Day 2: Bike Riding. With Dad. In The Rain.

Well today's stunt was way better! Dad called me up last night asking if I wanted to go bike riding this morning (funny, because I was going to ask him the same). I checked the weather last night and the forecast announced scattered T-storms for the day. "Eh," I thought. "They've been saying the same thing all freakin week and I keep carrying my umbrella around for nothing."

Yeah, well of course I'd wake up in the AM and it's cloudy as all get out. Dad rings in. We decide to go anyway.

Now let me take a quick break to inform you all of my bike riding experience. It's pretty much non-existent. You know how people say, "Oh it's like riding a bike; you never forget." Thing is I was never that good at it. I could ride the kiddie bikes of course (the ones with the basket and streamers), but I never had a real bike with gears and straight handle bars. Until I bought one in Syracuse during grad school. My roommate had one and was all about biking so of course silly me wanted one too (same story with the ice skates).

Oh, the dreams I had! I saw myself biking to main campus a couple miles away with my little bookbag. And biking to the supermarket and being all eco-friendly. I loved my little blue bike and was sure I'd use it to go everywhere.

I used it three times, nearly passed out each time, and remembered my fear of driving near cars (what if I toppled over and they drove over me?!). So it stayed locked up outside our apartment for the rest of the year until I moved back home and never rode it again.

This year, dad took to using it and biking along the Hudson River all the way to 10th Street. Well that little man impressed and surpassed me today (we biked roughly 7.5 miles). I absolutely suck at bike riding and have the bruises and scratches to prove it. My butt hurts and I wish I had brought a pillow to tie onto the bike seat it was so hard.

Then there was the on-again, off-again thunderstorm. We rode in the rain, stopped for about a half hour under an overpass, then more in-the-rain riding. And honestly, I loved it! I got to go exploring a little because I'd never been on that side of the Hudson River Parkway and dad was my tour guide. We caught each other up on stuff, told him about the stories I'd been working on and just had a good time. We laughed in the rain, got beyond drenched, I nearly killed myself several times AND I rode on the street! With cars around!

So I think today was a success. What do you think?