The Family Bikester

On Valentine's Day Keith went out and got me a super-cool new bike, and for a while now I've had a neat bike seat for Belle that I got from Hope. Last week we (and by "we", I mean Ben) installed the seat on my bike so Belle has been out for a few short rides with me. The helmet I had for her was too big, so we haven't gone far from the house. I bought a new helmet (Do you know how hard it is to find a bike helmet that is smaller than the size for a 3 year old?), and today Keith wanted to get out of the house for a ride so we did! We rode 10 whole miles! We rode around the neighborhood across the street from us, to Fancy's old house, then over to the Konickis'. Belle did really well and loves the bike seat. I've had to teach her to "put away" her hands and feet (when she tries to grab my handlebars or takes her feet out of the footrest), but she learned quickly. On the trip to the Konickis' we pretty much just did easy cruising, but on the way back Belle let us know that she was so tired (she kept putting her head down on the handrest... it was so pitiful-looking) so we were bookin' it! I was pretty impressed with how fast I was able to go (safely... of course!)!

While riding, I was thinking about the saying "It's just like riding a bike" (refering to the fact that once you learn, you never forget how to ride a bike)... which is so true! And I was thinking that the last time that I really went for a long bike ride was probably one of the closest times that I've come to death... at least that's how it felt. In May 2004, Keith & I went on a cruise for my sister's wedding and one of the stops was Belize City. We were scheduled for a "bike tour" excursion, but were notified at the last minute that it was cancelled due to lack of participation. Dispite the fact that the cruise literature warns you against renting or doing anything not cruise-sponsor-related, we wanted to take a bike tour so we decided to do that on our own. After being turned down for a motorbike (neither Keith nor my brother was able to "control" one properly... so even the money-hungry Belize entreprenuers wouldn't let us take their motorbikes), we were offered regular bicycles. Keith and I decided to take them. The people who rented the bikes to us gave us a map and sorta drew up a route for us, but the map wasn't very good to begin with so it didn't help at all. We decided that as long as we just stayed close to the coast, we would at least be able to find our way back (See the picture of Keith on the beautiful Belize beach... can you hear the sarcasm?). Not long into the trip, we discovered that we'd made a mistake. We went through some VERY scary neighborhoods, I got some very rude comments about my attire (or lack of), we got some offers for some of Belize's finest, my bike was way too tall for me so I wasn't able to stop easily, and Keith's bike started to fall apart just as we were turning around to head back (we'd been riding for probably nearly an hour)! Keith mananged to put his bike back together, but on our way back was the scariest part. As we were going back through the scary neighborhoods (we didn't know any other way back!), we came to this one corner where we had to slow down to make a turn and a guy approached Keith with an "offer". Keith actually stopped to nicely tell the man no thanks, but since I was behind Keith and I didn't expect him to actually stop, I was unable to quickly stop myself and ran right into the man. He didn't like that too much and had some choice words to say to me about my lack of bike riding skills (among other things)! We were trying to get out of there and away from that man as fast as possible, and by the time that we got back to return our bikes we were thanking the Lord for getting us back safely! That was definitely one of the scariest moments of my life... well, until I rode on the back of a rented scooter with Keith the next day at our next port.