Bike Date with Courtney

Following my doctor's appt, I asked Courtney (one of the gals I meet with on Tuesday night) if she'd like to hang out and maybe do a little post-fasting splurging with me. Due to her work schedule, she missed the bulk of my little binge-fest of consuming Brayden's leftover Easter candy - but, it worked out perfectly for us to meet up on our bikes somewhat equi-distance from our houses on the River Loop bike trail.

We ended up meeting at the "set location" almost simultaneously - pretty fun. From there, we tried to ride around for a while in the university district until I was ready to put even more food into my stomach - at Yogurt Extreme again. This time, I went with the Cake Batter frozen yogurt, with crushed Chinese Fortune cookies and strawberries - super yummy, though, it would have been even better if I'd had some previous self-control and actually had an appetite. (What can I say, I have a thing for stale "Peeps"!)

Courtney is just such a kick to spend time with. There are a lot of things we have in common and have similar perspectives on how we view life . The great thing about Courtney is that she's always been so easy for me to talk to, approachable, and transparent, exactly the qualities that draw me to a friend. Apparently she must feel a similar way, as soon after we returned to our individual homes, we had a great little text exchange that reinforced our desire to do this sort of thing more often.

We'll have to make up for some lost time in a hurry though, as Courtney will be heading off to OHSU - for Med School! - in August. We'd been praying for her all year long for clarification as to her desire to be accepted into a med school, and as God saw fit, she at least gets to remain in the state, but sadly for our Tuesday night group - she'll be two hours away in Portland. We're all so proud and happy for her, though - and therefore trying to put our own selfish desires to have her stay home aside. =)

One final little comment about this beautiful bike ride on one of our first "almost summer days" is my close call on the way home. I was within about sixty seconds of an entire tree "breaking over" so that it crashed upon the bike path. There was another bike rider just a bit ahead of me that witnessed the whole thing, and was nearly hit - all the folks that gathered around after it happened told him to go out and buy a lottery ticket as it was obviously his lucky day. As for me, I found myself reviewing all of the little "delays" I faced on the way back home - talking with Courtney about one more topic (we had a hard time parting), stopping to take a call on my cell from Mikayla, or most poignantly, being slowed down because of the woman who was part of a quartet of bike riders that took a spill and forced me to stop and walk my bike around her (she was fine - just embarrassed). That happened about a minute before I arrived to see all of this:
(Where the man is standing is the bike path)

Here's a couple more angles:

Pretty crazy, huh? Given how many people were out walking and biking on the first sunny/warm day we've had in while, it's really miraculous that no one was injured or worse.... Generally, when I go on a bike ride, I wear my helmet in case of taking a spill or getting hit by a car - it never occurred to me to wear the helmet in case of falling trees!