Wipe Out!

We left for Vancouver, WA on Saturday morning.  It was the first day of the rest of The Dads' life, what with being the day after his last day working for Family Home Care as the Vice President of Information Technology.  For those who don't know, Family Home Cares' owner sold the company to Gentiva.  We've known since July 23rd this his last day would be August 31st, though were not at liberty to discuss it.  He had grown the IT department there from him being a sole IT consultant, to employee, to supervisor over 1 employee, manager to 3 employees and finally the VP with a manager and several guys under him in 7 years.  And it came to an end.  Sadly.

So we needed to get out of town and escape the madness of it all and were running out of times when we could do that what with #7's games on the weekends.  So off we went. #7 in Cheney, Blue Eyes in Seattle for Mariners games and then back to Pullman and Wack chillin' here with Jack, Dan and Boone.  

Two things were motivating us to take this trip.  One - we miss our family.  Terribly.  Two - we are NOT going to be the "fat" relatives at the Turkey Bowl this year!  So we were ready to take a plunge!

What does a trip to Vancouver have to do with that? you might ask.  Well... my big brother and best sister in law are bike riders.  When they lived here in The Can, we all worked out together every morning and then stopped at Starbucks to sit and chat.  Then they left and while we've continued to work out since they left - the motivation and pushing each other was gone.  Jeff needed his "work out buddy" back.  I needed a different workout to maintain my new ovary-less self and all that comes with that - other than hot flashes!

They've been telling us for a few years now we have to get bikes.  And we have "yeah yeah'd" it thinking that his racquetball and my running, aerobics, walking, etc was enough. And it was.  But now Wack is moving to Seattle in mere days to attend the University of Washington, games are ONLY on Saturdays and the rest of the week... there's going to be that "after work, don't really want to fix dinner, what the eff are we going to do?" time.  AND, after this last year of football for #7 - well, crikey... then there's just "the nothing".  But "the nothing" doesn't sit well with me...  so there has to be "something".  

BIKES!  Bikes was the answer. Orrrr.... is it?

My knowledgeable brother took us to one shop in Portland where we looked, he asked, we drooled a little due to not really understanding how bikes work anymore, we rode one each and started pretending we were understanding.  Okay, let me back up... not actually how they work, but how we "work" them and their gadgets!  That store was a start but then it was on to River City Bicycles where there were more than a dozen employees helping more than 2 dozen people, groups... families!  It was chaos but oh so fun!  Jeff and I rode many bikes and the bike I knew I would NOT get because of it's ugly ass colors was, as T put it... the bike I would end up loving - NOT!  We looked at shoes, pedals, butt butter (yes, for real), helmets, gloves, socks... and so on.

We were set... holy crap! 

We got back home to their house and started making dinner.  We'd been gone for hours!  Jeff and I were tired from riding up and down streets we have no idea their names or how to find our way back.  It was a hot day in Portland and we weren't as prepared as we should have been to take that on.  I can remember E saying something like "Don't you want to go for a ride?" while we were making dinner.  He was like a little kid wanting to show us the world he ventured out into a few years ago and show it off.  "Tomorrow before we leave" we say and that was that.

Bag of ice to forehead helps with hotflashes while making tacos!

Tacos. Drinks. Sequence or... SQUENCE (if you read the inside of the box) and then bed.  

730 in the morning  we are all up and getting ready to go.  I am nervous because nowadays biking shoes/cleats have "clips" installed on them so you can clip/lock onto your pedals.  There's no more of this little toe cage kind of thing... So I was nervous because in all of our test driving the day before, that was NOT part of it.  We practiced just standing there locking and unlocking our feet from the pedals and off we went.  We weren't a mile away when we came to a main arterial and E and The Dad crossed.  I wasn't yet prepared so Tam stayed behind with me.  There's this little tidbit of information you need to know when one foot is still locked while the other one is on the ground ready to push off.

The Dad, self, my sis Tam, my big bro Erick.

The still-clipped foot needs to be up so you can start to pedal and build momentum while getting the other foot clipped in.  Uh... yah.  So my left foot was clipped in and down, I push off... and WHAM!  I bit it.  No momentum, feet clipped and down she goes!  I have a beautiful baseball sized bruise on my knee and apparently a rock was on the ground by my hip...  as there's a new "beauty mark" there.  The gloves spared my hands from being scraped but my left hand is pretty sore.  Yep.  Right there on a main arterial.  Most excellent!  

The good news is - I know no one in Vancouver other than my brother, his wife and my nieces.  So the people that drove by while I was on the ground... well, they got a good laugh and I'm all good with that.  I hopped back up on the bike, made it across and rode BEHIND them all for the next 13.7 miles.  Here's the great news - my crash is out of the way and I know... knowing The Dad... that when his time comes, it will be glorious!  

Oh yeah... and I got the ugly ass bike I swore I wouldn't get.  She was right... the color didn't matter once I rode it.