Jenna & Mountain Bike vs. Tree...

Picture: Powerflex compression wrap with an oven mitt to mock a horseshoe pad on side with most swelling. And it matches my toenail polish! (I couldn’t find an ace wrap and after I sat down I didn’t want to get up again to get foam padding). It did the trick!

Yesterday I ran 5 miles and it felt great! Today I planned to be an easy day; perhaps a no-hill, 20-minute run or so. But, when asked to go mountain biking after work with Colby and Mariah, I thought “Sure! Why not?” Sounds like fun and to be honest, I have never been true “mountain biking”. So off we went to Marquette Mountain where we went up, down, around, and up some more, (with numerous stops to refuel with fresh raspberries that were growing on the side of the trail). This trail was single track and for someone who cannot walk in a straight line, let alone ride a bike in a straight line, I found this to be a challenge of its own. Then they (those who created the trail) decided to throw some sand, rocks, roots, and whatever else they could find to put in our way. It was challenging, but I had a great time. The following ended up being a common conversation between Colby and I throughout the ride. Me: (one of the following phrases) “Oh shit” “Almost had that one” or “Awww Man”, followed by Colby “You alright?” and my response was ALWAYS “Yeah, I’m good!”.

We came to a “fork” in the road towards the end of our ride, we could either A.) go to the car or B.) go down this more technical little loop Colby felt Mariah and I were ready for. Sure! Why not?! So away we go, single trail, steepest grade yet (going down), more roots, more trees, and trees closer to the trail. So I’m going, fast, hanging on for dear life, and loving it! I dodged one tree that was in my way but he sent me towards another. I yelled “OH SHIT, TREE”, but it didn’t move (things usually move out of your way when you yell at them). I then tried to move it with my body. That didn’t work either. I smacked DIRECTLY into the tree with my entire left side. This time, when Colby asked if I was alright, my answer was not “Yeah, I’m good”. And that’s not good.

My ankle took the majority of the hit and I was honestly scared that I had really messed up my foot. I don’t think I knocked myself out, but I was disorientated there for a moment. After a few minutes of sitting down and collecting my thoughts, I was able to move the ankle a bit and using my bike, walked back to the car. Shoulder is also very sore, but nothing compared to the ankle I can barely walk on. 2 ice baths, a home-made compression wrap (picture), and off to bed I go with it propped up on 4 large floor pillows at the foot of my bed. Needless to say I’m determined to get this thing back to normal in hopes it won’t keep me out of running for too long.

On the bright side, if you are going to run into a tree while mountain biking, what better company to be in but 3 athletic trainers?!

Will I go out again?! HELL YES! That tree has not seen the last of me. But hopefully the next time, I go whizzing by it!

Humongous Fungus Festival

10:30am: depart for Fungus Festival with planned stop at Target for Drain-O (for my shower) and ATM. UW Credit Union is still my bank and if I pay for something with debit, I can get cash back with no fee! It is wonderful!!!

11:00am: on road to Crystal Falls, home of the Humongous Fungus Festival (1.5ish hours from Marquette)

12:02pm: Humongous bug smacks my window and gets jammed in my door, hitching a ride (he didn't survive).

12:30pm: I arrive at the Fungus Festival…but no one was there! ZERO people. WTF. I picked up my phone to call Susan (so she can check online for me even though I had the newspaper clipping my mom sent me with me...), but myphone said 11.30am. I then picked up my work phone and it said 12:30pm. Officially confused, the call to Susan was even more urgent. Thank you, voicemail. I then drove around this cute little town and found a bank!!! It was 63 degrees at 11:34am. I changed time zones?! I drove more south than west, but I changed time zones?! Ok…sure…whatever…hm…

So now I had an hour to kill before embarking upon this Fungus Festival. I found the Paint River Boardwalk. It was beautiful. Then this fisher guy walked out and was catching small mouth bass left and right. It turned out to be an easy hour to kill.

12:30CST/1:30EST: Back to the festival, and this time there were people! I had to ask for a flyer that had ZERO information about this world record fungus. I did eat a “fungus infested brat” that was infused with mushrooms, but that is as fungusie as it got. There were 3 tournaments going on: horseshoes, volleyball, and bags. Yes, bags. I was at a large tailgate (beer tent…er…van included). Needless to say, this was not what I expected, not by a long shot. But, I’ll take it in stride and enjoy it.

2:30pmCST/3:30pmEST: After getting my fill of watching Bags and horseshoes, I decided to wander back to the real time zone, Eastern! You know, the one where football starts at Noon, not in the morning at 11am? Hehe :)

This was, by far, the best adventure to date and will always hold a special place in my heart as “The day I drove for fungus and went back into time unknowingly”.

