Serious Food and the Long Run (7/14-16)

Once Mary Anne and Dad arrived, the dynamic of the visit changed. For the better, mind you, but it was still different. Dad was the Gentleman Farmer and messed with his tractor and the other machinery there, and Mary Anne got to play with the kids while I did a little more mowing and assisted in Dad's shop. We cooked chicken fajitas on Thursday night on the grill, had some serious steaks and baked potatoes on Friday night, and enjoyed the fine catfish restaurant in Hazlehurst on Saturday night. Now, the catfish wasn't my usual ideal pre-long run meal, but it was awfully good on Saturday!

Sunday morning, I rolled out bright and early (well, when the birds started chirping, of course) for a longish run. I planned on touring the countryside for about 90 minutes, just to get the legs moving. No fast finish today, just fun running. It was glorious outside, albeit warm, and I covered a lot of ground. Almost all the way down to Pete's store (Pete's store is no longer occupying the building, but it is still called "Pete's Store" by everyone around) and back on Browns Wells Road, and a quick side trip to check out the new gas drilling rig on the property. We're hoping that sucker hits it big, of course! I even managed to include a visit to the pine trees planted on the old airstrip, running up and down a bunch of the long rows of trees. It was sort of spooky, really, going up and down the tree rows, but I managed to put my Stephen King flashbacks out of mind in time to enjoy the rest of the run. Ended up with 9.6 miles, at a leisurely 9:15/mile pace. No GU needed, but I was packing the old CamelBak for the first time in a while. For the week, 30.6 miles, which was pretty good for a vacation trip week.

The rest of Sunday was spent on a trip to Vicksburg to visit with my brother and his wife, who are expecting twins in September. She's on bed rest, so I think she was happy to have visitors to her little gilded cage. They're very excited about the upcoming births, as are we all. It was fun to see them both, and after a lot of family stories had been shared with the kids, we headed back to the 'Wood. More dominoes, (I won, for a change), and that was the last day of the Kaywood adventure.