Mar 14 - we choose to stay home

Well, I was supposed to ride but ended up spending the day on call working with David, Kim and a franchise lawyer on issues to do with the sale of their store.  Perhaps today ?

Bill and Colette left late morning for a day trip to St. Augustine to do a quick look-see and visit a friend who lives there.  The friend has MD and ALS, underscoring the old adage that there is always someone who is worse of than you. 

They made the right decision to not stay overnight with the friend because there's no way that Colette could have stayed long in the house.  The inside doorways were too narrow for her manual wheelchair and there was a six inch threshold at one point that the motorized chair couldn't overcome so she had to transfer to even get into the house.  Doorways being too narrow = not being able to use the bathroom or get into the bedroom.  Yes, they were that narrow.  The friend is still partly mobile but obviously the house will have to be modified or they'll have to move once he is completely wheelchair bound.

They were back home -- our home -- by 7pm and were served their last shrimp dinner, so I had the night off cooking.  However, I did have some cooking underway as they will be taking two loaves of bread with them -- Easter Bread and my so-called Seedy Bread.

We'll bid farewell to B&C this morning as they head north to home in Accomac Virginia.  They plan to stop in St. Augustine again for a brief visit and get somewhere north by end of day, completing the trip tomorrow.

In the next couple of weeks we expect to see Allister and Carol, who winter in Panama City FL and perhaps Angelika.  The next visitors with a definite plan are Dick and Nuala Felton who will be coming down from Sarnia Ontario, staying with us for a few days and then a week in town.  Dick will do a couple/few rides with me and then we'll do a 600k together on April 12.  Marda will come down that week while Dick and Nuala are staying in town but not with us.  After that it's David, Kim and Megan, assuming everything is finalized with the store, and Jeffrey, Sara, Emma and Zoe overlapping with D,K&M. 

That takes us almost to May 1.  Shortly afterward Sandy will head to the Philadelphia area with her car and I'll cool my heels here for a couple more days and head north with Abby.  I'll be going straight to the cottage; Sandy has something that she's seeing with "the girls" at the Annenburg Center in Philadelphia on May 8, after which she'll drive to the cottage.  Our goal is to get there sometime during the week before the Victoria Day weekend of May 17/18. 

... and there you have it, another winter gone by.  Oh yes, while the gang is here, on April 26/27, I have another 600k to round out my riding in Florida.  My riding schedule after that isn't definite, other than a couple of rides in the Barrie area on May 24/25 and, of course, the rides in Ireland and Belgium.

The summer will no doubt be busy, since Sara is due (baby) in July shortly after we return from Europe.  August will no doubt be involved with the new addition and/or supporting Emma and Zoe and no doubt also with Megan and Lauren at the cottage.  Once into September, we've got a trip to Nashville for my Natchez Trace 1500k ride which runs September 23-27.  We'll likely drive down on September 20 and return north by the 30th and then head to Florida after the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend October 11-13. 

... and there you have it, another summer gone by !!!!  Whew again !!!!

Onward !!!!!!!!!