I say this every year, but I will say it again anyway. Remember when we were young and summer used to end at the end of August, not the end of July? OK, I’m done complaining. Don’t have much to complain about. Only that we will be leaving Kentucky in five days and it’s a bittersweet goodbye. We’ve had nothing less than a two-month blast of a summer vacation, even if we did regularly participate in activities such as menu planning, grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning and laundering for eight people, and maintaining a car and a yard and a supersized family. None of that seems to matter when you can hop on the bike and take a ride in the country for an hour as the sun sets in the west (never mind the mosquitoes, they can’t keep up). Or when you can take a drive into the countryside and ride a free ferry into Illinois, shop at an Amish dairy farm and bakery, and learn the true meaning of locally made. Or when you can pack up the car for the weekend, kayaks on top, and head to one of the endless lakes with water as warm as a bath and air that stays warm far into the night and campsites within walking distance of the shore and paddling out at dusk and dawn and love, love, love. Or stepping on metal step after another into the depths of the world’s largest cave. Or swimming in Zak’s parents’ pool, eating their delicious home-cooked meals, and feeling like we are staying at a bed and breakfast. Or Bruce taking the girls to visit his family for a good long time, enjoying at last the day at the picnic area in Cades Cove that he has spent our marriage telling me about, where the girls wouldn’t get out of the creek all day and caught frogs and crawdads, saw a snake and a fawn, and had a day they will never forget. Or taking one more day at the paint-your-own-pottery place, where this time gifts for home were on their mind… Or taking a drive into St. Louis to stay in a “fancy” hotel with a circular tower, a room with a view of the Arch, walking distance to the Cardinals game (they won 8-4!), where Bruce and Zak struck up a conversation in line and got handed box seat tickets, where we could pretend for one glorious weekend that we were rich… oh, but we are, aren’t we?
But, alas, the end is near. We will spend the first half of the week indulging in a few more bike rides, one more beach day, and then begin packing our million point five items (we thought we would have so much space going home, as we brought so many items to give to Lucy, but it appears we might be heading back with MORE) into, on top of, and behind the van. We’ll head out on Friday night, make a stop in St. Louis so the girls can go in the Arch for the first time (we didn’t have time over the past weekend), and drive all night while they sleep. Then we will have just ten days to rest and recover, to rediscover our friends and our home, before reality hits. Reality being, school starts! This may seem overwhelming for most families, but for a teacher it’s double duty. Every year I feel like I’m beginning a new job all over again, and this year I kind of am. I am working with different teams and doubling up on my ESL class and teaching a computer class for the first time! It’s going to be a stressful but exciting new school year, especially since it is Riona’s first (and only) year of preschool and Mythili is entering kindergarten! Oh how the time flies… Seems like we were just pulling up, and now we will be heading out… but life is cyclical, so I’m sure we’ll be back before we know it, on two wheels or four. 
For now, here are my poems for the girls this July.
Tags: baseball, Cades Cove, camping, Kentucky, St. Louis, Tennessee
It is impossible to summarize June, and would be more adequately defined, day by day, here. Filled with bike rides that have taken me in all directions from Mayfield, first to the Mississippi River in the west, then the Land Between the Lakes in the east, even south to a Civil War battlefield in Tennessee, to wonderful excursions with the girls, everything from camping along a cove where we kayaked and swam into the night (the water being relentlessly warm), a petting farm with miniature versions of every animal you ever imagined, the beaches where the girls could spend a lifetime (five hours without a fight, complaint, or announcement of boredom), walking along the pivotal intertwining of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers in Paducah, taking the Vittetoe Express (my bike + tagalong + bike trailer–yes, a train of bicycles) to the parks and library, meeting two published Kentuckian authors (and their pets), going out to eat, visiting farmers’ markets that run twice weekly and are just blocks away, baking fresh peach pies and apple cobbler, and alas, sending my four favorite people onward to Tennessee for the next part of our summer-long journey…
It is impossible to summarize June, but for the girls, I have made my usual attempt. Here it is.