Pictures from today's adventures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Street.Jenna/FungusFest

Marquette County Fair

Today I wandered down to the Marquette County Fair with hopes of winning a goldfish in a bag, eating an elephant ear, and milking a cow (or goat). I was 1 for 3 on the day.

I first wandered about to get a feel for what they had to offer before settling in to watch some of the horses get judged. Then, looking for the biggest crowd, I gathered around to see what all the hype was about: Dunk Tank. Yes, the dude was funny, and then he got dunked. After view some livestock, I saw the play “Pirates Island” which ended up being a kids show…seriously. One main guy was the narrator and he took 15 kids out of the audience, dressed them up, and they bounced around stage clueless of what was going on. See how the Pirate’s Festival is going on ALL MONTH LONG in Marquette, I assumed it was going to be an actual prepared production. Oh well, it was good for a laugh.

Next on my docket was the Timber Show. This was better than little play. Axe throwing, chainsaws, two-man saw, and log rolling-in-water competition. During the log competition one of the guys fell and straddled the log and his face turned BEAT red…that was not planned! It was during this show that I sat back and ate my elephant ear!

No county fair is complete without the fair rides and cheep games. After I completed my search through all of the livestock barns to milk something, I had to settle for feeding Alpaca (lama-looking things) and then moved onto the games/ride section. I did not ride any rides because, well, just looking at them sends a shiver down my spine.

My goldfish-in-a-bag search was on! 2 stands in, guy #1 called out to me and puts his hand on my shoulder as if it would make me want to play his little booth. If you want my money, this is not the way to do it. 5 booths in, guy #2 called out to me and reels me in for candy roulette for a dime. I lost. Then guy #3 called out to me and explains that if I hit a star once, I get a small stuffed animal, hit 2 stars and I can either choose a gigantic animal or a bill off the board ($1, $5, $10, $20, $50). I told him I was just making my first round (he is distracting me from my goldfish!) and that I’d be back. He then said if I came back he would give me 5 throws for $5, when the real price is 3 throws for $5. I admit, after seeing that $50 sitting there, I went back. Throws 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5…all five of my throws went directly into that $50 and the star. He then goes to get the darts and says “oh this one is in the white (background), this one is in the blue (outline of star, but still star in my book), and 3 others were in the blue as well. He said no win because it wasn’t in the red. I gave him a hard time and was like “I just hit that bill 5 times in a row and what?” He gave me 5 more shots and said I had to hit the center of the stars…where is Mike when I need him!? I didn’t hit the center so I didn’t get the dollar bill, but I got double for my money and a cute puppy stuffed animal. And when I left, that guy running that booth was getting creepy so I turned and ran home… Ok, I walked to my car and drove home, goldfish-in-a-bag-less :(

After getting up early to work, tonight I am surprisingly tired and hope to get into bed early so I can get a long run in tomorrow after going to the Humungous Fungus Fest!

Picture: My favorite sign! This was located in one of the barns with booths in it.

Pictures from today can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/Street.Jenna/MarquetteCountyFair

The Bambi Twins and OLYMPICS!

Wednesday: I went for a run on Presque Isle trails because I have a mini-goal of knowing the trail system inside and out before it snows. I have yet to find a map that has all the inlets and side paths and whatnot. While running the trails that I know pretty well, I tend took at the scenery, not at the ground for roots and unevenness. But once I turn onto new terrain, I pay attention to the footing. Whiling running up a steep incline that curved up to the right, I looked ahead to the footing, saw it was stable, and then took a peek at my surroundings. This is when I noticed Bambi. And then I saw her twin! They were on my left, about 10 feet from me! Then I froze!!! Where is mom?! I looked to my right and POOF! There’s mom. About 10 feet to my right. SHIT! If there is one thing I do know, is you don’t come between mom and child in the wild. I clap, wave my hands (trying to look big), and shout to try to scare them away from my trail so I can continue on my run. This didn’t work. Mom had her eye on me. Then mom started to walk toward me. This is when I decided to turn and run away. My easy run turned into a tempo/hill workout! The bambie’s were adorable, but Mom scared me.

I have not had another run-in with this Mother or her babies since (whew!).

Today: Half day at work so I was able to get a lot of errands run prior to the start of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Dinner tonight was so pretty and so delicious (picture). Rigatoni with Grilled Peppers and Onions form RealSimple. I love this magazine!!! Speaking of magazines, my mom gave me a subscription to RealSimple and I subscribed to Runners World :) I’m still waiting for Runner’s World to come. It will be exciting to look forward to getting mail that isn’t bills!

