No Fa-La-La-La-La... Yet

What a beautiful day it was for a mild- autumn- weather bike ride. As I peddled my way along the River Trail, I was celebrating the beauty of an afternoon which was complete with red leaves blowing across the path, ducks flying, and squirrels busily gathering nuts.


I had an unexpected stop when I discovered a pecan tree and my favorite nuts lying all along the path. What fun it was for this city girl to fill my bike bag with fresh pecans!

Do you know how much these things cost at Kroger?

My unexpected treasure!

My River Trail route is about 17 miles long and takes me about 1 1/2 hours to complete. This day the time included nut gathering and stopping to text a time or two.

The first half of the trail is peaceful, country riding. Blue birds, geese, mallard ducks, and deer are sighted very frequently. The second half of the ride begins with crossing the Arkansas River straight into our very busy River Market District.

Today the River Market was unusually full of tourists. Street musicians were playing Christmas carols. It was so lovely that I almost decided to get in the Christmas spirit a bit earlier than I had planned.

But...

I only Fa-la-la-la-la 2 weeks before Christmas. It is my very strict seasonal rule.

Jeff and I paused for candy bars and Gatorade at our favorite outdoor cafe. As we were again on our way, we noticed there was lots of extra traffic for a Saturday. We didn't know that...

the annual Christmas Parade was preparing to go down the street on which we normally ride.

Oops... Couldn't ride any further.

I wondered, " Should I go around the parade on another street or join the festivities?"

The unexpected sight of the parade was so fun that I almost decided once more to suspend my rule of...

"No Fa-la-la-la-la before Two Weeks Prior to Xmas" .

This is the end of the parade waiting to begin.

Guess who I saw next... I smiled... and was glad I had stopped my bike ride long enough to take their picture.

What a Jolly Couple!

Almost... almost... I was very close to suspending my rule.

What began as a fall bike ride did turn into something very different at the end, and, smiling, I was glad to be out on this beautiful Arkansas December day.

But... no tree... and no Santa mugs until next weekend.

And... my tree... will always be real!