There and Bike Again

(Sorry to all Tolkien lovers for my bad sense of humor)

This summer has just zipped by.  I had the entire month of June off, and another week in July, but so many things came up to fill the time that I really only had one week that was truly and completely free.  I know.  This is the world’s smallest violin playing just for me.

But what to do with that one week?  I decided to set and attain a goal.  Because life can pass you by if you don’t take hold of it once in a while and purposely do something with it.

As it was, my goal was pretty paltry.  There is a bike trail that is fairly close to my parents’ house.  I decided break in my new-to-me bike by slowly riding more and more of the trail each day until, on the last day of the week, I’d would ride the whole of it and back again.  Let’s call it a goal of endurance, because that makes me feel better.

I got the idea because you can see the end of the trail from the beginning of it.  See?

And here’s the end of it.

                                                                           

By Thursday I thought I was doing pretty well. I rode 14 miles that day in about an hour and twenty minutes, and decided I would just go ahead and ride the whole trail the next day.  Except the next morning I had a flat tire.  So much for that goal, I thought.  Life swirled up and took me along with it.

I headed back to my parents’ house the second week of July, and out of obstinance, I brought my newly repaired bike with me.  This time I didn't have a week to kill, but I did have a sister who lived close to the part of the trail I ended on, and she and her husband had just bought their own bikes.  We decided to go for a spin.  You can guess how the rest of this story goes.

We are not good at selfies.

Huzzah!  I completed my goal!  I still want to ride the entire trail and back again in one go instead of half the trail and back again one day, and the other half of the trail and back again three weeks later, but I might have to wait until next summer to make that a reality.