APRIL IS 30 DAYS OF RIDING. AND CALIFORNIA TIME

I concluded the month of March with a ride with my friend Kathy. Weather and schedules have not allowed much riding together but on this day we would ride on Sammamish River trail, take a few offshoots and have a lunch stop at River Trail Roasters.

One of the few places that is extremely close to the trail. A delight. We each enjoyed the stop and having chat time while we ate our lunch.

On the return we stopped for a photo for Kathy to have as her “picture of the day”.

Nearing the end I had to honor the bees with a photo.

Then these tree hangings near the bee sign caught my eye. Hard to get a picture of them, but they hung all over all the nearby trees.

And in all, a great day. Chilly but great.

Then it was time to make the drive to California. We had gotten tickets for ‘Aladdin Kids’ that 10 year old Kate would be performing in. We had other things planned for our California stay as well, and that will come later.

April being “Ride Your Bike 30 Days” (30DOB), Susan would have to accommodate me as best she could! There are NO mileage requirements for the challenge — you just need to ride EVERY day of April. I did get my first ride in at home as we did not leave for the trip until April 2nd.

We were warned that our campground at Bailey Cove was in Bear Country! So Susan insisted on a photo of me and my bike as I readied for my micro ride.

The micro ride allowed for a view of the very nearby water way.

On the road the next morning we stopped in Redding for a cowboy breakfast.

These cowpokes were there overseeing things.

The ostentatious coo-coo clock was not easy to ignore.

Breakfast was good and filling as we waddled toward the van for the rest of the drive to Sarah’s.

The afternoon we arrived would be our chance to take Lucy to her horse riding lesson. This is her happy place and we are always so glad to get the opportunity to see her ride. Not only has she improved her riding skills in both Western and English style, she has learned a lot about the entire activity of horse back riding — including grooming before and after saddling up, tacking up her horse for riding, and brushing down afterward.

Here she is with Pineapple.

On to the next day and evening. I rode around the lagoons and into some of the country side before we would attend Kate’s performance.

Still in that blue sky and sun.

I found this Greek Church that I don’t recall riding by in the past but likely I have!

A little farther from home, the vineyard, cornfields and not yet blooming orchards line my ride. The winery was closed, but being the tea totaller that I am, it was of no matter.

This ride had some nice views, and being out in some country has its pleasantries, but the road surface is horrendous for much of the ride. Add all the detours for extensive road construction and you get… frustration.

Time to get home, shower, dress and spruce up for THE performance.

It was such fun to see all these medium size kids and little kids, performing this musical production.

She is in the back, at the top…

They obviously all had fun performing and would need that energy for three complete shows in a row. Good energy here.

Time for some more riding ;’-).

Passed by this orange tree in a nearby neighborhood. Not in reach, but also not ours.

Had a bit more time to get out in the countryside which took some scouring of the maps to avoid road construction and closures on the road I most use for rides out of town.

Interestingly, there was a guy walking around in his fenced yard with his little dog next to him. For some reason, he let the dog out of the yard and it came rushing toward me with a low growl. It was rather small, and much over weight, so picking up my pace even a little was enough to lose him back to his own yard. I have no idea why that guy did that as I was no where near touching his property.

In a lot next to that expansive looking home there were rusted old vehicles.

A little on down the road I had a much friendlier encounter. Susan says that cows love me and seem to come to me or at least give me an eye ;’-).

On this day’s ride I saw my very first jack rabbit! It was close by and clear to the eye as it leaped along beside me in the orchard to my right. When I slowed to even think about getting a photo, he slowed, stopped, sat up tall, looked at me, and turned his back to me ready to scamper off. I got these pictures from the web and they depict rather well what I saw and what he did. I am sure I have never before seen a live jack rabbit, but my brain knew right away what it was.

We have two more days here, and though I am sure to do rides on those days, they are likely to be repeats of earlier rides, so I am doubtful to get many different photos to post.

While I wait to see what the rides might bring … You have seen Lucy in her element with the horse, you have seen Kate in her element on stage, now here is Jaydon in his element with a driver’s permit!!!

How quickly time flies and how fast they grow.

With our two days remaining, I must determine my riding for those days. As expected, I would be repeating something as that dastardly pipe line construction hampers many different rides I could choose. But first — yesterday I saw a live jack rabbit for the first time; today I saw a white dove fly across my path. Probably not the very first time I have seen a white dove, but the first time I have seen it in the “wild”, close up and only one rather than a released flock. That was a highlight. Of course I could not get a picture.

Also today I blended portions of two different routes to come up with a ride to my liking. I have (of course) been on parts of the route on other rides, but some roads were new to me. I took this photo of the bridge crossing that I have passed by a couple of times and use that as my photo for the day.

Then I found the real photo of the day. Many times when I have done this particular ride, I have gotten so confused at this spot about where the road was that I should turn on, that I aborted and used google to get me home. This time, at the troublesome spot there was a woman walking her dog so I explained my dilemma. She pointed me to the “other” bridge which was right next to the bridge I had come over to this spot. Finally I had success of getting out of this area. BUT, it had brought me to the acorn that I so hoped to find again.

Moving on, I was routed through a new neighborhood, still under construction with lots of houses being built, and into this very nice park which has a music theme.

Piano on the sidewalk is impossible to photograph very well — a drone would be good here — but I think you can get the idea at least.

Though I know I will ride tomorrow, out last day here, it will be nothing new and relatively short. If anything wonderful happens I will continue that in the next post. For now, this will be it. Thanks for reading.