A Beautiful Day!

Today was one of those perfect fall days that you just gotta love. Of course I got a late start to the day, since I had great difficulty falling asleep last night. Whats up with that?

Anyways, I opted to go mountain biking on one of my favorite hiking trails out in the Pigeon River today. I thought that the leaves would be much closer to peak than they were, so I was kind of disappointed. Of course that only means one thing, I'm going to have to get back out there again. I believe it is Pheasant Season now, and there were a lot of gunshots surrounding me. The only thing that made me look any different from an animal would have been my red camelpack. Guess it is time to bring out the bright clothing so that I don't become some sort of hunting statistic. So I rode a little over 11 miles, and have added some pictures of my trip. And, I had my first "accident" on a bike since for as long as I can remember. I was on a narrow, winding and twisting boardwalk (coincidentally my favorite part of the trail when I hike it), when I turned too sharp to go around a corner and my rear tire fell off the boardwalk into the muck. And so did I. My left hip landed on a nice hard root, which should leave a kick ass bruise! I twisted my ankle pretty good, although it feels alright right now. So I got up, brushed myself off, had a nice chuckle and finished the trip. I actually didn't even get dirty. I saw many deer while I was out there, but unfortunately the camera was in my pack, so I didn't get any photos. Maybe next time I'm out on foot I'll get some pictures of them!

So after my ride, I stopped by the parents house for a free meal. Gotta love the fact that I'm 28 and still drop by for free food! I also had some extra time to take the puppy out to the woods for some more trail walking. Here is a photo of her. Overall, a good day, even if I am a bit sore right now. My ass hurts to sit, so I've been laying in bed patiently waiting to get sleepy enough to shut the lights off.

Unfortunately, tomorrow there is supposed to be rain. I'm bummed......

Days Off!!

After working a night shift Thursday night, I've been off. I remember what it is I dislike about working midnights.....the drunks. Who starts drinking in the middle of the day than carelessly passes out on someones lawn so that the cops and ambulance have to bring you to the ER? Where you puke and swing at the nurses and doctors and are just obnoxiously drunk. Lots of people. Some nights it is like working in a drunk tank. It was one of those nights. But that is all a distant faded memory now....

After sleeping most of the day away on Friday, Addison and I spent a chilly rainy night in Traverse City and than totally lost track of time in the casino until 3am. Now I am not the gambling type at all, but gosh do I love to people watch! We eventually made it home than proceeded to sleep most of Saturday away also. We did muster up enough energy to go mountain biking. I'm getting a little more braver, and am having a lot more fun with this. He has no fear, lives for speed, and races motorcycles and dirt bikes. I, of course, have seen accidents from mountain biking and the resulting injuries that can incur and that stays in the back of my mind. We did have fun, but it totally emptied our energy tank.

My parents went out and got a new puppy this weekend, a 10 month old golden retriever that they named Bailey. She is the cutest damn thing. Since she was going to be locked up in a cage all day, I went over there today to release her and take her to the trails for some hiking. She did fairly well, considering her size, but was tuckered out after not even two miles. She is a ways away from being in any shape to hike the Appalachian Trail with me! I'll be sure to snap some pictures of her to add to the blog.

A couple more days off before I head back to work to work 6 night shifts. That should be just in time for the full moon! Giddy up!!

Damn it's Cold!

When I left work this morning, there was what seemed to be an inch of frost on my car. Okay, maybe not an inch, but enough where I had to scrape the windows to leave. The temp was 27 freaking degrees! I hate cold mornings! Although it did help keep me awake all the way home....

Work, work, work....

Basically, that's all I've been doing, is working. It has been busy at work too, which just wears me out. Because that is all I've been doing, and the fact that I can't share any of my fabulous stories, I really don't have much to say. The weather up here has been incredibly shitty. Cold and rainy. In the forecast, is a possibility of snow tomorrow night. That is exciting! I guess it is time to shut the bedroom window. That is sad and depressing.

Speaking of sad and depressing, how about the current economy. I don't watch the tv and the news for a reason. I like to go about my business and be all naive' about everything. Unfortunately, with everything going on, it is big enough for even me to find out about.

But, I'll just continue on with my life just like I've been living it the past 28 years. Tomorrow night I will go to work. And than on my stretch of days off I have a friend visiting, and we plan on doing some mountain biking and hiking. I'll be sure to take pictures! More later....

I'm Cycled Out!

Well, a couple of days ago I went over to Charlevoix, and biked 18 miles between there and Petoskey. God it was beautiful out there! The leaves are starting to turn, the sun was shining, it was just a great day. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and therefore have no pictures to share. Well worth the trip, but my legs were feeling it the next day. But after I got home from there, I hauled the kayak down to the lake to float around for a bit. There were actually people out on the lake tubing. Which I think was awesome. Granted they weren't out there very long, since the water was freezing, but kudos to them for giving it a go! Overall, it was a great day in the sun!

