Bike rides

Well, I learned some World Geography today at LA POSTE.  I needed to mail a damaged leather jacket to Italy and so off to the Post Office I went.  My shipping envelope options were France, La Monde and Europe.  There weren't any "Europe" envelopes that were the right size, so I opted for a "La Monde" envelope.  Apparently, Italy is not part of the world, it's only part of Europe.  C'est la vie.

I have had so many of you message me that you are enjoying reading about my pursuits here in France.  Thanks for the encouragement.  Just remember, my grammar might not be perfect, but it's the thoughts that count.

We are supposed to have a really nice day of weather on Saturday.  Which is nice, because yesterday it rained cats and dogs here.  At home, I probably wouldn't have even gone out in my car.  Unfortunately,  yesterday I had an invitation for a "ladies coffee" and so staying inside was not an option.  Dashing in and out of your car in the rain is inconvenient.  Walking over one mile (yes, that's what my google map calculated the distance as, I'm not just seeking your sympathy) each way to the host's apartment in the downpour was downright miserable.  By the time I arrived, my perfectly coiffed hair was now Roseanne Roseannadanna-esque and I was actually sweating from cooking inside my rubber rain boots and my body heat trapping rain coat.

Back to Saturday's weather. We plan to take a last of the season bike ride around the city. David and I brought two bicycles with us to France.  I don't know about the majority of you reading this blog, but I'm almost 50 and haven't ridden a bike in a "coon's age".  Heck, even my kids hardly ever get on a bike.

When I was packing up things to ship to France David wanted me to send two of our four bicycles.  I dutifully took them to the local bike shop in Indy to have them spruced up for travel.  Both of them had cobwebs all over the spokes from non-use.  I'm fairly certain that the "bike tech" was tsking as he checked them in for their appointment.

About three weekends ago was my first French bike adventure.  There are bike trails here in Strasbourg that will take you all the way to Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, or wherever you want to go.  There are over 473 km of bike paths to travel.  Strasbourg is known as the "Bike capital of France".

My bike is about 15 years old.  I won it through a Tupperware contest and it's a fairly nice hunk of metal.  On it I climbed.  I immediately noticed that the seat was not at the right height for me.  I could only touch the ground with my tippy toes and that was stretching with all my might.  The seat was also at an awkward angle for sitting....angled toward the rear wheel. Oh well, that would need to be fixed before any future rides.

The next thing I noticed was that my seat must have been a device used in a medieval torture chamber.  I had literally pedaled for 10 minutes and my hindquarters were already sore.  I wasn't even sure that I was on a "seat" anymore, it had to be just the metal frame that I was perched upon.

On we rode.  When David gets something in his head, his course is difficult to change.  No amount of my whining was slowing him down.  Now, let me just say that my legs were fine and I was not out of breath, my uncomfortable bottom was the issue.  He had apparently been on my bike once before and admitted that my seat was painful.  Oh, thanks for telling me that BEFORE I'm 20 minutes into this ride buddy!

Well, still we rode.  At one point I asked him how much further he intended to go.  He said that he wanted to visit a waterfall that he had seen on his last solo ride but hadn't taken the time to get off the path and explore.  Ok.  Another 10 minutes farther down the rode to Hell I asked him "how much farther?".  You know, kind of like a kid in the back seat saying "are we there yet?".  Guess what he said?  He wasn't sure.  He didn't remember quite where it was.  Are you KIDDING ME?  My butt is on fire and we aren't only not heading back but you don't know exactly WHERE you are taking me?

My limit had been met.  I told him that I would just take a break and he could go explore.  Pick me up on the way back.  Well, with a sigh of exasperation, we turned around and headed home because he "didn't want to do that'. (I know that he was cursing me under his breath, I could mentally hear him saying "suck it up" Teresa)

I begged him to take the most direct route to our apartment.  Well, you had to know EXACTLY where you were to do that, so that wasn't going to happen.  At one point we were off the path and in the traffic lanes.  The traffic was stopped at a light and David told me just to go around the stopped traffic and onto the sidewalk through the park. We were in a very tight space.  The stopped cars were on my left side and there were parked cars to my right.  My handle bars just barely were squeezing through the tight lane that was left open to me.  MERCEDES on my right.....ooops.  Had to try to "walk" my bike past that one so that I wouldn't scratch up the doors....oh yeah, wait.  MY FEET DON'T TOUCH THE GROUND.  ARGGGGHHHHH

We finally arrived home 90 minutes and 15 miles later.  If you are a hard-core bike rider, you are laughing because it took us 90 minutes to go 15 miles.  If you are like me, you never knew that you could RIDE A BIKE for 15 miles, let alone do it without a cushioned seat in ONLY 90 minutes with several stops to let your numb backside regain circulation.

That ride was on a Sunday.  When I could sit without pain again (Thursday) I went to the sporting goods store and asked for two "Tour de France" worthy seats....I figured that they would have enough cushion for a 90 minute ride. Hopefully, our ride this weekend will be pleasant now that we have "cushier" perches to ride upon.

Wishing you all a peaceful ride through the rest of this week.  May God's grace shine upon you. À bientôt.