Reasons to Ride the Bike

There's a wonderful bike and walking path along the Monterey Bay, running from our Pacific Grove to Marina. Maybe even farther; I don't know. Several months ago, driving past a lovely tree-shaded and mysterious part of it, I thought, "I'd like to see what it's like in there." I suppose I could have figured out a way to park and take a stroll, but the next thought came: "If I had a bike, I could ride through there." Such a little thought, such a big project.

Reasons to ride a bike:
+ see that part of the trail.
+ find out if I actually can still ride a bike.
+ try something new.

I've had my bike one whole week today. I take it up to Robert H. Down - the elementary school my children attended - and ride around the black top. After school hours, when nobody is around. I feel like such a child. I have to practice starting and stopping over and over. Wobble, wobble. Start. Stop. Try again.

Today I ventured out onto Spruce Avenue, the very street my children walked along to get to and from school. I rode a block. Two blocks. Then back to the safe school yard.

On my third foray along Spruce, it dawned on me that my grandchildren, Peter and Charlotte, are starting first grade and kindergarten on Wednesday. Teachers they don't know. Kids they don't know. For some reason, I thought, "If they can do it, so can I." And I rode my week-old pink bicycle all the way to the end of Spruce Avenue. All the way to the house we lived in, when Jennie and Sarah were little and starting kindergarten and first grade and a whole new life separate from everything they had ever known.

Another reason to ride a bike: to keep solidarity with your grandkids!