Well, it has been over a week since I took the third part of my board exams.  That was last Saturday, and involved a trip to Dallas, Texas for the Clinical Patient Management Practical Examination, or "clinical exam" as I call it since we are on more of a first-name basis after spending five and a half hours getting to know each other.  Five and a half hours of testing, most of which included examiners that have been specifically instructed to show no emotion to your actions or answers.  I don't feel that I seriously botched anything, but I also don't feel that it was a slam-dunk.  Results can take up to ten weeks, so at this point all I can do is wait.

Moving on from testing, last Tuesday Grace and I got out skiing at Radrick Farms with John and Karen.  The snow was as near to perfect as 6" or so of snow can be.  We were out for a couple hours after dark, and the camera stayed at home.  Radrick is a rare treat of a golf course in that it has woods and trails all the way around the perimeter.  I find gold course skiing to be pretty boring, but there are enough trails there to keep me entertained.  And it it only about a ten minute drive away!

Yesterday I got out on the bike for the first time in two weeks.  Two weeks, that is, if you don't count my trip to the bank last Thursday.  The thermometer said 38 degrees, which is pretty balmy for January in Michigan.  I figured the trails might be a little slushy so I headed out for a mostly road ride on my commuter bike, complete with full fenders.

A quick trip across town got me to Barton Park, at the east end of Huron River Drive.  The Huron River has enough current at this point to keep from easily freezing.  This is one of the local stretches of the river I like to paddle in warmer times.  About a mile upstream from here is Barton Dam.

At either end of Barton Park are iron bridges, leading to a nice nature area on the side of the river opposite the road.

Huron River Drive is the Crown Jewel of road biking in the Ann Arbor area.  For ten miles is snakes along beside the river and even manages to have a little elevation change.  While the shoulders are narrow, the speed limit is only 35 mph and even rush hour traffic is pretty light.  The trip across town for me to get to HRD is 5-6 miles; so it makes a round trip of about 31 miles to ride across town, ride the ten miles of HRD, turn around and ride the route back home.  While I usually prefer to ride off road, this is a pretty nice road ride that is easy to do after work.

At the other end of Barton Park is Barton Dam, which, creatively enough, holds Barton Pond.  My friend, Kurt had commented on Facebook that there were several swans near the dam on Saturday, so I stopped in to take a look.  There were these five on the ice near the dam, and another ten or so downstream.

After checking out the sights at Barton I got down to the business of riding and let the camera rest for a bit.  I continued a few miles on HRD and turned around and started home.  There were quite a few people out riding today, I guess a little break in the weather brings everyone out even in January!

I went down through Gallup Park on the way home, and there were swans everywhere on the river.  At one point I stopped and counted twenty of them from where I stood.  There were at least fifty swans in the river in the one mile stretch I was in Gallup.  In this picture are mute swans, which are an invasive species.  They are the swans with orange bills.  I also saw a lot of trumpeter swans, which are native to Michigan and can be identified by their black bills.  Another semi-useless bit of trivia: trumpeter swans are the largest waterfowl in the world.

And just to keep things in check that I am, in fact, on a city ride, a train cam rumbling by while I was in Gallup Park.  I see Amtrak trains quite often as I ride through town, as my post-work ride schedule often coincides with the daily Amtrak train, but on the weekend I occasionally see a freight train.

From Gallup, I wound my way for a couple miles through the twisting neighborhoods and found my way back to my driveway.  In all, a nice couple hours out on the bike.