Our Maiden Voyage (it wasn't on a ship)

Hello!  My name is Teri, we have a dear friend who's name is Boyd, he lives a few doors down from us.

Last December (2017) he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.  Boyd is the best kind of friend and neighbor, he loves to get out and get to know people, I don't know a kid who doesn't love Boyd, our 3 all love him!  Yesterday I was over talking with Boyd and his amazing, beautiful, awesome, sweet, strong, fun, talented, loving (did I mention amazing? cause she is!) wife.  Boyd reminded me that my oldest son, Connor and I had invited him to come mountain biking with us last summer.  He had just bought himself a road bike and had saved up for a mountain bike, then he got this diagnosis.  I told him what crap I think it is that he has ALS, I don't know anyone who doesn't want to spend more time with Boyd.  They've only lived in the neighborhood 4 years, we haven't had enough fun!  I told him that whenever we go mountain biking we will take a little piece of him in our heart with us.  Robin, his amazing, awesome wife mentioned taking a "flat Boyd" with us and thus; the "flat Boyd project" was born!  Boyd has a way of looking at things that you see beauty and have fun and share laughter, it rubs off on those around him.  Not only am I excited to take "flat Boyd" on adventures and share the photos with him, hopefully he will laugh and be awed by my photography skills (just kidding, he's a photographer, and I... am not), but I am also honored to do this, as I will get to spend more time with Boyd and his wife talking and getting to know them better.  I love them both very much, to know them is to love them.

Please join the "project", print the above picture, it's very easy to slip Flat Boyd in your pocket, bag or whatever you take with you and snap a picture or two of Flat Boyd on your adventure.  You can post it with #adventureswithboyd or email it to me and I'll post it for you.  Help Boyd have some fun adventures vicariously through you.  Take your families out to do some fun things that you might not normally do, it's a great opportunity to realize that "life is beautiful!" (thank you Boyd!)

I will leave the comments open, please feel free to ask questions about the disease, I hope to learn more myself and educate a little if I can.

I thought the first adventure should be on the road bike since he had to sell his bike after his diagnosis and he really likes to go fast, and so do I.

At our house, it's always the rule if your going to be on wheels you have to wear a helmet, we've seen too many accidents and head injuries to not protect the noggin, so flat Boyd has a helmet too.  Safety first!

This beautiful little stop is Inlet Park.  We need to get 3-D, full size Boyd and Robin down here and do a little photo sesh, it's so pretty.  I want to do our family pictures here.  A little breeze came by at the perfect time and flat Boyd stood up nice and straight, it was kismet.

 Full size Boyd and I don't enjoy running/jogging (I don't think you can call what I do either of those, but, whatever) so I really felt like this runner could use a break.  I asked him if he'd "like to pose for a picture with my friend Boyd who is really adventurous and loves the outdoors but doesn't get to do as much as he'd like to anymore because he has ALS.  So I'm taking him on adventures kind of like Flat Stanley."  He said he would and told me his name is Will.  Thanks Will!

These two cuties were master speedsters!  They were out with their mama's for a morning ride by the lake and were excited to pose with flat Boyd, I told them how much all the kiddo's in the neighborhood love the full size Boyd and he even has cute grandkids like them!

Off we go! Flat Boyd has the best seat, it's been a while since he's been on a bike and his muscles aren't working like they used to, if he had to sit on the saddle his sit bones would hurt tomorrow.

The next stop was the haunted forest complete with bridge, haunted buildings and an eerie wind blowing through the trees.  It was so scary Flat Boyd didn't even want to get off the bike.  I called him a chicken, got off and ran to take a picture and ran back to get back on the bike almost fell over getting the heck outta dodge!

Shortly after I found out about Boyd's diagnosis of ALS (and let me tell ya, it shook me and I was blown away, and not in a good way), he came over and I was talking with him.  I appreciate how open he is to talk about his disease.  He said a few times, and it really has stuck with me, "Life is beautiful, it really is beautiful."  Thinking now, I don't think that I have ever heard Boyd speak a negative word about anything or anyone.  In this picture, Flat Boyd is lucky that he's "Flat Boyd" because he's surrounded by bee's, they are honey bee's, weren't honey bee's going extinct a few years ago?  I love honey!  ADD much? yes!

Instead of Where's Waldo? Where's Flat Boyd?  Are you awed by my photography talent?  We just live in a really beautiful place, you could pull out your camera and snap a photo by the lake and capture a nice picture. 

Flat Boyd, meet Lexy.  Lexy, meet Lexa (my bike, I had to throw that in).  Have you ever wanted to ride a dog or is it just me?  Flat Boyd is small and light and doesn't even phase Lexy.  Isn't she a beautiful Golden?  And very well behaved.

I love this trail!  

These cute ladies were very sweet, the one in the pink is from Seattle!  I was probably driving them crazy, I'd stop to take pictures then hop back on and go fast, because, you know Boyd likes to go fast, then stop again.  I finally explained to them what I was doing and they were awesome and so sweet.  That's the thing about people out enjoying nature, I didn't run into a single person that was grumpy or didn't want to talk to me.  People are nice and good for the most part, I'm happy that I have that perspective.  My husband doesn't get to see that as much, he's a police officer who works on a federal task force, his views are quite different, but because of him and his co workers, I get to see the good and I'm thankful for that.  Thanks babe, and babes co workers!  You guys rock!

This is a peaceful place to chillax by the river.  A side note; there's been noticeably fewer bugs on the trail this year. 

 Maybe a little sketchy?  I'm glad Flat Boyd is laminated and I can wash him off :-)

 I rode right by this, turned around and had to capture this shot, because Boyd has reminded me that life is beautiful.  It sure is!

 Riding back by the old haunted water park, look to the side of the building, is that a witches circle?  I'm pretty sure it is!

 I dared Flat Boyd to go in the haunted building, but this was as far as he dared go, I'm thinking he was extremely scared, I mean, look at the expression on his face! :-0

 I think something scary like the headless horseman could ride through the gap in those two trees, don't you?

Serious photo bomb!  Flat Boyd got me good!  I was trying to snap a photo of Professor McGonagall, from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in her cat form down that trail.  He can photo bomb with the best of them.  I love photo bombing too, it's great fun!  Once when we were at the zoo on the little train, this cute girl smiled nicely and posed in our little family photo, it's still pretty awesome when I look at it, it makes me chuckle.  This is a great opportunity to check out my mad art skills, I'm kind of thinking that his helmet looks like a crown, maybe he should be King Boyd?  That has a nice ring do it.

Well, well, well... it really doesn't look like Professor McGonagall at all.  It kind of looks like one ticked of cat though, look at that face!  Huh, how about that?  Crazy cat!

We made it home!  A little over 13 miles, not to bad for our maiden voyage.  Can you call it a maiden voyage when its on a bike?  Is a bike a "craft"?  That was a fun adventure!  I'm all sweaty, Flat Boyd isn't, I guess that's the advantage of being a Flat Boyd.  Thank you for the adventure Boyd, and looking at things a little differently today.  I look forward to many more adventures with Flat Boyd, we as a family have some fun things planned, so stay tuned!