The Bike Saga

When we moved here, Marshall Jr. had outgrown his bike. He looked like a Shriner driving the little cars when he was on it. We shipped all the bikes and decided to buy one for him when we arrived. We purchased it from the store on Thursday night but because the Sequoia is in the States, we have no way to get it home. Since the store is only 6 miles from Cheveley, we decided that I would ride my bike to the store and then Vivian and MJ would drive to the store then both boys would ride home. Excellent idea in theory. We pick up the bike and decide to ride into Newmarket because it is market day. (I'll add that Alison next door took Maggie and John to the sandy playground; their equivalent of a beach).

We go to Newmarket, decide to grab a snack at the bakery and then we proceed to watch life on a Saturday evolve before our eyes. It is now time to go home. This is the valuable lesson part of this fable. Don't bike on hedge trimming day.

MJ and I started out of Newmarket for the last 3.5 miles. We are not 200 yards down the road and Marshall says he has picked up a thorn in his tire. Note, when you see the post cards of the UK with the fields that have hedges around them, while it looks picturesque, it is death to a bike tire when the thorns from the hedges are set free on hedge trimming day.

To continue, I tell MJ to bike towards home as fast as he can (nothing like a little testosterone to solve the problem, I would have used duct tape if I had that). We make it less than half a mile and we are totally flat. We call Vivian to the rescue to bring the pump from home; figuring we can pump it up, ride quickly home. Problem solved. This solution lasts about 500 yards. Then the next one lasts about 100 yards. Game over. We had some good quality time from that point forward, just walking, and talking and enjoying the sun and seeing the horses in the fields. That lasted about 1000 yards and MJ was brilliant enough to deduce that he could take my bike and could hurry home. This is one of those moments of fatherhood where you try to find a valuable lesson about responsibility or manhood or something like that. Being old and tired, I decided to let him take off. I was able to do the last mile, wrapped up in my own thoughts (not a nice place to be). Lucky for me, Vivian came out to help me across the finish line.