Now I am going to go completely off subject. We had acreage on the edge of town. We had a 7-11 two miles in one direction and a burger joint with great ice cream cones about a mile and a half in the other. We used to ride our horses to one or the other. We used our bicycles primarily for going over some incredible jumps across the street. I always was banged up from falling off of horses or bicycles. My teachers used to pull me out of class because they thought that my dad was beating me.
My uncle went to Europe for a few months and he left his nice Fuji bicycle. It was way too big for me, but I found out that it was excellent transportation, and safer than a horse. I bought my first 10 speed when I turned 13. The next day I told my dad I was going to ride my bicycle to Mt. Rainier which was over 50 miles away. He chuckled and told me to have fun.
I left early in the morning with a map, some sandwiches and a couple of dollars. I got lost, I ran out of food and money and was bitten by a junk yard dog. But I was a very stubborn kid. I made it to a campground in Mt. Rainier National Park and then rode back. I didn't get home until about midnight. My parents were not waiting up. My dad asked me how my ride was the next morning.
Things were a lot different back then than they are now. My parents gave me a lot of free reign. This got me started on my first great distraction... bicycle racing. I eventually became state champion and was nationally ranked. I raced all over the country. To get to races I was mostly riding around with a bunch of older guys who had beards and hair down to their butts in a beat-up VW Campervan when we went.
I rode my bikes about 10,000 miles a year rain or shine, sometimes I got so cold that I couldn't feel my hands or my feet. My story is almost Forrest Gump like with a bicycle and without the low IQ. I even had a small entourage at times, most other cyclists called my crazy.
