Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

With 11-year-old Samantha Lehn leading her mother, her grandfather, and neighbor Dan Inks on the first part of their bike ride there was no stopping at the stop sign, an action that caused Grandpa Cal to say, “We’re supposed to stop at stop signs, sweetie. You know that.”

“Oh,” Sam replied feigning forgetfulness, “yeah. Guess I forgot.”

“And we should use turn signals too,” Dan said. “How was going up the hill?”

“Better,” Sam acknowledged as the quartet headed north on the Galway Gardens access road.

Dan clicked his shift lever one gear harder as they proceeded to the curve and said, “Now that we’re up the hill you probably want to shift your bikes one or two gears harder,” adding action to his words by pulling the small right shift lever on his handlebar’s right side as he spoke.

Watching Sam coast, pull the lever and then resume pedaling, he said, “Try to keep pedaling when you shift, don’t coast. It’s not a big deal in the short term but it’s hard on the bike. Got that?” he added, turning his head to the left to address Connie as well.

“Pedal and shift,” Connie replied, “not shift then pedal.”

“Exactly. Cal here had to get a little refresher course this morning, didn’t you Cal?”

“I did. It’s darn hilly here!”

“Good news is it’s not as hilly over in Wimbledon as it is in MacGregor Downs,” Dan said as they approached the next stop sign.

“Don’t forget to stop, Sammy,” Connie said to her daughter.

“Okay,” came Sam’s exasperated exhale as she slowed to a near stop, looked to her left and then turned right.

“Cal would tell you that wasn’t a stop, and he’d be right,” Dan kibbitzed, “but it beats not paying any attention. A legal stop on a bike or motorcycle requires that we put a foot on the ground. For today’s ride I say we follow the rules of the road to a T. All except one.”

“Why not all?” Sam asked as they came to the stop sign for Quixote Lane and she placed her foot on the ground.

“Because we’re going to ride on the sidewalk the little bit from Quixote to Laver Drive rather than zip along Kildaire for those hundred feet or so,” Dan replied. “If it’s clear, you can go,” he added, looking both ways as he spoke.

Sam checked for traffic then turned left. “It’s not that bad heading to Wimbledon on Kildaire,” Dan continued, “but coming back can be really tough, what with a left turn onto a busy five lane and then an immediate left. If I’m on my bike, even I cheat and take the sidewalk when turning left from Lavare and then left on Quixote. We just need to be super respectful of any pedestrians we may encounter and also realize drivers turning north on Kildaire from Quixote are super unlikely to be looking for bikes on the sidewalk going the wrong way. We should always obey the traffic laws. It’s usually safer, and when we ride predictably then drivers can deal with us way easier than when we’re like a pack of rabid squirrels,” he said, emphasizing should.

“I agree one hundred percent,” Cal said, “but point of order? Squirrels almost never get rabies and there are no known cases of squirrel to human transmission of hydrophobia, right Connie?”

“Hydro what?” Sam asked.

“Hydrophobia,” Connie said with a laugh. “It’s an old term for rabies and your grandfather’s reminding me of the time when I was a little girl and I got bitten by a squirrel at Miller Park when I was feeding the little buggers? Mom was afraid I might get rabies and rushed me to the ER. They cleaned the wound but said not to worry about rabies, which was good because if you get bitten by a rabid animal you have to get six shots, and of course, if you get bitten by an animal that may have rabies, but you can’t check to see if it’s infected, you still need to get six shots. Yuck!”

“Ooh! Yuck!” Sam said.

“Yuck indeed,” Cal said with a laugh as they stopped at Kildaire Farm Road and lined up on the sidewalk.

“I miss Granma Conchessa,” Sam said as they rolled slowly down the sidewalk.

“Me too, sweetie,” Cal mumbled, “me too.”