Biking all over creation

I was crazy biking all over town on Tuesday with DJ on the ride-along. I think this is probably the most we've ever ridden together on the ride-along/bicycle setup and it was all because I was being impulsive. I decided to take DJ to the pool at the Y for one last swim before it got too cold and he said that he wanted to take the ride-along. I said, "are you sure? It's a long way from the house." He was adamant that we take the bikes and I was all, like, "yay, I get to go on a bikeride."

Here's the route we took -- I'll go back in when I'm on a computer that can do screen shots and put the graphic in then. It was wild -- while we were biking to the Y I had the sudden remembrance that we were supposed to be at a teacher conference at 6pm at DJ's school later that day and there was no way we were going to get home and get the car in time to make it. So, while we were swimming in the pool I decided we would just change clothes and ride to the school. We happened to meet some friends of ours while there who offered to give us a ride, but wasn't sure about transporting our bikes. I decided at the time it would be too much of a hassle to have to go back to the Y and get the bikes later so I declined, but about halfway to DJ's school I was kind of wishing I had taken her up on the offer.

It wasn't heinous -- the hills were kind of exhausting but DJ really loved riding down the hills fast so it was worth the climb and it was basically downhill to DJ's school, anyway. The thing I was more nervous about was the traffic, which was in the beginnings of rush-hour. Cars were whizzing past us while we were in the bike lane and it was kind of nerve-wracking. I took the sidewalk whenever it wasn't going to add to the hill-climb.

In no time we were at the school and saw the old man's bike already parked. We found him in the office, calling the house to tell us that the conference was actually starting at 7pm instead of 6pm, like I had thought. D'oh! We did have enough time to bike home!

Because DJ's teacher has been on medical leave the past couple of weeks the secretary told us it was not necessary to be there for the conference since there was no one for us to conference with. The sun was starting to set and we realized we only had one set of lights between us so we decided to scrap the whole thing and bike home.

By this time I was really exhausted, and DJ was complaining that his butt hurt from the ride-along seat. I could sympathize. We were crawling by the time we got to our street but got home just before dark. I took a shower and immediately crawled into bed to read to DJ while the old man made dinner. I felt O.K. in the morning but a little discouraged at how exhausted I was by the end of the ride. Those hills take a lot out of you, though, I have to rationalize. I want to do it again with a trip to DJ's school in the morning.