Sep 5 2010

Biking (and Walking) Around


Lucy: “Wubie wears a brown dress.”
Dad: “What does he do in his brown dress?”
Lucy: “Walks around like a cat.”
 — a conversation with Lucy

I took a bike ride over to my mom’s place this morning. For the ride back home, I decided to goof off a bit and take some pictures. I took a few shots at Piedmont Hills High School, about a mile from my mom’s place. I thought my older siblings might get a kick out of the pics. They all went there.

By the time my little sister and I were old enough for high school, school busing was in effect. We never got a chance to go to the school down the street. Instead, we went to Independence, which was about six times the distance of Piedmont Hills.

In addition to the school photos are shots of various scenes that caught my attention. I would have taken more pictures, but unfortunately my bike ride was cut short by a pesky thorn (yes, I took a pic of it!) that flattened my rear tire.

It figures that on all my previous rides I’d brought along a pump, repair kit, and spare tube and hadn’t encountered a single problem. So this time I thought, “Man, my bike is heavy enough as it is. Maybe I’ll just leave that stuff at home this time.”

So today I get a flat tire and wind up walking the bike home the last 2-3 miles on a hot summer day. Also, during the walk I figured out that once the flat lost all its air (which was about a mile from home) I’d have to lift up the rear of the bike so that the rim wouldn’t get all bent up during the walk home. Lovely!

Oh well, good exercise I guess. I ended up biking/walking about 15 miles all together. Once I finally got home I learned that I was six pounds lighter than I was at my trip’s outset. That’s a lot of sweat! I also learned a valuable lesson: I sure won’t be leaving my bike repair stuff at home any more.

By mike • by Mike, Misc • 3 • Tags: , , , , ,