Faith Love & Boating: There's a first for everything....

After much contemplation on how I was going to remember all of the amazing events, feelings, laughs, jokes, memories, etc. in my life right now.... I decided to start a blog.
I went through the ideas of trying to scrapbook, journal, etc..... all these seemed to either take too much time or were like keeping a 4th grade diary.
Therefore, I am entering the 21st century and beginning a blog and attempting to stick with this.

Six (or so) months ago my life changed completely....for the absolute better. Annnnnnnd his name is Jerad Ryan Busch. He has brought SO much laughter and great adventures into my life. He truely is my prince charming.... aside from the cliche' name tag, it is honestly true.
I am thankful every single day for him and there are many moments where I feel like I am so lucky to have him as my own.

(Our very first picture together.)

So........ I will begin with the first post.... Jerad and I had a weekend of "firsts." Beginning with riding my Dad's tandem bike down the River Road in Alton. (Jerad had never been to Alton before and never ridden a tandem bike) We parked at the Piasa Bird and began our trek up the river............. Jerad thought we were riding through the drainage ditches at first, but then the track began to level out.   I was laughing so hard I could not even pedal on the back.

It was a bittersweet day. 60 degrees, bright and sunny.... annnnnnnnnnd we're riding a bike. Really?   Where's the boat??!?!        Kidding. We were very appreciative that we could at least be by the water.
Thennnnnnnnnnn the tire begins to bulge. Yes, you can imagine the feeling we both had as we had just ridden a mile an a half and our tire is about to blow.... yeah.    Well, let me also tell you that we were on a 1970's antique tandem bike.   See below.....

Jerad ends up taking some air out of the tire and putting the bead back where it needed to be. (whatever that means...) We rode the bike back a mile and a half on a flat front tire... laughing the whole way of course.

A few highlights from the rest of the day:

Bike Shop Man.... "Depends on what your definition of awesome is...."
"I hate to tell you this, but your tail light is hangin' by the wires...."
Idea of stuffing the tandem in the cab of the truck so we could go into Fast Eddies
Man at the gas station whipping out the "blood" to us as we pull away
Almost being hit at the intersection of 163 and Imbs Station by a white Dodge

Great Fall Saturday....

Now on to Sunday....

I've realized that when you are away from the lake there is not much to do outside of spending money somewhere. Meaning your options for the day are go somewhere to eat, spend money at an attraction, go shopping... you get the point. There isnt really much to do up here where you can just relax.

Anyway, we woke up on Sunday thinking about what our activity was going to be. Not a whole lot could top our extravagent Saturday bike riding adventures.

After our Wild Boar Sausage B's and G.... we decided we were going back North to Grafton. I have an extreme obsession with Ball Mason Jars right now and we were on the hunt for some antique shops to scout out their collection.

Here are a few pictures to sum up our afternoon in Grafton.... and I might mention that I DID accomplish an AMAZING set of Mason Jars for only $12.50!! I absolutely cannot wait to put rice, noodles, and beans in them! (weird, I know....)

In addition, OF COURSE, we found water and spent the day around boaters, docks, music, and laughter. Perfect Sunday.