So I figure it is time for me (Dawn) to fess up. I have a dirty little secret... or rather, maybe not so dirty. I've loved cycling since I was strapped to the back of my dad's ten speed and we would go for day-long family rides. Between family picnic rides to my own (mis)adventures I almost always had a bike of some kind in my life. I loved the freedom. I loved the speed.
As soon as I had my first mini ten speed I learned how to ride it without hands. (I even had to learn how to turn corners as I would ride home several blocks with my hands full of my Taco Bell lunch and drink.) I've been hit by a car on my bike. I used to love sneaking into the local Catholic girls high school and ride my (heaven help me) ten speed up and down the stairs. (How the wheels stayed true through that I have no clue.) I've ridden from the Fabulous Forties in East Sacramento to West Sacramento and back in the dark on my bike. As a pre-teen I've experienced nasty road rash in the middle of a 103 degree Sacramento summer and had to ride home, alone, several miles. I grew up and used cycling to help recover from a bad episode of CFS. I've ridden to and from school and work on my bike. The point is, there is so much I have experienced on a bike but -here comes the dirty secret- I've never ridden off-road on a bike.
I guess I was a roadie before I even knew what a roadie was and I still am. After my Effie was stolen I mooched rides off of my husband's road bike and it has been a couple of years since I have had my own ride. (Honestly riding his bike was more torture than fun.) Then through an odd twist of fate I found myself in possession of a Specialized Rockhopper 29er. The story is a sad one with a silver lining but even though the bike was not intended for me; it fits and now it is mine.
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