2001-10-23 - 1:33 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "Presque Rien", Francis Cabrel

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DIDN'T FALL OFF!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOO! Yay me!

So, I am completely ecstatic. The first two rides we took, on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, I was really scared the whole time. I did fine, didn't even have any near-misses, but was scared anyway.

On Sunday morning, I had to be a sissy and ask Poindexter to ride my bike down a couple of hills. When the hill is rocky, steep, and curves at the bottom, I just do NOT trust my ability to keep from losing control and hitting a tree.

I screwed up constantly -- stalling on rocky uphills and having to kickstart the bike midway up -- but I didn't fall off.

Sunday afternoon, we took the red trail heading east. The red trail is at least 6-7 miles long one way, possibly longer. Most of it is very wide and flat, for very easy riding. Utterly gorgeous views -- next fall I am taking a disposable camera out on my rides to get some photos (it's too bumpy to risk hurting my digital camera). We rode alongside a mountain with trees at their peak -- gorgeous reds and golden yellows. We also took a dead-end path by mistake once that was lined with those gorgeous yellow trees, with yellow leaves covering the path, and the golden sunlight filtering through ... oh, it was just beautiful. I so wish I'd had a camera on that trail.

So anyway, even the difficult parts of the red trail (rocks and hills) are still wide and straight, which gives me plenty of room to pick out a good path. And since there are no curves, I don't have to worry about being unable to turn the bike when I need to. So I negotiated some really difficult rocky uphills and downhills and I wasn't even all that scared. I also figured out how to do some stuff (including basically walking the bike down rocky downhills, instead of actually riding it) that makes me more confident in my ability to handle things. I am still scared to do this on the steepest downhills -- gravity pulls the bike too much for my spindly arms to handle -- but it works for a fair number of them. Better to go at a snail's pace than not to go at all!

I can feel that I am getting better at handling the bike. This is hard for me to describe. Mainly I think I am getting better at subtle corrections. I can use the throttle more incrementally now. Can handle it when the front end jumps around going over rocks. I'm better at controlling the bike rather than merely being along for the ride. It's nice, anyways.

I'm kind of hoping we might have a warm weekend later this fall (it was in the 80s in early December in 1998 and 1999) so we can go up one more time before spring.

Other notables from the trip:

My fears about being cold were quite unfounded. When we first got in the tent, we both had woolies (thermal underwear) and sweats. The sweats came off after my last portapotty trip before bed. Halfway through the night I woke up sweating and everything else came off as well. That was something else. Poindexter had to open a window flap to cool it off some.

When we first arrived, we were driving behind a strange contraption that looked like a midway point between a quad and a dune buggy. As we got closer, I thought, "Hm, the back of that looks almost like a kid's carseat." Then we got close up and discovered that it was, in fact, carseat, with a small helmet-and-goggle-clad child in it, bolted onto the back of the quad. The person driving the quad looked like a 10-year-old. It made me quite squeamish -- what if the quad rolled over? The kid in the carseat can't exactly jump off like the driver can. I spotted it only one other time and that was plenty, thank you. In all likelihood, nothing will ever happen, but it still freaked me out to see it.

In Tower City there is anthracite coal dust everywhere. It gets under your fingernails, it gets in your hair, goes through your clothes onto your skin, and gets into your nose and lungs. That's after only 24 hours there! I understand now why it's called "black lung".

I mentioned to Poindexter when we got back how pleasant the mindlessness is when we're out there camping and riding. I seem to forget everything, my mind slows way down, and there's nothing to think about or do but ride, look at the beautiful scenery, eat, and sleep. It's so incredibly relaxing. Poindexter said, "It was sometime Sunday afternoon before I remembered that I no longer have a job."

The feeling has stayed with me, too. I had a semi-introspective thought this morning but I've forgotten it.

We are having some spectacular weather -- high 70s. It's so warm that ecstatically happy to be wearing this summer dress today (though this picture was taken in Florida, and I had to edit my MIL out of the photo):

I'm not looking forward to winter. Global warming? Bring it on!

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