Yesterday, I worked until 3am. It was one of those days where everything that popped in my head fell right out of my mouth. Does anyone else have these days? The fact that I had too much sugar in my system didn't help! I was rather hyper, too much pepsi for me that day! I could feel my face turn beat red from things that I shouldn't have said. Funny thing was, I didn't even care. I made a couple of great first impressions on some new traveling nurses. And the one traveler that I can barely tolerate, I think he got the hint that I just can't stand him. My permanent co-workers would just shake their heads and laugh, and encourage me. Like I needed encouragement that day! I have a friend who helps me out in situations like these. We have a code word we use when one of us starts digging a hole for ourselves. Where was he when I needed him? It is centipede by the way. Which just makes us bust out laughing when one of us blurts it out. The stories I could tell.....

And today was another gorgeous day. I woke up after having little sleep, but full of energy. So I opted to go give mountain biking a whirl. Real mountain biking. I have a good bike, but have never tried this activity for some unknown reason. So in the beginning, I thought it sucked and contemplated just quitting after not even a quarter a mile. But I made myself stick with the entire 6 mile loop, and ended up loving it. It has a hint of danger in it, when you're flying down some of these hills at a high rate of speed and hitting every root and bump along the way. No, I didn't fall, and no I didn't hurt myself. Although my calves are killing me sitting here typing this. It is a lot harder than I anticipated! All I could envision while I was doing this, was how similiar the trail was to when my brother and I were riding our bikes as kids and he fell and got a concussion. In a sick way, it made me laugh.

Cheers!

The Great Outdoors!

I finally have time to post some pictures from my recent adventures. I took a trip up to Escanaba last week to attend a conference on Forensic Nursing. I talked my co-worker into going up a couple of days early to do some hiking. So we went out to the peninsula at Big Bay De Noc, where there were hundreds of monarch butterflies that were preparing to migrate down to Mexico, and were getting ready to set off across Lake Michigan. Guess I am niave' and didn't think butterflies migrated that far! Anyways, there was an awesome lighthouse at the point. It was built in the late 1800's and is no longer functionary. There was discussions of tearing it down a couple of years ago, but funding was found and it was restored to its current state. You are able to climb up the spiral staircase to the top where you have a 360 degree view. It was pretty cool! We also visited a couple of waterfalls while we were up there. I just love the UP.

Once I got back, I headed back to work for a dreadful 7 day stretch. Overall, it wasn't too bad. I survived.

Since being off, I've been out on the bike quite a bit. I've been riding to my friends house everyday to feed her cat while she is in Ireland. It is only a couple mile trip, but it forces me to get out there. I've also ridden into town a couple of times. I set out to the Pigeon River yesterday and did a rather quick 10 mile hike. There were some pretty dark clouds headed my direction, and it gets dark a lot earlier than I realized, so I didn't have much time to waste, but did snap a couple of pictures while I was out there. I'm hoping to head back in a couple of weeks, when the leaves should be at their peak.

Tomorrow, I'm getting up early to head over to bike along Lake Michigan, between Charlevoix and Harbor Springs. The weather is supposed to be in the upper 60s. Lets just hope it isn't too windy! More later....

A New Bike!

A friend of mine is letting me borrow, with the potential to buy, her road bike. I've found out most people don't know what a road bike is. I currently have a mountain bike, which is awesome for the dirt roads and trails in the area. A road bike, which some people call racing bikes, have super skinny tires are extremely light and are meant only for paved roads. The thing I was most apprehensive about was the clipped shoes, where your shoes lock right to the pedals. This is great because you are able to use all your leg muscles to both push the pedals down and pull them up. It also makes getting off the bike in a hurry, quite tricky. Anyways, since the weather was good today, I took it out for a spin. A long spin. This bike is super fast, and super fun. I went all around the neighborhood, than I rode it to my parents house and back. Altogether, about 20 miles. But a funny thing happened on the way back home. I had a late dinner with them, and didn't leave there until after 8pm, which it now starts to get pretty dark shortly after 8. About half way home, there was a mini-van pulled over on the side of the road. The passenger door was open, and there stood a very old man, probably in his 80s, not only vomiting next to the car, but he also had his pants pulled down to his knees. I'm not sure exactly what was going on there, and I made it a point to keep my eyes on the road. I didn't want to see anymore than I already had. Just a funny, yet disturbing story I had to share. Sorry to anyone who spent anytime visualizing that one.