SUMMER 2009 AND FRIENDS

It is now August, and it seems like a few days ago I was headed to Susan and Gary's for the annual 4Th of July party, summer seems to pass quickly. It has been hot, almost 100 every day for over a week. So hot we have use our air conditioning in the house. Some years we never use it, we use the Bend air conditioning system, open all the doors and windows at night and then close them up during the day.

Today Zoe and Jake wanted to go on a Mountain Bike Ride with me. I have been doing mountain biking a long time but I have no feeling of importance, I just like to mountain bike. It is an honor for me to be asked to mountain bike with Zoe and Jake. Last week it was my nephew

Georgy this week Jake and Zoe.

I have known Zoe since she was 4, maybe 3 and Jake since he was 18. I have said this before but the first 10 years I knew Zoe she responded to everything I said with a laugh and a smile.

If you have seen any photos of Jake it seems his smile is permanent. So today was special, a ride with the two biggest smiles I know. It had to be a great ride to match their enthusiasm.

We had three others start out with us, Sarah, Willie and Muffy. They weren't quite up for an epic so we started at Swampy Lakes (where we saw a guy with a windsurf board, Swampy Lake is a swamp) and went down South Fork, the other three headed off to do the whoops and we went up the North Fork, Farewell Bend, Swede Ridge and back to the car. Fun, hard and, as you can see by Zoe's legs dusty. Though it was dusty it was super for mid summer conditions. It had rained hard the last two days (thunderstorms) so Farewell Bend was the best I have ever ridden it.

Jake had a flat, and as he is our flat tyre professor, I took photos while he fixed the tyre. He had to put in a boot (the shot rapper) to fill a big gash in the tyre.

Notice the big smiles in the photo of us three. I was smiling because one is supposed to in a photo, Zoe and Jake were looking like they always do. Being 59 and being able to do the funnest thing with 20 year old is very special. I hope everyone out there knows this and tries to take advantage of it. They get to see that old people are not any different then them, and the youthful energy they have is like the fountain of youth for me.

Thanks for reading.

Don