The Bike Is Back … For 24 Hours

Tristan on swing at Thomas Park after first ride, before second one.

The bike shop finished with my back spoke just in time for me to ride my bike to campus on a very cloudy, cool Thursday, the final day of May—and Kaj said this morning on KCRG, it’s also the first time in recorded weather data that the coldest day in May was the final day of May.

Well, after meeting with a prospective student and finishing some newspaper paperwork, I headed over to the lower Andreas parking lot to meet the MMU crew for a ride.  Which didn’t take place, due to some unexpected situation in residence life.

Better luck next week.  I rode home, and put the bike to good use this morning.  Audrey and Katy had planned a run with jogging strollers on the Boyson Road trail, and I volunteered to take one child for a bike ride so that they would not have to push all three.

The plan didn’t work, at first, because the designated rider, Tristan, didn’t want to ride.  In contrarian 2-year-old fashion, the one thing he loves to do he just didn’t want to do this morning.

So I went up and down the trail for a while, but the second time I passed the jogger group, Tristan had done the expected—he had changed his mind and now wanted to ride.

So Mr. T and I, on this cool, sunny morning, enjoyed a short ride on the trail until we met the ladies at Thomas Park and played there for a time.  For the return journey, Mr. T was adamant that he would ride, and the rest of us were in agreement, too.

We went to the south end of the trail before turning back north towards the Boyson Road parking lot where the vehicles were parked.  We passed Katy and Audrey and Nikayla and Amelia, and even gave up a water bottle to try to make Amelia happy.  We rode a loop in the trail several times, passing the ladies several times, before turning north and passing them one final time on the way to the parking lot.

There, as soon as he was off the bike, Mr. T wanted to run down the trail to meet his mom.  I should have kept my helmet on, because I wasn’t walking my bike, I was trotting it to keep up with the energetic Mr. T.

After the kids and ladies loaded into their vehicles, I took off south again along the trail—the sidewalk on Boyson Road has been poured but isn’t open yet, so I was headed to streets in Marion that would lead me to the trail that parallels Blair’s Ferry Road.

But as I got close to the trail, my turns felt wobbly and mushy.  I was worried some serious structural flaw has crept up in my steering bearings, but when I felt the front tire, ta-da!  It was soft and getting softer.

So I had a walk along the trail and shot some butterfly and bee photos on the way.

Bee on clover flower on trail that parallel's Blair's Ferry Road.  I'll have to learn what that trail is called, because "trail that parallel's Blair's Ferry Road" is an awkward name.

OK, this one is a lie.  This is astilbe blooming in my garden, but I saw butterflies like this one as I walked my bike.

This one is not cheating. Something about the slightly dark background made this butterfly in sunlight glow.  Either that, or the demon that keeps attacking my bike was just toying with me.

Well, a flat is easy to fix, and I need to get a spare tube to take on RAGBRAI anyway.  I’m off the bike for a few hours, but hope to fix it soon and get some more miles in.  I have ridden about 35 this week—65 to go to break 100, and I’m sure that, although I will ride more than that distance on most days of RAGBRAI, I don’t want to do all those miles in one ride!

Bad as a flat tire is, the universe wanted me to know I had nothing to complain about.  On the way home, saw the aftermath of a car accident at the corner of C Avenue and Brentwood Drive (or Ashton Place on that side of the road).  Whoever was in the car, I hope he or she is OK--his or her morning was much worse than mine.