It’s Just Like Riding A Bike

How often have we heard this expression when someone is talking about the ability to pick something up after many years and I now have first-hand knowledge, but let me digress.  I’d posted sometime back that Beverly bought us a motorhome and after a couple of trips to the shop for HVAC repairs, we were finally ready for our maiden camping voyage.

Our friends and neighbors, Pat and Steve, are experienced RVer’s and they agreed to accompany us on a weekend trip over to Fall Creek Falls State Park – about 100 miles away.  This way if we ran into any snags, we had some knowledgeable help with us.  None of us had been to the park in many years and Bev had never been.  We left early afternoon on Friday, got there around 3pm, and they came down after work, arriving about 7pm.  We had two sites close together, but we were somewhat isolated from our neighbors, so it worked out just perfect.

 We were all set up and when they arrived we fixed some eggplant parmesan sided with some lasagna we’d taken with us to reheat, salad, and garlic bread, with all cooking done on my 30+ year old Coleman Stove – it still worked fine

As you know, breakfast is my favorite meal and breakfast cooked outside in the cool morning is the epitome. Saturday morning, Pat fixed bacon and scrambled eggs (again on the Coleman stove) - it was delicious and we were well nourished.  Now let’s get back to riding a bike – it was the only transportation we had with us, other than a hooked up RV.  Pat and Steve are experienced riders and regularly go on 50 mile rides and I have a bike a friend gave me that I was riding a couple of years ago.  Beverly had an old Columbia that was her mom’s and only had five speeds none of which were really low and it had suspect tires on it.

That’s what we had and we decided to see the somewhat hilly park via bike and when Bev started out her track was like a snake and I could envision her as a little pile along the trail – the park has lot’s of bike trails.  But as time went on, she improved and we rode down to the falls then around the lake to the Inn for lunch.  I assume due to our low rainfall for several months, the lake was down about 3" and there was just a little water coming over the falls but at 256' high, it was still very inpressive.  Click on the shot and note the person on the rock at the bottom of the falls (bottom of the shot).

I have bad knees and they were hurting  at lunch, but when Pat and Steve offered to bike back to the campground, get their RV and come get me, I had to decline  - no way was I going to wuss out.  It was mainly flat and I walked up most of the half mile hill but made it back with no issues for a total trip of 7 miles.

As we sat around talking, Bev said she didn’t think she’d been on a bike since high school (she’d be angry if I told you how many years that is, but I’m 65 in 2 weeks and she’s just a little younger than me), yet she rode the 7 miles thru campgrounds, along roads, and trails thru the woods, and I’m now absolutely convinced that once you learn to ride a bike you never forget how – I’ll have to try some of those other things I thought I’d forgotten how to do.

Please tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Nothing

Larry