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.

Ocqueoc Falls

A couple of days ago, the weather was too perfect not to go for a hike. Temps in the mid 60s with a nice cool breeze. I headed to the only falls in the lower peninsula: Ocqueoc Falls, over near Onaway. I went for a nice 7 mile hike, with rolling terrain. My knee started giving me problems again after a couple of miles. What is the deal with this thing? A doctor friend of mine thinks I may have torn something in there. How wonderful would that be? So I spent the past two days just resting it. Today though, I did opt to cut the grass, go swimming, and for a short little bike ride. After all that, it feels pretty good. So keep your fingers crossed!!

I have attached a couple of pictures of the falls. The last section of the trail (or the first, depending on where you start) follows the river for a little bit, than comes out to the falls. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people there walking around in them, so I didn't get the greatest pictures. I hope to return there in the fall, for better photo ops.

Back to work tomorrow for my exciting 6 day stretch!!

Enjoying summer!

Where have I been? Today I'm trying to rest my body from all the extensive activities I've been doing. Last Wednesday, I figured what the hell, I want to go for a bike ride. Since Gaylord finished their Rails to Trails section last year, I've been wanting to get out there. So I biked the 30 miles from Gaylord to Indian River. It was beautiful, the trail is awesome, not to mention mostly flat, so it is easy going. I plan on biking there tomorrow to visit a friend, than I'll pedal my ass back. Sounds like a good time, huh?

I finally made it to the river to do some kayaking. We've got a new nurse at work who just so happens to live on the Manistee River, so yes, most of us are taking advantage of that! A friend and I kayaked for a couple hours out there before the weather turned bad. I forgot how freezing cold that river can get. But it is a beautiful river, and most tourists stay off of it because it is a bit more challenging than the slower and shallower Ausable River. To each his own.

And yesterday, after it rained hard most of the day, I spent the evening with friends around a bonfire. Telling stories, playing with all the neighborhood kids and just taking it easy.

Today, I'm barely motivated enough to clean the house and the garage (oh my, it has never been that messy), and find some food to eat. Only a couple more days and it will be back to work. Sigh...

My Bucket List

Last night, I was able to cross off an activity from my list of things I want to do before I die. I went ghost hunting. A friend of mine and her significant other have been doing this as a hobby for several years now and have accumulated a ton of equipment. So last night they finally agreed to take me along. We went to a place near Grayling, an old ghost town called Pere Cheney. The town had burnt to the ground twice and there is an old cemetery there with over 500 people buried there. Unfortunately it is quite the party place for young kids, and a lot of the headstones have been broken and stolen. Anyways, they have had a lot of stuff happen to them out there, so that is where we headed. Now I believe in ghosts and hauntings 100%. When I was a kid I had a friend who lived in a haunted house that was an old jail than an old hotel. I've had strange things happen to me at work, and most people that work at the hospital have stories of the one haunted room there. So I was optimistic when we went out there. But, we spent 3 hours wandering around this place, and I didn't see, hear or feel anything. I understand that something isn't going to happen every night, so I would be willing to try again. They brought a couple of their friends along who are big into ghost hunting, and I would definitely wright them off as crazy. Any sound in the woods (and there were a lot of them, since we were in the middle of the woods), they would come up with some story about how that is probably a ghost. But in my mind, and in reality, I'm sure it was just an animal. They were able to fabricate a story and twist everything enough so that they would believe it was something. But, whatever, its not my hobby, so go for it! Once we got home at 3am, they did show me some of the pictures and voice recordings of things they've captured out there. So, maybe next time..........

My Hike "Gone Wrong"

After wasting away most of the day doing much of nothing, I opted to head out at 430 for a "quick" 11 mile hike on one of my favorite trails in the Pigeon River. It is an easy trail, so I figured I shouldn't have any problems getting back before dark. All was going well for the first several miles, I was making great time. Than I noticed a little bit of pain in my right knee. Thats odd, I didn't remember hurting it somehow. I did stub my toe on a root, but didn't notice any pain right away. Unfortunately, the pain in that knee got continuously worse. As long as I kept moving, it was tolerable. But to stop, for even a couple of seconds and try to go again, the pain would be more severe. Of course I was alone, way out in the middle of the woods, and had no other choice but to continue hiking. Slowly. Fortunately I made it out before it got too dark. It is always much darker deep in the woods since the little daylight that there was, was not coming down on the trail. I felt tired, sore, vulnerable and helpless. Now that I'm home, I've popped 800mg of Motrin, iced the knee, took a hot bath, but still it hurts like a b***h to stand on that leg. Imagine my dilemma. Two more perfect days before I go back to work and I'll be unable to hike, bike or swim. All my favorite past times. Whats a person to do?