"Riding the Drive......"

A few weeks ago, we rode in the 2nd "Ride the Drive" of the Summer, along with thousands of other people. I think we were on vacation (?) when the last one was held. We rode over to Olin Park and joined the ride at Lakeside Street, where it began on John Nolen Drive. This view is between Monona Bay and Lake Monona.

Directly between the bodies of water, and the Capitol in sight. Notice the kites?

We stopped to listen to a group of drummers who were performing in the tunnel under Monona Terrace. Notice the bicycle version of "Easy Rider" next to Don?

A video clip of the drummers.......

On a side street off of East Washington (part of which was closed off to car traffic as well), a group of guys were playing "bike polo".

They were having a good time as an ever changing crowd looked on........

We stopped at the Trek tents to take a look at the new Electric Assist models. Here Don is next to the new "cargo bike", which will be available this coming Fall. Pretty cool, eh?

A view of the Capitol from East Washington..........

Even though I was on "My" electric assist bike........Don still had to wait for me to catch up. The crowded street of bicyclists didn't make it easy to keep together, so he made the green light, while I got stopped by the red light.

A perfect day for the Ride the Drive to take place............

"Celebrating Rob's Birthday......"

Rob's birthday happened to land on a Saturday......but we celebrated it at Friday's Happy Hour! What could be better than having friends over, good snacks, and good drinks. Don sweetened the event even more by making frozen margarita's for the Birthday Boy. (Brenda, Angela's mother, and I also had them....) We broke out the sausage, cheese, dips, and crackers in honor of Rob, too. Rob isn't one for Birthday Cake, so I baked brownies for him instead, making sure we had a candle on it for him to blow out while making a wish. ;)

From left to right: Brenda, Charlie, Andy, holding Benjamin, Angela somewhat hidden, and Rob.

Brenda with grandchildren Benjamin and Becca.

Seth (or Nate, as Rob calls him) and Erin moved from their little house here on Gregory, but Seth walked over with Nevada (whom I'm holding) from their new place (approximately 3 miles away), with Erin following on her bike after getting off from work, making Rob's Birthday even more special.

The following day, Rob rode with us over to the Orton Park Festival, where we enjoyed good music and GREAT people watching. ;)

On our way home, we stopped at "Graze" a new restaurant on Capitol Square, which just happened to have outdoor seating (convenient for when riding bikes and parking them just a few feet away from our table). :)

The food was delicious and we would definitely recommend trying it out.

"Test Ride and Silver Polishing......"

Our friend, Woody, called me a few weeks ago and asked if he could come and take my electric assist bike for a test ride. He'd taken a short ride on it one night while he was here for happy hour, but was hoping I'd allow him to take it for a longer ride, so he could actually see how he liked it. Yep.....he is interested in getting one. Exciting, yes? ;)

Here he is back from a 4.2 mile ride. He loved it! He made sure that he really tested it, too, but riding up the hill on Tokay Blvd. If you know THAT hill, you'll understand why it is a good test hill. For those of you who do not know it, suffice to say that it is steep as well as long. I think a Trek Electric Assist Bike is in Woody's future........

I decided it was time to get the silver tea set out and polish it, too. I needed to take some photos of it and of course, it needed to be nice and shiny for those. Here is the sugar bowl sitting in cleaner, with the lid already cleaned. I'd also cleaned the creamer before I thought to take before photos of the pieces (seen to the right).

2 pieces finished, 1 big one to go............

Thank goodness for Tarn-X.......it worked like a charm. As you can see, it had been a long time since these pieces had been polished.

Don helped out by taking some photos, too. I think he figured that people should know that it really is me doing the cleaning. ;)

The completed set, photographed and ready to be stored again. :)

"Part 2- Our Day at the Iowa State Fair"

Above must be for those masochistic women who need a little more "support". At least 25% of the price is given to Breast Cancer Research..........

And below is for those who want to only carry the essentials and no more.......

