Mississippi River Ride in Louisiana, Day 1

Not quite the end of the road, but it was for us.

June 5, 2019

First day ride in the books. 🚴‍♀️😁 44.75 miles #mrrLA #GCCUSA

No "end of the world" sign. Well, there might be, but we were stopped by water over the road. There really isn't much flooding down here, but the 'penisula' hwy 23 runs down is pretty narrow at the very end- so much so, I was actually a little nervous driving w water so near on both sides. Particularly after driving through a little water to get as far as we did. However, no place along my actual riding route had any issues w water.

Unless you count the rain. I road in rain a goodly percentage of the time today. It was glorious! Visor kept it out of my eyes & the rain made the temperature more enjoyable. It may be raining in MN, too. I feel reasonably certain riding in that rain would not bring me pleasure!

Would have liked to have taken some bird pictures, but it's a little tricky to photograph flying birds from a moving bike. They were white & pretty. That ought to do ya... use your imagination!

We saw an alligator on the way in to the state park. We did not stop for pictures since we had KFC in a bag waiting to be devoured.

We watched a much bigger truck than us wade through it. Too deep!

No zoom, looking out each window. Yes, the GPS said we were below sea level. How is that possible?

The beginning of the levee road. We decided it would be better for me to ride the highway (good shoulders) because the levee is sometimes quite removed from the main road. Jim wasn't liking that. I wasn't eager to ride miles & miles of rough gravel. I did ride it about a mile just for the experience. However, before we made all these decisions I unloaded & geared up the mtn bike... so blue bike got the nod for the day.

Here's what the Mississippi River looks like the last place you can see it from a road!
(Wish I knew how to get a blog to show a 360° "look around" from a panorama shot!)

Um, a big "boat". (My US Navy family members are rolling their eyes.)  I believe this one was Slavakian.

The obligatory selfie. With my hero. He takes such good care of me!

  

Nice museum at Fort Jackson for a stop to snack & cool down. This was before the rain. And I might have come out of the gates a little hard. Adrenalin will do that to you!  PIc #2--civil war lead. Pic #3-- Belle Chasse, where I will turn west & head for New Orleans, was originally a sugar plantation.

I saw a lot of these today. No cane that I noticed.

 

Roadside flower. Might be a weed, but I thought they were pretty. And a good excuse to rest my backside a few moments.  Pic #2-- green fuzzy plant that caught my attention.

 

I don't think these "open concept" basements would do the job where we live!

What's in a name?

A carefully chosen value of one.  Whaaaat?

Relax.  It's a math thing.  I'm going to explain.

What number can you multiply by that won't change a quantity's value?  

You know this--it's 1, of course.  

But what if you need a quantity to stay the same but "look" different so that it will play nicely with its other little math counterparts?  You need common denominators?  Maybe like numerators?  Rationalizing a radical expression?  

You still must multiply by 1... but you choose that value of 1 to suit your needs. ¹⁰⁄₁₀ or perhaps ^[3x(x+2)]⁄_[3x(x+2)].   A carefully chosen value of one.  Sneaky, isn't it?  Math gives you the power over appearances.  Choose wisely!

I suppose every math classroom develops some "language" of its own.  I try to be very careful that my kids know when we're using universally accepted math language (which is most of the time) versus when we are creating our own semantics.  I don't want my students leaving our cozy Ballard family to discover they've been misled for some time (like Matt and Socrates...but that should be a story in somebody else's blog and I digress from my main point).

'Adding the opposite' is universal; 'double slash' is Ballard math talk.  The repeating bar, or vinculum is more or less universal (the delightful Oklahoma blogger, Sarah, at mathequalslove.blogspot.com prompted me to research vinculum); 'Jake bar' is definitely Ballard math talk.  'A carefully chosen value of one' is Dr. Debbie Bosch math talk.  And I couldn't get too far into this writing adventure without giving credit where credit is due.

Dr. Debbie is a dear friend of mine.  But first she was my math professor and degree advisor at Oklahoma Baptist University.  Oh, the stories I could tell.  Oh the stories SHE could tell!  Debbie helped a sometimes-insecure, most-of-the-time-pain-in-the-backside, small-school farm girl learn that we are not created to try to shoulder everything on our own all the time (Galatians 6).  She cared deeply and took the time to find out what I was about.  She and college roomie Martie taught me to laugh at myself.  Debbie was the paragon of support who knew when I needed a swift kick in the pants and when I needed a shoulder to cry on.  She helped me temper excellence with practicality. 

I love to pass on her "carefully chosen value of one" phrase because every time I do I am happy in my mind's eye to have Debbie visiting my classroom for just a moment.

There was, however, one thing that Debbie got wrong.  She wanted me to go teach in a big school.  Nope.  God chose me for a little school.  I am a department of one.  "O Lord, you have searched me and known me!" (Psalm 139).  I am a carefully chosen value of one.

I have the poster pictured above in my classroom.  "One voice can make a song.  One life can change the world."  With God, all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26)  I work hard to be His carefully chosen value of one for this moment in time, this spot wherever I happen to be in the world.  And I often fail.  Miserably.  But grace and mercy are real and they keep me eager to see what's just beyond what I can see now.  Come join me on the journey!

Everything has a beginning...

I have wanted to write a blog.  For years.  I've put it off because I don't really know what I'm doing.

Back in the dark ages, I wrote because it was a way to get thoughts on paper and in doing so, those thoughts kinda straightened themselves out.  (This was even before journals were popular.  I used loose leaf notebook paper... gasp!)  I loved writing papers for Dr. Hagen in Freshman English at OBU because writing was release.  (The passing years may have increased the enamor, but I do remember enjoying most of them!)

Beginning in junior high, when things seemed crazy complicated, I wrote.  I went to college and began to wonder if I had ever known what "crazy complicated" looked like; writing for personal clarity turned strategically sporadic.  Then I started teaching and "crazy complicated" took on a whole new dimension, so I wrote a little less.  Then I got married...

Outside of a few entries made in my Bible study and fishing journals during the summers, I haven't written much for, let's say 25 years.  

But I want to do this.  I want to have a place to reflect on teaching.  I want a place where I can throw out ideas that might be helpful to other teachers, passing on some of the inspiration that builds in me from reading others' blogs.  I want to be able to look back and say "What in the world was I thinking?" as well as "Well, that was cool!".

I want a place where I can chronicle bicycling.  I am going to ride across the US.  Lord willing, and the Creek don't rise. (That idiom intends no disrespect to my native American friends.)

I want a place where I can revel in the awesomeness of our Creator and give thanks for the creative work He continues to do in me.

I want a place to write about things I haven't even thought about writing about yet. :)

I still don't know what I'm doing.  But let the adventure begin!