Sad Sad Day

Today did not start out well. We had to put our dog down this morning. We had made an appointment for 8:30 am today. Our dog was close to 17 years old and had lived a good life...but it was still a very, very hard thing to do. I knew when it was all said and done, it was going to be a day for the bike. The bicycle is a nice machine for me. It not only keeps me in better shape than I would otherwise be, but also a very good place to contemplate whatever may be on the mind. Also, the calmness, peace and scenery that comes with it...great. You can obviously see a lot more by this means of travel. We really noticed that last week while we we on our bicycle camping trip as would leave the trail and ride through the small towns along the way.

I started out heading to Solon Springs and through what the locals here call the bird sanctuary...to the Gordon flowage...back to county M and out to highway 35 and back M to West Mail Road. I like to ride highway M as today on the way back across to my turn, about 10+ miles, I met 1 car. It is a very rough ride in a car, but on the bicycle it is great. It was a 48 mile ride with about 2 hours 50 minutes of saddle time. I would find myself with my head down thinking and not paying attention to the road at all...then catch a glimpse of the nice scenery that I was traveling through...slow down and smell the roses for a while...then back at it...a yo yo effect. The Bird Sanctuary

This is the dog cemetery in the the sanctuary. It was ironic that I ended up riding by here today...didn't plan it and have not been by here since last fall. The first pet I was attached to is buried here. We now have a pet cemetery on our property at home.

This is the entrance from county M. I do some mountain biking out here. Miles of rut roads with most of it being no motorized vehicles.

When I got to highway 35, I went up the highway a short distance to this wayside and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then headed it for home.