I will say I am very impressed with the Olympic Opening Ceremonies! Although, I do have one suggestion regarding the March of the Nations (IOC, listen up!): We have got to come up with a faster way to bring in the 204 nations. YAWN! It is fun to see what everyone is wearing, but after awhile, it seems to drag on. For the next 17 days, I will allow for my life to revolve around the Olympics. I mean, I have to stay up late and get up early to watch it because, well, hello, WORK! Hehe (insert angel face here).

This weekend: work Saturday morning, then I need to hit up the County Fair and the Humongous Fungus Fest, and how could I forget the month-long Pirate Festival in Downtown Marquette?! Busy busy weekend ahead!

Construction

Picture: View of what is directly in front of my house looking down to what is going to come.

I received a notice in my mailbox informing me that construction on my street will begin on June 9th, 2008 and “should be completed by September 18, 2008”. It goes on to say that driveways will be torn up and sidewalks will be open most of the time bla bla bla. The date of the issued letter is August 5, 2008. Riiggghhtt.

Seeing how this doesn’t add up, I called the number on the letterhead to inquire on the true start date for the construction. I explained to the individual who answered the phone my confusion and she questioned if the letter was from her company. After describing the letterhead, she agreed, it had come from her company. Our conversation:

Her: Oh, that was a typo, I think it should say August 9, not July 9.
Me: Saturday? They are going to start this project on a Saturday?!
Her: Oh, that doesn’t sound right. Let me as the project director and I will call you back
Me: That would be wonderful. Thank you.

3 minutes pass…

RING RING (that’s my phone ringing). I answer.

Her: Miss? Its “insert her name here” calling you back regarding the construction in front of your house?
Me: Yes?
Her: Yes, the project will start this Saturday, August 9.
Me: Thank you.

1 minute passes…

RING RING

Her: Miss? Its me again, sorry, but “insert name of head of company here” just walked in and said they are going to start there tomorrow.
Me: Ma’m, thank you for calling me back, but which one is it? I need to know in order to ensure having my car out of my driveway so it isn’t blocked in for the next 2 months.
Her: I understand your confusion. The project will start tomorrow so I would move your car tonight. Thank you for letting us know about the typo and we will reprint and hand out new letters today.
Me: Thank you.

…the new letter was never issued…


Since then I have woken up to my bed shaking from the trucks rolling by my house. I have placed my lamps on the floor for fear they will shake off while I’m at work. It is unreal. And to think, they haven’t even started to actually work in front of my house yet…they are one block away?! SHEESH!

People's Festival

Picture: The People’s Festival in Lower Harbor.

Needless to say the People’s Festival in Lower Harbor was not quite what I was expecting. Comparing to the other events I have attended here in the U.P., this gives “small” a whole new meaning. 7 tents…let me rephrase that: 7 camping tents, a few other tents that fit a picnic table under and that’s it. I was one of 11 guest/visitors there when I went at 2pm. Whoah. Do I even need to say that they didn’t have the pie plate I was looking for?

Oh well. It was a beautifully afternoon to wander through downtown Marquette and around the Lower Harbor.

Suppose to be a very clear week, weather-wise so hopefully I can get some good runs in this week :)

Renaissance Festival, Ishpeming

Last weekend at Art on the Rocks, there were numerous booths with pottery that was oven safe. I was going back and forth with myself on whether or not I wanted to purchase one. I decided not to right then, but later wish I had. Later in the week, I saw a flyer for the Ishpeming Art Faire and Renaissance Festival. The flyer stated there would be 75 art booths set up and thus, I was planning on purchasing a pie stone thing (I don’t remember the true, technical term for it). This festival was held at the Lake Bancroft Park in Ishpeming, MI; about 15 miles west of Marquette.

When I arrived, my first thought was “Aww, this is so cute!”. Perhaps that had something to do with the children’s costume parade that was going through the center of the park when I walked in. There were some food tents from local restaurants, some medieval displays, Samurai demonstrations (they were brought in from Iowa…), and art booths! There was this cute old man dressed up like…well, I’m not quite sure what he was suppose to be, who tried to sell me a bag to microwave potatoes, yams, etc. Too bad I don’t have a microwave! Honest! And the guy didn’t believe me!!! Oh well, I don’t have one. After politely turning him down, I wandered through the rest of the art booths and saw no pottery. I was disappointed for two reasons: no pottery booths and there were 7 art booths, not 75! Awww mann!

Oh well, it was fun nonetheless. I controlled-got-lost on my run out on Presque Isle tonight as well. Every corner I turned was another hill…going up. The first 15 minutes of the run was up hill…tomorrow may need to be a day off…

Tomorrow I plan on exploring the “People’s Festival” held at Lower Harbor…perhaps they’ll have what I’m looking for there.

Picture: Entrance to the Festival today.