Life's a Stitch

My baby blue bike was a gift from my daughter and husband a few years back.

Totally unexpected, it brought back exciting memories of my first two wheeler Schwinn in the same colour. Complete with plaid seat, basket and rubber bulb horn, what a wonderful surprise. They thought it would be a good means of transportation from our place to the community pool, a ten minute walk away. That worked for awhile.

I'm like a caged creature in this gated community. This year we began the expansion of our cycling horizons. By no means hard core cyclists, two days prior to leaving the desert, we did a 20 mile loop to my favourite Lake Cahuilla and back through the polo fields. I was transported to fifth grade me, on my second bicycle, a 26" Raleigh. Happy memories of my bike, book in basket and breeze in my hair. Not really, today the breeze was through the 18 vents of my turquoise helmet, something not required way back then, but appreciated now.

Fifty (!) years later you can add three more b's to the alliterative experience: boyfriend, beer and bathroom. To be more accurate I'd have to say husband (still my boyfriend), two light beers and an appreciation for the lake area's bathrooms rather than portapotties. I admit to being a sacrilegious Pacific Northwesterner who doesn't appreciate the flavour of micro brews and drinks decaf coffee, and as a woman of advancing age, my fondness for flush toilets.

Three hours flew by, picnic lunch and time to read in the sunshine, punctuated by a couple of trips to the aforementioned facilities.

The final B's were encountered as we rode through the El Dorado Polo grounds and saw a BIG Brown Bear.