Bike Ride

Hello,

Saturday Leroy and I planned to take a bike ride to Ely (25 miles round trip). On getting out of bed it seemed much less exciting than it had the night before. The plan was to leave early because it was to get hot. Finally after some talk, I said, “Let’s just start out. We can turn around at any time. It isn’t like we have an obligation except to ourselves.”

As soon as we started down the street to catch the trail, we both felt so good in the cool morning air that there was no reason not to make it the full distance.

In the city the trail goes under some streets before it cuts back to the city parking lots/street to cross the railroad tracks. I was riding behind Leroy when a guy said rather softly, “On your left,” indicating he was passing me.

In a minute he started to go around Leroy without an additional warning. At the same time, Leroy turned left to the exit as the trail ends in a few more feet and crosses the track before catching the trail again.

In a panic I yelled, “Leroy”, too late, as the two riders came together over the same piece of trail. Astonishingly they did not fall, but both started to turn left onto the exit as I yelled, “Leroy” again. They stayed together for a little while before separating, but still upright. A woman came up behind me and said, “Obviously you know this trial better than we do.”

Later I noticed a scratch on Leroy’s rear view mirror. “Yes,” Leroy said, “His handlebar was actually hooked onto my mirror for a little while.”

Leroy just leads the luckiest life, doesn’t he?

After we were farther from the city streets we saw a gaggle of geese, more than half of them were adolescence. Those birds poop on the trail a lot. “Do you think we could slip and fall because of goose poop?” I asked Leroy.

He thought that could happen. How ironic it would have been to perhaps survive a crash with another bike and then be taken down by goose poop.

Paula