Day 5-an old skill revisited (or something like that)

Woke up just as the coffee was brewing this morning-funny how that happens to me so often.  A little different this morning however.  I wasn't cold like on previous mornings-had kicked my blanket off and it had covered the fuse box beside the bed.  When I pulled it up one corner was as warm as a heating pad.  That's not good in a small RV-can blow out the whole circuit.

After coffee and a great breakfast, (yes, I did remember to remove the smoke detector), I went to the bath house.  It's not heated, so that didn't take very long!  Plenty of hot water though :)

Came back and looked at the map for a little while.  I decided I wasn't going to just sit here all day, and that little walk down to the pier yesterday didn't appeal to me a whole lot.  I decided to take my life in my hands and rent a bike.  After all, seeing the sights is what this little trip is all about.

For most of you, not a second thought would be given to riding a bike around this small island-after all, it's only about ten miles long, and I don't know how wide it is, but can't be more than half that.  Not gonna expound on age, since I have a friend here that is older than I am and rides great distances every day.  You know who you are (Jan) :)  Won't make any excuses, except to say that, except for one small experience about a year ago, most of you weren't even born the last time I rode a bike.

A little later I will talk a little about my great bike-but for now, let's talk about the experience:

After renting the bike, I pushed it to my camper-not about to make a fool of myself in front of the young lady who brought it out to me.  this was my first mistake, as you will learn a little later.  I put off riding as long as I could, pushed the bike out to the trail, and prepared to mount.  I couldn't remember how to get on!

OK, this can't be that hard!  Finally got astride the bike (old time girls style bike), got a pedal into position and pushed down-dang bike almost jumped out from under me!  I got control after a few feet, ran off the paved trail a couple of times, and finally got it settled down.

It was smooth sailing most of the time after this.  It's true-once you learn to ride a bike you never forget.  One other thing is also true-when you've been off a bike as long as I have, the bike seems to have a mind of it's own.

All of this seems like some sort of torture-it wasn't-it was a great thrill!  I forgot my age for a little while, forgot about the blood clots in my legs, the frozen shoulder that keeps me from moving my arm in certain ways, and all the other crap that comes with age-after all, age is just a number.  I felt a freedom that I haven't felt in a long time-not even in my boat.  Never thought I would say that!

I had a map outlining the bike path that goes all around the island.  It has trails marked off for short, medium, and long rides-up to and including riding around the whole island.  This is a half way decent little map, but there are a lot of roads and trails that aren't marked on the map.  This was my undoing.

I left the campground, got pretty confident in my abilities within a few hundred yards.  How hard can this be?-the island's high point is 25 feet!  Not a whole lot of climbing involved-I can coast at least half way.  I was wrong!  Now, with a half way decent bike, I would have been right-I didn't have a half way decent bike.  This thing wouldn't have coasted down a cliff!  It had never seen grease or oil, chain wa rusty and hit the chain guard with every stroke.  The seat was a little low, but I knew I could fix that-wrong again!  The lever that lets the seat adjust was rusted to the point of coming apart!

But, I digress yet again.  This is about the experience of riding the bike, not about the bike itself.

Back to this great map that I had.  Like I said, it has the trails marked off.  There is one thing you should know about maps if you don't know it already-in order for them to be worth the paper they are printed on, you have to look at them.  I didn't do that until I was at roughly 4.6 miles into the ride.  I had stopped to take a couple of pictures, but was feeling so good I didn't even think about how far I had ridden.  Also, I had gone from the high point (25 feet) down to almost the low point (12 feet).  I know that's not much, but I had been going down hill all of the time.  Sooner or later I would have to go back up.

I did stop several times during this ride.  There were historic places to see, animals to observe, a restroom that just wouldn't let me pass it, and a pier that called my name for a cold beer-you have to hydrate, or so I hear:)  And, at one point the rain got pretty intense-I found a shelter and waited it out, then went on.

I rode through an Historic residential area, saw some beautiful homes, then out into another historical area that had a hotel, high class bar (I didn't stop), beautiful golf courses, and past a huge church where a wedding was taking place on the lawn.  Sorry, but the bride did get rain on her parade today :)

I got a little lost, but finally found the bike path and started following it.  I didn't care where it was going to take me because I knew it would eventually lead me back to the start point-I didn't know it was going to take me back to the 4.6 mile marker though!  OK, now I know where I am.

I figure I've had enough for one day.--I have to climb all the way back because it was either level or downhill all the way out.  Will wonders never cease?  It seemed it was downhill most of the way back as well!

I saw a small deer on the way back-she stayed in the road just ahead of me for quite a while, then finally jumped off into the woods.  Just before i got back to the campgrounds, I saw another deer in the road just in front of me.  This one was probably the biggest deer I have ever seen.  She got out of there in a hurry.

I got back to camp, made a drink (hydration, remember), then decided I wasn't done.  I just had to have another little ride.  I got on the bike-didn't push it out of camp this time-just rode out like I had an idea of what I was doing.  I rode down to the fishing pier where I had walked yesterday.  Didn't take nearly as long on the bike, and I still enjoyed it.

I now know that I must have a bike.  Nothing fancy like most of you have-just something to tool around on-upright handle bars so I don't have to stretch and bend, a seat wide enough to fit my wide butt, a few gears to make climbing small hills easier.  I don't intend to climb mountains or try to race anyone-I just want to be able to ride again, like when I was a kid-that's almost what I felt like on the bike today.

Legs permitting, I'm going to rent another one tomorrow and leave in the opposite direction.  Still a lot of island to see, and places to explore.

Now, a little about this bike.  I know I've talked about her a little.  Let me explain.  I named her Jezebel for a reason-she is mean and sassy.  Won't go where she is told, and do as she is told.  I don't blame her too much-she hasn't been cared for at all.  Never had a touch of oil or grease on her hubs, both wheels wobble between their supports, chain has never been cared for, and she won't coast at all.  I have to pedal downhill just to keep my balance.  Still, it was a great experience, and, if I can't get a better bike tomorrow, she and I will do it all over again.  I did tell the attendant that I may have stretched the chain a little-it was rubbing the chain guard when I got back this afternoon-wasn't doing that when I left this morning.   At least I rubbed a little rust off at the contact points!

Until next time, keep the rubber side down!  (A new meaning for me)