Beast and More - My Weekend

The Mini’s paperwork is all done and the little Beast is mine, except that I am having the dealer hold it for a short time. I drove it on Friday and wow – this is going to be fun. I feel a bit decadent, and several people (including my oldest) have called it my mid-life crisis. But crisis or not, it is a fun car that I plan to enjoy for many, many years. And it makes me smile, which in this crazy world is always a good thing!

As for the rest of the weekend, we mostly ran errands on Saturday, but on Sunday enjoyed a little bit of time in Historic St. Charles. We wanted to check out the Missouri River levels since we plan to paddle next weekend and add a bit more distance on to our plan to cross the state. The picture, above, shows how high the water is up, as well as all of the debris in this particular spot. I’d heard that further upstream they had changed water flow levels to alleviate flooding; this shows the effect on our area. We’ll keep an eye on it this week and with any kind of luck, paddle another 20 to 30 mile piece next weekend.

Have I said that I really enjoy Historic St. Charles? There are plenty of small shops, restaurants, and wineries. We found a new place yesterday called called Figuero's, a coffee and food shop. We strolled in accidentally, with the promise checking out their hot sauce collection. It was far more than we anticipated! They have something like 2,000 different hot sauces! Along with all sorts of other seasonings, rubs, salsas, etc. Very cool! Yes, we bought and yes, we even ordered some special stuff. Loved it.

And that was capped by a sampler at a local brew pub while we watched the Cardinals get beat up by the Royals. At least the beer was cold!

Run Around

I haven’t done a running update recently, at least not since the successful half-marathons. Let’s just say, I love running in the summer, and I love running when I am not training for anything.

As for summer, yes, it’s hot and yes, this means I arise super early to knock out a run before the heat gets too out of control. But that’s ok because that means I run almost every day and gosh, does that ever feel good!

As for not training, I’ve had many conversations with many people about this. Many runners I know thrive on having that “goal” in front of them – a new PR in some race or another, a half-marathon, a marathon. They like the carrot that awaits them after weeks of training. I simply don’t need that. I like to run to get outside, to move my limbs, to clear my head, and for any number of other reasons.

Sometimes the reason is simply to see the sites in my little town. On my morning run, I regularly go by a house that is a bit… creepy. It sits low to the ground, as if there is no basement; the lawn us overgrown, though occasionally cut; there is sometimes a trailer, loaded with debris, that is eventually hauled away; seldom are there any lights on. Really, I don’t see many signs of life. But then this morning – there were more than a dozen trash bags on the curb, all ready for pick up tomorrow. What? I spent the next mile on creating the story that goes along with all of that and wondering what was in the trash bags (I’m seriously wondering if there wasn’t a hoarder in the house at some point?).

The mile after that, I started the naming process for my new Mini. I think I have a name picked out, but I have to be properly introduced to know if it fits. (If it does, trust me, you’ll know it soon as well.)

The last two miles were a cacophony of thoughts that had resolved into beautiful quietness by the time I reached my driveway.

So yes, I continue to run and love every minute of not having a carrot, other than my driveway, at the end.

Introduction

Tomorrow I am to be introduced to a beauty that looks like this! Only the one I'm going to meet will be MINE!

Test Drive

Because I don't know what to do with myself, I decided to test drive a Mini Cooper over the weekend. Let's just say, "Wow! What fun!"

Perhaps there is one in my future?

The Thing About Parenting…

The thing about parenting is that you “think” you are all ready to send your child out in the world when she is 18, but then she leaves for a month to work at a totally cool Young Life camp and you are nothing but sad because you know you’ll miss her.

Bit of My Weekend

Our weekend included a very nice paddle on the Missouri River (have I mentioned that this river is becoming my favorite paddling river?). We started in Washington, Missouri and ended at the Weldon Springs Access. Water levels are high – flood stages are listed, below, so the river was quite fast. Given how high the water was we couldn’t really stop (water was at the bottom of most trees so any kind of sandbar was hidden), so we stayed on the water the entire trip. However, the water was also moving pretty quickly, around 5 to 7 mph most of the time. Needless to say, we covered the trip quickly, in right at 4 hours. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon!

Of course, never one to be without a project or goal in mind, I started to talk with M about the idea of traveling the Missouri River from one side of the state to the other. He is game so this may, perhaps, become one of our upcoming goals. Stay tuned!

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Trip Details
Start: City of Washington Boat Ramp. Latitude 38.561471. Longitude 91.01024
Finish: Weldon Springs Access. Latitude 38.6568. Longitude 90.73462
Trip length : 19.7 miles

Flood Stages
Washington, MO
Flood Stage: 20
Stage on June 12: 20.4

St. Charles, MO
Flood Stage: 25
Stage on June 12: 26.2