Kaye, Czarina, heres my novel for the day-before-yesterdays bike ride. Do you dare click the See more option? Muahaha! After realizing that I could bike for 20 miles or more on trails, I had thought of venturing to a distant land. The distant land that I had thought of is my relatives place up north-west near a few of the mountains that (I think) partly make up the Phoenix Valley. For weeks, I had been wanting to embark on this journey, though I had also been hesitant knowing how seemingly long it takes to get there by car. One thing that had been keeping me from fulfilling this wish, for a few weeks, was a broken derailleur due to a minor bike-on-bike collision. Thankfully, Henri came over a few days ago, and using a power drill, other tools, and some man power we were able to execute his repair plan and have resolved the problem--and hopefully it stays that way. I surely had missed this bike and the way it rides. With that thorn out of the way, figuratively-speaking of course seeing as thorns werent my problem this time, there wasnt anything stopping me from at least trying to take off on that aforementioned voyage. And just two days after the repair on Thursday morn, I ventured off with the sun not fully rearing its inspiring yet scorching self. First, I found myself traveling on a path that is not estranged to me. I traveled on the New River Trail going north. I wasnt able to find the exit Google Maps had initially prescribed for me, but I found my way. I rode through streets after that. Wonderfully, there were bike lanes practically throughout the rest of my journey. I willfully traveled through the curvaceous roads that led to my destination, uncovering previously unexplored territory. The traffic seemed light which only made sense with the area seeming more residential and open as opposed to being city-like and dense. I even encountered a few fellow cyclists along the way. I took note of a man on his (slim) road bike. Henry, maybe that kind of bike wouldve proven to be of much more ease to travel on as youve explained to me before, at least for this journey I undertook. As I went on to continue trying out this path, I felt that I could go on further and further. There were a few times when I had thought I should turn back for the fear of running out of water. After all, I had failed to fill up at one of the drinking fountains along the NRT because I had thought earlier that I would encounter more before I got off the trail. I was sorely mistaken. I thus resorted to (somewhat) rationing whatever water I had remaining in my bottle. Those fears of dehydration were calmed by the sight of different establishments such as grocery and convenience stores along the way. I knew they could serve as checkpoints/rest stops for me, especially on the way back...the agonizing way back under the unforgiving Arizona summer sun. (I recall hearing that the outside temperature got to 116° F that day, and my mom had heard that it would be hot by 8am, thus her telling me to be home by then. At some point in my journey, the sun was high enough to be felt. I had arrived at my destination sometime after 8am as I recall. Allan, remember that post of yours where I mentioned I was out biking and it was hot, this is that incident.) As I continued further north-west, there were some notable places that had vast, open stretches of land that separated the groups of houses and other buildings from each others, especially as I got close to my destination. For example, I knew I would cross a freeway at some point, and once I had passed the corner from which I shouldve been able to see it, I bore witness to the distance at which it lay. It seemed so far away! Those long stretches were daunting, but I had thought of how the people of the days of yore survived traveling through this sort of terrain...possibly on foot...on dirt roads--if you could even call them roads. I felt that I should be able to as well. Though come to think of it, the examples Ive seen of those kinds of travels are from movies...*moment of schock and silence*...anyway... Though those long distances that had laid before me had made me think for a bit, I just continued, and eventually, each of them became an after thought. After passing that corner I mentioned, I ended up on the side of the road against the from-freeway traffic. I had thought about the possibility of it being illegal to ride that way, but I had remembered how its better to walk in the direction against the flow of traffic so as to see any potential accidents coming your way. I continued like that. It seemed alright...at least for a while. When a big truck, came my way though, the reason why (I think) it is said that bikers should go with the traffic, was smacked into me, quite literally. The wind that the truck brought with it just hit me like...SMACK! I didnt lose balance but I was just...wow... My cap felt like it was about to come off. By the next intersection, I crossed the road to the other side. I couldnt deny the presence of a slight incline along the way, and G. Maps didnt conceal this fact from me. It seemed to have gotten worse at times, but thats why God :-P invented the switchable gear system. Nearing my destination there was one of those worse