The Ride of My Life

A few nights ago I was out taking an evening stroll with my parents when I was overcome with a terrible pain in my side. (Probably due to the large glass of water I had consumed before we left the house. Nice.) We were halfway through the walk but as I was holding the dog leash in one hand and clutching my side with the other my parents took pity on me and suggested I climb onto my dads handlebars and let him peddle me the rest of the way home. Easier said than done.

The art of riding a bicycle is no challenge to me, but riding double? I haven't done that in over 15 years---and it showed. I had no idea what I was doing. It was as though all my bicycle logic had flown right out the window. I wound up with my knees bent over the handlebars and my bum resting on the lower bar. Painful. I had no trouble trusting my dad's strength to wheel us around, but sitting on that bare bar was no pleasant task. Every time my dad raised his legs to peddle I was getting a knee in the back because of how low I was sitting on the bar. It was a comical sight to behold. Truly!

After a few minutes of that I was ready to walk the rest of the way home. My mom then looked at me and said, "Well of course that's gonna hurt, you're supposed to sit ON the handlebars." What?! Why did I not think of that? Probably because the last time I rode double on my dad's bike I was 3 ft. tall! After some quick repositioning I was sitting ON the handlebars and got the ride of my life! Dad was free to peddle away as I sat in front, clinging to the handlebars while trying to keep my giraffe legs up in the air. I couldn't help but laugh at what we looked like. The circus came to town!

As Dad continued the joyride of loop-de-loos and hair-pinned turns I was preparing myself for an emergency landing just in case. Although we were having a fairly good time all I could see in the back of my head was a picture of me doing a face plant on the pavement and busting my teeth. Not pretty.

Who needs a helmet? Certainly not us......PAHHH!