Augusta Canal-Savannah River Bike Ride

John, Paul, and I got up early on Saturday and drove to the Augusta Canal, so that we could bike the 10 mile trail. :) The trail was great! It was very flat and level! They do have a mountain biking trail there, but we will have to do that some other time.

These pictures are of the place you park. There is a neat water fall with a swimming hole below.









Paul is trying to get the bikes off in this photo.

More of the parking lot waterfall.




To the right of John and me is the swimming hole at the bottom of the water fall.


This bridge was really freaky to bike across. The canal was right underneath us.


This is the Savannah River.


John showed us another waterfall.



Can you spot the water snake?


Here is the beginning of the Augusta Canal.


This is the dam they used to divert the water.

The Savannah River looks really weird.

Paul and John reading something.







Yet another snake:













It was a 5 mile ride to this point and 5 miles back to the car.















This is the Augusta Water Works building.




It was a really fun bike ride. I never knew this place was there.

4th of July Weekend

Paul and I went down to Aiken for the weekend. The pictures below are of the 4th of July at Pa's house. I have some biking photos from a biking trip to the Augusta Canal which I will post later (maybe tomorrow).

Here is John in a tree.





John took the following photos. I had to re-do this front flip 8 times to get all of these shots, but some how they all look like one front flip all together.









Michael and Sharon were able to come over for fireworks.








Here is me dropping a roman candle from my hand because it caught fire. It's not suppose to do that. I figured I'd rather not risk losing my hand.



You can see Sharon running in the distance.



Here are some of the mortars we got. I look like I'm fixing a wedgie in this picture. haha!





The fireworks were a lot of fun! :) Thankfully, no one got hurt!


This was a picture John took of me through binoculars. He insisted that I put it on my blog.
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A Job and... biking! :)

So.. a few days ago I got a call from the school I interviewed with about the 6th grade math position, and they asked me if I wouldn't mind teaching 8th grade math because they had filled the 6th grade position. A few days later... I was offered the job by the principal.:) All the paperwork is still processing, so it's just a tentative offer right now, but after all the paperwork is in hopefully it will be a true offer. Nothing is written in stone yet.

I prefer 6th grade, but I will give 8th grade a try. I really like the math topics in 8th grade compared to 6th grade. I'll be teaching at a rural public middle school with over a 1000 students, so there will be at least 30 student in each of my classes. I'm excited and nervous about it at the same time! The best part about it is that it's not in Charlotte-Meck schools, but it is in Union County (an hour away from my house, but I can manage. I need to experience). I just have a lot of lesson planning and brainstorming to do before I start. If anyone has some good 8th grade lessons or suggestions, please let me know! :)

Paul had the day off of work, so we got up early and took a long bike ride to the US Olympic Whitewater Center: See http://usnwc.org/ . We biked all the way there and went around their so called "easy" trail. The easy trail was much easier this time around. :) So was the bike ride there.

If you'd like to see what the trails are like, click the link below. These guys had a camera in their helmet and they went a lot faster than Paul and me. ;) (These guys rode some of the easier trial, but also took on the harder ones of which Paul and I aren't ready for)

http://www.sirbikesalot.com/includes/popup_media.php?fid=uploads_video/2008/USNWC-CatawbaRiverfront_3.mov&subj=&w=492&h=276

Here are some pictures of our adventure:

This is where we stopped for lunch.

That's the Catawba River.








Not the steepest hill there, but you can see all the fun roots waiting on your trip down.

This is the sloped trail where if you lean the wrong way.. you will fall into the river. I look really scary in this photo.

Paul making it up a steep hill, note the roots.


After biking, we headed back home. It was a lot of fun, and I wasn't as scared the second time around the trail. We aren't ready for the intermediate, hard, or advanced trail just yet.

Here are some random photos of the kitty cats helping me put some filters in the air vents.