I biked in the Park on Friday morning.  I had also biked on Tuesday morning, but what with my other projects, I neglected to mention it earlier.  I got fifteen miles on each day.

On Friday I headed directly to the far south-east corner of the Park to view the Omeisaurus pictured above.  It is part of the Science Center’s new Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit.  The outdoor Omeisaurus statue does not move, but the inside exhibit features animated models.  The exhibit opens today, so it will be open over Thanksgiving weekend if Rey is interested.

Years ago when Danny was very little, we took him to a similar exhibit in Dallas.  He was young, but already very interested in dinosaurs.  In the exhibit which was very crowded, I carried Dan on my shoulders so he could see.  We were standing before a relatively small sauropod, at least it seemed so to me, it was probably huge from Dan’s perspective.  Anyway after having contended itself with just munching on grass, it lifts its head and looks directly at eye level at Dan and roars.  At this point Dan is so frightened that he grabs two handfuls of my hair.  Then it was my turn to roar.

Friday after I had logged my miles, I was heading out of the Park when the pictured juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk flew over me and roosted on a nearby tree branch.  I stopped and got a picture of it still roosting and then I got a picture of it just as it was taking off again.  It is a little blurry, my camera does handle motion real well, but I consider this picture to be my money shot for the day.  Not bad for a gray November dawn.  The little Grackle on the right had a lot of guts to just sit there while the hawk took off.  After the hawk left all of the Grackle’s friends came back to congratulate it.

After returning home, I put my bike up on the work-stand and discovered that what I had thought to be “chain noise”, was actually five loose bolts, the ones that were holding my big ring.  I tightened them and the problem seems to be fixed.  Saturday’s ride will be the real test.