I hit the hill and since I was a kid with a used Columbia with the coaster brake and baseball cards in the spokes I always finish every hill that I start.  My legs started to burn after the first 100 hundred yards...maybe this was a mistake. It was, after all, the first ride of the new year. It has been a while since I have been on the road. Some past years I have ridden right thru the winter if weather and road cooperated but this year I was feeling the aches and pains of aging more and more. Oh well...I started the hill now I had to finish it. I had planned on going for a quick ride to see if I still knew how to balance on two wheels and if my fragile back would still let me. Everything felt good the first few miles ...in fact to good... which why I was grinding my way up what felt like Mt Everest.

I have always loved to ride since that first Columbia. As a kid it was freedom. To go some unknown neighborhood.... to explore the world outside your street as an 8 year old was heaven.

As I got older it was always there even though I played many other sports...basketball, baseball, football....my bike was always part of me.

Once I had my accident and there was a possibility that I might not walk again let alone ride that things changed. I recovered and was able even play basketball for a few more years but things weren't the same. It was as if I went from being young to old in one instant..but heh it all worked out and obviously could have been much worse.

Now the days of playing sports are gone...I refuse to try golf or bowling and I have never been good at pool or darts...poker and cigars?...mmm maybe but I would probably get bored... so I guess it is back to the road.

I ride now and it is like I'm 8 years old again. I might have not ridden for months like this past year but my first few minutes on the pedals are always the same. The aches and pains go away...my mind is clear...stress is gone..... the bike and I are one...now up that hill we go....huffing, puffing and going slow enough that an 80 year with a walker could pass me....but I'm still moving forward.

I know that the day will come when I can't get up the hill and maybe I will end up on tricycle on bike path but you won't see me on some excersize bike in a nursing home...nope....( at least I hope not...lol)

Today I ride...sweating, aching...hoping I haven't gone past the point to where I can't make it back.............I'm in my church and the pedals are still moving me forward.