The cycling merit badge continues-Long story, but a good laugh

Since Eric's cast is off, he needs to retrain for the cycling merit badge. We're hoping to get it done and out of the way soon, but he's not ridden for awhile so he needs to get back into shape. Saturday was the perfect opportunity to go on a ride-just the two of us. (The other guys were at a service project) I knew I could handle it. It's just a dumb bike ride. I even put my hair up nice and cute so it wouldn't get funky looking on the ride. David suggested that we go to Coronado and ride down the strand, then eat breakfast in IB, then ride back. It's nice and flat. Perfect! The weather, as you can see from the picture, wasn't exactly sunny. It was FOGGY and WET! But we're just going on a bike ride...

We started by the lifeguard tower, then rode by the Hotel Del and down the strand. It was an easy ride, but my knees started hurting. No burn in the legs or anything else, just a little pain in the knees. Then I realize that I left all my money in the car, so we couldn't buy any food in IB. OOPS. Eric's annoyed.

As we're riding, a police office pulls over in front of us with his lights on. He gets out and asks me what we're doing. I explained that Eric was training for his merit badge. The officer talked to me like I was dumb. (Huh! Go figure!) He explained to me that the bike lane was on the bay side of the highway, not where we were riding (on the ocean side). I said, "But there's a white line here, this is a bike lane." He said, "no, this is a shoulder. If this was a bike lane, it would say - bike lane". Me: "oh". He told us to cross over when we get to the Coronado Cays and ride on the other side. Then he asked me, "Do you know where that is?" I told him yes. I felt pretty dumb, but still really proud of ourselves for not getting a ticket or in anymore trouble. He gets in his car and drives off. Eric turns to look at me (he was in the front) and says, "Oh my gosh, Mom. You look like a tweaker! What happened to your hair?" My cute hairdo got all wet and smushy from the moisture in the air. Needless to say, when we got to the Cays, we turned around and went back. As we're riding back, the chain fell off my bike. It took a few tries to get it back on right. Then my hands were all greasy. YUCK! And my knees were killing me!

We made it back to the car, and I couldn't remember how to get my bike back on the rack. I knew it wasn't like the other bikes, but couldn't remember how David put it on. Eric couldn't either. I called for help. David was under someone's house and Jason tried to talk me through it. No luck. I put it on wrong, but the safest way I could figure. I was about in tears at this point. We clocked our trip - 10.5 miles. The bike didn't fall off, so that was a good point, I guess!

I could barely get out of the car by the time we got home. My knees wouldn't bend for 2 days!! I felt like an old lady. (well, I did just have a birthday) It seriously took me at least a whole minute to get up out of a chair after sitting. Everyone made fun of me. David enjoyed telling this story - thanks, babe. It's hard going through life being a goober!!

Needless to say, I'm not doing this alone again. You're on your own, Eric!!

Are you done laughing yet?