Thursday 7 September, Allegheny Mountain Resort.

It's pretty and sunny this morning, but there are some big puffy and dark clouds moving about.  
Rob worked on planning our next couple stops and what we will explore while there and I worked on the blog.  
I fixed us some bacon and eggs.  Yum, haven't had that for quite some time.  I even fixed two extra slices of bacon for the Boo dog.  
Around 11:30 we finally got our act together to explore the day.  We grabbed our bikes, Bella's basket and the pooch herself and went out to explore our new digs.  We are on this really nice lake.  No swimming is allowed, but they have boats, kayaks, and pedal boats that you can use for free.  It is a huge park. It is part of Resort Parks International so we are here for $10.00/night.  So far this is the friendliest RPI park that we have ever been to. We also have such a sweet spot here.  Our door opens up to the lake.  It would be nice to have been here when the weather was warmer and when we were going to stay longer. 
Anyway, we rode our bikes around the park.  It is nice.  We rode about 2.8 miles but could have ridden a couple more miles.  Rob is biting at the bit to go off and do some real mountain biking.
We got back and took Bella out, then took her basket off the bike and loaded the bike into the back of the truck.  Bella was a bit devastated.  We took her for a short walk and then took her vest off and tried to take her inside.  She was like "no, I want to get in the truck.  I want to go for more bike riding." I had to explain that it would probably be rough and bumpy and I would probably crash and she would hate it.  She immediately went off to our bed and started pouting.  We left.
We went into a really cute town called Ellicottville.  We stopped in at a bike shop called Bike and Beans.  It is the only bike shop that I have ever been to that sells bike items as well as makes and sells Burritos and quesadillas. Funny.  We went there for a map of the local trails.  They were really nice and marked up the map they sold us telling us which trails to follow.  We only wanted to do about 15 of the 30 miles of their trails so they showed us how to shorten it. I took a couple pictures of the town.

This is the Bike and Beans shop

We left the shop and went to the trail head.  Just as we were getting ready to head out it started to rain.  Rob had the radar app and it looked like it would pass over us in about 20 minutes or so.  We jumped back in the truck and went off to check out another town.  It wasn't very cut.

We checked out the radar map and saw that it had passed over so we headed back to the trail.  We started out at 2:00.  We have a rule about starting an unfamiliar mountain bike trail late in the afternoon.  I am very afraid of it getting dark on us, especially if one of us might get hurt.  We didn't really pay attention to this.  I suppose it was because we weren't planning on going very far/long.??!!

Anyway, we took off and the trail Sucked, with all the letters capitalized. It was steep, and full of roots and wet and twisty turny.  I was hating it.  Im not sure if Rob was hating it because I was or because he really doesn't like narrow, rooty trails himself. We survived one trail that led into another and I was slipping and sliding and so was he.  We finally decided in the middle of the third trail, that this was not a smooth, flowing trail.  It was horrible.  So, we check out the map to see how to get back to the truck the easiest way possible.  We almost make it to the dirt road when it started to rain.  We stopped on the trail we were on because we were in the trees.  Then we moved under a thicker canopy and waited about 20 minutes for it to stop.  Then we took off again.  We both crashed on the way back.  Rob slipped off some roots and into a tree and smacked his knee.  I slipped in the mud and crashed and smashed a muscle, bruised a bone and got scraped.  Did I already say I was hating this trail?!  While waiting under the trees I added another rule to our mountain biking adventures.  No starting when the weather is scochie.  Not only was it rainy, but it was only about 60 degrees.  I was getting really cold.

Anyway, we survived.  We ended up riding a little more than 13 miles.  I was so happy to get back to the truck.  My hands and feet were very cold.

We went back to the cute little town of Ellicottville. 

Hmmmm I wonder if you can sit or lay down during this time period.

Union Free School

 Rob dropped me off at the grocery store and then he went to fill up with diesel.  I really wanted some margarita.  The grocery store only sold beer.  You had to go elsewhere for liquor and wine.  So, when Rob picked me up we went to the Liquor and Wine store.  Rob decided to come in and see if they had any local beers.  Oops, they only sell beer at the grocery store where I just was.  I bought some Tequila and some "ready to drink" Margarita and then we headed home.

Yippee.  So glad to be home.  I took a shower right away to warm up.  We took one of those freezer packs I made earlier in the week and threw it in the crock pot so when we got home we had Chicken Alfredo ready.  All I had to do was boil some fettuccini and we had a yummy dinner.

After that we settled in for the opening game of the 2017 NFL season......Kansas City Chiefs vs New England Patriots.  Yippee, here we go!!