So we have been here in Kentucky for a little over a week now and have been having a great time. Karen has rediscovered her biking here, the girls experienced their first fishing trip, and there has been plenty of summer swimming.
Karen has been having a wonderful time with her biking, both solo rides and tag-along rides with the girls. On Monday Karen did a 32 mile ride along highway 80 from Mayfield to Columbus-Belmont State Park in Columbus, KY. The park sits right on the east side of the Mississippi River and is the site of a Civil War battle. The girls, Lucy, and I drove to the park to meet Karen and had a picnic lunch overlooking the river. Another thing Karen has discovered with the bike is the Vittetoe Express. That is what she calls the biking contraption she put together that allows her and all three of the girls to ride in one long train together. She takes her bike and attaches the runabout, which is a bike with only one wheel and a long arm that attaches to her bike in place of the front wheel, and makes a two person tandem bike. Then she hooks up our bike trailer to the back of the runabout and pulls two girls in it. It looks like a long bike train going down the road and she says it gets lots of attention from passersby when they see the Vittetoe Express.
Over the weekend, we had a chance to take the girls fishing for their first time. Zak and Elizabeth know some people who own a small farm with a pond and they invited us over to let the girls try some fishing. We had a great time and quite a bit of success. Each of the girls caught at least one fish each and were super excited to reel in their catch! We caught a mix of bass and blue gill which we later had as part of our dinner. While at the farm, we also got a little tour of the farmers chicken coop where they raise hens for eggs. All in all it was a great experience for their first time fishing.
Coming to Kentucky we knew it was going to be hot, but coming from the dry Colorado climate we are not quite use to the sticky humid air. So needless to say swimming will be a regular activity for us here. We bought the girls a small blow-up pool to use here at the house which has been a perfect activity for when the girls get too bored. Over the weekend we also went to Lake Barkley Resort State Park where we had a picnic lunch and a few hours of swimming. I sat this one out, the sand blah!, but the girls had a great time playing in the water and sand. Public pools are pretty scarce around here and the closest one is about a 30 minute drive. We made the trip yesterday so we could see how it is and the girls had a great time regardless of the drive.
We are trying several different activities to fill our time and so we can see more of Kentucky. This weekend we are doing at least on night of camping. Lucy’s first time! Hopefully all goes well.
First I have to say that my wife is more wonderful than I could ever dream.
Back in April Apple came out with a new device called the iPad. If you are not familiar with it you can check out their webpage about it here. It is basically a large iPod touch or iPhone except much more useful because of the larger screen. Well being the tech geek I am, I of course was very excited about the iPad. I had to curb most of my enthusiasm since it is a pretty expensive device and we couldn’t really afford buying another luxury tech item. Well little did I know that my wonderful wife was planning on buying me one for Father’s Day/birthday this year.
I had been sick for a few days and was stuck in bed, so this finally gave Karen the time she needed to get to the Apple store to pick up her surprise gift. She arrived there to find they were all sold out. She didn’t have any idea how quickly the iPads were selling out and didn’t think to call the store first. She was quite frustrated that Apple’s website said nothing about the iPads being sold out. While in the store she signed up for some service that was suppose to email her when an iPad was available for purchase. Well the guy at the store called the house instead and left a couple of messages for her. Being sick I never heard the phone ring but later heard the messages and of course ruined her surprise.
Well it didn’t all turn out bad. Me, being the geek I am, follow the tech news quite closely and knew that the Best Buy stores also sold the iPad. Yay! So we looked on their website and found one store in our area that had the exact model she wanted to buy. We made the quick jaunt down to the store, with Karen speed driving all the way, and was able to pick up the iPad before our trip.
Needless to say, Karen is a very thoughtful and loving wife who treats her husband way too good.
Thank you for such a great gift babe!
Oh and I was able to type this post using the iPad and the onscreen keyboard. With a little getting use to, it works very well.
