It's the bike, it's the rain, it's me

Yesterday was quite fun. It was wet, rainy, very enjoyable and bloody. Here is the "story".

Zach, my 15- and almost 16-year old brother sounded a lot like me yesterday. At least, for some part. I used to hate hikes. Despise of them, wanting to strangle or spit on them, always groaning and complaining whenever my parents forced me to walk up a mountain. Zach wasn't the kind that greeted them like Little Timmy getting his shiny red, new tricycle either. But the times they are a changin'. When my parents (mostly my mom) suggested we go for a hike yesterday, I was thrilled. I felt as if I was Little Timmy, getting both a shiny red new tricycle AND a large lollipop AND a new little puppy. So, so happy. And you know why? Because I was so frickin' BORED out of my MIND just sitting in our apartment, reading or being bored for about a week with NOTHING to do, and FINALLY, I can get out of the house, get some exercise and take some good pictures. Zach was quite the opposite. He was acting as though Little Timmy was forced into child labor, killing innocent little puppies with his bear teeth. My mom and spent perhaps half an hour of glaring and getting all worked up at him for being on his computer for hours and hours and then not wanting to hike. Zach would sit on the couch making pitiful excuses. He didn't want to go because it might rain. It did look like it was going to rain, too. But still. He sounded like a...a teenager. A somewhat bratty one at that. Ugh. I was so frustrated. Disgusted. I was all ready to go, bringing my camera and having my shoes put on my feet, ready to walk over mountainous terrain. Finally, Zach was persuaded to come. So we got in the car, drove about 3/4 there when we were passing CERN on a round-a-bout. And guess what? It started raining. I could see the little spots of wet blobs slowly falling down onto the car windshield, making that soft splat sound. So my dad suggested that we get the bikes at CERN and go biking. Me and Zach both went "YEAH!" but my mom had less enthusiasm. But she eventually agreed and we got Zach's bike from the lab and drove back home. I put on my Ill-ee-no-wah (Illinois) hat, which was my oldest and favorite baseball cap, as I had gotten it in like second grade at a football game with my grandpa and my mom. I also brought along my camera (of course), rain paints and my hockey jacket. We got my bike from a guy at CERN not using it. It's a foldable bike, with tires just about the size of a medium-sized pizza, straight handlebars, a low frame and like 6 gears. We were all ready to go, and got outside the apartment. But first my dad had to make a few tweaks on his and Zach's bikes. My dad's bike is pretty much a piece of crap. That's not meant as an insult to the original owner (it belonged to another CERN employee) but seriously, if you saw that thing, the first word that would pop into your head is "crap". It hardly has any working brakes. Zach's bike is also an old CERN bike I think, and has problems with gears or something. My mom's bike is new; we got it at this French bike store here. I just rode my bike around the apartment, trying out the gears and stuff. It made an annoying sound when you back-pedaled, but it was okay. I had to raise my seat a lot, though. After a while we finally departed on our bike trip. My dad was leading the way, claiming he knew some Swiss paths. We went on some back roads, crossed the border into Switzerland and found ourselves on a rocky and unpleasant path. It only lasted for about 600 feet. We were riding alongside a vineyard. I took some pictures. My dad and I were ahead of Zach and my mom for the majority of the whole trip; my mom couldn't ride very fast, even with her large-ish wheels. I thought I would be in the back because of my small, puny wheels but I was just behind my dad. We passed this fancy estate thing, that had cow statues. Then we went down these roads and biked next to more vineyards. Eventually we went into this forest and stopped to look at the river we found. There were some kayakers and lots of horse-riders around. After a short rest we continued up the path, and then something...cool, I guess happened. While the rest of my family was looking at a map, I looked farther up the path. I saw this huge hill in front of us. It looked quite steep from where I was. I went back to my dad and said, "There's this huge hill! I won't be able to climb it, I can just walk my bike." My dad, in his trying-to-be-convincing-and-encouraging voice, replied "You can do it; you're a strong young woman." My mom just nodded. I didn't think I could climb that hill. But I tried anyway. Clicking to my almost-lowest gear, I started pedaling modestly towards the hill. I was behind my mom, and as we started to climb she cut diagonally across, right in front of me, trying to go up the hill in a zig-zag. I yelled "hey!" and she moved. It was hard. I advanced, passing Zach about halfway up. Eventually I passed everyone and was well in the lead. Breathing heavily, alternating exhales between a hard "hoooo" and a soft "huuuh" and playing a soundtrack of "you can