Rediscovery

Last week I went on a 4 day biking/hiking/yurt camping trip with M(27) and E(20).  No, they're not robots like R2D2-- they are my daughters- initial of first name and age. Initials to keep it mysterious.

In the course of those 4 days I rediscovered a few things that I think are pretty important:

1. My daughters are AWESOME and I am madly in love with them. (Same is true for my son and I know we will solidly reaffirm this when we walk the France Camino Trail together, right A?) I say this rather sheepishly because I know we are all crazy for our children and think they are wonderful, no?

Gary Larson

But really - they are phenomenal--hard working, adventurous, humorous & fun, spiritual, athletic, talented, capable, intelligent and beautiful women.

E & M on Burnt Loop, Tobermory

E, who loves to live on the edge, felt it necessary to get up at 6:00 a.m. (it's still dark do you mind?) to hike back to the grotto & cliffs overlooking Georgian Bay where we had been the day before, so she could sit, meditate and swim again, (it was 4 degrees outside and the water not much warmer) in the bay. I told her she could easily wait until 7:00 or 8:00, but she was determined. And trust me there is no stopping her! M took me hiking on an alternate trail and talked rocks, trees, philosophy and life with me.  Her  depth, calm and positive energy totally distracted me from E's dangerous adventure.

2.  This province has some exquisite scenery. I had been here before and but had not remembered how truly magnificent the landscape and Georgian Bay in and around the Bruce Peninsula are. Biking and hiking (ya, ok and swimming in the SUMMER!) in that environment are just plain good for the soul.

(See that little head in the water- that's E the day before).


3. People love to build inukshuks--the more the merrier. What is with this craze? This was on a deserted beach on the lighthouse bike route. There were more than 7 inukshuks on this beach. Why?

Spot the inushuks

4. Women can learn spatial reasoning in a short amount of time. We had three bikes with three curly handlebars and jeez was it a challenge to get them on the  bike rack. Mr. Lovely had put them on initially and the first day it took us 40 minutes to get them back on. As we were packing the wee trunk to leave the yurt campground - I said I  sure could use Dad now and M said- "Mom, you are a strong, capable woman--you don't need a man to help you with this." It was true. You shoulda seen how I packed that trunk. It was a thing of beauty. And it took us less than 5 minutes to get those bikes on the rack. (We only had 8 minutes to check out--a cash penalty is quite the motivator!)

5. Dogs will chase bikes.  Do you mind? I'm just riding my bike along the road-living my life--don't take me down man. We got chased by 2 different dogs (and growled & barked at by a different pack of them by the side of a unpaved road). Super scary! My normal retort of "bite me" when something is annoying me doesn't really work in this situation.