Father's Day 2017

It appears that this is our year for biking. While we managed a little mountain biking for Mother's Day this year, for Father's Day we made our way to the Tennessee Riverpark, which is one of our favorite places to bike as a family.

Daniel had to work the ENTIRE weekend of Father's Day, so we didn't actually do this excursion until the following Wednesday, but we were all thankful he was able to take a day off to spend with us before we left on our trip to Arkansas.

While he did have to work, we were still able to have lunch with him and his dad on Father's Day. We went out to Harrison Bay and ate at a Mexican Restaurant at a marina on the lake that Daniel's dad likes. Then Daniel went back to work. For supper that night, we picked up BBQ from Shufords and took Daniel to a park for a picnic.

Later in the week Jack made Daniel a chocolate pudding pie (Daniel's favorite). Jack insisted on doing it all himself because he was a "real chef" and the pie was for "daddy's day."

Jack is getting to be more and more grown up, but I'm glad he is still little and talks about things like "daddy's day." Jack also wanted to know when it was going to be "kid's day." We told him that would be his birthday!

When Daniel finally had a day off, we all agreed to go biking. The weather was perfect and we wanted to do a longer, flat ride.

We have biked the majority of the Tennessee Riverpark (in sections) but had never started from the actual starting point at the base of Chickamauga Dam's Powerhouse.

The Chickamuaga Dam is one of Daniel's projects (they are replacing one of the locks), so Daniel was a trooper in going to one of his job sites on his day off! We drove up underneath the dam and showed the boys where Daniel works.

They were releasing a lot of water that day in anticipation of Tropical Storm Cindy. You could see how strong the current was and when we walked out on a fishing pier, it made me quite dizzy to see the water swirling below.

On this ride we saw tons of Blue Heron. We initially thought they were cranes, but informational signs along the trail let us know they were heron and what made them different was that a heron tucks its neck when it flies while a crane keeps its neck out.

We completed 8 miles (round-trip) on this ride, making two stops at the Riverpark playground for snacks and time for the kids to play.

This is definitely the flattest section of the greenway. One of these days we will have to start at the dam and go the entire length to St. Elmo.

Jack has started to add the collective mileage of the bike rides he has completed. I'm pretty sure he is pushing 100 miles if we took into account all of his neighborhood rides...

Daniel, we love you and appreciate all that you do for our family! Thank you for spending your one day off with us.

Jack's official mileage (not including neighborhood rides): 67 miles
Oro-Medonte Rail Trail in Orillia, Ontario, Canada (20 miles over course of week)
TN Riverpark–Coolidge Park to St. Elmo (7.5 miles)
Stringer's Ridge Choo Choo Trail and pump track (1.5+ miles)
Edward's Point (9 miles)
Virginia Creeper (21 miles)
TN Riverpark–Chickamauga Dam to Amnicola Marsh (8 miles)