WAM Watermelon Carving

This weekend we had the brewfest in Depot Town, and all of my employees were telling me I should carve a beer stein for the buffet fruit bowl. The problem is that this weekend is also the weekend that Forrest is riding his bike 300 miles for Make A Wish foundation in the Wish A Mile ride or WAM. I had already planned to carve a bicycle, and I just got a new set of carving knives this week, so the beer stein idea lost out. Maybe next year or even next weekend, who knows. I am starting to get pretty decent at carving with the knives, but my weakness is still drawing what I need to cut. I printed out a picture of a bicycle and drew a fairly reasonable version on the watermelon, then I started carving it out. This was the first time I did a carving where the watermelon wasn’t part of the design, it was just the canvas so to speak. In my mind it seemed like it would be a lot easier. I started working on it at around 8:00 in the evening, and I finally packed up and went home at 1:30 am. I also broke one of the new knives halfway through the carving, which didn’t make things any easier. I was pretty impressed with the results. So far I really haven’t made any mush melons, and I think I am getting better at it each week. Hopefully I get faster at it, 1:30 is just too late to be leaving the café.

Forrest just finished the second day of the WAM ride. When I talked to him yesterday after riding 100.1 miles, he was happy but really tired. He took a nap in the afternoon and in the evening when he called, he was getting ready to get a massage and go to bed. Yesterdays ride was a lot of gigantic hills. When I looked at the pictures on the WAM site, I could understand why he was so tired.
Today’s ride is 113.2 miles, but the terrain was supposed to start leveling out. They had rain in the afternoon, but it didn’t sound like it bothered him too much. He was definitely tired again, but really happy, and he completed his second century in a row. Tomorrow they arrive in Chelsea, so if you don’t see me at the buffet in the morning it is because I went to cheer for him at the finish.