Sunday, April 16, 2017

A Holiday Bike Ride with my Sweetheart

There was a university study I read about years ago testing who has a better sense of direction men or women.  The experiment put a woman in a room with a blindfold and turned her around a few times and then asked her to point North.  Then a man was put in the room blindfold told the same thing. This was done with several different men and women.  The conclusion was men have a natural compass that guides them to pick the correct direction 9 times out of ten.  Women could not pick the correct direction, one time out of ten, a few women, proving the man has a natural instinct for directions and thus must be the reason men do not like to stop and ask for directions when out driving. Idk I read everything...

What I do know is women remember landmarks for directions, men remember route numbers and road names better.  This also was a proven fact of study. Now I know am pretty good at directions both route names and landmarks but I remember my husband is a man when trying to talk to him about any directions and today I am reminded I am still a woman. Brings me to today...

We decided to ride our bikes around the countryside of our town.  It is sunny 80 degrees and it is my first ride outside this season so I don't want to go too far, maybe ten miles if it is flat roads mostly. Now my sweetheart rides 20 - 40 miles a day and I knew he would have to slow down for me so I told him to go ahead and leave me, so he can get his workout and not worry about me, I am a tourist rider for sure. I stop at creeks, look at trees, watch critters, and enjoy the old neighborhood we lived in when we first married and had wee ones. He insists he wants to be with me today for fun.

He is constantly asking me where I was going and I said "Idk, I'm riding till I don’t want to anymore."  After a ride to the old neighborhood and a stop at a creek with a sip of water I realized I had gone far enough my first day and wanted the flattest route home. He gave me several options that got so detailed, (he knows each curve and hill so well)…that I got testy…

And say "Forget it, I'm hot, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I did not know it would take me this long to get here, I need more water, how long would it take you to ride back home the way we just came, get the car, and come pick me up?'  He says, "If I go back it will about 25 minutes, then ten to get back here with the car total... 35 minutes."  

I say, “If I keep going the longer way how long will it take me to get home?"  He says, "About an hour, or a little more."  

Ok I want to get home quicker so I say, "If you go back the shorter way, (Hills to climb, no thanks) and I continue on the far way to Feura Bush (flatter roads yes please) can you drive back by the nursery on that road by the railroad to pick me up?"

"What road?"  "The one by the nursery."  "You mean Creble Road?" "I don't know the road name, the nursery road, you know!" "No I don't know."  "OMG, you take a right on 9W, past the post office, past the school, a flashing light, take a left there, go by the nurseries, I'll meet you on that road somewhere."

He turns his bike and rides off.  "Jesus I think how long have we lived here?"  So I continue to Feura Bush, I walk my bike, I ride my bike, I turn past Stewart's go down to the road with the nursery at the other end...Yes, it was named Creble Rd. Dammit. He's right again!

I ride to the other end of Creble, passed the nurseries, take a right by the flashing light, go up past the school, the post office, take a left on 396, thinking good grief if I knew he was taking this long I would have just told him to go home and I’ll be there later. Oh I wish I had an ice cold chocolate protein shake, yeah, that would be nice...  Now I begin to think..."I hope he is OK, I hope his bike did not break down, or anything bad happened to him... why is he so late it's been more than 35 minutes, where is he? I’m tired!"

As I'm riding down snakey, windey, 396, I know I can make it home now, from here it is flat road all the way... I'm thankful but concerned about him...

He shows up.  "Why did you take so long?" I ask. So he tells his story, he took longer to get home than thought, he had to find his bike rack for the Cherokee, then he had to find a crossbar for my bike to mount it and well...the list goes on... He says “You want to ride on home now you are so close?"  I said, "No. I'm not in competition with myself, I'll take a ride thank you."

He put the bike on the rack and says, "I can't believe you made it this far, I thought you were going to stop?"  "I was, but it was so hot and I dislike stopping when I'm trying to get home. You know I have ADHD, I prefer to keep moving."  He said, "I totally get it, I hate to sit and wait too."

I jumped in the seat beside him, a little miffed but he did the best he could so I really could not be mad at him. It is not his fault I had to turn back.  He said," I brought you a chocolate protein shake if you want it?"  Me, "Is it cold?" "Yes, icey just the way you like it."  😉  (Too bad, nobody loves me, too bad…)





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