(
continued)
I was a little wobbly at first, but I got used to riding that bike again. The first part of the trail was really bumpy with tons of rocks and I was thinking, “Oh dear, if the entire trail is like this?!?” Ouch. But then it got better after we crossed a road, and I breathed a sigh of relief!
It was still quite chilly so I had to stop to put the hood over my head. I knew a headache would be how I’d end the day if I didn’t do something about it. Later on, I also put on the cap I brought to cover the front of my forehead because otherwise I would’ve been asking for a sinus headache!
Into the woods!
It was a wonderful morning though as Weird and I rode side by side. A lot of people ended up passing us because we were losing steam. We decided to stop at the next picnic bench we saw. We did that and broke out the sandwiches and sun chips. Another couple ended up stopping at that picnic table with us too.
A little while later, a bunch of people from our church saw us and decided to take a break too. It was great to take a break and get recharged with the food.
The picnic table where we had lunch. The couple in the background had lunch with us too.
The ride afterwards was a lot easier because we had energy to burn. I guess I can’t really recap what happened thereafter since it was just a lot of riding and scenery looking and laughing and such.
A cute little ledge!
Let's set up camp and take a break!
Soon after, we reached the 10 mile mark, which was where my aunt, uncle, and cousin were taking the bus to head back. I was feeling pretty energized at that point. We took a few pictures with my cousin and her DBF because we’re the corny couples who dress alike, haha.
Couples who are so corny that they dress alike. Don’t you like our shirts!!! Axiom!!!
BTW, my cousin has a bottle of Gatorade in her hoodie pocket. It's not a baby!
Waterfall!
The water. Weird and Ninja in the real Weird's picture spot.
I made a stop at the bathroom just in case since I knew there wasn’t going to be another one in a while. Big mistake! It was a natural bathroom, which meant it was a huge, deep hole with no water! It smelled so gross! It smelled even just passing by the outside of the building! No running water at all! Blech.
We continued riding for a little longer and at that point, we were with my uncle, my cousin, and her DBF. My cousin’s DBF decided he would take out his digi cam and start filming us. I don’t quite know what happened throughout this whole thing because I started riding a little faster just to get away. Then out of the corner of my left eye, I see a bike tip over and flying over the handlebars is Weird! I tried to brake as fast as I could without flying over and I yelled out, “Uncle L!” since he was far ahead at that point. I got off my bike and headed over to Weird.
Those few seconds when I didn’t know what had happened were so scary. I didn’t know if he was going to be like, sprawled out on the trail or something! Thankfully he was standing up and he moved his bike out of the way. He was holding his hands in a particular way so I asked to see them, but he didn’t want to show me. Haha, out of all people? I’ve seen gross, it’s okay.
His hands were pretty nasty, particularly his left one. My uncle came back and he opened up his first aid kid. We used a spray to help clean it and numb the pain.. Then I alcohol pad-ed it and wiped off as much dirt as possible. The bandaids weren’t about to work so my uncle wrapped it in gauze and then the tape. My cousin lent him her gloves so that the bandages would stay on tight.
We were okay after a while and began riding again. I was pretty upset at that point just because it was kind of stressful. I rode ahead so I could just think for a while. Weird knew I was upset and slightly angry too. It took a while for me to sulk.
We took a break by the railroad to take flats pictures. I told him I would need a little more time to sulk. He understood. He asked me how much longer and I said, “Give me another minute.” He counted out those 60 seconds and when he was done, I told him a story about work, haha. Of course, I said that that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t still be upset with him in the future. We had recently both had bad dreams on the same night where Weird got badly hurt so it was just too coincidental.
Don't be too daring, Weird and Ninja!
This is when I was still sulking because I was still upset.
Chugga chugga chugga choo choo!
We took our time riding at that point and stopped a few more times just because I was burning out. We were going around the mountain (and waved to passersby on the train!) and I kept looking forward to being in the sun, but it was always such a tease! I wanted to be warmed up!
This bridge was creepy ... I was like, they have to walk across that?!? I said a lot of stupid things that day! For example, I turned on Weird’s camera in the car, and I said, “Babe, you were in black and white.” He said that he wasn’t. I realized why it as like that ... I had it pointed towards my gray sweats ...
Still sulking at this point. Hehe. I was almost finished.
Finally we made it to the spot with pavement! That meant we were near the end of the trail! Yay! We found the huge group of people waiting at the bridge for the group picture. I think my other guy said something like, “Wow, she made it.” Haha, I guess I don’t seem like the type of person to be able to make 25 miles?
The last meeting point where we took the group picture.
We took the group picture and then we were off for a few more minutes to the pickup point. That was fun and easy though because it was very smooth and easy going on the pavement. Ahhh, nice and relaxing on our bottoms! The bikes were loaded back on and we climbed aboard the cheese bus.
