Cuba, Cuba

Well, we finally got to Cuba last night. Our friends Betsy and Mike hosted a really yummy pot luck dinner, slide show and discussion of their bike trip. We got to meet some of the people from the area who rode the ride along with our great friend Barb Henderson. The slides were beautiful and stories fun and poignant.

It wasn't as easy a ride as we thought it was going to be - like the 22 mile up-hill and there was only one day at the beach. Most of the riding was through farm country. The people were super friendly and John, one of the riders, brought along 2 dozen baseballs. The faces on the kids who got these balls are priceless. They use home made or repaired, taped things they call baseballs. John said the first thing the kids did was smell the new balls. They were leather - a novelty.

The areas they were in aren't typical tourist areas, so accommodations, hot water and food were iffy some of the time but it sounds like that is what made it a true adventure. They learned so much about the country and its history and there were more reports of how beautiful Havana is. How so many of the people there now passionately love their country and lives. They love each other deeply and really didn't see the need for technology and "advancements" of our world.

Maybe I can kick this stuff and get there someday. Going to Cuba has been a dream for many years. In the meantime I got a big taste of it last night and it was fun.

The ride home, on the other hand, wasn't so fun. It had started to snow lightly by the time we got to Lyons and when we left, the roads down below were wet and new snow was on the ground. Once we started up the canyon the roads were snowy and of course we had the Prius with her bad tires. Mick decided to try Magnolia but before long turned around and we went up Boulder Canyon to Ned and around. It was pretty slick in the narrows (a part of the canyon) with a truck and two cars skidding but my wonderful driver got around them and brought us up the hill.