How much cuteness would a woodchuck have?

The weekend after the MS150, I had planned to ride my bike when visiting my parents for what is turning out to be an annual Father's Day/Mom's birthday ritual. Alas, they got about 7 inches of rain that weekend, which meant that I played cribbage and Scrabble and ate brownies instead. I managed to get the dog out for a walk during a brief break in between downpours, which was lovely.

I haven't gotten out on my bike much during the week, these past few weeks, other than for errands and going to the coffee shop, a couple of restaurants, and a taproom. (All of which surely are great training for the MS Ride Across Minnesota). Instead, I've been devoting much of my time to something with a very low ROI - weeding and trying to get my grass to grow. My yard once was beautiful and bright. It's pretty sad at the moment. I don't even like grass, so this really is an exercise in patience.

I was able to get some endorphins in my system when I went for a ride with my friend Deb (who is doing the Ride Across Minnesota, too) this past weekend. In addition to getting away from my yard and getting a respite from current events, I saw some sort of raptor, a turtle, and a baby woodchuck. A baby woodchuck! It was the highlight of the ride. I think we all could use some more baby animals in our lives right now, yes?

I did not take this photo, which I found via Google images

 I hope I will see some equally cute critters when I ride next weekend!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/Maggie2018TourDeMN

Everything around us becomes better too.

“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I spent the past weekend riding my bike with 3500 other people. 46 of them, plus a few extra others who joined us during the weekend, are really special to me. Many of them are in this photo. 

Stacy's Cycling Supporters 2018

These riders and our team tent volunteers have gone outside of their comfort zones in their own ways. For some, it is the training and riding that is hard. For others, it is signing up for a two-day event with people they don't even know (a lot of our riders were introduced to us by a friend, or a friend of a friend). For others, it is setting an ambitious fundraising goal and asking people to donate. For others, it is skipping their kid's birthday.

My teammate Paul made this super cool video that shows a lot of our team and explains why we've done this for the past 9 years (or, in the case of Dave S. one of our two fundraisers extraordinaire, even longer):

https://www.facebook.com/paul.noll.16/videos/2098940423468512/

Matt and me finishing Day 1

Mark from the MS Society came to our tent
to tell us how our great team is.
We knew it already, but it still felt pretty fantastic,
despite the sedate look on my face.

My friend Jen, who is in the health care field, told me about a patient she saw today - a single mother in her 30s with children, who has MS and needs her mother to care for both her and her children. The woman wants to improve enough to be able to do a BikeMS event. If the woman is able to ride some year, we'd be honored to have her on our team. In the meantime, I will add her to the list of people for whom I will be riding during the Ride Across Minnesota in July.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/Maggie2018TourDeMN

"Get a car!"

People yell a lot of things at me when I bike. "Ride on the sidewalk!" "Use the trail!" "Get off the road!" Those are all common. I also got a wolf whistle and a "Nice a$$!" two summers ago when I was really fit. (I actually thought they said "Nice abs," leading me to wonder how they knew I'd been working on my core strength.) They honk, too. Long honks, short honks, little beepy honks.

Today's message from some dude in a car who was unhappy to be behind me on the parkway was, "Get a car!" That made me laugh. Silly boy. We have two cars! We also have seven bicycles. Maybe he wanted me to buy more cars?

Anyhow, today I was on a mission to get things accomplished. One thing on the list of things to do was self-care. Thus, I decided to, as I told my husb, "go for a short ride of about three hours." He laughed and pointed out that most people don't think of a three-hour ride as a short ride. I was gone for four, but that also involved a lunch break and some good headwinds. (The tailwinds were fantastic, by the way.)

In five days, I'll be headed to Duluth for the two-day bike ride home. I'm hoping the weather this year will be good. No matter what, though, it will be a good ride, for a good cause. Thanks, all, for helping me get closer to my goal!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2018