Day 23

Ol' Jonesy and I went for a "little" bike ride today...and when I say "little", I mean a "little" 10 mile bike ride...in a torrential down pour!!! Good times! Honestly, this was one of the hardest rides I've done so far. We were soaked from the moment we left our homes, head to toe, and the fun had just only begun.

These kind of rides build endurance because, a) you're carrying around about 10-15 pounds extra weight in sopping wet clothing, b) even though it's March and Spring is right around the corner, we're still experiencing sub-zero temperatures that freeze you to the core, and c) everything that could possibly go wrong with your bike does. Nice going.

We kicked off our journey with a visit to our local bike shop, Bike Tech, to see if we could get Jones' bike to shift gears properly. The repair man there basically said, "Yeah, just squirt a little dabble doo on the hoo diddly and that should make the skippity doohickey work." I wasn't sure what that meant, so we shrugged it off. Jones' ended up getting a new wheel while we were there, so after that got installed, we hit the road again.

It seemed like it was raining even harder after we left Bike Tech. I was glad I had made the decision to wear a poncho...that's right, I was wearing a poncho on this particular bike ride. (See pictures below.) Little did I know that the poncho would later save my life during this epic ride.

We began to make our way towards the coffee shop downtown and as we were near the hospital I ended up spilling over on my bike as I tried to merge onto the side walk. Jones described the fall as hilarious, and incredibly smooth and graceful. I guess if you're going to crash on a bike, you definitely want to do it gracefully. I flew onto the sidewalk, and slid about 10 to 15 feet, gliding upon the buttery like pavement with my poncho between us. Instead of freaking out when I was crashing, I simply submitted myself to the inevitable, and fully embraced my destiny with only one itsy bitsy bump on my knee. I was so thankful to God for protecting me. It could have ended up a lot worse than it did. I rolled onto my knees and paused for a moment to thank God for life, for preserving mine, and for the joys of the rain and the ability to ride a bicycle and then Jones and I pressed onward.

Once we arrived at the coffee shop downtown, one of my favorite humans, Drew Westerfield, took a few pictures of Jones and I in all our glory. The journey so far had been incredible, but the fact still remained that we needed to get our wet bodies and our riding instruments home. The cold got colder, and the wet felt wetter and I couldn't help but stop by Chili Thai to pick up some fresh rolls for dinner. Fresh rolls are insanely good and they're super healthy. They are basically lettuce, rice noodles, chicken and shrimp wrapped in rice paper. It was a nice treat to end the day with. Check out my calorie count for the day!!! I flipping owned it!