Our first bike.....uh, trike ride in many months

What we have done together on our bikes boggles our minds.  But mainly it draws us even closer to each other...."We have done THAT together?"

We have cycled over 33,000 miles in the past 13 years.  In our 60s and 70s. 

That's a little misleading though because, after my heart attach in January of 2023, we have cycled less than 1000 miles.  So most of those miles were accumulated in 11-12 years.

Cycled a distance of around the world plus 9000 miles.

The heart attack changed everything.  Necessitating a complete regroup.  One piece of the regroup was needing a lot more medicines (which have side effects) and a pacemaker.

Then, we are also dealing with Vicky's two injuries (she actually has three--a broken back from years ago that needs constant attention and which we have tried various blocks, etc., to no avail).  A year and a half ago she took a nasty fall on the bike, and hurt her knee.  She still has problems with it.

In fact, yesterday she got a cortisone shot in her knee, which seems to help somewhat.

Then, because she loves me so much, after I fell hiking last fall and broke my wrist, she wanted to be like me so slipped on ice (in Mesa AZ!!!) and had a nasty break in her arm and wrist which necessitated surgery.

We got a doctor's report day before yesterday and her wrist has healed 90%!!!  She still has pain in it, but part of that pain is from her PT that the doctor showed her and that she follows religiously.  She is stretching the wrist to get it back to normal, and it's clearly working and making the discomfort mostly worth it.

Bottom line: in the past year and a third we have been physical messes.  Life really struck out at us.

But we STRUCK BACK!  Take THAT life!

We are following doctors' orders and recommendations, instead of going on-line and getting opinions from no-nothings.  And EVERYTHING DOCTORS HAVE RECOMMENDED FOR US HAS WORKED.

We realized we had to make life changes.  No more riding our bikes.  Too many falls and too much danger.  

But we didn't want to give it up entirely, so we bought electric-assist trikes.

Candice, who was free so could come out to help us through our operations, got all of the frames assembled and would have done more except she also had to take time to assembly the new grill she got Dad for his birthday.  It works GREAT.

 

 

So, next up was Soren, who helped with a TON of stuff that involved lifting and carrying.  He finished the assembly of the bikes.

And went up to the cabin with us to load the bikes we had there, so we could bring them to Mesa when Candice's crew comes to pick them up.  They will be able to use them for trail marking.  Should save lots of time for them and be fun to boot. 

And yesterday morning we took our first ride on them....cleared by the doctors to do this.

And was it ever fun.

It's not like the bikes.  It's a different experience.  Turning is weird.  The bike doesn't lean.  So, from thousands of miles of experience (plus 60 years of our lives riding bikes), we have to "unlearn" a deeply ingrained habit.  We only cycled on roads, so we could learn how to use them.

They are slower than our bikes and the speed we have always ridden, but that didn't seem to bother us.  We were still in the outdoors together—pumping and moving.  It was glorious.  

Just simply glorious.  

It is not wise for us to cycle on bikes any longer--nature has seen to that.  But we have said "screw you nature."  YOU CAN'T STOP US COMPLETELY....SO THERE!"

Thanks Candice.  Thanks Soren.  Thanks Vicky.  

Vicky here: And thank you, Danny too!