Last summer we took SweetEsther to the west side of Vancouver Island, Uclulet and Tofino, to be exact. We don’t surf, but we sure loved the laid-back vibe over there! We had a fantastic time, my bicycle accident not-withstanding. Oh yes, I took a mighty tumble on one of the crazy challenging hills that are literally everywhere in that area. I could go into it, but it’ll suffice to say there was an ambulance ride to Tofino and a crap-load of painkillers of various types that made our last night of camping quite interesting. The bike (stupid heavy beast that I hated anyway) was finished and I had no regrets about that! And while I am SO grateful that there were no broken bones or serious concussion, I did sustain a fair bit of bodily damage that I am still affected by even today. That said, I still wanted a bike this summer!
She’s a sweet little butter-yellow cruiser. Only the second bike I’ve ever owned brand new. She did about 1,000 miles on the front of the van this summer and we never did a bit of biking on the whole trip! How crazy is that? So yesterday, after we had worked hard cleaning up and doing things we must do at the house, we took our bikes for their first ride.
In the haze
of the forest fire smoke that has our small town socked in, we strapped on our helmets and took the easy paths that start in our neighbourhood, crossing the creek twice before delivering us back home. And we had the entire route to ourselves since no one else was stupid enough to go out in that smoky-pea-soup air….bonus!
I’d be lying if I said I had no fear. I’d be lying if I said it all felt completely natural and that I wasn’t nervous. I won’t lie. But I rode and I feel amazing for having done it. I’m going to get her a basket and a bell and fenders – I may even give her a kick-ass name. I’m going to get brave enough to ride to the post office to pick up my mail, or all the way across town to the Drive Thru for a coffee. I’m going to pop her onto SweetEsther’s bike rack and take her along camping on the Labour Day long weekend — this time, I’m actually going to ride my bicycle!
#SweetEsther
SweetEsther Chronicles 