June 2019

One of the best things about being alive is welcoming new babies into the world!  My nephew, Ryan, and his wife, Lily, just gave birth to Helena Wagner.

Helena, named after Ryan's Grandma Helen.

My second cousin, Allison, and her husband, Ryan, gave birth to Payton.

My cousin Nina holding her newest grandchild with big brothers watching.

Most of my riding friends are still doing Tour de NE, but I have given it up.  I train with them and  I love riding with them. 

The last ride before TDN.

Che SoDo offers Monday night jazz and Rusty and I love to go there.

My Loveknotters friends and I enjoyed an afternoon of wine and snacks at Lorraine's lovely back yard and garden.

Lorraine, Linda, Jan

Di, Linda, Jan

My friends and I rode to Kramer, NE and back on one of the most perfect riding days ever!

Clayton, Annette, Steve, Di

At the Kramer Cemetery:  Doreen, Annette, Di, Steve

Celeste turned 10 and we enjoyed having dinner with her at her favorite Mexican restaurant.

Celeste with a child's margarita.

The wait staff brought her this hat and sang Happy Birthday.

Rusty and I joined some of his musician friends on their annual canoe paddle down the Niobrara River, near Valentine, NE.  We decided to take our two solo canoes, which meant that we needed two vehicles in order to do the shuttle at the end of the canoe trip.  (Valentine is 312 miles from Lincoln)  It rained almost the entire way out.  The trip went awry when we took the wrong exit at Grand Island.  Because our Mini Cooper takes a special high-octane gas, we wanted to stop in Grand Island and fill the tank before venturing into country that is more desolate.  We spent nearly and hour in Grand Island trying to find a gas station with high-octane gas.  (Siri was no help as she kept directing me to gas stations in Topeka, KS.  Don't cha love Siri?)  When we finally arrived near our destination, we had 5 miles of a sandy, country road to get to Rocky Ford Campsite.  The Mini Cooper only got high-centered once, and we made it.

Here we are at Rocky Ford Campground.  Got the tent up before it rained.

Grilled steak over charcoal fire, broccoli salad, potato salad and beer.  Yum!

In the evening there was a bonfire with friends, including Senior Peter.

The next day our paddle down the river was gorgeous weather!

Di, readying for the launch

Rusty, readying for the launch

Hard to tell from pictures, but the water was high and fast.

 I only took pictures in the calm water places.  We had plenty of class I and a little class II.

Pretty country

Di in her solo

Rusty in his wood-and-canvas, which unfortunately sustained a slight puncture on the rocks.

Time out

Wringing out the sponge.

Top of Smith Falls

Playing at the bottom of Smith Falls

Our trip back to Lincoln was even more memorable than the trip to Valentine. 

Pretty country

The northwest part of Nebraska is both beautiful, and desolate.

This picture was taken just south of Bassett, NE.  There was a fresh-kill deer in the middle of the road that was unavoidable.  Rusty drove over it.  I was behind him in the Mini Cooper and tried to straddle it.  There was a very loud clunk just behind the driver's seat, but thankfully no warning light came on so I assumed there was no major damage.  Then Rusty pulled off the road because he had a flat tire.

A piece of deer bone punctured the tire.  We had to untie the canoes, unload most of our gear, pull out the spare, and begin the changing process.

Are we having fun yet?

Side note:  Rusty was awesome!  There was no yelling, no swearing, no tears!  I read to him from the owner's manual and he successfully changed the tire.  (I think it speaks well for us when after 11 years of marriage we can handle this type of stress with ease.)  The donut tire cannot be driven over 50 mph, so it was a very, very, very long trip home.



First Plymouth Women's Salad Supper hosted mathematics professors Kristie Pfabe, Phd (Weseleyan Professor) and Steve Dunbar (UNL Professor) to talk about Gerrymandering.  They shared mathematic formulas that can be used to predict outcomes of Gerrymandering.  The Supreme Court recently ruled that this is a state issue.  What is your state doing?  NE currently has two bills in the legislature regarding this issue.  Will either of them pass?  If they do, will Gov. Ricketts sign them?

Gerrymandering is a huge issue which we should all be paying attention to!

One afternoon I took a garden tour sponsored by East Campus Community Organization.  Many of the gardens were beautiful and inspirational.

This picture was taken inside a greenhouse that was built in the backyard of one home on the tour.

(In case you didn't see it on FB, all 95 feet of the path in my own garden are now complete.)

Lots of plantings yet to do, but at least now the garden has structure.

My Loveknotters friends and I did high tea as an early Christmas celebration.

Today, June 30, Rusty and I went to JTK restaurant to celebrate 11 years of blissful marriage!

