The Zen of Ken and Jen: September 2009

29 September 2009

The Passport Program

Exciting News! Sanford Nautilus belongs to the IHRSA which means we are eligible for guest priviledges at over 3200 affiliated gyms all over the country! The people at our gym here are going to enroll us in the Passport Program as a way to support our ride. This will be an enormous asset for us on our Just Be-Causes Trike Tour! Showers, hot tubs, and massages! Woohoo! Not to mention the number of people we will meet there! We see this as yet another very positive sign that we are moving in the right direction. :)

28 September 2009

Nautilus

After asking Susan Larsen

(Diane's Mom) where she did
her swimming, we checked it
out and today we officially
became members of the
Sanford Nautilus &
Racquetball Club!
The folks there were nice
enough to give us 5-day
free passes and we took
full advantage of that going
every day to make sure we
liked it there. Getting fit has
become very important
to us. Thank you Susan!

The New Gym!

Torture Devices.

The Torture Chamber. I love/hate this room.

Ken standing by the pool, daring me to push him in. Heh heh heh.

21 September 2009

An Afternoon at Raven Rock

This afternoon we went to Raven Rock State Park which is about 15 miles or so from home. We hiked about 5 miles and got to see the Cape Fear River up close - and we discovered some great campsites, but at Raven Rock you either hike in or canoe in - there is no driving in the camping areas. Nice and quiet!

Ken taking a break.

Jen climbing around on the rocks.

These are just a few pics we took today at the park. There was some great lighting there this afternoon.

17 September 2009

Kiwanis Park

On the rare days that we don't ride bikes or play tennis, we like to walk the trails at nearby Kiwanis Park. There are usually a lot of people there, but this morning we only saw a few. It's beautiful there and we are looking forward to the trees changing colors.

11 September 2009

40 Miles!

Construction on the American Tobacco Trail was completed so today we were able to take the trail into Durham. We stopped at a couple of shops there in town, ate lunch at a park, and then made our way back home. Today's total miles: 40! That's the farthest we've gone in one day!

Much of
today's ride
was on parts
of the trail we
had never
been on.
We love
uncharted
territory!
It was a lot of
fun exploring
and even
though
the ride was
long we felt
strong and had
yet another very
wonderful day.

From the trail where we sat resting on a bench, we could hear a loud humming noise. A bit further up the trail we found the source. It's not as creepy as the nuclear plant but it was still pretty eerie.

10 September 2009

The Ultimate Charity

Alexandria Kai Ballentine 1989-2000

Organ donation is something many of us think about only when getting our driver's licenses... But today I am asking you to think about it.
You may wonder why I am writing about this uncomfortable subject, and I will tell you that it is from my own personal experience. I am an advocate of donation because I am a donor mother. My 11-year old daughter, Alex, was killed in 2000 when she was hit by a car. We had discussed donation about 6 months before she died after we'd seen Michael Jordan's “Share Your Life, Share Your Decision” commercial on TV. So I knew what to do when I was asked that difficult question. Yes, she wanted to donate her organs, and so we did. Her heart went to a 2 year old boy, her liver to a 9 year old boy, and she also donated both kidneys, her pancreas, and her corneas. She saved 5 lives.
The number of people needing a transplant continues to rise faster than the number of donors. About 3,700 transplant candidates are added to the national waiting list each month. Each day, about 77 people receive organ transplants. However, 18 people die each day waiting for transplants that can't take place because of the shortage of donated organs. There are now more than 92,000 people on the waiting list and each of us could save or help as many as 50 people by being an organ and tissue donor.
What is it that keeps people from donating? Usually it is ignorance or fear and for this, knowledge is the cure. Please click on the Donor Alliance link to the upper right of this post, under our Just-Be-Causes. On this site you can read all about the history of organ donation, the processes it entails, and read some of the amazing stories of both donor and recipient families.
Our mission of raising awareness for organ donation has turned into more than just talk. Ken and I are planning a cross country bicycle trip - The Just-Be-Causes Bike Ride - next spring to really get our message out. We will be generating donations for Donor Alliance as well, but mostly we will be talking to people and telling them how very important their decision is.
To help make our journey possible, we have received a very generous offer from a small company in Michigan called Terra Trikes. Instead of riding our old bikes and risking not making the entire trip, the folks at Terra have offered us a two-for-one deal! If we buy one trike, they will supply us with the second one at no cost. We would love nothing more than to take them up on their deal, so we are now trying to raise the $1500 for the purchase. If you would like to help us reach our goal and be a part of our cause, please contact us!! Our email address is Jballentine68@gmail.com. (Below is a picture of the model of trike we hope to be riding.)Check out their website: TerraTrikes

Annie L. Jones Park

This is where we played tennis yesterday in Cary. It's a nice park with 6 very well-maintained and lighted courts. After we played we went to have sushi and to get our groceries at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. We LOVE where we live, but if we ever had to move closer to a big city we would move to Cary. A suburb of Raleigh, it was voted in the top 10 towns to live in the US.