.  She had a number of health issues that made it hard to ride a bike.

But this year was different, better, and she was determined to get out and get moving.  Biking isn't her only exercise but it sure is one of them.

We got out all over town on the trails.  Some of my favorite places to be!

All over the trails, all over and around town.  These pictures  make it look like I ride in the woods all the time but I spend plenty of time on city streets.  In fact, I have to ride a few miles on the streets to get to the fun trails.  Its just that in the woods is my favorite place to ride.

And I especially like it when Brombeere comes with.  That makes it extra fun.

I have my favorite routes.  I like the bridges that are around.  They rattle when you ride over them, even the newer ones.  Its a fun sound.

I'm not really into traditional mountain biking, the challenging trails with twists, turns, steep rises and steep falls, roots and rocks, and all that.  The kind that give you flats or occasionally make you fall down.  I like the more tame trials.  In fact, a paved trail is my favorite.

However, paved trails are in the minority around here and in most places.  My bike tread is the knobby kind, good for trails, but I find I do ride a little slower on them.  Not by design.  It just seems to work out that way all the time.

Some of the trails we rode on were wide and open.  Lots of sunshine.

Lots of nice, interesting flowers growing along side the trails.

Other places the trees grow in over the trail more.  Those are fun areas, too.  They have a more primitive, remote feel.

The last few summers I have tried to try to get a ride or two in out of town.  This year I made it to a trail I called my Island Trail ride.  That was a fun ride.  Again, it wasn't a real long ride, only about six and a half miles.  But it was interesting, that was the attraction.

And the bridges didn't disappoint.  Several bridges, as anticipated.  Two Islands, back and forth a couple of times to the mainland.  Of course there were bridges.  It was a good time.

Brombeere and I took one ride planning on a visit by Erdbeere and her kids.  We wanted to take her some place interesting so we rode to one of the parks and did some exploring.

We saw some interesting trails, some I hadn't seen before, even though I ride through this park on a regular basis.  I just had never gotten into this part of the park before.

And while we saw some new areas of the park, we didn't see it all.  I still need to get back there and check it out some more.

Before Erdbeere came, though, Heidlebeere came and brought her bike and trailer.  So we loaded all those wheels up and went for a ride!

Brombeere came with.  This ended up being one of the longer rides of the season.

It was a good time.  We stopped part way through for a break in the shade and a drink.

Checked on the kids in the trailer - they were doing just fine.  In fact, they did amazingly well for a ride that was over 18 miles long.  Bribing them with a stop at our favorite ice cream place may have helped with that.

A short time later, Erdbeere came with her bikes.  So we loaded up again and went for a different ride.

This time we thought to stop and get a picture before we hit the trail.  Quite the crowd.

That day Blaubeere joined us with her kids.  We had two trailers for that ride.  Lots of kids riding along.  I have to really admire these ladies that hauled these trailers and kids around all over the place.

To make this one fun for the kids we went to a nice park and let the kids play for a while.

Then it was back in the trailers and back on the trail.

I, for one, had a real good time.  On both of these rides. 

New trails, new sights.   I had hoped to see more wildlife on this particular trail.  Prior to going, I had seen a lot of pictures on social media about this trail, lots of different kinds of birds, and all.  Unfortunately, while we did see some, we didn't seen anything exotic or out of the ordinary. 

But it was fun nonetheless.  Especially since these rides were with some of my favorite people.

After those rides it was back to my usual haunts.  Any ride is a good ride, right?  As long as you stay upright, anyway.

But then came the big ride, the one I'd been planning since winter, when I found out the Steward Tunnel was not the longest tunnel of all of the state's bike trails.  I learned about tunnel #3 on the Elroy-Sparta trail.  That tunnel is three quarters of a mile long.  Dark and wet inside.  We had to get some bigger lights to do this tunnel.  It was such a good ride.  I'd do that one again. 

We only went from Norwalk to the tunnel and back, a distance of  around eight miles but it was so fun going through that tunnel. 

East entrance

West entrance

They had what they called a "selfie station" at the west entrance to the tunnel. 

Yeah, I'd do it again.

Back to more familiar ground, it was still fun being out on the trails, out in the trees.  The days were already getting shorter. 

Summer Solstice is a day I always take note of because it means the daylight is at its maximum.  After that day every day gets a few minutes shorter as fall marches ever closer.

The farm land on either side of some of the trails I ride is full of summers crops. 

As the days would get shorter harvest would arrive.  Shadows would begin to stretch across the fields.

The days were surely getting shorter and even though it was usually the same time of day when I'd get out most days, the evening shadows would start arriving sooner and sooner as I made my way home after each ride.

Slowly at first, leaves would begin to turn colors.  Fall was creeping in.

And then, it seemed like fall was suddenly in full color.  Reds, yellows, oranges, browns all around.

The colors you saw most depended on what stand of trees you rode through.

Trails became littered with fallen leaves.  The smell of the trails would change to that musty fall odor.

Sometimes the sight of the sun setting through the trees can be very, very nice.

This year, fall seemed to build to an amazing crescendo and then suddenly it was gone.  The weather turned cold, the rain and wind kicked up and before I knew what had happened, the riding season was over.  The season was done.  I had really hoped to get a few more miles in, I had kind of wanted to break 300.  And there was one more little trail I had been thinking of riding during this summer that I didn't get to.  But there's always next year.  Next year, if the weather and my schedule will cooperate I will get more miles in and get to that other trail and get to the lake and back.  And I'll have to give some thought to what other major trails I might do, as well.  Blaubeere has already been talking about a ride she wants to do over in her neck of the woods.  So there's lots to look forward to once summer gets here.  Winter Solstice is only 35 days away - then the days start getting longer! A few minutes every day!