A Tale of Two Rides

I just want to know, am I coming or going?

     "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
     And so begins one of the most famous of Charles Dickens' novels, A Tale of Two Cities.  Although I would never consider myself to be a true Dickensian, I did go through a time period in my life when I read as much of his material as I could get my hands on.  I think that was sometime between my Robert Louis Stevenson period and my J.R.R. Tolkien period.
     I was thinking a lot about the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities as I rode in this morning primarily because I was thinking how entirely different this morning's ride was in comparison to the one I took yesterday.  All weekend I had been planning to wake up VERY early in the morning and head out on a long solo ride.  Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way and it never turned out to be.  But I had been promising the boys I would ride with them so yesterday I did.  We noodled around the environs of East Northport and went to one of the elementary schools whereupon William decided that since we've been watching lots of cyclocross on television, he would try to bone up on his skills, such as dismounting and running up a flight of stairs (sorry, no pictures).  It was until he tried the running remount and bruised his tenders that he decided perhaps we should wait a bit on the competing in cyclocross.  However, we are looking to go see some, as soon as they start up on Long Island.  If you don't know what is this "cyclocross" thing, here are some highlights of the one William and I watched just before we headed out:

     After our little competitive turn we decided to finish off the afternoon by being "manly men" and hanging out at the East Northport 7-11 eating nachos and frozen burritos!  It made us feel a bit like this:

Because nothing is as macho as Home Improvement! Total stats for our day of manliness? A mere 12.15 miles at 11.06 mph.
      And then came my ride today which caused me to think of how very different two rides could be.  Sort of like the "Push Me/Pull Yous" from Dr. Doolittle.  For those of you who never read them (or are too old to remember reading them) or saw the original movie, Dr. Doolittle is the title character of series of children's books.  And the "Push Me/Pull You" was his two-headed llama:

But of course, they can't hold a candle to the famous spitting llamas of Peru:

     What made today so completely different?  Well, perhaps because without any tail wind at all I managed to do 12.07 miles at an average speed of 17.82 mph.  It was great!  I felt strong!  I was fairly flying, especially considering my bike was loaded down and weighed well over 30 pounds!  But I was flying and I was happy.  But not as happy as I am when I'm riding with my two little guys, grunting, eating frozen burritos and enjoying the freedom that only two wheels can give us!

     Oh, and in regard to the spitting, a little word of advice - if you're ever on a ride with William, don't ride two close behind him (aka, drafting) - you will think you're following a llama!
     And today's totals:
FFR - 1 Squirrel, 1 Sparro
RRL - Two huge bags of rolled up carpet! Seriously?


Stay well and I'll see you on the road!