I was searching in my file and found my St Lucia photos (Yes, I took the new picture heading my blog) and ended up almost in tears. I'd forgotten what a trip that was. So here it goes....
We were with our friends, new to "cruising" and wanted to try everything. That included a bike ride through the rain forest. Yep. Now for those of you who didn't know me when I was little,we HAD bikes but didn't ride them. We had no where to go so I was not and AM NOT a graceful rider. I wobble and swerve and usually end up "bumping" into something like a parked car or a masterfully hidden mailbox.
On the morning of our adventure, I milled about to make sure that I was last to get on. I was paired up with a bike that had no less than eighteen speeds. SPEEDS? I didn't know anything about SPEEDS! I knew that the bike I had went forwards and if you cranked backwards on your pedals...you got brakes. NO SPEEDS! No hand gears...uh-uh. I watched everyone else. I didn't want to get on backwards, have to ask for training wheels or anything stupid. Yeah, well...My Love and I helmeted up and ventured out with about twenty others. Holy crap! I had to ride NEXT to people? All I could do was mutter "whoaaaa! Got it...nope..whoaaaaa...wait...got it..." while I jiggled and thumped down the road. My feet missed the pedals sometimes because of the bumps in the dirt rocky path so my knees and feet were all over the place. I imagine I looked like I was trying to do jumping jacks. Let me just tell you that it took all of about ten seconds for everyone to realize I was NOT going to take on Lance any time soon. I was left to my own devices at the rear. It was like a skunk discovered at the opera.
Now I would guess that if I had had a clue on how to ride a bike, I could have been switching gears and gliding along. But that wasn't the case. The guy put me on my "steed" and said "Go." Okay. I went. I was peddling in a mad fury in little tiny circles. I think I traveled about a yard. I was exhausted, my legs were cramping, sweat spewed from me like an open hydrant (we WERE in the hot humid rain forest after all) and everyone else was disappearing around the bend. Oh God! I thought I was going to die on the Lucia-Mihn trail and no one would know except some exotic humming birds and a smattering of goats. So I pedalled FASTER. There was this high pitched whining sound (must have been me using up all the grease on the stupid bike chain...I swore I smelled smoke or maybe I was just out of oxygen). I was wobbling, swerving and yeah, swearing. Did you know that the f-bomb is a mating call for the Ring-tailed Lemur? My Beloved took off with the other NASCAR bikers and left me. "Thank you darling. I'm all right. These nice wild boar will skewer me and in my wounded state I will survive by licking poison dart frogs here in the middle of nowhere. Have fun! See ya back on ship. Oh no. I'll be dead. But you go ahead...."
Well a little boy~a native boy rode up behind me and scared the crap right out of me. I screamed. He screamed and some monkeys near by shook leaves. (I looked around but failed to see Jane Goodall or Sigourney Weaver.) "Lady! Shift." he laughed. I was a deep shade of firetruck red. "I don't know HOW." I wailed. He almost tipped over. "Here....." and he giggled, clicked levers, flicked his wrists while I heard gritting grinding and ka-chink. I thought my chain fell off, but he smiled big and said "Go.It's okay. Go." So I started out again but had a decent "pedal radius" I no longer looked like I was trying to beat the devil on one of those clown "Boardwalk-style" bikes...the ones with quarter sized wheels? I found my nineteen other pals stopped at a waterfall . Our guide encouraged us to go swimming. It was one of the most amazing places...the water was cool, clear and refreshing. The waterfall, although a trickle (by their standards) was romantic and beautiful. I recovered, rejuvenated and was the first one back to "camp" with a smile on my face. I did NOT fish-tail it when parking OR take it of any "sweet jumps".
Now, who wants to take me for my motorcycle test?
Enjoy your day. Thanks for spending some time with me. I hope you had fun.