Never pass up the chance to have your picture taken with The Watchful Citizen of Lincoln.

May 2019

How wonderful it is to be retired and able to celebrate good times with old friends!  This dinner group started back in the '80's.

Di, Greg, Linda, Lorvey, Peggy, Rusty

It has been a very cold, wet, windy spring so my rides have been pretty limited.

55 mile ride to Wahoo and back

On Derby Day, Rusty fixed me a mint julep to enjoy in the swing.

Rusty and I took our usual May trip to the Boundary Waters, however this one turned out to be quite the unplanned adventure.  Because we have to portage all of our gear, weight is always a huge consideration.  We are constantly looking for ways to save a few ounces.  This year Rusty purchased a very small axe to replace our larger, heavier one.  We were on Knife Lake, which is on the Canadian border.  We were 9 miles of paddling and 5 portages from the nearest outfitter, and another half hour from town.  We had set up camp, fished a little, gathered firewood, and were just starting to set up for happy hour before dinner.  Rusty was splitting small logs into even smaller pieces so that they would burn better in our fire.  When one wields a small axe, it requires a lot of physical force to make up for the lightness of the axe.  Unfortunately, Rusty's full-throttled swing missed the log and landed in his left hand.  Blood immediately went everywhere---and I mean everywhere. Steve came to the rescue and pinched the opening in Rusty's hand closed and helped Rusty hold his hand in the air.  After a very long time the bleeding slowed and we were able to clean and dress the wound as well as one can in the wilderness.  Rusty had to hold his hand in the air the entire evening, even through the night.

Bloody Rusty and Steve holding the offending small axe

As daylight began to appear (after very little sleep) we had a quick breakfast and then formed a plan.  Steve and I would paddle our tandem canoe and Rusty would sit in the middle holding his hand in the air.  We left nearly all of our gear in camp.  Steve had already climbed to a very high hill and was able to send a text to the outfitter who would send in a boat as far as is allowed in the BWCAW area.  This saved us about 3.5 miles of paddling.  After the 5.5 miles of paddling and 5 portages, Rusty and I were motor-boated to the outfitter landing and then drove to the ER in Ely, MN.   The ER doc said it had been too long since the accident to put in stitches.  He and several nurses admired the cleanness of the cut and said it must have been an extremely sharp axe.  (No surprise Rusty keeps his tools nicely sharpened.)  The wound was cleaned and some steri-strips were applied to pull the skin together, and then everything was wrapped.

Meanwhile, Steve had paddled and portaged our tandem canoe back to the campsite.  He took a nap while it rained and then awoke to a full moon.  He packed up our tent and all of our gear, packed his own tent and all of his gear, and made it across 3 lakes and portages in the middle of the night.  The next morning he began the long trip out.  Because of all the gear and two canoes, Steve had to quadruple portage, which meant crossing the portages 7 times.  While paddling he put all of the gear in the front of our tandem to balance his weight and then attached a rope to tow his own canoe behind the tandem.  What a guy!

Steve made it back to town and we sorted out our gear.

This spring Steve splurged for a new topper on his pickup, but resorted to homemade racks for carrying canoes.

While waiting for Steve to arrive, we took a short trip to see the Kawishiwi Falls.

A rather unusual tree along the Kawishiwi Trail.

Meanwhile, back home...

Between spring rains, I tried to get most of my garden planted.  Each year I harvest seeds from the Zennia flowers to use again next year.

I look like I'm processing drugs.  In reality I'm separating Zennia seeds from the flowerheads.

Pretty flower pics from our garden area:

Pierce (grandson, 11 years old) and I had our 3G Adventure (GiGi and Grandson) over Memorial Day weekend.  We rode the Pedaler's Jamboree ride on the KATY Trail in Missouri.  What a blast to have one-on-one time with my grandson!

Pre-ride picture

Every few miles we were entertained by local bands.

There's lots of craziness when bikers gather.

The lion bike

The mermaid bike

Lunch break for us on the bandstand.

Friendly horses

The Kay Brothers were awesome!

We overnighted in Booneville at a wonderful park.  Our tent was at the top of the hill.

Pierce liked the hatchet throwing.  (We won't let Rusty do this!)

Pierce is a pretty good juggler.

We had a half-hour fireworks show after it got dark.

Picking up our bags at the end of a great trip!

I gathered a group of my friends and we participated in the Women's Build Project for Habitat for Humanity.

Annette, Pat, Mary, Doreen, Sissy, me, Cathy
Back row: Chris (project leader), Ivan, Rick

One woman working, 3 guys watching!

Lunch break

Awesome women!!!