This morning, my mom woke me up at 7:00. This time, though, that wake up time was reasonable. Today we faced a 82 kilometer day! I was not sure whether to be scared or excited. We all walked down to breakfast with an excited glare in our eyes. We gobbled up our breakfast and were off!
After we had biked for a little while, I took a bad crash. I hurt mostly both of my knees, but my elbows took a bit of damage also. Mom had crashed a couple of days before and she got a bruise on her elbow too, so now we have matching elbows!
After having a nice and filling lunch, I had my second crash. This one was more serious. I took off a big chunk of my knee. It smarted badly and I had to limp the rest of the day. I crashed because I was not looking at the road. Instead, I was looking at a swimming area. It was sweltering outside and I was hankering to get into the water. Thankfully, we decided to take a jump in, "splash!" So I washed the blood off my knee and swam for awhile. It felt really refreshing! You take the good with the bad!
I am not sure what I think of the bike trip being over. I am really tired, and am excited to sleep in and relax. Yet I will miss the adventures my family had along the waters of the Danube. I will write to you soon. Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic.
Wow, two crashes in one day -- you must be trying for the record! Glad you weren’t badly hurt.
ReplyDeleteOuch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletePlease be careful. I want you to stay healthy so you can care for me in my old age.
Rohan,
ReplyDeleteI just read your entire blog to date and wrote a note but it did not go so this is a test.
John Hall
Rohan, (Say hello to Cat and Tim)
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading your blog from beginning to end and it is very good. I enjoyed it very much. I am sorry I did not remember to do it sooner but I forgot (I am quite old and in fact I was in that snowball fight at the castle) I plan to follow it regularly now and so my comments if boring will at least be much shorter than this one.
I was going to write these comments to you as a little kid and then I saw the picture of you with your parents on the bridge and realized once again that other people's kids also grow up. Won't be long and you will be the premier volleyball player in the family or whatever you choose to be.
That said I wish I was on line right away and could have had you bottle up some of that Amsterdam air for me. Sounded like an amazing start to an amazing year.
If I were making the decisions I would have put you in charge of the passports early on and your Mom in charge of the driving. I envy your bike trip along the Danube and you did amazing especially picking up and going on after the falls. In some of those cities over there they have bikes on racks which you can use and then drop off at another rack somewhere else in the city.
Ann Frank was one of my favorite reads when I was your age...she was quite brave and I had a bit of a crush on her. You are learning well how people can be to other people. It is saddening; maddening and amazing. Sounds like you all have been fortunate to meet up with and spend time with some of the amazing ones. Fortunately most people are good.
I had no trouble with you forgetting dollar signs or punctuation. (Join AEMA and that won't happen) Maybe a lot of us need to forget about $$$$...your blogs are great.
I will echo Ivan in encouraging you to take a lot of pictures (they will be the window to the lessons you are learning)(you don't have to post them all - and your selections have been excellent)with the admonition to not let taking the pics get in the way of the experience. (When I did stuff like this with my kids I would make one person the picture taker for the day.)
By the By the CELTS are in Boston.
I really enjoyed seeing you rob the bee hives. When I was in early high school in a boarding school it was one of my jobs. I thought it was great. At that same school I earned my way into their version of the stocks, several times.
I was impressed by your description of Gus' and your Dad's 6 packs. Personally I have worked extra diligently and now have a keg.
Check Point Charlie..lots of good movies about that and more evidence of how people can be to other people.
Glad that house was wood and the beds straw..the other way around and you could have had problems with a wolf. An Alaskan's story: our partner Susie D. was in Maine (first part of your trip reminded me) last week at a family cabin. They were supposed to leave the next day but complications prompted them to leave at 4pm. instead. At 4 am the next morning, the cabin was hit by lightening and obliterated. Scarey and what the lesson is I will leave to you.
Well I won't keep dragging on but wanted you to know I enjoyed the blog and plan to follow regularly from now on.
John Hall (the scruffy guy)
ps: I have four kids (now grown up) who all loved to sleep in and often did. They still like to tell their friends about my frequent admonition, "You can sleep when you are dead."
Keep enjoying this trip; it is your parents greatest gift to you and to themselves. You are all making memories and it will not be long before those memories are the most valuable thing that you have.
Hi Rohan (and parents)!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun blog. Nice work!
@accchamp John, I love your comments (and the Warren Zevon reference:)
Chicks dig scars!
ReplyDelete