Cycling season continues to ramp up.  I got in two decent road-rides last week, and a rather epic mountain bike ride.  The road rides are mostly just an effort to acclimate myself to the hills out here, which honestly I’m not sure is ever going to happen.  I’m gonna give it a try though.  So far I ride on the road by myself, so if I get winded I just slow down.  The mountain bike rides are generally with two or more other guys, so if (when) I get winded I either feel like an old man or I get lost because everybody is so far ahead.  Geez, they ride fast.  I’d like to blame it on the fact that I have 10+ years on all of them, but more likely it’s because I’ve got 20+ lbs on all of them.  Or, as my more politically correct college amigos would say, I’ve sprouted a few extra backs.

Anyway, to the weekend.  Friday, Donette flew out ridiculously early (5:30 flight) to meet her Mom in Phoenix.  She was on the way here to visit us, and as those plans developed they came up with the rather clever idea to meet up at her layover in Phoenix and drive to a Spring Training game in Surprise.  Fine idea indeed.  I cannot relate a whole lot of that day because, well, I wasn’t there.  Looked fun in the pictures.  I was still scheduled to work Friday, but late Thursday a guy called and asked if I wanted to head out to Hidden Falls trail in Auburn for some cycling.  Matter of fact, that sounded darn fun.  I was mostly drawn in by the fact that it was forecast to be 70 and sunny out, with rain starting over the weekend.  Enjoy it while it’s here, so to speak.  We had a great ride, or at least I did.  I found the trails moderately less torturous than the others they’ve taken me on.  As a matter of fact, I rode nearly the entire trail.  Granted, sometimes I was going so slow I might as well have just walked, but it’s a pride thing I guess.  I didn’t make it up one nearly vertical (or so it felt) hill, and I bailed out over one rocky section that appeared to promise sure death if I didn’t make it.  All-in-all, I called it a successful ride.

Donette and her Mom got in early Saturday morning, and did some catching up on their sleep into the afternoon.  After they got up and around, we met up with a few other couples and headed to Amador to visit some wineries.  Her Mom doesn’t actually like wine, or have any interest in it what-so-ever, but it’s really the only thing we know to do when company comes out.  We hit the usual spots, and mixed in a nice little picnic at one of the more scenic locations.  After that we headed back to the house and threw a tri tip on the grill for some dinner.

Sunday found us rather worn down.  We headed to The Purple Place to start the day off with a solid breakfast.  Not exactly the, er, most impressive place to take out of town guests, but it’s our favorite breakfast so we went with it.  It has lots of “ambiance.”  After breakfast we just kind of kicked around a few of the local attractions, such as they are.  We hit the small museum at Folsom prison, drove around the lake a bit (which actually has water in it,) and then finished up wandering around the Old Folsom area for a while.  Later in the afternoon we headed back to the house to rest up a bit, and just never quite got going again.  We got sucked into the NCAA tourney, and that was all she wrote.  Thank goodness we found some leftovers in the fridge.