Sam got his first taste of bicycle maintenance by learning to change my tubes and tires this week. He was actually pretty good at it! Between the two of us, we had the new tubes and tires on my Trek and the old Trek tires on my old red Roadmaster in no time. The new parts seemed to do the trick to even out the wobble in the front tire - it's smooth sailing. Now the Roadmaster is ready to sell and the Trek is ready to ride!
Jeff's annual end of the year Science Olympiad picnic was this weekend in Hudson. The plan was for Sam and I to bike the 22 miles there while Jeff and Aaron drove there. Then we'd pack the bikes up when the picnic was done and catch a ride home in the car.
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| All packed up and ready to ride to Hudson! |
Only a mile and a half into the ride, we met Lincoln. Lincoln is a psycho 10 month old boxer puppy. Puppy probably isn't the right word. He's big and strong with a penchant for chasing anything with wheels. He decided to come chase us down Bacon Road which is pretty busy. He'd chase Sam, biting at his heels, then dash into traffic, not caring if cars were coming or not. We kept riding, but it was obvious Lincoln wasn't letting up, so we turned around to take him back home. We didn't want him getting hit! Once we were off the bikes, he would run, jump in the air and body slam me in mid-air. He was jumping higher than my head! Left me with a few good sized scrapes down my side - my first "biking" injury?? Finally found his owner, but he wasn't about to listen to her either. So we spent the better part of 40 minutes trying to get Lincoln corralled so we could get going to Hudson! Finally, she said "just go and if he gets hit, he gets hit". Ugh. We took off, he followed us, still biting at Sam's feet. She would yell "Kick him in the chops!" from her car as she followed this bizarre parade down Bacon, honking her horn as she drove to try and get Lincoln distracted from chasing us. He finally found a house with 2 other huge dogs that were barking at us and he ran over to join them. We took off as fast as we could before he remembered to follow us. So, we ended up with a late, late start.
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| Our rest stop in Pittsford. We thought it was the half way point. It turned out to be the 2/3 way point! |
The trip that we had planned to take 2 hours ended up 2 1/2 hours thanks to Lincoln. Jeff was just finishing the burgers and hotdogs on the grill when we finally got to the picnic, so we hadn't missed the best part. :)
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| Our trip computer read 22.6 miles in 2.5 hours - thanks to Lincoln. |
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| We made it!!! |
Overall, it was an interesting trip. We felt pretty good by the end of it. We didn't necessarily want to hop back on the bikes and ride back home, so we still have to build some endurance, but I think we're making good progress so far. There won't be a time schedule to stick to during the PALM, so we'll be able to ride a little easier than today. I'm feeling more and more confident as we go.
The lesson learned today? Pepper spray just might be a good idea for some overly friendly dogs. Let's just hope I don't spray it into the wind!
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