Corey Stokes

Score 1 for Dad!

After months of trying I finally got my son to go run with me. It has been a when since he has run with me. Today when I asked, however, there wasn’t even a complaint. Score 1 for dad!

He stayed ahead of me for much of the run. However, about a mile in his calf started hurting so he walked for a bit. Which gave me plenty of time to catch up, and pass him. But that didn’t last long. I turned off of our route noticing the road, which was normally closed, was open. During my short quarter-mile discovery session. My son had continued his run and was well ahead of me.

We were on the home stretch, when I’d finished my two miles a quarter-mile before he did. A, I began walking and he once again room off ahead of me. As I walked on of our neighbors waved, looked ahead at my son then looked at me and said ” fall g a little behind are we” I laughed and explained that my run was done. To which he laughed and said ”a likely story”. We bid each other good day and separated in laughter.

We ended our run with a .86 mile walk with our dogs around the neighborhood, some yoga stretching, and some fruit and yogurt. Not too shabby dad!

Uh, yeah he is a whole foot taler than me now!

K96 Bike Trail

For a while, I’ve wanted to add a bike ride to my workouts. With the start of quarantining and the gyms, closing it seemed like a great time to start.

My wife told me, after my son and I went on our first ride in early April, that we could ride the bike trails around our area. WHAT??? There are some trails?… So I decided to look up a few of the ones closest to me. We started out riding the Redbud trail whose entrance was only a few miles up the road from me, but neither of my son nor I liked riding on the gravel the majority of our ride. So today we set out to find a new trail. The K96 bike trail.

My son Nolan and I about to start our 10 mile bike ride

I found this trail completely by accident. I’d downloaded an app called TrailLink, and after weeks of looking at the same maps, this one popped up. It was probably there all along, I just didn’t notice it.

We had a great time. Well, I guess my son did. He’d asked me if he could purchase an audiobook for the ride. Once we were off, his headphones went on. That was all I saw of him until we hit our turn around point. He also stopped to check in with me because there were a couple of spots we had to guesstimate which direction the trail was going. For our first time riding this trail, it took us a little bit to find our bearings and find the trail, before crossing major intersections. For the most part it was a great ride.

He was listening to the second part of a book he’s finished in 3 days. So while he was in the zone I decided I’d take a listen to the first book he raved so heavily about. ”Snow like Ashes” was the book I listened to, and ”Ice like Fire” was his book. While I wasn’t as enthused about starting this youth book, it did have me captivated for the entire ride.

We didn’t ride the entire trail today. But we completed good chunk of it; we decided to head back at mile 5 of the 8-mile trail. In all we completed 10.3 miles and I was excited that the young heroine was able to escape her captures. It was an excellent work out, if I do say so myself! It’s a trail we will definitely ride again. Maybe next time we’ll get closer to completing all 16 miles.

Today has me wondering, what other hidden gems can I find out here?

Trying something new – Mechouïa

Can’t travel? One of the things we simply love is, if we can’t go there, we bring new cultures to us. Last year. I purchased a Downton Abby inspired cookbook, and I have been working my way through the recipes. I haven’t been of a Victorian-era themed restaurant, but I am open to suggestions. But this experience has been a complete joy for me to do.

After expressing some interest in trying Arabic food and asking me about some of the foods I’ve tried on my deployments, my daughter bought an Arabic cookbook and vowed to try every receipt it contained. Today, when I came home for lunch my daughter had completed the first recipe of their journey. Two plates had been set aside for me and my wife to try!

I must say, this was great!