I was hungry and thirsty then so Weird and I munched on some of the snacks that I brought. The bus driver came on and said that we should get comfortable and not be nervous during the ride since he has to speed up when going down the hills so he can make it back up the hill! He also added on that someone on the last run or whatever had gotten sick! Agh! That made me nervous.
Bats and Jacks pretzels for Halloween. Although technically it should have been Bat and Jacks.
On the cheese bus ... would we survive and get back safely?!? Weird prayed as we started off because I was so nervous!
I knew that I would have to try to go to sleep so I could survive the ride. I’m not into rollercoaster rides to begin with (I mean, my idea of a great ride is BTMRR!) ... and in my mind, those are still so much safer because they’re supposed to do that! Not really my kind of bus ride back! I was kind of just resting for the first 20 minutes because everyone else was still excited and having fun. Then for the second half, I was actually sleeping on and off even though at some points, I woke up because I felt the fairly steep drops.
We finally arrived at Whitehaven once more. Weird woke me up and I was definitely not feeling well. It wasn’t necessarily the ride. It could have been exerting myself way too much and not having much food in my system and then suddenly eating and drinking on the bus. Whatever it was, my entire abdomen and esophagus area was killing me. I hadn’t had pain like that in ages. I couldn’t even stand up straight because it hurt so much.
I sat down for a little while on the benches to wait to go to the bathroom before we left. The bathroom was also interesting too since there was only one stall and a curtain instead of a door!
Afterwards, we hiked our way to our parking spot and I put on this Chinese medicine on my stomach. That’s how bad it hurt because I was willing to smell like it! Weird didn’t mind either because he said he just wanted me to feel better. Haha, what a guy. Willing to let his hoodie smell like Chinese-ness just so that I could feel better.
After some Chinese medicine-ing, I felt a little bit better. Better enough to get this.
And then this, because I felt like the previous picture showed that I didn't have much hair so I had to prove that I had it!
Once we got onto I-80, DBF looked at me and told me to take a nap. I didn’t really want to because I don’t think it’s fair to the driver if the person in the passenger seat gets to sleep, but he said he was okay and not tired (though who knows if he was lying to me, hehe, couldn’t exactly check his hands to see if they were clammy from nervousness!). He said he would wake me up in half an hour. Alas, I slept longer than that! I slept for about an hour, and I probably would have kept on sleeping if this sudden, sharp pain didn’t wake me. I guess the stomach pain was back in full force. Not a happy camper!
It was really dark at that point and kind of scary. DBF said that people were really crazy on the road, and he said that even he didn’t like driving then and there. Appreciation to you for dealing with it while you let me sleep! Finally, Hazle started telling us about our upcoming exits so that was a relief.
Weird’s hands were really hurting at that point, and I kept crying out in pain because it was getting all intense again. We were not a very happy couple. Plus, he was hungry too. It was just not a very good ending to the night for us. All those signs telling us to go back! Now we know why!
We made it back home, but because we weren’t in a mood to eat out, we stopped by Applebee’s to pick up dinner. I couldn’t even move to get out of the car, so Weird went in to order while I waited, all curled up into a ball.
Eatin’ good (or fast and cheap) in the neighborhood.
We got back to my house and before we even ate, I went to the bathroom. When I came out, I saw DBF sitting in the living room by the stairs, taking off the bandages. Again he didn’t want me to see. Haha, I was like, “Surgery!” I’ve seen really gross things ... like my bellybutton turned out the other way, all soaked with blood after I had my gallbladder removed. So gross and bloody that I actually thought it was gauze and not my own bellybutton!
So I ran around to grab a few things ... Bacitracin (from my toe surgery), non-adhesive pads (from my lumpectomy), sterilized scissors (from my surgery ... though not sterilized anymore so I had to alcohol pad them), and then bandaids and such. For those few minutes, I was Nurse Ninja. I bandaged him up as best as I could. Then since he didn’t have much use of his hands, I mixed his food. Hehe, but he was able to feed himself even though he was holding the fork really strangely.
We watched Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives along with a little bit of National Treasure and Mr. and Mrs. Smith mixed in. I couldn’t eat much because I was still in a little bit of pain, but I was glad that we were at home just in case it got worse.
Next time? We bike along the Belt Parkway for free ...
And another random thing, I think it's funny how he likes the movies just like I do! I thought I was the only 20something year old browsing Target for deals on Disney DVDs! I would love to see your DVD collection though, since I only started not too long ago so I have a pretty small collection. My mom actually owes me a copy of the Lion King because she lost it.
... I know, I know.
Extra creepy elevator!
That stinks! 
I can't believe that! I'll be careful how I carry take out bags from now on!
I rest my case.