do it" and "just keep going", I went further up. I glanced back and noticed my dad was the only one left actually pedaling; my mom and Zach were walking their bikes. I got up the first steep hill, only to find another steep hill after that on the road. But my momentum didn't falter; I glanced back and noticed that even my dad was walking his bike. I was the only one to bike up that hill. And I was the one who doubted myself. I grinned as I finished that exhausting feat, saying to my mom as we rode on the path, "That was ironic." She looked back at me and said, "What was?" and I said with a grin, "That I was the one who didn't think I could climb that hill, and I was the only one (and first) to do it." After that hill episode, we continued into the forest. Now we had a plan of going to Lake Geneva. We went on this one trail that went to Versoix, one of the towns on the border of Lake Geneva. We passed this one house in the forest, and this big Rotweiler-ish dog started running at me and my dad, barking viciously. I just muttered, "Well, excuse us!" and I heard my mom a few feet behind me say in a humorous voice, "Same to you, bucko!" Eventually we got to some busy-ish streets and found ourselves staring at a whole harbor looking as if someone had barfed up a whole load of sailboats. There were tons of 'em. We then sat down on a bench and grabbed out the chocolate. There was also a few swarms of gnats hanging out around my dad's head and my right knee. They didn't bother us though. I drained my plastic water bottle in a few minutes, having that be the only water I had had the whole day. And I had like 4 pieces of de-lish-us chocolate. It was goood. Then it started to rain when we decided to head home. The Lake was cool; we could see all the way across it to the other side, though the length-side disappeared into the horizon to our left. It was about 50 miles all the way around the lake. One of our good friends, Dan Levin, who also worked at CERN with my dad, had biked around it a few times. I want to do that but have to get in shape. So we left the lake, me putting on my jacket, as more of the little pouches of H2o started to succumb to the law of gravity. We went back a different way, and almost got lost in a way. My dad was sort of guessing, but knew the general area. It was so fun to coast down the hill that I had so laboriously climbed up. We could see very dark clouds in the sky, looking very foreboding. Then it really started to pour as we got closer and closer to Ferney. But I was happy. I LOVED the rain. Heh heh...biking in the rain was one of my favorite things. As I biked along a smooth road, I started to hum/sing Spring and a Storm (Tally Hall). I was getting SO drenched; I could see drops on my Illinois hat and my cargo shorts were almost see-through. I didn't care at all. When we got to a point about 10 minutes away from Ferney, my dad and I stopped to wait for Zach and my mom. I was practically sprinting on my bike, grinning, humming Ruler of Everything (Tally Hall) and getting soaked. Once we passed the border I knew how to get home. I was biking in the street, having to ride through wet pot-holes and puddles. As I neared the round-a-bout near the shops where I bought the postcards, I thought I should get on the sidewalk; there was a dark car behind me. I saw the sidewalk and that there was a huge puddle next to the curb. It looked to me like the curb was low enough to get over. I aimed for the edge of the curb, cutting through the deep puddle. It all happened so suddenly, yet I still have a vivid frame of it. The stubby wheel couldn't go up the curb. I fell off the bike and onto the sidewalk, landing on my right arm, which caused the jacket sleeve to be pushed up a few inches before the elbow. It didn't actually hurt that much. I'm serious. I could see my dad further down the round-a-bout waiting for the others and saw a dark car behind me. I looked back and didn't see Zach or my mom. I got up from the sidewalk, muttering swear words and got on my bike again. I reached my dad and said, "I just wiped out," He looked surprised and asked "You did?" I "Yeah, I was just going up a curb and it was too high," I received an "Oh." and he told me about how curbs can be tricky. When we got home I asked my dad if there was any blood. He said there was some on my leg and I looked down and saw a bunch of runny red streaks on my right leg. There was also this stinging in my right elbow, so I pulled the jacket sleeve down and saw a reddish bruise, which later bled. My mom came back later and after my dad said I had wiped out, I indicated my leg and she started making pained noises and tried to comfort me. I didn't need any, though. Not one tear was shed. I took some pictures. To make a long story short, I took a shower and cleaned it up, put some bandaids on it and we had dinner.

We drove over to this Buffalo Grill place, which was this American food chain. I got buffalo wings, French fries and some dessert. It wasn't the best food. I kind of regret going, because we were eating American food in France. Whatever. I will add the pictures to everything in later posts.