Today's ride was very full on 'adventure,' having way more of it than I wanted. But all's well that ends well!
Michelle and I are leaving tomorrow on a week's vacation to Hawaii. I'm SO excited about this, because I've always wanted to go there, but have never been. Hoping to close out the first half of the year over 1500 miles, I planned to do a long ride today — a round trip to Baker Rd. (about 20 miles) and then an additional round trip to Marsh Park (about 10 more) which would have done the trick. And since the afternoon temperatures were supposed to be favorable, I decided to cut myself a break and compose this morning, waiting until this afternoon to ride. However, in retrospect, perhaps I should have made myself ride in the morning.
Setting out about 1:45 p.m., it was cloudy and 69°—beautifully comfortable riding weather. I was clipping along, going north on the sidewalk along the east side of Maple Road, about 3 miles from home, when I came to one of those stupid crossings (the intersection with Pauline) where, no no apparent reason, it is not a straight crossing, but rather the main sidewalk and the crossing are offset by several feet, so a quick and sudden hook takes place just before the road. Trying to beat the light that was about to change, and get across before the cars that were lined up to enter the intersection, I did not slow to a crawl, as I should have. As a result, the trike tipped over onto its left side. Damage to the cycle was minimal—primarily just the smashing up of my mirror, which will be easily replaced when we return from our trip. Damage to me was relatively minimal, too, although it was showier—my left elbow and forearm got pretty chewed up on the pavement, and were good and bloody.
A young woman about my daughter's age parked her car, and came sprinting over in horror, asking me, "Are you OK?" When I assured her I was fine, she asked, "Where do you live? Do you need help getting back?" I hooked my thumb over my shoulder and said, "3 miles ... no, I'm fine." Finally she began to calm down a bit, and said, "Well, if you'll PROMISE me that you're OK ...", whereupon I smiled and said, "Just fine!" And we parted ways.
I'm sure she would have been HORRIFIED had she known I intended not to return home yet, but to ride on to Dexter ... another 7 miles further. But she didn't ask, and I didn't tell her. 😎
As I continued on I felt generally OK, although my left thigh once again opened up from where it was rubbing against the end of the handlebar, and bleeding some. With blood spattering my cream-colored shorts (primarily from my arm), I was NOT a pretty sight.
As I neared Zeeb Rd., about 7 miles into the ride, and over 4 miles from the point where I fell, the greatest part of me wanted to push on and complete my original plan. But I asked myself, "What would Michelle want? And what would Christy want?" Looked at in that light, the answer was obvious, so I wheeled about and headed for home, abandoning my mileage goal.
Zeeb, pronounced as one syllable, is a source of humor to us. When she first moved here, a couple of years ago, Christy thought it was two syllables (ZEE-ebb), because that's the way her GPS unit said it. 😆
Then to top everything off ... when I used to ride a regular bike, the cage for my water bottle was mounted on a diagonal tube (up-down), so that gravity helped hold the bottle in. But on the trike, the only place to mount this cage is on the horizontal boom running lengthwise on the trike, and without the assistance of gravity, I have lost several water bottles as they slide out while I'm riding. This happened again today, a little less than three miles from finishing the ride ... it's probably the 6th or 7th one I've lost. Understandably, perhaps, today I had my mind on other things than keeping the eye on it that I should have and that I try to while riding.
So, as it was, rather than my hoped for 30 miles, I got in 14.6, in an abysmally slow time of 2:08. The first part of my ride was slow to begin with, but then I lost so much time (and speed) with the fall, that I never got back up to a respectable level.
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