Today was the first training ride for the Honey Badgers.  Duane and Maureen organized the day and 8 out of 17 Honey Badgers showed up.  It was a beautiful day for a ride.  Maureen and I drove the sag wagon....well, Maureen drove and I rode in the sag wagon.  The team met at Rocky Ridge Coop at noon and set out on a route Duane had put together for them.  I think most of them rode about 55 km today and I would give them all an A plus for effort!  I must admit there were moments when I , the exercise junkie, really wished I was out there with them but know this reality is a long ways off yet for me.
Still, I really enjoyed the day and spending an afternoon with my dear friend Maureen is always a treat!  The Honey Badgers were all impressive but I must say Duane is probably the best conditioned of the bunch. That guy never does anything half assed! He has ridden 300 km this week alone!  I know for a fact there are Honey Badgers out there who have yet to put their butts in the bike saddle!  Hopefully Duane will organize some more training rides as I think there is comfort in suffering together!  Second honourable mention goes to Marnie who also attended Lindsey's stagette last night and showed for the ride today.  Now that's youth and stamina!  You go girl!  The ride as I mentioned started in Rocky Ridge, wandered through Church Ranch, through the surrounding countryside, down the hill into Cochrane where the group stopped to refuel at the Cochrane Coffee House, then back up the hill, through the countryside and back to Rocky Ridge Coop.  I had to laugh at Danielle when she submitted the Cochrane Hill.....she said " Oh yeah....we really are Honey Badgers!"    Bill was the slowest but he did the greatest distance today insisting he would ride starting and ending at our house giving him a total distance of 73 km.  He's hurting tonight!  Will be a few days before he jumps back on his bike I'm thinking.  Geoff had a few technical difficulties with his bike that he will have to get fixed but other than that the ride went smoothly.  There were tons of people out riding today!  I think many were also preparing for this big ride in June!  Maureen dropped me off home around 5 PM and I decided to bite the bullet and go for my first solo walk with Boomer.  He is so well whistle trained that I felt confidant it would be OK and was pretty sure Bill wasn't going to feel like going walking when he arrived back.  So out we went with a whistle, a bag of salmon sticks, a leash and a poop bag!  Did the walk to the tennis courts and then back up to my killer hill which I again did non-stop and think it was once again a little easier than the last time I did it.  Bill did an amazing job of training Boomer to a whistle when I was in the hospital.  Of course it is the salmon he is returning for but who cares.  I will say this though, if you have a dog who is non compliant you really need to buy some of these salmon sticks.  They should be called salmon stinks because they are the vilest smelling things your nostrils have ever encountered but they are like crack cocaine for dogs.  Boomer will do anything for a small piece.  If you just stand there holding the stick and look at him he will do every trick he knows in quick succession, hoping to score the treat.

Got back from my walk and sat with Bill while he ate his well deserved supper!  It was such a nice day!  So fun to be part of this event, if only from the seat of the support vehicle.  If I could wish for three immediate fixes right now I would wish I could get rid of the congestion in my throat, I would wish I could talk with my normal voice and my final wish would be that I could swallow. I did take a couple of sips of water today (just a little experiment and I do think they went down the right pipe!)  Maybe I'm just an optimist but I am so hopeful I will pass that next swallow test!  I hope everyone got out and enjoyed the beautiful day!  A day like today should not be wasted!