I am 604,800 seconds, 168 hours, or 1 week away from sitting in O'Hare waiting for my plane to take me on my dream trip to Italy!
Tomorrow, I leave for Tuscan for a conference. As overwhelmed as I am feeling right now, I have to keep reminding myself how completely blessed I am to have these opportunities to do one of my favorite things in the world-travel!
Before I go, I figured I better give a brief update on the pre-departure adventures (cooking and biking) that I took on this summer.
I'll start with biking...
Free Wheel was a success and an overall memorable experience. We, Kelsey, Mallory, dad, and myself, left in high spirits around 6:00 AM to begin our 55 mile ride. The first half or so of the journey was quite enjoyable and fairly easy. We passed the time by cracking jokes--"who has three abreasts?"--and teasing my dad. However, let's just say the high spirits diminished over the course of the ride. About 15 miles from our final destination, we reached a stopping point and took a 30 minute break. Our legs were so sore and we had lost much of our motivation to continue. Nonetheless, we hopped back on our bikes and pressed on. At this point, all humor had ceased and we had spread out; Kels took the lead, Todd and Mal followed on the tandem, and I brought up the rear. With 6 miles to go, I ran out of water AND motivation to continue. I literally got off my bike and stood until a shade tree until a "Free Wheel truck" drove by, took pity on me, and gave me water. Eventually, the 4 of us, slowly but surely, made it to Pryor, America-our heaven on Earth! Kelsey's mom was there waiting with snacks; I'm not even exaggerating, food has NEVER tasted so good.
In short, I could not be more thrilled that I completed the adventure; however, I know that I couldn't have done it without my "biking buddies". At one rest stop they were interviewing people on the ride, asking "What would you tell people thinking about doing Free Wheel next year to bring with them on the journey?". Easy. Bring with you some encouraging friends and you'll be alright.
As for cooking...
I am not qualified to boast much on this adventure as I technically only cooked 2 meals this summer (not including my speciality quesadillas); however, I will say that the 2 meals I did cook were good. Darn good. The first was chicken parmesan (see below) and the other was the recipe for chicken nuggets that Jill left on my blog last time. I'm obviously still leaps and bounds away from being any kind of a cooking expert, but friends, I've come far from ramen noodles and canned soup.
Well, it's back to packing for me. In all likelihood, I won't blog again until I'm in Italy.
See you across the pond!
Ciao,
You are just fabulous.
ReplyDeleteJealous you are going to Grand Convention. I miss you more everyday.