I have to look at my last entry every time to make sure I get the week number right. That's not because I'm old is it?

Spent most of last week walking through the woods with 150 teenagers for a church youth conference. Done this before, doing a fairly lax re-enactment of what's know as the handcart pioneer trek. In 1856-60, Brigham Young came up with a brilliant plan to have several thousand of the poorest converts to the LDS faith from Europe (mostly England and Denmark) just walk to Utah from Omaha. That's an oversimplification, of course. Feel free to ask or do some research for more precise details if you're inclined. The point is, they really wanted to be together with the rest of the church and were willing to do just about anything to get there. Every year, congregations all over the US (maybe other countries, too, but I have no experience with that), take their youth out for a few days to lug their camping gear around and talk about those walkers and the personal sacrifices they made for their religion. The few days out of town are pretty tame by comparison, but taking phones and showers away for 3 days is a tough row for these kids to hoe. They did awesome.

Anyway, for me it just meant getting a little stinky and not running or riding the first half of the week. Was on my feet most of the time but only walked about 12 miles (estimated).

Adventures in cycling. Six miles on Thursday when I got back - trip to UPS for an Amazon return. 12 on Friday - trip to the dry cleaners that Mrs. Dave likes to use. Don't ask me why we can't go to the one just down the street. 20 on Saturday - helped a family move into their new home, then made a wide swing on Hines Drive. Trying to wave, smile, and/or nod to people when I ride so I'm not one of those guys.

Still thinking about upgrading the wheels. Still in a quandary about the cost. Cheap used one could give me unforeseen issues since I've no idea what kind of shape it would be in. Used cars I can evaluate, used bikes not so much. Not at all ready to commit anything with a comma in the price tag. Was able to talk to a friend who rides yesterday about it and he had some recommendations.

Don't think I mentioned that when I took Abby to my Wednesday activity with the church kids - we were doing a little auto education - one of them broke the handle to the hood release cable. Replaced that on Thursday with a new one. Changed lugs and the valve cover gasket on Mrs. Dave's CR-V. First try wasn't quite right and there was a leak. Second time worked, but accidentally grounded the cable from the alternator to the case and lost power. Turned out I blew part of what's called a multifuse block. $15 but the closest one was 22 miles away. This was on Saturday about lunchtime and she had Abby at work. 44 miles was a little too ambitious a bike ride for me, so I ordered one from Amazon and waited another day. Then I missed one wiring and one hose connection while putting it all back together and so of course the car ran worse than before. My ineptness is a big reason I hate working on cars. Fortunately, I have friends who are better at this than I am and one of them bailed me out.

Wednesday is a travel day. Utah for the 45 year HS reunion (that's 1977 if you don't care to do the math). I'll work for the mornings and early afternoons Thursday and Friday, then come back on the 4th. Almost a week gone using just one day of vacation. Nice. But flying Spirit, so just a backpack and 7 hours in the Las Vegas airport to get there. 

This morning, I ran (you read that right) two miles. Slow, of course. ITB seemed OK. Trochanter was almost good. Got a little sore for most of the rest of the morning, but not terrible. We'll see what it's like after working all day and 10 miles on the bike.