There I was at \u00a0Shawnee Mission Lake luxuriating in the beauty, the speed and the accomplishment of getting here. \u00a0I rested. \u00a0I continued around the lake and started up the hill on the other side of the lake. \u00a0 Oh my. \u00a0This is awful. \u00a0This little hill just keeps on going, up and up and up. \u00a0This was in the time before communication other than a phone at home attached to a wall plug in. I was trapped in the park. \u00a0I peddled. \u00a0I got off and walked. \u00a0I peddled. \u00a0I got off and walked. \u00a0Several lifetimes later, I made it \u00a0back to the park entrance. \u00a0Lordy! \u00a0Thank goodness no more hills were between me and home. \u00a0I made it and I was a tired piece of biking software! \u00a0I was humbled but not beaten.<\/p>\n
Two or so days later, I resumed the quest for bike adventure. \u00a0I biked to the park, turned right and sailed down the short steep hill to the lake. \u00a0I rested. \u00a0This time, I took the same road back. \u00a0The other half of the road around the park was longer and one continuous long uphill climb. \u00a0My return up the same side road did have a steep part, but it was mercifully short. \u00a0In time, I got so I could bike up the short steep hill in gear twenty one. \u00a0Why don’t those big inventors come up with a thirty one speed bike? \u00a0I was complaining about hills to my spouse and his suggestion was to buy a little motor that would make my bike wheels turn forward. \u00a0Oh wouldn’t that have been fun! \u00a0Men and their machines are so predictable…put a motor on it and go faster \/ further.<\/p>\n
I discovered a bike trail at the park. \u00a0It started out with a nearly 90% steep hill. \u00a0I always had to walk up that short little steep hill and then I was on the beautiful bike trail. \u00a0Oh the happiness. \u00a0I loved that trail. \u00a0I biked to the park. \u00a0Went nearly 100 mph corvette speed down that initial hill on the road. \u00a0The road took me straight to the trail and off I went to the end and returned and then biked my way out of the park and home.<\/p>\n
I had developed a training pattern. \u00a0I was developing a few more tight spots (muscles) on my thighs and calves. \u00a0In the meantime, I ventured to the lucky bike store time and time again. \u00a0I bought a speedometer and a rear view mirror.<\/p>\n
Weekends at Shawnee Mission Park were busy. \u00a0Many cars came to Shawnee Mission Park on the weekend as did I riding my flashy yellow bike. \u00a0I did notice that signs were posted on the weekend to make the park road into a one way road. Cars were to travel around the park. \u00a0They couldn’t coast down the hill, enjoy the lake and return the same way. \u00a0They had to motor around the entire park. \u00a0I heard no cars complaining about the steep hill return trip.<\/p>\n
One weekend day, I was struggling to get out of the park up the short steep hill. \u00a0I hit a flat place and sped up a bit. \u00a0I saw a Park Police car coming towards me. Suddenly the car leaped over to my side of the road and put on the siren. Good Lord! \u00a0The police car was aimed right at me! \u00a0It was screaming “siren” and headed right at me! My brain screamed as I tried to get off the bike. Sadly, I forgot to put on the brakes. \u00a0I stepped off the moving bike and crashed to the ground. \u00a0I struggled up, looking at blood streaming down my leg. \u00a0I grabbed a leaf and tried to staunch the blood. \u00a0Both park policement were out of the car. \u00a0They were talking to me while I was struggling to stop the tiny spurt of blood.<\/p>\n
“This is a one way road and you are going the wrong way!” \u00a0I looked at them. \u00a0I said, “I can’t ride out of the park on the other side of the park. \u00a0it’s too steep.” \u00a0There was absolutely no sign of understanding or pity in either park police face. \u00a0It did occur to me then that I could walk out of the park on the short side. \u00a0I mumbled my apology, picked up my bike and started hiking. The park police car went on its way and I heard the sound of park police laughter behind me.<\/p>\n
Oh My GOD! \u00a0They laughed at me. \u00a0They were laughing at me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There I was at \u00a0Shawnee Mission Lake luxuriating in the beauty, the speed and the accomplishment of getting here. \u00a0I rested. \u00a0I continued around the lake and started up the hill on the other side of the lake. \u00a0 Oh my. \u00a0This is awful. \u00a0This little hill just keeps on going, up and up and up. \u00a0This was in the time before communication other than a phone at home attached to a wall plug in. I was trapped in the park. \u00a0I peddled. \u00a0I got off and walked. \u00a0I peddled.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-biking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2650"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2729,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2650\/revisions\/2729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mofoxtrot.com\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}