Mud

Abe and his dad both ride their bikes to school everyday. Abe and I will often use this excuse as a time to ride together, usually just part way because they live nowhere near us. It seems like things are slowly getting back to normal from the flooding (for us who did not have to deal with the devastation of losing everything like so many families), except for some road closings and sandbags everywhere.

Yesterday we were excited one of our bike trails had reopened now that the waters have receded off of it. It has been difficult to get to the Sheffield home from our place with all of our main routes closed. I think Val has been riding about 25 miles a day with his detours. Anyway, as we were riding Abe's bike suddenly fell from under him, after which Val took a dive, and I, in confusion of what was happening, hit my brakes and realized the problem--the trail was covered in a slippery mud residue. Somehow I managed to stay up as my tires weaved and skid to a stop and I remembered to clip out of my pedals at the last moment.

Poor Val and Abe were covered in mud. Abe slid on his bum quite a ways which seemed to cushion his fall. Val bonked his head (again--he had a bad accident last fall and was in the hospital for a few days) and scratched up his leg and some gears. We walked our bikes through the rest of the mud and rode home without any further problems. I am glad it wasn't worse. We rode the remainder of the 9 mile ride having stinky mud flick on us in the wind but I think we were all okay after Val verified he was up to date on tetanus (the flood waters are severly contaminated).