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The Bike Ride

I remember it clearly, the Weather Channel specifically said there was only a 30 percent chance of rain the next day. 30 percent doesn't sound like much; we agreed we would still go in the morning. The night before, it rained so hard that I thought an Ark was floating by. I thought, "Good! This thing will blow itself out by morning!" About an hour before we were supposed to leave the next morning, my husband asked me, "Are you sure you want to go?" Answering with a very quick, "Yes", I looked outside to confirm my answer and saw blue sky peeking out on the horizon. We proceeded to dress like we were going on a spring ride, get out water bottles and headed outside to our bikes. Two minutes into our ride, it started sprinkling! We continued on thinking it would go away. After all, there was only a 30 percent chance of rain for today!

During the entire 5-mile trip out to meet the rest of the group, it sprinkled, although there were times when it actually started to rain. However, it would very quickly let up again, so we just kept going. It was going to be nice today!

Pulling into the Community Center parking lot, we began to notice that nearly everyone else was in Gortex and windbreakers, plastic coverings over their clothes, etc.-like they were going for a bike ride in the rain or something. Didn't these people watch the Weather Channel? We sat inside for an hour waiting for our start time, and my husband asked me again, "Are you sure you want to do this?" I answered again, "Oh yeah, look, it's not even raining outside right now." Sure enough, we headed out, and there was no rain.

Only a couple miles down the road, it started sprinkling again! Of course, now we were on the road with about 200 other people, so could we just turn around? Of course not! The only direction was forward and we were determined to make it. From that point on, I had no idea where that blue sky was, but it was definitely not over us. It started to pour, and not just rain, but the wind decided to join the game too. We were out there riding in our summer clothes, while the wind attempted to freeze us to our seats at the same time. My fingers were so cold that I could not move them from around the handlebars.

At this point, we were nearly 10 miles into the ride and there was no pit stop in sight. We had bravely passed the first one without stopping, of course. I am convinced now that the cold had started to seep inside our heads, because we began to crack jokes about how smart we looked that day. I don't know if anybody else had more fun making fun of themselves than we did that day, but it was something to do to keep our lips from freezing shut. We even began to beg people to not pass us-we were starting to get passed by the same people twice: "Hey, why don't you slow down and make us look better?" While they were amused by it, they had no idea we were serious!

Well, 20 miles into the ride and at the second pit stop, I had enough! I was so frozen I couldn't move, and making fun of the two of us was not keeping my face from freezing or anything else for that matter. We threw in the towel and got a ride back to the Community Center! While we still had a 5-mile bike ride home in worse weather than we had to ride in all day, at least it was headed home, and not into another 20-mile leg of the bike trip. Needless to say, this will be one memory for the books that needs only one phrase to be remembered: The Bike Ride.

Learn more about this author, Valerie Strawmier.
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