Thanks for all your nice comments on our house! I love to see before and afters of home improvement as well. Of course, the front took quite a few years and trial and error to get to this point. I need to see if I can find some pictures of my first year where I pretty much did all annuals and it was sparse looking LOL!
We had another gorgeous weekend. For all the rain we have been getting this summer, Saturdays have been pretty good for riding. It was just perfect, too. Upper 70s, no wind, sunny. Seriously – it’s perfect. We chose to do a Saratoga ride for some frozen yogurt. This time, we took our old way, which is down route 9N, a designated bike road. We don’t ride this way very often anymore because we like the scenic back ways we take, but it was nice for a change. We do avoid the interstate on-ramp and go by the Moreau State Park.
This is around 11 miles or so into the ride and we stop for a stretch and I had a date:
Yes, I was trying to give John a date head. I am 5, you know.
This is really the nicest part of the ride. The rest mostly looks like this:
Although not as much traffic before this. We are pretty close to Saratoga in this pic. We arrived at Congress Park around mile 22. We packed lunches to have:
I am surprised my banana held up so well being in my bag on the ride down.
There was a squirrel eating out of a garbage can near us, too. Free lunch!
After eating, we strolled around town before getting our yogurt. A new bookstore opened up called Northshire Books.
It’s a very cool store. Hope they do well. I sometimes feel guilty at all my Kindle reading, but I just can’t afford to buy a book every time I want to read.
Next to the new bookstore is a new Kilwin’s chocolate shop. Amazing looking fudge here. I almost got some, but didn’t.
I know, right?
One of the mineral springs:
People will fill up all kind of water containers to take this stuff home. Personally, I think it tastes like drinking salt water out of a cast iron bucket. Yuck.
More Saratoga ballet shoes:
Then it was time to hit up Plum Dandy. They have several kinds of yogurt and lots of toppings to choose from. This was 1 of 2 topping stations.
I have to remember not to get much fresh fruit because that stuff is heavy. You pay by the ounce. My bowl.
Why yes, that is Cap’n Crunch on there! Our bowls were expensive, too. It was $13 for both of us, which is just too much for frozen yogurt. In my opinion, of course. I would rather have a coffee and cupcake from now on.
Riding home! My legs felt great. I remember when riding this route was really challenging for me a couple years ago with the hills. Now we breezed up them. Not that you don’t get out of breath from the effort, but we recover fast and can get up the hills much faster. Feels pretty good to do that.
We stopped around mile 31 or so after the hill section for a rest. John was trying to ignore me here:
😀
More open road:
All in all, a nice day for a ride!
Home! Note my nail art. Again, 5 years old…
Ride stats:
Total miles: 44.7
Average speed: 13.7 mph
Saddle time: 3 hours 13 minutes
Calories burned: 1487
Then it was girl’s manicure tonight (said goodbye to my strawberries) – which I will post about this week with my nail stamping kit!
Nice ride. Still love the ballet slippers and wish we could’ve seen them. Totally agree about the frozen yogurt prices. We took my niece to Orange Leaf the other day and it was $16 for the three of us. Ridiculous!
Normally we just get froyo at a local ice cream shop, but these stand alone yogurt places are outrageous.
My boys like those yogurt places but I’m with you – it is way overpriced!!
Cute nails!!
What a great ride. As usual, I thoroughly enjoyed “being along for the ride.” So much easier than actually pedaling 44 miles LOL.
You are cracking me up with all your nail art!
Except for Pinkberry, the froyo prices are a little more reasonable out here. I usually pay about $4. If I am being really good, it only costs me $2.50. The fudge flavors look amazing. Fortunately for me, when I make myself stop and think about it, I actually don’t like fudge that much–its too sweet. But I sure have to think about it!
I feel like I am regressing to a teenager with the nails LOL!
I love fudge, but it is really rich – and usually very expensive. This stuff looked so good, but there were no prices and I figures it was probably $9 or 10 a pound.
Cuuuuuuuuuuute nails! We have Cherry Berry yogurt here and it is spendy.
oooh I wanna spend an AFTERNOON in northshire books!
Oh dear. I’m sure the ONLY thing that would have made me pass up at least one piece of that fudge would be being on a bike and having to ride it back home! I love how you guys make your rides into an adventure and don’t just grind out the miles.
Who says the fudge would have ridden back home??
Great ride as always. You had me laughing out loud by giving your date a date head 🙂 I love it when you are being 5 🙂
And love your nails.
Stay tuned- 5 is my new age! 😀
What a nice ride!!!! I wish we had some of those cool small stores where I am – too many mass retailers as you know…. so cute! AND THAT FUDGE – holy yum!!!!! Also agree on the yogurt. For me it would be coffee & a cookie! 🙂 LOVE that ballet shoe!
Our local yogurt prices average about $0.49/oz. and that usually includes the cup. (I like Menchies, because they tare the cup.) For me, it usually works out to about $3-4, depending on how wacky I get with toppings. 🙂
That was really expensive froyo – we pay .36/oz, and usually our tab for two cups of yogurt and toppings is about 8 bucks…now that fudge, on the other hand…mmmmmmmmm.
Sounds like it was just great weather all over the country for doing outdoor activities! Glad you got such a good ride in!
What beautiful ride pics. I LOL at date head!!! Have a great week Lori!
I am not a huge fan of fudge – its just a texture thing I think. And I am with you – I’d rather have a coffee and a cupcake vs. the fro yo!
Coconut chocolate fudge, yes please! How could you resist??
Whoa, the date head thing was weird! 🙂 How did you manage it? And are you going to have new nail job every day?
I loved that chocolate fudge in the middle. Never seen anything like that.
Frozen yogurt is so expensive and not worth the price in my opinion either. I’d rather have a cupcake too! Looks like a nice ride.
So many fun things to comment on in this post!
Totally agree – love house before & after pics
Love your strawberry nails. 🙂
John looks great with a date head – ha ha
We have a frozen yogurt place that I took my brother to once. OMG – it was $9 and I barely had anything in my cup! I wonder how a place like that will do during our long winters….
I want fudge now. The sugar beast has awoken!
My daughter used to dance and she just loves the ballet slippers!
Thanks for taking us along on your ride. I always enjoy it, though I don’t burn near the calories you do. 😛