Weekly Mileage #72 and the Temple Trip

Mr M and Sunshine were sick last Sunday, and Monday I had the bug. It was annoying to be sick again after several months of not getting sick, but it only lasted 24 hours, so there’s that at least.

This past week the weather cooperated enough for us to go on two hikes. We went to Montpelier (James Madison’s home) and Ash Lawn-Highland (James Monroe’s home) to explore the trails they have established around the houses and grounds. It was hot and disgustingly humid, which made the hikes a lot less enjoyable than they might have been. The trails we did at Montpelier were in the blazing sun, but we found a trail through the woods at Ash Lawn that was much nicer.

trail through a field at Montpelier

trail through the woods at Ash Lawn 

Thursday I did my long run on the treadmill again. I ran 8 out of the 10 scheduled miles, and added a half mile warm up and cool down for 11 miles total. It was tiring, but it felt good. It felt good to run that much, especially since my long runs are still the only running I’ve been able to.

caught this cool view in the rear view mirror

Friday morning we loaded up into the RV and drove to Columbus, Ohio to attend the temple there. We’re in the Washington DC temple district, but it’s closed for a couple years for renovations. The Raleigh NC temple is also closed for renovations due to a mold issue. We could go to the Philadelphia temple, but there’s no parking for the RV at the temple. The temple is smack dab in the middle of the city, and the only parking is in a parking garage. We could park elsewhere, but we’d have to tow the car so we could drive to the temple. The Columbus temple has plenty of parking and we were able to park in the parking lot while doing sessions, and spent the night in the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel down the road. No extra vehicle needed.

This was Sunshine’s first time going to the temple- she turned 12 a few months ago, but not soon enough to make the last youth trip to the DC temple before it closed.  She had a good experience (as did Mr M and I), and now we need to schedule our next trip. We may go to Philadelphia after all, though, just because it’s several hours closer and we don’t really enjoy marathon driving stints. They’re tiring for everyone involved.

Ocean was ready to smile, but River was a little less cooperative

It rained hard all night and all morning, though it let up for a few minutes, so I took the boys to touch the temple. In the time it took to walk from the RV to the temple, take a few pictures, and walk back to the RV, it started raining again. This little (I assume, but we never saw it lower) stream next to the parking lot was running high and fast from all the rain.

Weekly Mileage

Tuesday- 2.00 miles hiked at Montpelier

Wednesday- 2.21 miles hiked at Ash Lawn-Highland

Thursday- 11.02 miles run and walked on the treadmill

      total- 15.23 miles

17 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
2.14 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

198.00 foot miles towards #365milechallenge
225.00 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
425.14 miles total