The Day I Learned to Ride “Real Roads”
When I was 7 I got a big red bike. It was a Schwinn with very strange ramhorn handlebars. I rode it in loops around the house and yard. Then up and down our dirt road. Then I heard about “real riding” and started looking out the window of the bus at the real roads and cars on the way to school. Finally I figured it out.
Soon, I said to my pals “Let’s go someplace for real!” My little brother Bardy and another neighbor and I then rode down our dirt road to the nearest paved one…it had yellow lines…it went somewhere…we were in exotic territory.
Well, here goes, I remember thinking. It’s scary, but if we obey the rules, we’ll be safe.
I led the way onto the busy country highway and started pedaling. Hmmm, things sure are different once you actually do it, I thought, but what a thrill! Out here really riding! It’s so much faster than the dirt! I was surprised at how narrow a space we had to ride in, but we wanted to be good riders and tried our best to ride steady. My brother and neighbor were following close behind me, saying nothing, probably concentrating hard just like me.
…We were out there riding between the two solid yellow lines in the center of the road! Cars honked at us and swerved. We tried to ride even steadier…gotta do this right! I was baffled when one of the yellow lines disappeared. Then there were only dashed lines. Connect the dots, I thought, and tried to ride straight even when there wasn’t a line to ride on. Tricky! Honk! Whoosh!
We did it for a half mile maybe, then gave up, wigged out and exhausted, and rode home on the shoulder. We had a summary pow-wow as we struggled home, nerves shaken and panting, in the gravel. “It sure was fast riding on that pavement, wasn’t it guys? But, man, it was tricky doing it right!” –If our parents only knew.
I must’ve got the center-riding idea from seeing a cyclist in a left-turn lane from the bus window. I don’t remember when we learned the rest of the rules. JP
