"Splat" I Go

"Splat" I Go

An embarrassing moment happened to me last Saturday.

I feel the need to precursor my story with the statement that I have not ridden a bike in a long long while. It has probably been 20 years (?) since I last rode a bike. They say that once you know how to ride a bike, you never forget.

In all fairness, I did not forget how to ride a bike. I just forgot how to stop it! LOL!

A few weeks back, the whole family went on a bike ride along the bike trail that connects several cities here in the inland empire. Everyone except Baby E and me had bikes. I was content to walk and push Baby in her stroller as the rest of the family went on ahead on their bikes. DH, however, did not find this acceptable. He wanted me to ride along with them.

He bought a nice bike child carrier so that Baby could ride with us. And he bought me a bike too. The women's cruiser bikes were too high for me so we needed to get a girl's bike at Toys R' Us.  I tried it at the store and it felt like the right size for me.

DH assembled the bike we bought at home. When I rode it, it felt a little high. He refused to bring down the seat any further because he said that it was the lowest it should go according to the manufacturer's manual. Hmp! So I tried to ride it. It took me several tries but I was able to get on it and ride. I was riding around our neighborhood streets with Kuya behind me. DH sent him after me to make sure I was ok. LOL. Well, the road started to go kinda downhill and I was going to turn a corner. I saw that there were a lot of cars parked. I panicked as I realized that there were no hand brakes. I had to kick back the pedals to brake. And then everything seemed to move fast forward. I fell. Badly. Embarrassingly. In front of some people. Who ignored me. I bet they were trying hard to suppress their laughter. Sigh.

I have 3 large bruises on my knees and thighs as evidence. I'm embarrassed because I panicked. I wish there were a nice story about how the accident came about because my riding boots snagged on the pedals or there was some malfunction of the bicycle mechanisms. But no...there was malfunction alright. My brain wires got crossed and I panicked. Hmp!

I have not been back on the bike since. It's a mental thing I know I need to get over. I hope I get over it and get back on that bike.So if you see a mom flailing around your neighborhood, that just might be me!

Sigh.