But, much to my surprise, I showed up at Dave’s house and he looked a little bit more like this:

Ok, so I was caught a little bit off guard. But I am an easy going gal, and even though I was in climbing pants and approach shoes I figured “What the heck?” I got on the bike as Dave proceeded to tell me that we were going to do a twenty mile loop around Huntington Beach and Bolsa Chica.

Twenty Miles.

Ok, for those of you who ride bikes a lot, you might be rolling your eyes at me. Apparently, riding twenty miles for bikes is the equivalent of running 5 miles. Easily done. Right.

Seven miles in, Dave stops me, telling me that his bike is wobbling, and that he needs to check the tires. Yep, you guessed it. Tire blown. We back tracked a little down to a gas station to see if we could fill the tire, and make it back to the house on a slow leak. But, to no avail, 15 minutes after filling, he was wobbling all over again.

So, twenty mile bike route turns to walking….while pushing bikes. And keep in mind, I am in approach shoes.

   <- Yeah, NOT a running shoe.

But, at this point we are on the beach, and it is a gorgeous day. Phenomenal. And I’m easy going, and athletic. So….we walk. We walk like NINE miles.  And at some point, I notice that the sun is going down – and I have to be somewhere at 6:30. Right – I am not going to make it. So I ask Dave…”At what point do we turn around? Or loop back up towards your house?”

“Oooooooh!” He says, we needed to turn around like 5 miles back that way.

Seriously.

So, around we turn (only after stopping for smoothies at Jamba Juice – where Dave got some healthy orange drink, and I got a chocolate-banana-peanut butter glory shake…which I found out later had NINE HUNDRED CALORIES in it…..barf.)

At this point it’s dark. And clear that we aren’t going to make it. And now that we have biked, and walked….it’s time for the third leg of our new kind of triathlon…. RIDING THE BUS. I’m even cracking up as I write this. Yes, waited at a bus stop, and loaded our cycles into the rack on the front of the bus so we could be shuttled home.

But here’s the best part – while loading our bikes, I was having a hard time getting my bike onto the rack. SO… I apparently stepped into on coming traffic. How did I know this? Because the bus driver lays on the horn and starts screaming at me to get out of the street.  And later, while trying to buy a ticket (thanks Dave – I’ve never taken public transport before and had NO idea what I was doing), he screams at Dave for taking too long! Dave says “Sorry, I just can’t find where the coins go…”

He replies, “In the coin slot.”

Again – not a joke.

It is only after being yelled at one last time for not being “far back enough” (?? Yeah, I still don’t know what he was talking about), before we were seated, situated, and I started looking around the bus. In case you didn’t realize, the weirdest people in the world ride the bus. You had classic Asian Lady-that-wouldn’t-stop-talking, big haired lady, Mexican day laborers, crazy bike man….a whole slew of characters.

It is then that it dawns on me. I want to write about the bus. I want to ride the bus every day, and write about what I see. I mean, as a writer, I don’t think you can get better material. I want to know what big-haired lady thinks, and I want to tell the stories of Mexican Day Laborer. Yep.

So, fan and readers of all kinds, be on the look out. Sometime in the near future, Cherry Blossom Thoughts is about to undergo a big change. Let’s call it a face lift. And hopefully more than just new graphics, we will have some great new content and stories on their way.

And for my adventure with Dave…

Who says that Triathlons can’t be a Bike, a Walk and a Bus Ride?