Tour De Canine

First I have to apologize for going the way of Skip & missing a few days. My mom was quick to let me know she was unhappy with my lack of posts. So to bring everyone up on the week. Monday no riding. Did go to the Baby Doc but he was delivering so we saw the Baby Nurse Practitioner instead. Same old same old, except Amber had to have some blood work done to determine the cause of her ongoing daily headaches. Seems her enzymes are a bit elevated so she'll get a little more attention from the Baby Doc for awhile, plus miss a few days work to lay in bed. Tuesday saw me do nothing but sleep & again no riding. Was awoken to almost my entire family stopping by for dinner(Mother, Sister, Brother-in-law, & twin nieces) so that was pretty cool.

Wednesday was the Tour De Canine from Sponges house(Shane's but I saw who runs the roost there). From the second I pulled up the precedent was set. Sponge immediately crawled in the Scooby for an inspection. He spent about 5 minutes sniffing before I let him in on my dogs stash of treats. Then I got to watch Shane chase around the neighborhood in full kit looking for Sponge who was hiding just out of site. Finally all were accounted for: VanFasten, El Prez, Shane, FrozeToes, & Dr. Doggie.

Shane had picked out a very cool loop around the country roads of Ozark & Highlandville. This route included more dogs than I've ever seen on a ride. I'm guessing it was the Vet but I could be wrong. We even got to witness the Rasta Dogg in all his Dreaded glory. Froze Toes had to bail early to preempt a case of Frostbite on his meekly gloved hands Dr. Doggie followed him back In case of needed medical attention. While the 4 of us explored some more backroads including the 2nd gravel road of the day. I would have guessed that a guy the size of Shane would have picked a route with few hills. I have to hand it to him, lots & lots of climbing included the finish up the dreaded Alpe De Sponge(had to finish with a dog reference). Shane has come onboard with the idea of all early season hills should be rode in the saddle which both of us managed with some struggle with a 23 being the smallest gear(might have to rethink that). Ended up with a good 2:37. The plan is to add a few more hours this week & next in a build up to J1's base miles.