A Pedaling, Paddling Day

I awoke to the sound of a steady rain, the first good rain here in the month of July. The rain let up, the skies cleared, and around noon I set out to ride my bicycle 6 miles to the Cooksburg Cafe. My plan: an ice cream cone for lunch. 

By the time I'd browsed through MacBeth's gift shop, and the one at the Cooksburg Cafe, the skies had opened again. Cindy, who runs the place, said that the forecast called for severe thunderstorms anytime until 7:30 PM. I watched the rain fall for a while, eyeing the crowd under the awning at the ice cream place. I didn't think I'd enjoy eating an ice cream cone amidst a wet throng of disappointed vacationers, and I didn't think a cone would last too long in this rain.

So I rode home through a sometimes steady rain punctuated with rolls of thunder, glad that I was not in an aluminum canoe or even floating slowly downstream in a tube. The saddest sight was a group of Mennonites in their long pastel dresses and caps. Six women stood waistdeep in water, searching the river for something they'd lost, while others waited patiently in their canoes. I pedaled on, hoping that my bike helmet would not need to protect me from hailstones.

Back at the cabin, I settled down to make some kayak earrings, something I've wanted to do for a long time. I dabbled with Sculpey for quite a while, trying to shape the cockpits (I used a tiny pebble), make paddles, and attach the two together. As the beads I used to balance the paddles began to look like people (of an abstract sort) I smiled at the serendipity.

My husband John snapped this photo of me, heading upstream in my Dagger as the sun prepared to set. How I do love an evening paddle. Even when the river is so low, I can follow a channel upstream to the riffle where I play for a while amidst the boulders and the currents they create. 

And now to enjoy a bowl of ice cream !