A Very Groovy Day with Eric Litwin & Pete the Cat

We got an early start on the Swamp Rabbit Trail this morning, early meaning that we were riding by 8:35am, pretty good considering preparation time and two year old delay time.  Andy helped load up my bike and trailer in the truck before he headed into work, which is probably why we had such a successful morning.  

We started our ride at the Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery.  Our mission today was a children's summer reading program at the Traveler's Rest Library, 7 miles North of Greenville, going uphill.  It's not a bad ride, but when you're hauling 30lbs of babe with 20lbs of trailer, plus provisions and some library books to return; I was towing probably close to 70lbs.  That kind of weight sure made the easy climb into Traveler's Rest a monster.

Pyper's view of the ride.  I deleted about 100 Pyper feet pictures.

We made it to the library in time to get a ticket and stand in line.  This program starred the now famous Pete the Cat author Eric Litwin, so it filled up fast.  It was a free ticket, but the library does have to abide by the fire code, thus the limited amount of tickets.  It was a fantastic program with lots of singing and fun.  Eric read/sang his classic first book, Pete the Cat and His Brand New White Shoes, then read a brand new book ready to hit the shelves at the end of July.  We were also privy to new stories, that didn't even have a book.  We had Eric sign our very well loved copy of Pete the Cat, and a couple copies for our favorite children's librarian in Maple Valley, WA.  I had just enough cash to purchase Pyper her very own Pete the Cate plushie.

Here we are with Eric Litwin and Pete the Cat.  

To hungry to make it back to the Greenville for lunch, we went in search for food locally.  We were very successful in filling our bellies at The Cafe at William's Hardware, yup, an old hardware store.  They recognized us and commented upon Pyper's growth, which in their eyes was a whole foot.

It's always about the food! Turkey, bacon, avocado, tomato, spinach, on a croissant with a side of apple gorgonzola coleslaw, delicious after that morning ride.

I'm using my mountain bike to pull the Burley trailer.  I think we even found the swamp rabbit on way home.

We loaded up for the ride home and Pyper promptly feel asleep.  We made it back to the Cafe without any issues other than my complete dislike of the nasty sticky heat of the South.  We called it a groovy day with King of Pops Popsicles, a Chocolate Sea Salt one for Pyper and a Grapefruit Mint one for me.  We finally made it back to the house around 3pm, as thunder boomed all around us.  Thumbs up to early literacy and groovy authors.

I thought this post was finished, but I'll add that we ended up attending a second Eric Litwin program at the library branch a couple blocks down the street from where we live this evening at Pyper's request.  He told the same jokes, but the content was different.  Pyper turned to me part way through and said, "this is fun mama."  I'll also add that we attended this program under our own power as well, by foot.  So all in all, we probably covered around 16 miles total today.