Monday, March 9, 2009

Tandem on Two Bikes

My Lovely Lovely has decided to ride. I am wholly in favor of this idea. Right now she is riding a hybrid that is a little too big for her (she’s quite petite, you know) because that’s what’s available. Eventually we’ll move her on to something that suits her better. We had two bikes and a nice day to ride them. What more could you ask?

Because it’s early days for her yet, we set out to an easy five mile ride. (She would pay for this unaccustomed exertion the next day, but that’s how you know it’s working, right?)

We passed a fenced in yard with an ever changing cast of dogs. I don’t know where the new dogs come from or where the old dogs go, but I can’t keep up with the changes. Today’s performance featured a miniature dachshund (he must be the star, because he is the only constant member of the show), a German shepherd (a small German dog and big German dog) and a Bassett Hound. The dachshund took the tenor line, the German shepherd took the bass, and the Bassett hound was probably supposed to be the baritone of the trio, but, from the sound of his voice, he smokes too much.

My Lovely Lovely sailed up the first hill quite nicely, but the first hill is only a warmup for the second hill. We stopped at the top of the second hill for some water. She then had some pertinent comments about preride hydration to make. She also had a habit of yawning while riding. I was wondering if it was the company (she was riding with me, after all) but she assured me that it was probably only her body trying to take in more oxygen. I’ve decided to believe this.

Eventually, either out of a desire for wider horizons or because we were bored by looking at the same streets, we cut over to another subdivision and one of the bumpiest roads it has ever been my privilege to ride. My water bottles rattle. My water bottle cages rattled. My teeth rattled. It was rough. Ahead, we could see a sign. We strained to read it, but the constant jolting made that difficult. We finally got close enough to see that it said State Maintenance Ends. Interestingly, the road got as smooth as glass as soon as we passed that sign. There’s a moral in there somewhere, only I’m too lazy to look for it.

We then passed by a swimming pool that was filled with what had probably once been water but was now pretty much green slime. Now, here I am on my ride thinking of you my loyal reader…I mean readers…that’s right, readers as in more than one (he thought wishfully) and so I looked at this pool and said, “Look, the swimming pool that time forgot.” Why, that would be something potentially amusing to put in the blog, right?

“Well, it’s probably just for the winter,” my Lovely Lovely said.

“Yes,” I agreed, “But that’s not funny.”

She might have retorted that “the swimming pool that time forgot” isn’t really all that funny either, but she’s too nice for that sort of thing.

She made it through the ride and enjoyed herself so much that we went for another ride the next day.

We are making progress. I’ll have her up to thirty miles in no time. Just you wait.

See you on the road.

2 comments:

  1. That's great! I hope she continues to enjoy riding, so you can share the love.

    My hubby has a bike, but doesn't really like to ride. He'll do it if I ask him, but that experience always goes something like this: He takes the lead and rides like his legs are twice as strong as mine (which they are), then asks if I usually ride that fast when I train. No! Gosh no, I don't! I won't ask him to go more than 10 miles or so. He'd do it, but he'd be grumpy. Not fun.

    I have talked him into doing an alley cat with me next weekend, though! (I've never done one before, so for those who don't know what that is...like me until a couple days ago...it's a scavenger hunt on bikes.) Should be a blast!

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  2. That sounds like a ton of fun. I'll have to see if I can find any in the area. I've got her riding and going geocaching though, so life is good!

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