Pedals

I'm not usually a bike riding kind of gal. Yes, I do have a bike. And yes, I know HOW to ride a bike. But it's not usually my thing. If someone wanted to get one like this for me, I would gladly accept it. I may not ride it much, but it would look cute in my garage. And no one else in my house would ever try to pilfer it. Please make sure it has "ample" seating. Oh, and don’t forget the cute white plastic but made to “kind of look like wicker” basket on the front with the plastic daisy-esque flowers. Pink flowers, mind you.

Even at the gym, riding the stationary bike is my least favorite piece of cardio equipment. The recumbent bike is even worse than the upright stationary one. Yes, that is a fact.  I know some people swear by the recumbent one, but they are telling lies. All of them. It seems like the recumbent one would be better but it’s not. My back will attest to that. My friend CB hates it too, even though she sometimes makes me ride it at the gym. She’s bossy like that.

However, every year when we go to The Island, we rent bikes. Somehow The Island holds some sort of magical charm over me and I can’t wait to start riding a bike. I think because it embodies everything I love about being here…a slower space, a laid-back feeling, and close proximity to everything. You could walk or cycle virtually anywhere you’d like to go. As an aside, the little basket on the front comes in handy because if you do ride you bike to the store, all you can afford will fit in that basket, because the prices here are so high. Not a complaint so much as an observation. Who am I kidding….I am complaining too.

The Island is covered in paved paths, and riding on the beach is allowed as well. Beach riding is my favorite. Just a tip…check the tide schedule first. Been there, made that mistake. We’ve made that mistake in years past and we made it again today. When it is high tide, there is, clearly, no beach on which to ride.  And really you want to make sure the tide is WAY out, so there is ample space with which you can ride your bike and dodge the children (and adults) who wander aimlessly to the water and back, as though they are the only ones out there…completely oblivious. Not that WE would ever act in such a way when we are not on our bikes, but I have seen it happen; I have personally avoided more than one catastrophe with a wayward child (or adult). There really should be rules for beach etiquette and someone should enforce those rules…but I digress.

We always rent our bikes from a place with a cutsie name called "Pedals" -- how can you not love that? How could you resist the lure of that name? Pedals. Love it. That’s not why my dad rents from there. I believe it has something to do with a coupon. Which is also something I appreciate.

As I said, today we made the mistake of schlepping our bikes out to the beach only to discover that high tide had just been about an hour earlier. So we drug them back across the bridge, over the sand-dunes, to ride on the paths. Path riding is a whole different game. I was a nervous wreck about it, as you ride against the traffic part of the time, and with the traffic part of the time…it depends on where the paths are in a particular area. I know one would think they have uniform ways of doing it, but as of yet they do not. Also you have to stop sometimes, as the vehicle traffic has the right of way. And when both directions are on the same path, it is at that point that you easily no longer know how to steer a bike and risk careening into people riding the opposite direction. 

My husband led our parade, followed by the 11yo, then the 9yo, and I was the caboose (can you tell I work in a preschool?). I was constantly dialoging with the 9yo about where he was going and when he needed to “pedal faster”…he especially enjoyed standing up on the pedals and coasting, which was a luxury we could not afford. His bike was smaller than the other three and thereby he had to pedal more rapidly than the rest of us in order to go the same speed/cover the same distance. I only brushed his back tire a handful of times, which caused me to skid off to the side, but it left him completely unphased. Better me than him, I figured.

And being as how the PBA don’t always pay close attention to things, I seriously thought one of them was going to ride out in front of a moving vehicle. Granted, it would be one going at a slow, island pace but still. Enough to do some serious damage to a child. Insert shudder here.

Trust me…beach riding is much less complicated. And less stressful.

I will say that at one point during our ride, I did let myself relax enough and slip off into a little daydreaming. As we were sailing along, I envisioned myself like this:

We all know this is from "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid", right?
 If you don't know this movie, you should be embarrassed and never speak of it to anyone.
 Go rent or buy it right away.

But in actuality this is probably more of what I look like (it's the music I kept hearing in my head today while we rode):

And we all know this is from "The Wizard of Oz", right?
 If not,  please see the instructions for the above movie reference and follow accordingly.

But frankly, I’m not asking the PBA. I don’t really want to know.