Two Intrepid Cyclists

Monday 09 August 2014

Well, my 1 1/2 hour walk to work at 3:00 am this morning only took me 1hr & 5 minutes, with which I was quite pleased. My leg muscles were starting to ache by the time I arrived, but it was a speed walk, as I did not wish to be late at all. I did not mind, though, as it was such a beautiful morning, even at 3:00 a.m. By 11:00, however, I was, I must admit, struggling, I was so tired. But heyho, my (work) day was done by 2pm. Off to the bike shop then, to which my great friend, Dave, very kindly drove me to get a new tube and then even more kindly, drove me home afterwards. Thank you so much, Dave. You are a real blessing to me.

TS, I shall look after you better in the future, I promise. Beef steaks, pizza, ice cream, all for breakfast, ok? All right, make that new tubes, tyres and oil and maintenance, you being a bicycle. ;)

A quick fit of the new tube and job done. Then out for a ride on Maverick with my other superb friend, Mark. As usual, Mark stretched me, taking TheCyclist and Maverick into places where no man (Me & M, that is...) has been before; viz, via traffic free routes, down footpaths, canal paths right next to rivers, muddy paths, what more can a Maverick wish for?

Two swans and their 3 signets, that’s what. Not! These two lovely, graceful swans and their young were relaxing on the towpath next to the river, right where we were riding. (I’ll tell you something for nothing, if you promise not to tell the whole world, that is...)

The Maverick and Mark were scared, as the instant we tried to edge (very gently, quietly and gingerly) past the family of swans, a loud hissing and wings being very widely spread out rapidly became the order of the day. We backed off and normality reigned once again. "Try again", I suggested, but the swans were having none of it. One then attempted to attack one of our bicycles, so we backed off again. Mark said, “Have you ever seen two scared cyclists before?” to which I replied, “Not before, but I have now!”

Anyway, after about 7 or 8 attempts, we finally succeeded in getting past them in one piece, but we did have to ‘skedaddle’ somewhat hastily away from them, as they started to give chase after us. Oh, the joys of off road cycling.

Mark, that was a brilliant ride. It was only after we finally arrived home, that I realised we had cycled about 18 miles, or so. That definitely made up for the errant behaviour of TS yesterday. Watch this space for more, adventures, thrills, spills and mishaps of Maverick & TheCyclist.
Yeehaaa!