Yesterday was a beautiful day in Cleveland again – mid 80s and low humidity. We rode 5 miles to breakfast in University Heights and back. There are a lot of deer in the wooded areas in suburban Cleveland. Friday evening, a small deer wandered into my friend’s backyard 5 times. The dog would chase her away and she would jump over a fence dividing properties, walk 10 yards or so, jump back over the fence and come back into the yard only to get chased away again. It almost seemed as if she was wanting to make friends with the dog. She came back again the next morning and then seemed to disappear.
I was able to get a badly needed pedicure (my feet are so ticklish pedicures are almost painful) before driving to the Columbus area (Delaware OH to be specific) to visit with friends from the Natchez Trace cycling adventure 2.5 years ago. These women are examples of how to stay active and enjoy retirement. This rural property has a barn with 3 older horses, 17 – 34 years old), a large garden and is on a dead end road which creates a small community of evening walkers. We walked the road for 2 miles last night and met many of the neighbors. Amazingly I did not get any mosquito bites on the walk at dusk.
Today there was intermittent heavy rain with very high humidity and we did not venture out. I had some additional aches and twinges after my cycling fall Saturday so I used the day to alternate ice, heat and stretching. I think it is better this evening.
Tomorrow will hopefully allow for some cycling and or walking in between rain in the morning and we will be going into Columbus tomorrow afternoon.
Weather is not looking good for the 30 mile bike ride on Wednesday but fingers crossed the prediction will change.
My trip is half over and I have had meaningful personal interactions and meaningful with 28 important people in my life with 2 reconnections via phone. By the time the trip is over, I will have visited with persons from high school, college and the last 23 years of my career. I am creating a tapestry that includes memories of past experiences and creating new memories. I will continue to work on filling in the gaps of the tapestry over time. This is time well spent.
Tamara Unleashed 