We have been in the States for almost two weeks. We spent five days visiting my parents in Florida and it was so good to see my parents in good health and good spirits. They get wonderful care at the skilled nursing center.

We are now in Raleigh, North Carolina, camped out at Brooke’s house doing the annual doctor and dentist visits and getting ready to spend some time in western North Carolina. We have decided to join the Mountains to Coast bike ride in late September into October. The ride starts in Spruce Pine, in the mountains of western NC and goes 491 miles to Atlantic Beach in seven days. The average mileage will be 70 miles per day. We need to get our little boat butts in shape to ride 70 miles per day for seven days, so we are in training. We both love to bike to ride our bikes and if you look carefully you can see Lucy, my duck, on my handlebars. She just loves the fast “bugs in the bill” rides.