You can see what George thinks about this, eh? :)

I have to admit....THIS VENDOR WAS MY FAVORITE! I'm salivating as I write this...... ;)

George and I found a place to sit while we took a breather in one of the exhibition buildings.....right under a huge fan! The Rose competition is behind us........

Part of the Rose competition seen from the balcony............

"The Butter Cow". As you can see at her feet and sides, there were more butter sculptures. All of them were required to use Dr. Seuss as this years theme.

A broader view of the exhibition building. (For whatever reason, the type suddenly became blue....enjoy the change, I guess, eh?)

Our last exhibit that we saw was the matchstick sculpture of Fortress Minas Tirith, from The Lord of the Rings. It was built by Iowa artist, Patrick Acton.

A broader view......

The following photo I "borrowed" from the internet. Here is Minas Tirith in its building stage.

The link to Patrick's web page (WELL worth the time to check it out!):

http://www.matchstickmarvels.com/matchstickmain.html

"Our Day at the Iowa State Fair Continued....."

One of the 1st stops that the group made was at a "Deep Fried Mac & Cheese" vendor! I'm not sure who couldn't wait to get some fried food, but I do know it wasn't Don or me. George is snapping a photo of Don as Sherry watches the dueling camera boys. Roy, Janet, and Cindy are at the counter. I think Cindy was almost jumping up and down with the excitement of it all...... ;)

The Deep Fried Mac & Cheese. We all tasted it.........it was "OK", but not something to cause me to crave it again.

A piece of "chainsaw sculpture".

A friend of Sherry's (front row, white top/denim skirt) performed in the "Country Music Line Dancing".

Roy does love to dance. Here he is with daughter Janet, dancing to the music during the line dancing performance.

More of our day at the Iowa State Fair continued in my next post............

"We Head to the Iowa State Fair!"

We drove downtown and parked so that we could take an "air conditioned" shuttle out to the fair grounds. Behind Sherry and Don is Iowa's State Capitol Building.

A full view of the buildings dome.......

The plan was to meet George, Cindy, Roy, and Janet at the Capitol (Jodie decided not to go), and we'd meet up with Scott and Valerie at the Fair. Cell phones played an important role that day..........

Our first visit to the Iowa State Fair is now truly documented. ;) No mistaking our "fair photos" for any other fair now that we have this little beauty.......I mean this photo, not Don! (although it has been said........) ;)

A partial view of the fairgrounds with its "multitudes". We were quite fortunate that the sky was somewhat overcast for most of the morning. It was VERY hot and VERY humid. The sky did clear up later and the sun came out with a vengeance, making it even hotter. Don continually handed me a water bottle to sip from and kept me hydrated. I can truthfully say that I do not ever remember being as hot as I was that day.

Tomorrow.....Iowa State Fair continued.

"Family Gathering at Sherry's......"

The night of our arrival, Sherry had made plans for everyone to gather at her house for dinner. From left to right are: Roy, Cindy, Scott, Valerie, Don, Janet, Jodie, George, and Sherry. Cindy and George came in from Las Vegas, Scott and Valerie from Kansas City, and Janet from California.

Janet decided I needed to have my photo taken as well...........

We also celebrated Sherry and Janet's birthday's, too, although they were not that weekend.

The desserts! The cake on the left was the surprise birthday cake, and the dessert on the right was the one that Sherry had made for the group. Sherry confessed later that she'd cheated when making her dessert. It was layered ice cream sandwiches, Cool Whip, and chocolate sauce. She felt guilty because everyone raved about it, so she had to "come clean" about it. ;)

Some childhood stories were brought up, too......something about Scott having an electrical cord as his "security item" (instead of a blanket) as a little boy. Of course, he strongly denies that, but George was "helping him" feel safe as Valerie (who told the story, swearing that his mother was the person who told her....) looks on and laughs along with the rest of us. :)

Tomorrow the Iowa State Fair!