Doing Things in Tandem

(July 26th, 2022)

The summer schedule is not really a thing anymore. I can tell everyone needs a break to chill before school starts in a few weeks. (Yikes, how did that creep up so fast?) However, I still wanted to go tandem biking, so I found a day we were all free and rented some bikes. 

The only place I know of around here that rents them is BYU's Outdoors Unlimited. They were much better about communication this time and they confirmed the reservation well in advance. (Last time they tried to give them away before we got there.) However, their tandem bikes seem to be getting old and having problems. We wanted three and they only had two that were working well. So we ended up getting two tandems and two regular bikes for the 6 of us.

We don't have any way to transport the bikes, so we just rode them from there. Our goal was to get to the canyon and have some lunch there. It was a lovely day. Dad paired up with Robyn and I was on a tandem with Pearl and Daisy and Ivory took the individual bikes.

Oh, cool story. Tyler saved the city of Provo while we were out. As we were peddling along, I smelled smoke and I looked over and the grass was on fire! I had everyone stop and Tyler went over and stamped out the flames. It looked like someone had thrown a cigarette on the lawn and it had caught. Lucky for Provo, we were there just in time and Tyler's big feet saved the day.

Biking uses certain muscles that I believe most of us do not use daily. And certainly my crotch was not used to sitting on a little seat. It was harder than I thought it would be. By the time we reached the mouth of the canyon, most people were pretty tired. Daisy has stopped smiling.

Tyler and I were still all grins, but my lower half was voting to go back. We got a picture of Pearl in the canyon to prove we made it to our goal. 

I thought we could stop by the Riverwoods to eat lunch. We could find a nice shady spot to eat over by the river. We had switched riders and I was riding with Daisy and Pearl was with Dad. I led the troops to a parking lot and stopped to go over the curb up to the bridge. And this is when Tyler thought it would be a good idea to hop the curb. Except you can't really do that on a tandem bike. And it's not like Pearl had any idea how to do that. Short story was that it was a total FAIL. Instead of jumping the curb, Tyler ploughed into the curb and popped the bike's tire. Then he fell off the bike. But don't forget, when you ride in tandem, you crash in tandem, so Pearl went with him. It was rather unlucky.

Tyler was worried he broke his leg for a moment since it was twisted in the bike, but instead he just reopened some wounds he had from before. Still looked cool.

Pearl just got a bad scrape on the inside of her knee. 

I know June, you are thinking that this is so Dad. Trying to do a trick, getting hurt instead. Blood. Just so Dad. 

Dad immediately left to walk the bike back to the rental place, and the rest of us ate lunch. Then we left Robyn at Kneader's (since we were down a seat) and biked back without incident. In fact, the way back seemed super fast and Pearl and I didn't have to peddle much, which was nice since her leg hurt. 

It was still a fun outing, but next time I'd do individual bikes for everyone. There was some weird fallout from the trip. That evening, Dad couldn't lift his left pinky or ring finger. That meant he couldn't type. He was sitting at the keyboard when he realized his hand wasn't working correctly. You don't really think about what your fingers do until they can't do them. We were both worried, but the next day, he was fine again. He sent me a picture of a lifted pinky to show he was back in working order. Yay!

Every little adventure leaves us with interesting memories. I'm glad we can keep them on here and look back with fondness. Or less fondness in Pearl's case.