Date Day

I'm not real good about taking time off - which is why I usually end up "burning" some days every year. "If you don't use them, you lose them." Yeah... didn't take enough vacation so the vacation day just goes away. I know - crazy huh? But I usually have so much that I take 2 weeks or more in Dec - and still end up burning them. Well with the Harley, Rallies and the like, *maybe* I'll end up actually taking more days... We'll see.

Anyhow - Monday I started thinking about taking Wed off. Tina's last day of recoup after her knee surgery - she was going back to work on Thur. So I thought it would be a cool surprise. But again - maybe something important would come up at work and I wouldn't take the day. But my Tue morning I figured life was short, nothing was going on and I should go for it. (Yeah I know - not a big decision for many folks, but that's just me.) So Tuesday before I left I told her "If you've got plans of doing anything tomorrow before you go back to work, you should do it today because I'm taking the day off." Totally surprised her.

Wed was awesome. A "Date Day" as we say. Tuesday was beautiful, and Wed was supposed to be the same (but turned out not quite as nice) so we decided to go riding.

We slept in, slowly got around, and then went to Gunther's for breakfast. From there we drove "up the pass" to Woodland Park and stopped at the Doughnut Mill for a Pecan Roll and coffee... Ok - I stopped for more food. Since we had eaten breakfast like 45 minutes prior, Tina didn't need any more food. But its more about the hanging out and taking a break that the food for me. It was a nice ride up. Not much traffic so that was fun. When we first got the bike that road was a little intense - lots of curves, marked 35 in spots, etc. Now its just fast and fun.

We had decided to see Wild Hogs, so after that we headed back down the pass and into town to the show. The plan was to go to the 2:00 and then probably home to just hang out, nap (yeah - at this age napping can be a fun thing...), and then make some dinner.

Well we made it to the 1:30 show. The movie was great. We laughed and laughed. Plus some of it really hit home. Some folks ask if the whole "mid-life crisis" is identifiable. Maybe. But I choose to think of it as the "life is short - we should be enjoying it." Which is maybe the definition of a mid-life crisis. Not sure. In any case - doing things like taking a day off to go riding and be with my honey is what it is all about. Great movie.

Oh... and not only was the story great, but almost every motorcyle in it was a Harley, which was cool - and the soundtrack was great. We seriously need to see if we can get it off of Amazon or something - because we *have* to have it for our next trip!

We came out of the show - to go home and catch some zzzs. But it was just way too nice out. So up to Palmer Lake (a short fun ride) for a steak and beer at O'Malleys. And then finally back home around 6:00.

It was an awesome day with my honey. Put about 110 miles on the bike, spent some time with the wind in our faces, a great movie, some good food, and just a great time hanging out.

After seeing the movie we can't wait for the trip to AZ. We've been excited to see Tif, Brian and the Pea. And excited for the ride - but now we are even more excited. As Peter Fonda's character said, "Ride hard or stay home!" :)