From the calls that have come in from around the country today, sounds like the holiday weekend was a welcome diversion for all. Here in Bellemaison, we put up a few more birdhouses and drank lots of iced tea. From New York to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Florida to Southern California to Oregon to North Idaho, the tales of frolic and expectations of fireworks ran high. Ahhh, summer.

My SoCal cuzzy specifically wants to ride bikes while she is here. There is a trail, the Hiawatha Trail, that I took her on when she was here last and despite being the finest of Freeway Girls, she loved the ride, the outdoors, and the fresh air. Go figure. The trail is an abandoned railroad track and runs high through a mountain pass down to the banks of the meandering St. Joe River. It is terrifying, breathtaking, awesome and wonderful all at once and if you have a few issues with heights and or dark, damp, enclosed spaces (one tunnel is over one mile long), just breathing regularly will occupy you for the entire ride. Before he moved to Noo York Citty last year to go to school, the Christ Child made the ride with us and he looked like this:

Now he probably looks likes a guy who rides the subway around and knows every free activity Central Park has to offer. We don't really know what he looks like now. Anyway, a BIG shout out to my friend Mike who has been training since the first of the year for a 225+ mile bike ride coming up this weekend. Mike is a BikeStud. The Chow Nation and I really don't know what else to say except We Are Not Worthy and get back safe, okay?

If Mike the BikeStud runs into a moose on his ride, she will probably look like this as her calf plays in the alpine meadow nearby:

We do not make this stuff up here in The 'Kan EWA.

JBelle

Bellemaison

The 'Kan EWA