Day 3: What I Did on my Holiday by Scott Cragg age 44 and a half

What I Did on my Holiday by Scott Cragg age 44 and a half

Today Maria and Disa and I went bike riding. We rode for 20 miles (that’s way more than 20 kilometres). It was very hot. I got very hot and very tired riding 20 miles. We rode through a park called the Coyote Creek Trail.  It was lined with poison oak. Poison oak is bad to touch. The trail had many geocaches along the way. Most of these were hidden near poison oak bushes. It had warning signs about rattlesnakes. When Disa saw the sign she stopped, leapt off her bike and yelled ‘Rattlesnake’. I was very scared but it was only the sign. It also had warning signs about Mountain Lions and what to do is you see one (back away from it slowly while talking loudly and raising your arms to appear bigger than you really are, never crouch or turn your back on it and if attacked fight back). They forgot to add you should consider leaping into the nearest poison oak bush. There were no signs about Coyotes. I don’t know why they called it the Coyote Creek Trail. I don’t know why they didn’t call it the Rattlesnake, Mountain Lion & Poison Oak Trail. Disa did many geocaches and I saw my first squirrels (very cute). On the way back I ran over a black & yellow banded snake. It was six feet long and very thick and scary (Disa & Maria say it was only a foot long harmless King snake – but I was closer to it than they were so who are you going to believe?) I calmly said ‘Oh look I’ve run over a snake’. Either that or I screamed (a terrified high pitched girly scream) and flung both feet off the pedals in case it bit me. Disa & Maria were following me and spent the next 10 minutes laughing hysterically. They claim they were laughing with me not at me but I don’t understand this because I wasn’t laughing. When the trip was over I went to have a shower before dinner at Maria & David’s as I was very sweaty (did I mention I rode 20 miles in incredible heat?). Discovered two ticks attached to my body and one on the inside of my shirt. David is 37 and has spent his life hiking in American National Parks and has never had a tick and I get two in one trip! (Always knew I was a tick magnet.) Luckily Erik had a tick remover and all was well (apart from being rather tired from bike riding 20 miles – not kilometres – in the incredible heat). That night Maria made dinner for all of us – enchiladas (cheese, fish & chicken ones) and margaritas – very yummy. I drove Erik’s Mini Cooper to the shop and back and only drove on the wrong side once!! Erik trusted me enough to drive everyone to Maria’s for tea that night in his huge van. Much bigger than ours but I got us all safely there and home again. We also got to know David a bit better, he is witty , amusing, funny, dry, & generous. Tomorrow David & Maria are taking us into San Francisco (Disa’s parents live about 70 km away) to Chinatown for dim sum (Yum) then to Golden Gate Park and then to a baseball game (the San Francisco Giants vs the Chicago Cubs). I hope there are no snakes or Mountain Lions.