Cycling into Make Believe

To all the mothers, moms, mas and (as my brother likes to say) muddas out there, HAPPY MOTHERS’ DAY!!! I don’t know about you guys, but my mom is pretty top-notch! I wasn’t exactly the easiest child out there, getting whooping cough at three weeks old, appendicitis at three years old, and then the long and sometimes rebellious life of diabetes at nine. I’ve sometimes wondered how, over the years, she’s managed to always be by my side, and always know when I’ve been in need. A few times when she was on holidays and I’d be shipped to the hospital for some diabetic reason or other, my mom always made it to my bedside within hours … I remember once she told me she came home on a jet, just for me. Another time, when I passed out in a ditch on a busy farm road, and was taken to the hospital by ambulance (apparently I slugged the paramedic … I was only 11!!!) I remember the doors opening and my mom standing there right outside them, waiting for me. When I was a teenager, I had a few emergency low blood sugars in the middle of the night, and for some reason, don’t ask me how, my mom had some kind of freak “mother’s intuition” to go and check on me … same thing when I broke my wrist a few years back and was in the emergency ward all alone, somehow (again, I don’t know how) she knew I was there, and knew that she had to be there with me. And on the day of my wedding, she was my rock. And on top of all that, she’s just a really great person to talk to!

Love you mom!

Love this pic of my mom as a teenager

Sunday is usually a run day, but Mario and I mixed it up a bit and went for a ride instead – to go and see my castle! Yes, this princess has her very own castle.

So a few weeks ago, when I was driving to work on my hour-long drive, my eyelids started getting all heavy and droopy, and it didn’t matter what I did – chew gum, drink tea, blast the music, slap my cheeks, talk to myself – I couldn’t keep my eyes open. So finally, with just about 15 minutes left of the drive, I pulled off the highway intending to park my car, but as soon as I got off, it was like I got a second wind. And really, how could I not with the beauty all around me. I was in farm country, an area that I don’t generally frequent in the community, so my eyes were darting back and forth, all over the street, picking up new sights, like the big blue silos, and the luscious green open-field pastures, and the the orchard of trees, and the red, toy-like barn, and – A CASTLE!!! I slammed on my brakes. Did I really just see a castle? Yup, I did. And ever since, probably about three or four times a week, I’ve been getting off at that same exit to go and see my castle – it makes me feel like I’ve just been trolleyed into The Land of Make Believe … I keep waiting for the pink platypus to show up!

P.O.P's royal wave

So legend has it, well recent legend, that is, that the woman of the castle had always wanted to live in a castle, so her husband, being the amazing husband that he was, decided to build her a castle, but then halfway through the building process he died, and left her to raise their two sons. As her boys grew older, though, they stepped up and finished the job of building the castle for their beloved mom! What an amazing story for mothers’ day, hey. Makes me smile just thinking of it.

Today’s ride was the longest ride of the season (for me, that is) and we were just booking it on our way out, averaging about 26 km/h, but on the way home, a complete other story – riding straight into a nasty, push-you-over kind of headwind that was slowing me up massively.

Sugar tablet pick-me-up after a 2.8 bottom out – ACK!!!

We stopped at my girlfriend’s “hippie” farm for a halfway-there break and some nice chats in the sun (we may have gotten a little diverted, which some might call getting “lost”, going out there, even though I’ve been there a ton of times … but it wasn’t my fault, nope, not at all!) And nearing the end of the ride, with just about two km left to go, we stopped at Birchwood Dairy for a scoop of Chocoholic ice cream – a reward for making it through the wind 😀

Chocolate yummmmmm!


TODAY’S RIDE:

  • 1 p.m. BG before: 8.8 (2 stoned wheat thins, no bolus)
  • Distance: 59.58 km
  • Time: 2:34:34
  • Average speed: 22.9
  • Fastest speed: 37.2
  • 5 p.m. BG after: 5.0

View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com

3 thoughts on “Cycling into Make Believe”

    1. Grandma gave it to me years ago, when I still in high school I think … I’ve got another one lying around somewhere with you in leather pants!!!

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