54th ride of 2016 - Sunday, 4/17/2016

With absolutely gorgeous riding conditions—74° bright sunshine—I really wanted to do a longer ride this afternoon. But, by the time we got home from late church, and I made it out there, it was 1:20, and I found myself fighting a double pull ... the 2:00 game between the Tigers and the Astros, and the desire to compose on a new praise song that had begun working itself into my head this morning.

For the first 5 miles or so, I stuck to my guns ... but then, adventure struck! A few days ago, my water bottle cage had popped loose from the frame of the trike. I went to Lowe's last night and picked up some hardware in hopes of reattaching it, but my efforts in this direction were unsuccessful today. Hoping to do a longer ride on a warm afternoon, I figured I'd want water, so I rigged up a system where I attached my water bottle to the top of the rear rack, strapping it down with a bungee cord. For the first part of the ride, this worked well. However, coming back from the park, on the way across one of the boardwalks, it worked its way out, and I heard it hit the wood.

I stopped immediately and went back for it, but it had rolled to the side, under the bottom side board, and dropped down to the ground beneath. In retrospect, I probably should have written it off as a loss,  since the bottle is less than a $10 item. But since I could clearly see it, I wanted to retrieve it. So I climbed the substantial wooden fencing, swung my leg over, and dropped down the 9 feet or so to the ground. I was totally uninjured ... but the boardwalk spans a weedy, mucky wetland, and I plopped into the mud, rolling onto my back. Then, to make matters worse, I was unable to climb back up onto the boardwalk, though I made a valiant and extended attempt at it. Eventually, though, I had to release my hold and drop back down into the muck so I could slog down through it to the eastern end of the boardwalk and walk back down to retrieve my precious water bottle, which I had placed up onto the boardwalk, and my trike.

About this time a young couple came along and, quite concerned, asked me, "Sir? Are you OK?" With some difficulty I managed to convey what had happened, and that I was OK. I'm sure they had to have wondered if this old fellow, dirty, wet, and stinky from the wetlands muck, was really OK.

Just before losing the water bottle, I had pretty much made up my mind to go with a single round trip today, so that I could watch baseball and compose. But this adventure really sealed my decision. I was ever so glad to complete the 10-mile ride in 65 minutes and come home to shower and launder my muddy clothes. Note to self: next time, let it go!