Tour deFootpath

It has been well documented on my Blog about My Beloved and his awesome bicycle abilities,  but have you ever wondered about mine?

Well, the truth is, as a kid I used to ride my bike all over the place.  When we lived in Kelowna, miles away from the school, would you believe that even in the snow we rode our bikes!  Yup, true fact.  My dear Brother got the idea of wrapping chains on our front tires.  We did that, tried it out, it worked, we rode them!

Even getting knocked off my bike by a car who was parked head in and backing out onto the main street, while I was riding by in beautiful downtown Kelowna, didn't stop me.  I got up and got right back on it and went to City Park for a swim, no sweat!

When we moved to Vancouver, I used to walk my bike up the huge Ontario Street hill to Sexsmith Elementary, eagerly looking forward to the ride home.  It was a blast, flying downhill, with nary a concern for my life for the cars darting off the side streets to greet me.

When I went to Churchill, if I wasn't busing, or being driven by My Beloved, I'd sometimes take my bike.  As happens in such a big school however, it wasn't terribly cool to be a biking student.  I quickly learned that and soon gave it up and walked, bused or if lucky enough got a ride.  In other words, worked at being cool, when in fact, it was dang inconvenient and I never did get "cool" status anyway.

When the kids were babies, I used to have a bike carrier on the front and back of my brand, spanking new, Simpson Sears catalogue ordered bike.  Our middle daughter April still remembers being strapped into the seat behind me while I drove her to Merry King Nursery School.  No doubt I terrorized her each time we got up to Number 1 Road after making a left turn off of Williams.  You see, just after we turned left, there were ditches on our right hand side, the side we were on (before dedicated bike lanes).  Each time we passed it, I'd warn her, "don't jiggle April, we don't want to fall into the ditch!"  Probably the first dozen times I said that, I meant it.  The remainder of the year, it was more of a habit, because that sweet little blondie didn't move a muscle.  In fact, if I could have turned around to see her, (and wiggled the bike), she probably didn't even dare to blink!  Believe me, she still remembers being on that bike.

I'm fairly certain you've probably heard the expression, it's like riding a bike, you never forget how to do it.  Wrong, buffalo breath.  Bike riding is an activity that you can actually forget how to do.  I am living proof of that.

For years, the poor old bike got jammed into the garage, and was left to collect cob-webs until one day My Beloved basically said, use it or lose it, but in a much nicer way.  So, on I got.  I rode the bike to the end of the cul-de-sac, made a very slow turn onto Cabot (a fairly busy street), was going way too slow, utterly forgot that I could put my feet on the ground,  and promptly did a slow-moe fall right into a rose bush. Sheesh!

A smiliar "threat" happened out here in The Grove.  Again, I tried it, I liked it, but the bike had an issue, so back up on the wall it went.  That is, until this year, when My Beloved asked ever so sweetly, "should we get rid of the bike?", naw, let's try it again.  So he walked it to the closest bike shop, got it fixed, put air in the tires and I tried it again last night.

It was an auspiscious start. My Beloved offered to turn the bike around for me, I said, no it's okay, I can do it, and promptly knocked over the planter on the sidewalk!  Nervously laughing, I walked it out to the street did the first pedal and my knee hurt like H-E-double hockey sticks!  The seat was  way too low because that was an issue for me last year, so I had to stop before I got 2 pedals in.  Back to the house, readjusted the seat, which made me nervous, because I want to be able to stand up and hit the ground with my feet pronto.  Of course My Beloved was right, he raised the seat and voila, no knee pain!  I was just about to start up the road--again, but noticed that 2 beautiful Labs were running loose on their front yard.  I am not ready for swaying past any moving thing, so off I chugged up the Footpath beside our house to practice. 

BLISS, ABSOLUTE BLISS, riding that old bike once again. I rode that thing back and forth, forth and back.  Then when the Labs went inside, I rode it up and back on the street and did a few wide turns on the cul-de-sac.   I've still got some work to do on making wide turns but I feel ever so confident that I can do it and am looking forward to challenging the cul-de-sacs that abound in our neighbourhood.  So look out!

Thanks Mr. D. for all of your encouragement.  I'll never be anywhere as good as you are, but I'll have fun trying with you rolling by my side!

 Look Ma-riding with one hand!

(Our kids coined this bike the "suicide bike" mean little spirits that they are.)  Here it hangs waiting for another venture around The Grove.  Wish me luck!

I sure hope everything is rolling along smoothly for you.

Happy Tuesday!