A wet and muddy bike ride.
Posted by Alex on June 17, 2020 at 15:33:54
I went out today for a bike ride with my cousin Liam who lives two streets away. Liam is six months younger than me and we have been best friends ever since he was adopted at the age of seven. We also go to the same school. Uncle Rob and aunt Maggie adopted Liam as they thought at the time that they could not have children of their own but four years after adopting Liam they discovered that they were expecting a baby, so now they have two kids, Liam and little Billy who is nearly three and very mischievous.
Like me, Liam enjoys getting wet and muddy and, like my dad, uncle Rob encourages him and doesn't think it at all weird when we get home soaked to the skin and covered in mud.
It was cloudy and humid and rain was forecast for today. I was wearing my favourite old denim jeans, a grey tee, black canvas shoes and socks. I've recently discovered the joys of 'going commando', as dad calls it (why?), when getting wet in my jeans, so was looking forward to the expected rain. Liam was was dressed in light grey jeans and a white tee and red canvas shoes.
We decided to cycle the long way around the streets to the park and the muddy track that we usually use. There's a long straight stretch of road that goes downhill quite steeply as you approach the park and that is always fun to freewheel down at speed and ride straight ahead onto the track where the road bends round to the left, if you go sufficiently fast you can coast through the first puddle without even peddling, provided of course that you don't hit an awkward rut and fall off. We have been known to deliberately fall off at speed so as to skid through the mud and water at speed and get totally drenched super fast, which is great fun if done right but painfully bruising if misjudged. Today we got it just right and coasted through the first puddle getting wet legs from the spray of each other's bikes. Liam's grey jeans turned darker and shiny when wet and his white tee was splattered.
We rode on deliberately going through all the muddy bits until Liam struggled to get through one particularly deep bit and came to a halt before fall sideways as he struggled to keep his balance. He got soaked all down one side an when he had extricated his legs from the bicycle frame and pushed it off him, he sat up in the mud, laughing as he looked down at his mud soaked jeans and tee stuck to his chest, showing his black skin underneath. (Forgot to mention that Liam is black, like aunt Maggie.) Liam splashed muddy water across his legs and lap as he sat there and then rolled over onto his front to complete the job of getting properly drenched. He looked a right mess when he eventually stood up and picked up his bike before we rode on. The track leads through the woods to a small park with a pond in the middle and by the time we had got there, having spent more time in some of the bigger puddles just getting wetter, it had started to rain.
Liam said he was going to go in the pond and wash some of the mud off so we both ended up wading in and splashing each other. The water is only about knee deep but enough to try and swim in so we got properly soaked doing that for a bit. Great fun. As we splashed about the rain started getting really heavy, a sudden cloudburst sort of rain that almost obscured the trees on the far side of the park it was coming down so hard. We need not have bothered swimming in the pond as it would have got us both just as wet. I felt like I was standing under the shower at home with it turned full on, it was great.
Riding a bike in the pouring rain was fun too, feeling wet clothes rubbing and pulling against my legs as I moved and it was fun watching Liam's almost transparent tee and shiny dark jeans as he rode along.
By the time we got back to Liam's house we were almost completely clean as the rain had washed the mud off our clothes. They have a summer house in their garden where Liam has set-up his games console and can make as much noise as he likes without disturbing the rest of the family, and it doesn't matter if he is wearing wet clothes, so we played games for a while as we gradually dripped dry. Uncle Rob does a mean spaghetti bolognese so I happily agreed to stay for lunch, we were still wet so had ours sitting in the summer house. It was still raining when I left Liam's mid-afternoon so I got wet again riding home even though it is only a mile away. I'm sitting in my room, still in my wet clothes as I write this and am feeling a bit chilly now so will step under a warm shower as I am and then change into dry stuff before going downstairs.
- Re: A wet and muddy bike ride. Kayne 07:45:52 6/19/2020
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- Re: A wet and muddy bike ride. Alex 12:40:41 6/19/2020
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- Re: A wet and muddy bike ride. Kayne 12:28:52 6/20/2020
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- Re: A wet and muddy bike ride. Kayne 12:28:52 6/20/2020
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- Re: A wet and muddy bike ride. Alex 12:40:41 6/19/2020
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