Bike Riding in Canada

Since yesterday was so beautiful (not extremely warm though) a few of the girls and myself decided to go on a bike ride! We found a bunch of old bikes down in the basement but all of the tires were flat, and they had cobwebs all over them.. regardless, we decided to take on the challenge.  Without a working pump in the house we met our next problem.  We had 6 bikes outside that we had dragged up the basement stairs, through the house, and off the porch, and we were just about to go to the gas station on the corner to find air for our tires! I got on my bike, pressed the breaks, and they didn't work.  I immediately knew this would be a problem.. me on something without breaks would just not work.  Then my friend Morgan's bike wasn't up to par either, so we had to ask one of the families that live at the house if we could borrow a couple. They said yes, but on one condition: we had to wear helmets.  It was fine with us, we already looked ridiculous in the clothes we had chosen to wear that day, and so we were off.

We found a foot pump at the gas station for about $10, got our tires solid and trekked all the way to Cowansville! It's just the next town over where we do all of our grocery shopping since there are actually big stores like Walmart and Super C there.

We made it there, snapping pictures the whole 8 or 9 kilometers, and ended up at Tim Hortons.  I rolled up the rim of my cup to win ANOTHER coffee! Abbie came out with the prize, an XL coffee because apparently she could choose any size.  But we rolled up the rim of that only to be disappointed with the message reading: Play again.  We sat outside and ate our baked goods and candy, then decided to go to Walmart.

The thing is Walmart was not right next door, it was across this somewhat busy street with a traffic light/intersection and the driveway to get in was a little further down past this intersection.  I had my camera strapped around me ( as I had the whole way there ), my back pack on, and my helmet hanging from my other arm.  So the irony begins.  The light was red, but still some cars were approaching the light.  In the gap between the cars sitting at the light and the cars coming toward it were us six girls crossing the 3 lane street.  Most of them were in front of me, and so I thought "oh this would make a cool picture!" Just as I was reaching to get my lens cap off (keeping my other hand on the handlebar) I decided I was moving a little too fast so I automatically rolled my fingers around the break and gave a little pull.  Well, here's the first problem: it was the left break... the front wheel.  Problem 2: I was in the middle lane.  Problem 3: I was wearing my camera, and not my helmet.  Irony: This was the only time I wasn't wearing my helmet, and the breaks that were lacking on the bike I originally had, were working a little too well on this bike.  So within an instant I was launching over the handlebars, only landing on my knees, me and my bike just laying in the middle lane of this road as cars were still coming...  I can only imagine what entertainment I provided them.

 Luckily Abbie was behind me so she helped me get out of the road as I was a little bit shaken up... I was mostly glad that my camera was ok.  It seemed like a miracle to me.  Conveniently we were right in front of a store that sold band-aids and we got a few of those put on right away.  Anyways, we continued to Walmart, printed some pictures from our journey, and then went on our way back.  Everyone was complaining that their butts were sore, as my legs pushed through the pain of just moving in circular motions with the pedals.  At least it made a memorable story... (and scars probably).