The Monday Report

Well, after watching Jenn struggle along with her 30 lb tank of a bike and its malfunctioning components for another ten miles, I could not stand to see her suffer any longer. So we stopped into the Trek dealer in collegetown and ended up ordering a very pretty and fast looking aluminum frame hybrid bike, the Trek FX 7.3 WSD. It should be ready for her to pick up on Wednesday. Honestly, it was a bit out of our price range, but I have always been good at convincing myself that it's better to get the just-out-of-my-price-range thing because it will last for years. And that logic served us well yesterday. After another week of training on the tank-bike, Jenn will probably leave me in a trail of burnt rubber when she gets on her new fast bike. 

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Yes, we started our day with riding, or more accurately, with pushing our bikes up the mile long hill to the top of Cornell - according to my GPS, it's about a 325 foot elevation gain. I don't know what other people consider a long, steep hill, but it is a pretty good workout for us. By the time we finished our ten mile loop, we both had sore butts, but it was not too bad. 

After a quick lunch, we went out and walked about 7 miles, taking some trails we hadn't been on before. We were feeling fairly tired by the time we got home from that, especially since we'd gotten a late start to the whole day. So we decided to go out for some sesame tofu at our favorite Chinese diner. It's essentially a plate full of fried tofu triangles in sweet syrupy sauce, with a cup of white rice and some cold broccoli. In other words, a crap-load of simple sugars and just what we needed to power through the next 8.5 miles.

We finished our walk at around 10:30, and I think that in terms of actual walking biking time, the whole 25.5 miles took about six hours. I think with a little practice, we can cut down our biking time by a fair amount. We just have to get ourselves adjusted to being in the saddle for two hours. 

In other news, I am thrilled to announce that our story has made it onto the Girlie Girl Army blog, which is operated by fellow Farm Sanctuary staffer Chloe Jo Berman. Girlie Girl Army has a huge readership, and after having no new donors for several days, we have seen the meter go up by more than $700 in less than 24 hours, including at least $200 that I know came from GGA readers, probably a lot more. So a huge round of virtual applause to Chloe!  

Oh, and the monster yard sale at Natalie and Bryce's house was a huge success, netting (I think) about $1200! Awesome work guys! Thanks to everyone who helped make that happen!