Bear Creek

Crazy stuff happening these days. Kathryn's folks were planning on coming up for Thanksgiving, so we planned on having it with them while they were here. But! Two weeks back, Kathryn went in to get an MRI as the first steps of going to see a specialist about some back and neck pain she's been dealing with for a while. We're officially old though, so pfft. Probably just standard old people stuff, right? Nothing to fret over. Maybe some PT... Anyway, she gets the MRI, they make us wait around for an hour while somebody reads it, then finally send us home. We're happy about that because we were missing the LSU game. And, then we get a phone call urging us to come back. Already long story short(er)... She had to have urgent disc replacement surgery and spent a couple of days in the hospital. Meanwhile her dad came into town and spent a week with us, mainly ferrying Sophie around, shopping, and holding things down on the home front while we were either at the hospital, or getting back into the swing of things afterwards.

Making it back up for Thanksgiving a week after leaving to go back to Louisiana would have been a tall order, but it was made even taller by him getting really sick on the way back and still not being recovered a week later.

So, where all of this is going is... Mulberry Gap was having Thanksgiving dinner, and we'd written off going up for it, but it was now, again, a possibility. So, we had our own Thanksgiving dinner a day early, which worked out well for Iz and her boyfriend, and me and Sophie went up to MGap Thanksgiving afternoon and ate with them.

Good food and good times.

I got in a good night ride, while I was at it, and it felt like I was carrying around an extra pack's worth of gear in my belly. I rode up to Holly Creek Gap, hung a left and took the Bear Creek trail down from there.

There was a mylar balloon in the middle of the trail somewhere in there.

Rare to see them on the actual trail.

I'd washed my kit, but then managed to forget all of it at home. Fortunately I had an old Reality Bikes long sleeve jersey and some fleece running tights in my duffel bag. I had, somehow, managed to bring my shoes and helmet. And, my gloves were just still in my helmet from my last ride. So, clothing worked out. I was happy to have the fleece tights too. It was chilly. Not properly cold, but chilly.

We spent the night in The Trails End cabin. I slept quite well, though I forgot to put a water bottle next to me. All I had was half a bottle of Dr. Pepper. It was weird to wake up and drink that instead of water. It's like the exact opposite of what you should drink in the middle of the night - sugar and caffeine. When we went to bed, the radiator had only been on like 30 minutes. A few hours later it was toasty and Sophie made me turn it off. Then a few hours later it was chilly again and I turned it on half way. I'll have to remember that, or maybe just remember to dial it down or something. But, full-on is a bit too much if it's in the 40's outside.

Ahh, morning.

We had the standard delicious MGap breakfast - pancakes, fruit, eggs, etc. For some reason, I love the fruit. It's just strawberries, bananas, and blueberries. I could totally mix that together at home, but somehow it's special when I eat it there.

Diane was in town, so I got to see her again. This time, she was up with her husband though, and her grandson Gage, whom I've heard a good bit about over the years. Cool to finally put a face to the name.