I remember changing the back tire on a hand me down bike to an older fat balloon tire because it tracked better in the snow. It worked great for weeks, until one day I was doing about 30mph down this long down hill path in Kearny Park and it blew,I lost control, hit the base of a lamp post so hard it split the front forks like a wishbone.....if you wore a helmet back then, people felt sorry for you...*smiles*
Bicycle! I used to ride my Huffy ( they’re named after the effect they produce on the body just walking them, I’m pretty sure. They are heavy!) down our gravel road three or so miles to the blacktop. If you turn right, you go up a long, long hill. Once you get to the top of the hill, you turn around and coast at high speed down this hill, with a gentle curve at the bottom. I used to do probably 35 MPH or so, with no hands! Lean at the bottom to make the curve, and coast it out to the end of the blacktop. Oh, yeah!
Riding my bike to town about 4 miles the other way, collecting bottles from ditches for the $.02 deposit. 13 would get you enough for the biggest ice cream cone you could ever imagine. I’d spend all afternoon in town, and ride home into the sun before mom and dad got home.
We lived in the country, had hills all around, lots of climbing and exploring to do in all the woods around us. climbing a hill and following crest until it ended and finding ourselves a long way from home. We could hear mom yelling for us from a mile away. Sometimes we could not hear her!
Catching HUGE frogs out of the same creek we’d drink from, crawdads and all. I learned to swim in that creek. It would flood and we’d ride the flood water down, freaking mom out! Woohoo! Too much fun.