Well, huh. The 70 mile bike-ride I was supposed to go on this weekend didn't actually end up being 70 miles. J and I rented a tandem bike that really just wasn't appropriate for the terrain we were doing. It was a 3-speed, absolutely perfect for a 10 mile ride along the beach, but it really wasn't built for anything other than that. Mostly flat surfaces ... fantastic. Slight uphill ... ok. Anything more than a slight incline ... hellish. The first 20 miles or so (along an actual bike path) were absolutely fantastic ... we were totally cruising along, making fantastic time. And then we reached the hills of Truro. Good fucking god. We had this little routine going. We'd reach the top of a hill and start coasting down. Then we'd start pedaling like mad, trying to get as far up the hill as we could. J would say, "Ok, downshift. And downshift again. And now we're walking." So, honestly, I think we probably walked about 5 or 7 miles and bikes around 30. It was so hard and so painful that I actually had a little bit of a breakdown ... just patently refused to get back on the bike. J was very nice and supportive, let me cry for a little bit, and then we were back on the bike for about 10 minutes until we reached our destination. Nice that my breakdown happened so close to the end.

But then the next day we were supposed to get up and do it again! I couldn't stand the thought of tackling the hills again. So J took T's bike and T and I hitched a ride to about the halfway point, where we hung out for a while and then finished the ride together on the tandem. I was really amazed when riding the tandem with someone other than J. It was so much harder with T! I guess that J and I really move our bodies very well together (which I suppose makes sense, since we have been sleeping together for years now), but without having something else to compare it to I wouldn't have ever had any idea just how easy it was with him!

It was hard. I mean really, it was HARD. But supposedly there's going to be another bike trip just like this one later in the summer, and I know I want to do it. I just have to make sure I have a different bike.

And, if nothing else, doing this trip got me re-interested in biking again. It's been years (I mean like 13 of them) since I really got on a bike and did any riding. But being on that bike and remembering how good it feels to be moving through the world at that pace ... I want to do it again and again and again! Now I just have to find myself a bike.

Thank you, A, for providing me with the opportunity to get excited about this again.