Bloody shoes and near death experiences

I had every intention of blogging last week, but did I? Nope. You see, I somehow managed to get some sort of winter weather type virus in the middle of June. So instead of blogging, or doing much of anything else, I laid on my couch and slept, at least when I could.

So now I am feeling better, and I thought I'd jump right back in with a little story from yesterday. I went out after church with a few friends to have lunch and then to go walk along one of the rail trails. We walked the Cheat Lake Trail which I had never gone to, and it was pretty nice. (The other Rail Trails don't have HUGE houses to gawk at along the road!)

I have some new Teva hiking sandals I got on clearance this weekend, so I thought I'd wear them (they are oh so cool). Apparently they don't like my feet though. On the way back (after already walking about 2 hours) one of my friends asked me if my feet hurt. My response? "No, why?" Well, apparently I had a blister on the back of my foot that was bleeding. Yup, and i didn't even notice it. Perceptive, aren't I? Well, I have broken in my new shoes with a healthy dousing of blood along the back of the left shoe. I'm kind of proud. Makes me feel like I did some really intense hiking or something even though I didn't. :)

BUT, the best part of the day was also when we were walking back. Two of my friends were pretty far ahead, and three of us were kind of together. The other 2 had run ahead to take a picture of an "awkward butterfly" so I was about 15 feet or so behind. A biker yelled from behind, "On your right!" Now, if you are ever on the trials, you know this is common to have someone yelling at you to get out of the way so they can pass. It is just normal. What isn't normal is that she said right not left. Usually bikers will pass on your left, so you just move over to the right side. Makes sense.

So I thought it was weird, but kind of started moving to my left so she could pass on my "right" and realized she was already very close to me and on the left side of the trail! She came within inches of colliding with me (thankfully we both had very fast reflexes). But seemed pretty mad at me for being in her way. I'm still not sure how she didn't know her right from her left. She had passed us going the other way with no issue. I found out later that she apparently had yelled the same dyslexic type directions to my friends ahead of us. Hmmm. Maybe she was home schooled. ;) I'll never know.

Morals of the story: 1. When breaking in new shoes it is always a bonus to shed blood. 2. When biking/blading on a trail, make sure to yell "On your left!" when passing on the left side. You are, after all, on their left!