I have some good friends, most of whom are very willing to put up with my foibles, and even encourage me. One of these friends agreed to do a bike thing with me today. The plan was that I would drop my car and keys at her house, ride out to the Malt shop, calling her along the way so she could meet me there for a malt.
I thought it was longer, but it was actually just 30 miles. There's about 10 miles of good paved trail, 10 miles of bumpity paved trail (hard on the wrists), and 10 miles of surprisingly good packed dirt trail. It felt great, overall.
Along the way, there was a female turkey on the trail. She saw me coming, and instead of taking off to the side of the road, she decided to run down the trail. It's a sort of funny sight, seeing a turkey running down the road. But as I was obviously a dangerous predator in not so hot pursuit, she started putting out her wings, flapping, and finally took off! She flew about 20 feet before swerving off the path, and was actually really beautiful and graceful in flight.
I feel strangely privileged. I know lots of people who've never seen wild turkeys, or never seen them doing the whole display thing. I bet relatively few get to see them fly. And I did!
The only downside to the trip was that the malt shop was closed for a family emergency. I hope that it's not too serious, since I've met several members of their family, and they seem like nice folks. And they make a fantastic malt!
My friend and I went out to lunch, though, so things worked out well. We're going to do it again, but I'll go past the town and then come back to add another few miles to my ride.
Bikewise: I'm getting a bit better with the cleats and clicking in and out. My wrists are less sort today than after my 35 mile ride Monday (shorter distance or getting a stronger core, or both). I need to start working on my speed again, though!
I'm guessing from context that a malt isn't a whiskey :) But it sounds like you might have needed one after all that cycling!
ReplyDeleteIs it this?
ReplyDeleteStyleyGeek, are you teasing me? Or have you never enjoyed the foodgasm that is a malt?
ReplyDeleteTake chocolate ice cream (or whatever flavor you like), several scoops
milk, fill up around the scoops some
malted milk sugar (from malted barley), a couple teaspoons?
mix briskly. You want it to be icy cold, so thick that you can barely pull it through a straw, and smoooth! You should just taste the malt with the chocolate.
(Some places use vanilla ice cream and a flavor syrup, but use chocolate ice cream!)
So it's like a chocolate thickshake? But with malted milk sugar? Sounds yummy. But I doubt you can get this malted milk sugar thing here. I've never heard of it, anyway.
ReplyDeleteYou guys have all the good food :)
Right! Except we don't call things "thickshakes" but either a "shake" or a "milkshake." I gather from a linguist friend that there's a lot of variation in what the concoctions are actually called in different areas.
ReplyDeleteMalt sugar used to be available by a company called Horlicks, in powder and tablet form (yeah, can you tell where I got MY eating habits?) and from a company called Carnation, I still see it in powder form in grocery stores (in milk and chocolate flavors).
In the good ole US of A, if it's sugary and fattening, you can be pretty sure we either have it or will adopt it quickly.
Oooohhhh! Horlicks! Now I get it! We have Horlicks too, but we just call it, um, Horlicks. And I've only ever drunk it as a hot drink stirred into hot milk. But I can see that blending it with icecream would be excellent.
ReplyDeleteNow to find a blender...
StyleyGeek, I can't wait to hear what you think!!!!!
ReplyDelete