Thank you so much for nominating my entry, Cold Heartless Bitch for best coverage of a news event.  (I'll love you even more if you to to the Diarist Net voting page and vote for it as well!)   And congratulations to all the other nominees, especially SecraTerri, The Bitter Hag, and Charlene of Are We There Yet?

MOM HAS A GREAT DAY!

[first off, thanks to The Real Diary Critic for reviewing this journal. I was very pleased with the review. It is dated May 12 and can be seen here.]

13 May 2002

There is nothing more lovely than waking up to find URL waiting for me, and knowing that we are going to spend time together today.

Today was the day that Haggie and I made plans to ride the American River bike trail, starting at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery. I'd been looking forward to this all week. I can't believe how jazzed I was to be doing this ride.

I spent the early morning getting everything ready--the right clothes, my helmet, my cool gloves, the new camera, bum bag (fannie pack), water, directions, etc. When all was finally loaded into the car, I started to hop in and take off. "Can I ask one question," Walt asked. Impatient to leave, I sighed and stopped to hear his question. "Are you planning to take your bike?"

In all the rush to get the other stuff packed, I'd completely forgotten the bike. Doh! But that was easily remedied and in no time at all, I was finally on the road again, URL looking perky and ready to have a good time.

The trail itself is 32 miles, starting in Folsom and ending in Sacramento. We weren't that nuts. But we did plan to go out for a couple of hours. When we returned to the parking lot one hour and 40 minutes later, we had traveled seventeen miles. I could not believe that I could make a 17 mile bike trip and still be standing (if only barely) at the end. It was a fantastic experience.

We planned to meet at 9, but we both got there early and met up around 8:45 (after I finally found the right parking lot!). We were on our bikes and on the trail on the dot of 9 a.m.

(If I'm not mistaken, we started at about the point
on the right edge of this map)

The bike trail is a lovely one. It wends around and follows the river, but it's not a straight shot, like the trail we took a few weeks back, which followed the canal in Walnut Creek. There's lots of greenery, lovely views...

and we even encountered a deer crossing the road in a deserted stretch. (Of course our cameras were in the camera bags, so we didn't get a picture of her). But the goose family sailing along the river moved more slowly and I had time to shoot their picture.

It's a popular venue for bikers and joggers, and there were lots of both on the path, but still you definitely had the feeling of being out communing with nature.

This is mile 15--and I'm still going strong!...sorta...

This was my first "up and down" bike ride. The inclines aren't exactly steep, but enough to cause me to downshift and make my legs know that they were working. But I'm very proud of the fact that I only had to walk up ONE hill--and that was about a mile from the parking lot on our way back, when I was exhausted. This was the steepest hill of the day, and came immediately after another hill I'd barely huffed and puffed to the top of.

When we got back to the parking lot, we rode through the fish hatchery to see all the little fingerlings learning how to climb a fish ladder. We read about the "artificial spawning" of salmon and steelhead trout. The salmon are killed when they are about ready to spawn (which seems rather rude!) and they are cut open to remove the eggs. (It's probably ok because a salmon dies after spawning anyway--the ultimate punishment for a fun date, I guess!).

The steelhead go through a different procedure, since they do not die after spawning, the hatchery has to figure out a different way of harvesting the eggs. "The eggs are removed with compressed air," the sign tells us. Is that the ultimate blow job? Do you suppose the fish ask each other as they leave the hatchery "so--was it good for YOU?" Sperm is then added to the eggs (the signs do not tell us how this was collected! We probably don't want to know.) and then the fertilized eggs hatch in the...uh...hatchery. Ultimately they are returned to the rivers and streams so that fisherman can catch them and eat them.

(Somehow when I had bagel with smoked salmon for lunch, I felt a little guilty!)

Back at the cars, I attached the bike rack to the back of the car and just kind of slumped over the rack, my legs and arms having suddenly turned to spaghetti. "Do you want me to put your bike on the rack for you," Haggie asked. I was too exhausted to say "No--that's all right. I can do it." But hey--she's younger than Jeri and it was Mother's Day, so I didn't feel guilty.

We said goodbye and I headed off to Walt's mother's, where I was meeting the family for brunch. I was late because Tom called from Florida, where he is attending a meeting, to wish me a happy mother's day, and I chatted with him for awhile.   He had also sent a lovely arrangement of flowers, Jeri sent a "Berklee Mom" cup from Berklee College of Music, and Ned and Marta, who joined us for brunch today, gave me a new DVD (The Big Chill).