Go Bananas

Last night I made, for the first time, banana bread. I am very pleased at the way it turned out, yummmm. I however made a mess. There was flour everywhere, I dumped a 1/4 cup of sugar on my lap, and completely melted the butter when it said to soften it. I didn't have buttermilk so I substituted it with normal milk and vinegar, not the greatest of substitutes but whats a girl to do. In short what was said to take 15 minutes to prepare took me a hour. Oh well, breakfast was wonderful this morning.

Rain Drops on Roses

Without the roses. But when I was taking this picture that is what was running through my brain.

15 Miles...

...On the Eire Canal! My lack of blogging is not the result of my death. On the contrary, I have done something very fun and life like. I biked 15 miles on the Eire Canal! Mom planned the trip for the homeschool group families. We got four families to come, 24 people in all. We all meet in Lockport at 10:30 a.m. and it took us two hour to go the first mile. Not the greats of starts with one popped chain and a very flat tire. We took a break for lunch (before we even got started) then with smiling faces, headed on towards Gasport. I must point out that almost every town around the canal ends in port. "Its all part of the adventure". "I had a mule her name was Sal, fifteen miles on the Erie Canal. She's a good ol' worker and a good ol' pal, fifteen miles on the Erie Canal." Gasport is 5 Miles from Lockport and there really isn't a lot there so we past through without stopping. The next town and our next stopping place was Middleport another 5 miles. Through this stretch of trail I was able to do 3 miles without stopping! The trail was called the canal heritage trail and it was beautiful, flat and a wonderful ride. Its my recommendation for next years tour de bridge. Our ride really was 35 miles from Lockport to Medina and then back to Lockport. The whole time I kept thinking " No matter how far you go its only half way". Most of the ride mom and I rode by ourselves, I may have done three miles without stopping but my speed was far from speedy. By the time we got to Middleport I was beyond ready for a break. A quick fact about Middleport, it is supposedly one of the best towns to raise children. At 3:30 pm we left Middleport and headed on to Calvert road in Medina, the only road that goes
under the canal and my finally resting place. Along the trail there were mile markers marking every half mile of the trail and our plan was to take our picture at marker 15. But sadly the signs stopped at marker 12. I almost didn't make it but the lack of access to the trail kept me going ( you can only get the the trail by the bridges, every 5 miles or so). From our group only 5 people made the whole 35 miles. I stopped in Medina and most everybody else stopped in Middleport. Everybody was back in Lockport by 8:00 pm. We all met at a Chinese place for supper which was the perfect end to a good day. "Low bridge everybody down, low bridge 'cause we're coming to a town. You'll always know your neighbor you'll always know your pal if you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal"