Milestones

1st: This is this blog's 101st post! Tracy took the 100th post while I was gone, but still, 100! Celebrate! Have some pie and ice cream; let loose, folks!

2nd: This week I bicycled 174 miles along the C&O Canal. Effectively, I biked from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC. I didn't get the full length because we stopped outside the Beltway where it was easier to get to. We actually did it in about 3 days worth of cycling. We had a break day near Antietam, and had a 5th day planned, but we burned through the miles.

Unfortunately, it appears that riding 60 miles a day is a really good way to turn that leg pain that I get whenever I run more than 2 miles into a major issue. My knee hurts like the dickens, and I don't think it's ITBS. I can't bend my leg a whole lot without a lot of pain, and it can give out on me at unfortunate points. Luckily the swelling has gone down a whole lot, and when I don't put weight on it, it's just a dull throbbing and burning sensation. The doctor will see me on Tuesday. Is this a sign I'm getting too old to do all this stuff? I sure hope not.

Swimsuit Annoyance

Sorry, I just have to vent. I have been looking for a swimsuit for Afton and the main type of swimwear I am finding are skimpy bikinis. I've looked at Target, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Babies R Us, etc. What the hay!! The only one pieces I have been able to find are Elmo or Barbie or some other lame bathingsuit. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with Elmo and other such characters.....on lunchboxes, backpacks, dolls. Its just too cheesy for me; I can't do that to Afton. But seriously, what are we teaching our children when all the cute swimwear are tiny bikinis and I'm talking about the little triangle tops. I have been able to find a couple of tankinis that are decent, just not in her size. I guess thank goodness for tankinis! Anyways, I just needed to vent. Bikinis and little girls should not mix.

The breakfast club

The sky

To quote a movie: My God, it's full of stars

Epic

There's a term in the climbing community used to describe the worst possible conditions of a trip: Epic. An epic trip is Just one step short of a disaster. I'm pondering if I may be preparing for an epic day tomorrow when we have 75 miles planned.

Next week

Next week I will not be at work. instead I will be bicycling the entire C&O canal with my Venture Crew. This means I won't be at my computer, and posting regular posts will be a challenge.

Weep not, dear readers, for I shall have my phone, and will try some mobile blogging. I won't do video because we've seen just how bad that is, but I'll take pictures and text some posts to the blog.
I doubt I'll have signal all the time, but when I do, I'll post.

The big goal!

Okay, this may sound silly, but I don't care!
After Emily's post, I thought I'd check and see who was hitting my blog. According to Google, I've had visit from 28 states in the last month. Since the start of the year, I've had hits from 41 states (and 13 countries).

See?

So now that I know my baselines, I want to see if I can pull this off. I want at least one hit from every state in the USA to hit my blog in one month. Okay? That means the entire South needs to see this site, the Great Plains, Alaska, Hawaii, and sundry other states.

As an incentive, if you do this, I will post at least FIFTY photos of Afton, in one week, within a month of completing this goal. They will be new photos, never seen before, so I won't just recycle old pictures. I'll even get pictures of Afton at scenic local sites like Great Falls, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Manassas Battlefield, etc.

I know you can do it, so get out there and start getting your friends to hit our blog!