No Pictures Yet!

But we're well supplied with chargers now--we bought a new one and then found the old one (of course).

Instead, I present the next in the occasional series, Times I Have Tipped Over. (A small digression, before I even get started: my running club before I moved to New Haven had a semi-regular feature on their website called the falling down archives. At the time, even though I also trip more than average while running, I thought that was silly, because who falls over that often. Me, as it turns out, as soon as you put me on a bike.)

Anyway, Kevin and I went out for a long bike ride on Saturday. The route we planned to ride is about 50 miles (the exact distance varies every time, because we're still searching for a non-traffic-y, well paved route out of New Haven. Ha!), but about 15 miles in, I noticed that my bike was really hard to pedal, and actually seemed to slow down when I tried to coast downhill. We kept going (always a good idea--get further away from home when something is going wrong!), but stopped a couple of times to try to figure out the problem. About 10 miles later, we realized that my bike was almost completely unlubricated--thinking about it, we remembered that Kevin mostly lubes his bike before races, and since I haven't raced, it hadn't been lubed. Poor bike.

And poor us--I'm a slow biker to begin with, but with my bike fighting me, I was even slower than usual, even though I was working harder (and getting more tired). We decided that Kevin would turn for home at the next intersection, and I'd continue a few miles further along our planned route to the town where we usually have lunch. I'd eat, then wait for Kevin to come back with the car. The town has a big central green, so even if I felt too sweaty and grimy to go inside anywhere, I could just sit under a tree. We split our money and snacks, and I kept the cell phone and Kevin's credit card (I got the phone because Kevin would have our other cell as soon as he got home). We estimated the whole process would take about 2 hours, if there wasn't any traffic. (To throw you off, I'm foreshadowing the wrong outcome... the cell phone, credit card, and traffic weren't the problem, it was my stupid pedals and a waitress.)

So Kevin turned for home and I kept going. When I got to the green, I noticed a bookstore and realized I could buy a cheap paperback to read while I waited... but when I tried to dismount to step onto the sidewalk, I slowed down too much before my feet were detached and tipped over. It was my first experience tipping over somewhere friendly, and it was kind of embarrassing. People asked if I was okay, was there something in the road, was I sure I was okay, what had happened... which was very nice of them, but I generally prefer to leap back up and hurry away, pretending no one saw. (I really am fine though!)

I successfully bought a book (using Kevin's credit card... the clerk didn't notice the wrong name, and we both have legible signatures), then tried to go buy a sandwich. I'd been biking for 2.5 hours, and I was famished. Sadly though, the sandwich plus tax was 25 cents more than I had in cash, and the waitress said the credit card machine was broken (and there may have been a $10 minimum for credit cards, but if she'd said that, I'd have been happy to pay $10 for my sandwich). So I went back out to the green to starve quietly and read. Kevin picked me up soon enough, having had his own adventures: a flat tire, many hills, and an impossible intersection.