Luke is sick.
Sick as a dog.
He slept most the day, and has been achy and not eating the rest of it. His skin feels like a furnace, except for his forehead. It started last night. Poor guy has been pretty much going from the couch to the bed all day.
So while he was sick...I started my day early.
I stole Luke's bike (mine has a broken pedal and the brakes need to be loosened) and rode all the way downtown to Pioneer Park for the farmer's market this morning around 7am. What a pleasure it was! Almost everyone in town was lining the parade route, waiting for this morning's Days of '47 parade. That meant lots of closed roads. Which means I got to ride down the middle of them, without having to worry about traffic. Plus, it was nice and cool...still in the low 70s, not a cloud in the sky and a slight breeze. It's a little over five miles to the farmer's market...longer than any ride I've done in the last 10 years. But it wasn't too bad going there.
I've never been to the farmer's market here. It was really nice! There's such a HUGE selection of local growers and vendors. The best part...free bike valet. I walked around a couple times, seeing what was available before I grabbed what I wanted.
First, I stopped at Thompson's Melons. We had these guys on the noon show on Friday, and their melons looked really tasty. The guy was nice enough to give me a free cantelope, and I bought a honeylope from him as well. I was excited to have fresh melon, but they were a pain to haul home in my backpack. They grow their cantelopes, honeylope, watermelon, and Israeli honeylope in Hurricane.
Next, time for Cherries. I'd never had Rainier Cherries before today. I'm switching!
Didn't want to make it just a fruit run today...and what's in season right now, Luke doesn't like. So I got a huge head of romaine lettuce from another guy, before ending my adventure with a big bunch of carrots. It took careful arranging to get everything in my backpack. The green parts of the carrots ended up hanging outside the top of my pack, so it looked like I was sporting green extensions.
The ride home was not as easy as the ride there. I had what felt like a 5th grader on my back, and for some reason, it's not all down hill from downtown to South Salt Lake. Plus, I had to deal with barricades and increased parade traffic. Luckily the parade hadn't started yet where I was. I wanted to hit Liberty Park on the way home to take advantage of the water fountain there, since it was getting hot and I didn't bring water on my adventure.
I ended up riding right down the middle of the parade route, carrot greens hanging from my pack, in front of hundreds of pioneer people. That was actually pretty fun. But I'm sure I looked silly.
The rest of the ride home was tough. My butt was really hurting by this point, and for some reason, the latch for the seat doesn't close on Luke's bike (I think it's too tight) so it kept hitting me in the hamstring everytime I pushed the pedal down. I pretty much tried to coast from 1300 South home, so it took me a little longer than I'd like. That, and with every block, that 5th grader on my back felt like he was eating an entire box of Twinkies every minute, putting on weight like a sumo wrestler.
I found Luke still in bed when I got home, so I turned on the parade and watched while he half slept-half watched. We both ended up taking a nap until the early afternoon.
Then, it was time to make a decision. Is Luke feeling well enough to go to Dave's BBQ tonight? It was an easy decision. So I ran to the store and got some hot dogs and chips for our own little BBQ, which turned into my BBQ, because all he ate was a hot dog and a couple cherries, and of course, a bowl of ice cream.
This was also my first experience with starting a charcoal grill.
Charlotte was eager to help since Dad couldn't...
Ham...not so much.
So we had our food, Luke slept some more, and then I brought out the fireworks. I saw Big Budah at a stand on the way home, and thought the fireworks might make Luke feel a little better, take his mind off being sick. I don't like to spend money on fireworks, because they last like 20 seconds, and it's all smoke and sparks. But I thought what the heck. We had a nice time sitting outside (it's cooler out there than in our house) and playing with fire.
All in all, probably the best Pioneer Day, except for Luke being sick. It's funny, he's the one who has the Utah pioneers in his family. I think if I was being true to my ancestors, today would be celebrated as Pie and Beer day, since we never came out in the handcarts. We stopped in Colorado. It was a good choice.
Tomorrow...it's off to Wendover with the Girls! Hopefully Lady Luck with be with us!
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