As you know, my dad (@jerrydfrey) is still on his cross country bike trip.  He left South Carolina in late August, was in St Louis and left on September 10. 

He’s now somewhere in Texas (rumor has it he had plans to mess with Texas, but hopefully that wasn’t true.) My mother posted some pictures to facebook (which is shocking enough as is!) but I thought I’d steal them and post them here for your enjoyment.  Can you guess where these are taken?  Because seriously, we have no idea.

It appears to be some sort of campsite.  And yes, that’s how he’s been sleeping.  He carries that tent with him along with a sleeping bag and some sort of sleeping mat.  Along with everything else.  Solo bike trip, folks. 

This might be him crossing the Mississippi…I think he mentioned crossing by ferry.  Then again, I could be wrong.

Odd looking building.  There’s definitely a bench though.  Don’t know if that helps.

Have you seen this man?!?

Sunday afternoon was our "healthy living blogger" meet up at Pi in the Delmar Loop.  Real Fit Mama organized it, and there were going to be about 6 people at one point, but it ended up just being 3 of us (Kara was the other one) and ended up being really fun! 

I’ve mentioned before that while I certainly fraternize with the healthy living blogger community I don’t really consider myself a healthy living blogger per se.  That said, I obviously try to live in a fairly healthy way (key word TRY) and that can certainly mean different things to different people.  They always say that moderation is key to a healthy life, and moderation is probably my biggest struggle in life.  Nonetheless!  LUNCH.

First off, I love women who can put away their diet coke.  We all ordered it (arguably NOT healthy, but calorie free right?!) and I have to congratulate Kara for drinking perhaps four or five of them.  I could be wrong, but that seems about right.  Basically we talked about life, the universe, parenting, the symphony, blogging, and you know, just whatever we could think of.  Naturally it turned out that RFM and I already knew someone (in the symphony no less) and were already only two degrees apart.  I think everybody in St Louis is just two degrees or less from each other.  (Is there a way to study this?  Or was that the original concept behind Friendster?)

Inside the Delmar location of Pi—I’d only been to the one in CWE so this was a treat.  It seemed like a more casual feeling location.  Not terribly crowded for Sunday lunch either.

Forgot to take a picture from the outside…we sat inside as it was just a bit chilly for the outside.

We all ordered salads and split a small pizza.  I was STUFFED.  The deep dish pizza has this amazing cornmeal crust that occasionally appears in my dreams.  And their salads are gigantic and fantastic.  I had been nervous about meeting them (after all, I don’t have kids, how could I relate to somebody with two?  Turns out it’s highly possible!)

Me, Kara, and Maria . No, I wasn’t squatting down in any way.

I feel so lucky that in the past few months I have met some great people through my blog.  When I originally started writing I never intended to use it as a vehicle to meet new people, but as things have evolved its been a fantastic experience!

I hope that doesn’t mean I start using the word "blends".  Please shoot me if I do.