inclines. That far into the journey, I felt my heart beating rapidly and loudly. I dont recall necessarily feeling all too badly, but I then thought to myself something like What is it this time, heart? What do you want? I decided to dismount and walk up that incline. That walk served as a rest of sorts, or at least thats what I was thinking back then. I knew I was nearing a grocery store where I planned to definitely stop and get a drink and maybe a snack. And so I did. I parked and locked up the bike; walked in with my smelly, sweaty, and unsavory-looking self; looked around and grabbed a store-brand soda (I was thinking of replenishing some of my blood sugar. Im not sure if it really works that way.) and a small bag of potato chips, each practically a Dollar; paid a $2.01 fee--which ended up being my entire expenditure for that day; and walked out and consumed my purchases while I savored my respite on a bench. Oh, and they also had a drinking fountain inside (with cold water) so I filled up my water bottle there. You may wonder why I would stop and do all of that when I was quite close to my destination? Well, for one thing, I felt I really needed to do those. Another, is that I wasnt even sure if anyone would be home to greet me and let me in. Lets just say I went there unannounced. After all, I didnt even know if I was gonna get there. So I--FINALLY--played it safe and did what I did at the grocery store. Continuing on my journey, I reached my relatives neighborhood. After a bit of on-the-spot searching, since the names of some of the roads in the neighborhood werent pre-loaded properly on the iPod Touch (and I dont have a mobile Internet connection either), I found what I believed to be the street of my relatives residence. I tried ringing up their phones but to no response. I had realized that in accordance with my plans the only definite way I could locate their residence is if they told me over the phone. That was a slightly scary lack of foresight on my part. Since I couldnt determine for certain which was their house, I stopped by what I could recall to be the most likely. I then turned on the wi-fi antenna on the iPod Touch, it automatically connected to a particular router. I knew for certain it was theirs, despite its fairly generic SSID (connection name), for it was password-protected but was still accessible due to a prior connection to it. I then walked closer to the suspected house, saw the connection get better, and felt confident enough to ring the door bell and hope for the best i.e. not ringing a strangers door bell fairly early in the morning. To my relief, my uncle answered the door. I told my relatives with a grin on my face that I had just happened to be in the neighborhood. (They of course knew that I was speaking in jest.) They were having breakfast and offered me some. After my previous snack, I wasnt really hungry, though I eventually obliged to the grilled cheese sandwich, I think it was. I didnt want to trouble them for long, which I implied by saying that I was just stopping by to say Hi, but they warmly welcomed me to stay for the day, which I was happy to do, seeing as we dont always have time to spend with each other. I was told about their neighborhood trail of 3 miles and rode through at least a portion of it. I encountered an end as you can see in the video. When I got back to their place, a lot of catching up went on, as well as conversations on different topics. I had a splendid lunch--sinigang na hipon, nilagang baka, adobong baboy, and even tuyo! I spent time with my cousins. I had a look at their out-of-commission bikes and was able to get one up and running with their assistance. Each of them had one bad tire tube, and with them using the same tubes, the fix was a no-brainer, though one of my cousins beat me to that idea and Id like to say that was because I was still focused on inspecting the bikes. :-P My aunt even fairly intently offered me a ride home, though I already felt burdensome enough, and so refused. She did say though that shes been meaning to drop of some things at my place. I then gladly accepted her re-offer. Theyre so nice to me! When I got home, I declined a game of DotA 2, showered (definitely!), and went to bed with some idling around in between those. I ended up sleeping close to 19 hours with a brief break or two in between. I had been awake awake for maybe 29-31 hours for I didnt sleep before leaving that morning. If I have plotted my path correctly on G. Maps, then it says that I had traveled about 19.4 miles (about an hour of sleep per mile maybe? :-P ) and up an overall (vertical) height of about 322 ft--overall meaning the difference from endpoint to endpoint so that doesnt account for the various ups and downs in between. That was some day indeed! It was enjoyable and a good break from my boring summer routine. My mom wasnt necessarily happy with me, though she wasnt as bad about it as I thought she would be. Maybe Ill do it again sometime, letting them know in advance the next time. I could also try venturing to other destinations with (a) friend(s). Overall it was a great experience!
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 16:13:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015