Bicycling tales....

I guess if you're really tall and never want to stop riding your childhood bike, this is what you end up with! If you look closely, it is actually a 2nd bicycle frame welded to the original. I saw this the other day while walking down the street in New Orleans and I just couldn't resist but snap a photo for the blog. I know, why do I think of taking a blog photo of this but I can't remember to take one of each car I drive? Age, I suppose. Anyways, I thought this was interesting and definitely not something we see every day!

Speaking of bikes, when I was a kid, our bikes were our lives. We loved 'em and couldn't get enough. If I wasn't riding one, I was working on it or trying to improve it in some way. We rode everywhere and every day and just couldn't seem to get enough. My best friend growing up, David, myself, and Lil' B used to spend pretty much every summer day just cruising the neighborhood. Once, David convinced me that we should ride to the airport and see if we could find his uncle who worked there. I was all for it because he assured me that he would be there and that he knew just where to find him. (His Uncle was one of our favorite adults because he would always laugh and joke with us and was just a great character!) Anyways, we made it all the way to the airport rode through the drop-off and pick-up areas, and all over the parking lots, and then returned home. No uncle in sight. An interesting note is that today, we probably would've been stopped by police, detained, our parents called, etc...etc. Back then, that hot summer day, not even so much as a question as to why we were biking around the terminals. Times sure have changed. Another time, we rode across town, right down the center shoulder of our inner loop here in town. No, it wasn't REALLY ACROSS town, but it was to a different part of town and guesstimating it today, I would say it was between 5-10 miles from home and for kids on BMX bikes, that seemed like forever. Again, David had me convinced that we should go visit his grandfather and so, we did. That was a long ride but we made it. One thing about being a kid, all of my stories seem to point to the fact that we never worried about everything and we didn't concern ourselves with how far it was, how hard it would be, or if it would be worth it in the end...we just did it because it was fun and exciting. Again, how growing up changes everything, huh? Anyways, to make a long story short, we made it to his grandfather's house and were greeted with a warm welcome by a very surprised grandfather! Fortunately for us, his grandfather was coming to dinner at their house that night and back then, cars were big enough to put 2 BMX bikes in the trunk and still have the lid close! So, in order to avoid parental difficulty at home, his grandfather took us back to our neighborhood, pulled over at the end of David's street, got the bikes out, and told us he'd see us in a bit. He then went on to the house. We, being the smart dudes that we were, rode around the neighborhood a while so as not to seem terribly obvious as to what had taken place. It all worked and everyone was happy in the end! Years later, I remember standing at David's grandfather's funeral and telling stories when this one happened to come up. David's mother's eyes got so big but yet I could tell that she wasn't surprised in the slightest! Perhaps it's best we not know some things until later, eh?