Surrounded by Butterflies!

As Cece and Emira cycled south from Bernalillo all they could see when looking right or left were hundreds of butterflies! Emira kept noticing how many there were....they must have loved the beautiful green fields on either side of 313. Cece is getting ahead of herself though!

Emira is Cece's new friend from Bosnia. She is a PhD Candidate and is writing her dissertation when she is not dreaming big thoughts...and then Cece finds out the next day, that she has carried them out! Emira cycles all around campus and has never owned a car...so she is used to cycling everywhere. When they met and rode together a few weeks ago, Cece invited her to join the team...and so she did much to Cece's delight. When they met yesterday to get situated for the ride today, before Cece hit the tree, she was excited to make a new beginning. Now Cece is her mentor! They are happy women...but this pic was taken before the climbs into Placitas and beyond! Emira rides a mountain bike and she has never ridden long distances, so she was very brave and stubborn too.....to undertake a ride with lots of climbing and 45 miles of road. Cece told her her strategy while hill climbing...to imagine the worst pain you can remember and compare the climb to that. Some how it helps to put things into perspective.
As they cycled up,Emira kept apologizing to Cece that she was going too slow. She felt like she was holding people up. Cece decided that she would have to fine Emira...and charge her $5.00 every time she said "Sorry" and Cece could have made a fortune...but then...she thought about collecting that money and just re-depositing into Emira's Leukemia Lymphoma fundraising account...she might still do this, if the sorrys continue....she is going to keep a tab !
Emira is riding a mountain bike. It is hard to push that thing uphill and to keep up with the lighter bikes. She did a fantastic job despite all this and made it up each hill. At the top of one hill, Cece prompted Clyde to tell Emira if when Cece had started cycling ...if she could have made it up the hills that Emira had . Clyde's response, "Maybe Walking!" And that is true! So, Emira gets kudos for sticking out a hard day on her first day as a team member!

Cece met Keith and cycled with him again a bit, and he told her a funny joke, which he commanded her not to put on the blog...so it is not. Sandy is tenacious and strong and spotted this "Go Fast sign" as the perfect location for a photo op.

Cece needs to get more men in these pics. Luckily we had Clyde this week...the others were well on their way...before she could take a pic. She will work on that next week!

Now Cece is off to repair her car and her tires after the fateful tree attack at the Frontier restaurant yesterday. But that's another long story!