Bottle Day

Ok, I've looked but can't find that I have used this phrase before.  But I can tell you, I have used this phrase so many times while taking little bike trips with Werner.

A "Bottle Day"  is a day to save.  I say it because of an old Jim Croce song: If I Could Save Time in a Bottle..  His "Bottle Days" have to do with his young family.  Mine have to do with special times that Werner and I have on sunny days taking bike rides that are so perfect, you just want to put them in a bottle and save them forever and go back a visit them again and again.

So, today.

I had a Zoom meeting, he had a Zoom meeting and we've been putting off the beginning of the bath re-do and said we'd start this afternoon.  But, I looked at the weather and today was supposed to be not only lovely and wonderful, but the last lovely and wonderful day for at least another week!  Let's have a picnic!  Let's nap in the sunshine!  

Ok, the man says.

And we did.  Not a long trip - only 6 k to the banks of the Lesum for the lunch stop.

Yummy lunch - tomato and cucumber salad, boiled eggs, little sandwiches, chips.  We sat on a bench with the river to our backs and a little lake to look at. 

We live on a busy street and we're used to the constant traffic noise, but what a relief to sit and enjoy the quiet.  The birds chirped, the frogs croaked, bikers whooshed by, skaters did their thing.  

As lovely as it was, there was still a coolish breeze, so after lunch we went to the other side of the dike where it was a bit more protected, spread the cloth and took a little nap.  In the warm sunshine.  

The geese on the little island were talking to each other a lot !!  Perhaps trading parenting ideas for all the babes they were raising. (I know it's impossible to see, but there are lots of goslings out there.)

Then we got our our books out, but Werner has a hard time sitting on the ground, so he went back to the bench and I stayed on the dike and succumbed again to the warm sunshine.  My view.

 Then it was time to go back.  I wish I had pictures, but we were too busy trying to just stay on our bikes!! We took a trail we weren't familiar with to get back to the river and it was a challenge.  About a quarter of the way in, we met two young guys coming from the other direction who said, It's a bit fun up there!  Just be prepared!  We decided to soldier on, but they were right!  So much water!!  We pushed the bikes through the first two slightly flooded areas but then decided the narrow path was good enough to not get stuck in, so we just kept on.  It worked!  But our feet and our pedals got wet more than once and my quads got a workout (that's good!). 

Fun!

There's always another path to take, another way to explore, another  day to enjoy.  I can't remember that we've ever taken time to sit and read and nap and soak in the sun.  

Bottle day for sure.  It will have to last a bit.