two wheels and dangerous

yesterday dawned bright and sunny with a late-morning bike ride to seaside on the agenda. bamagirl and her friends were off to join some friends there and the thought was to entertain the girls for a little lunch with the parentals.

of course, work being the pervasive entity in our lives right now, we got a later start than we had hoped. that coupled with the fact that the hubster put the bike rack on the car upside down but did not discover his gaffe until we set to putting the bikes on the rack only to discover that the straps were not going to quite work. seriously, this stupid bike rack has been such a source of hilarity (and frustration) that i for one, am happy we brought it only because it is a constant reminder of how fallible we really are!

after a small growl (the hubster rarely resorts to colorful language. instead, he does a quick head-slap, laughs at himself and continues on. he is not of my genetic makeup because anyone in my family would have put everything on the side of the road with a sign that says “free for the taking” —most of which would be worthless because it would have been mangled into a twisted heap of metal.) we got it secured and were on our way. 

we drove about 5 miles down the road to a small school where we parked our car and hopped on our bikes and rode the 9 miles into seaside.  about the time we arrived in watercolor, a neighboring development, the bike traffic increased dramatically. the only difference between seaside and china is in china, the bike riders have experience riding bikes. i don’t know if it’s just a southern thing, but kids especially have little/no bike skills and wobble like five year olds on their first day without training wheels.

a couple of years ago we were biking to seaside and were about five miles away when we passed a family approaching from the opposite direction. all was going well until their twelve year old careened head on into my knee, sending us both flying. there i was, splayed on the side of the road, my skirt flung over my midsection, scarring any onlooker for life after the sight of my untan thighs. ohmystars. i managed to get back up on my bike and continued on into seaside where we had dinner with a nice bag of ice on my knee.

we spent a lovely afternoon with the girls, then unfortunately for by butt, were back on our bikes for the 9 mile ride back. perhaps the wind shifted while we were at lunch, because the trip back felt like 19 miles as gale force winds blasted us in the face the entire ride back. we both had jackets, thankfully, otherwise it would have been a miserably cold ride back being pummeled by the winds. we just took it a bit slower on the way back, and i’ll admit, the school zone sign near our destination was the most welcome sight of the afternoon!

on a sad note, my nice camera decided to take a pouter (of course, it always happens on a vacation) but i still have my little ghetto camera i brought for the heck of it. i'm glad to have a backup, but i'm steamed (and worried) about my nikon.