Friday 2/19 bike Neil went  riding…13.62 miles, 14.97 mph 54:36; he headed east and modified the Eco Loop because it was really windy…his original plan was to head westish out of the park but by the time he got the mile out to Bayshore Road the wind had changed his mind…westish meant that it would be east heading home and you never want to be going upwind on the way home. So he headed east and north hoping to have a tailwind on the way back…turned out that he only had one on the relatively short south legs of the route and sort of a quartering wind on the west legs on the way home. After the ride we headed out t the Elks about 1600 to be volunteers at the Friday night fish dinner…Neil’s the cashier and Connie is the hostess calling people back for dinner. We sold about 130 dinners and finished up around 1845…sat at the bar and ordered our $1 volunteer dinner. The waitress came out and said they were out of fish…turns out that they had only kept 3 portions aside for the cooks…they didn’t know about us. We should have turned in our order earlier so they would know we were there…and we’ll do that next time. Neil thought it was pretty disorganized that they didn’t count the number of volunteers and make sure they kept enough fish to feed them…but then most people are pretty disorganized. We had a pizza from the bar and then headed home…figured that we learned our lesson (actually we were inadequately trained as to when to put in our order it turned out) and that pizza dinner instead of fish was just the price of being a volunteer sometimes.

 

Saturday 2/20 Connie cantered the 1600 mass and then we picked up some wings from Hobgody’s and had them a a bottle of wine for dinner afterwards. 

 

Sunday 2/21 Bike another ride21.34 miles, 15.16 mph 1:24:29; went west on the extended Pritchett Loop with only moderate wind.

 

Tuesday 2/23 was Bingo and we had our usual hotdogs for dinner…Connie didn’t win (again, she hasn’t won since the 2nd or 3rd week we were here…it’s gotta be her turn soon). Fortunately…the two big jackpots were both won by people sitting at the bar and it’s sort of a tradition for the Bar-Bingo Group that big winners buy a round for the bar only…so we got 2 beers each for free and Neil got another one for schlepping a keg of beer from the cooler in back to the bar area. Marlene also gave us our ticket back from our missed fish dinner on Friday with a note that we got a free one this week.

 

Thursday 2/24 we did nothing…Connie’s been working all pay period…she hit her max of 40 hours per 2 weeks in both of the past two periods as she’s deep in the throes of getting 3 different classes scheduled for rotations…but we did go down for Tacos at the Elks for dinner…you just can’t complain about Taco Salad Bowls for $4 each for dinner…beers and dinner and change left over (well, just a little since we had extra beers) from a 20.

 

Friday 2/26…another ride12.24 miles, 15.93 mph 46:08; another fairly windy day so he went short on the standard Pritchett Loop…although that wasn’t due to the wind. He hadn’t ridden in 5 days since he wore a hole in his behind somehow last Sunday…it was right where you sit when you’re hunched over in the drops on the handlebars. He figures he had a fold in his shorts or something but took a few days off to let it heal. Since we had a free fish dinner coming we headed out about 1600 again…finding only 1 seat at the bar so Connie sat and Neil hung our next to her until a couple seats opened up around the far side. We turned in our free fish dinner ticket…then Marlene the bartender came out with news from Mindy the head cook that not only did we get dinner today free to make up for the one we paid for last week…but that we got a gratis chicken dinner next Monday since it was the cook’s fault we missed out. We didn’t expect that…but winner, winner, chicken dinner…so we’ll take it. That means we have to modify our planned menu over the weekend since Sunday was scheduled to be chicken on the barbie…but we can handle that. 

 

Whilst we were at dinner it occurred to us that we only have about 6 weeks or so before we head out for the travel season…and a bunch of restaurants we haven’t been to yet this year…so we gotta make up a plan and put them on the schedule. Sushi…Ragged Ass Saloon…and a few more that we got to hit before we leave.

 

Ok, no post is complete with a few pictures so here ya go.

 

What else needs to be said…Jesus was here.

 

 

Apropos comment about the ongoing political season.

 

 

For our friends in the northland.

 

 

I don’t think Noah is gonna be able to breed these lions.

 

 

Hmmm…something wrong with this installation methinks.

 

 

And finally…the eaglets of Harriet and M15 are getting bigger…sorry about the lousy quality but it’s a screen shot from the webcam. They’re both eating well and growing fine…they likely won’t fledge before we leave the area though as that’s normally about the 90 day point and they’re just about 30 days old now. Size wise they are about 2/3 as big as the adults at this point though…