Rambling Sunday Ride

It's funny how navigation systems have changed our lives. We seldom get lost anymore what with GPS gadgets traveling with us.

We got up to a sunny, lovely Sunday morning. We decided to get out on our bikes for a long, rambling ride. Just to keep things interesting, we simply picked a direction and started riding. No map. No nav system. Just picking streets and roads we were not familiar with.  Getting a little lost sounded like fun.

Our first stop was the lake. We popped into Tobler Park just to see how the water was looking. While the sun had only been up for a short while, the lake was already getting choppy. It was going to be a windy day.

Next we wandered through the back roads of our little community. The place was lively with spring bunnies. They were everywhere.

On one backstreet, we saw orange cones on the roadside near an isolated home. As we got closer we couldn't help smiling at the warning signs the owner had put up on both sides of the street.

We saw a partially restored antique car, one that we had not seen in the area before.

A colorful post box decoration caught our eye. While I was taking the photograph of this bottle tree, the owner emerged from the house. He said it started with three bottles. He added some more. The neighbors added some, too. Sounds like a congenial group.

Another happy find was a home surrounded by a lovely garden. Unlike the neat and tidy garden beds in the lawns of other homes, the entire yard of this house was a garden. There was a meandering path that led to a series of cozy seating areas surrounded by a jumble of wildly blooming flowers. Gardenias, well placed along the path, perfumed the entire yard. The friendly owners even offered to give us some gardenia blooms, but we declined since we didn't think they would survive the bike ride home.

"Getting lost" around here is not about not knowing where you are. The problem is that all streets and roads are not paved for their entire length. (Or, more accurately, they haven't been repaved since they were first put in years and years and years ago.) You'll be happily pedalling along when, poof, the pavement turns into partial pavement and/or hard packed sand. Which is not really the best surface if you happen to be on a road bike.

But it was a good day for backtracking and meandering and finding ways around unpaved sections of roads. And, most importantly, we did get home in time for our Sunday lunch and a pleasant nap out on the screen porch.