Now This Is What I'm Talking About

What ever happened to the good ol’ evening walk? Huh? That’s what I want to know. We did just fine with a nice evening walk after supper. I never complained about it. So, why is it the evening walk was supplanted by the evening Bike ride? Really, I’d like to know.

If, however, I’m to be forced to endure (even enjoy) Bike rides, then more of them should be like this evening’s. It started out quite normal. Walk down the hill, at the bottom of the hill Boss Lady mounts up and we head out. I lag and crowd and generally try to dissuade her from the evening’s adventure. I fail to dissuade her and we head out Marble Street towards the Boardwalk. Except this evening, we paused near the Rugby Field entrance.

I like the Rugby Field; it’s lots of fun. Obviously, it is big and open. There are also other short random trails going off the Rugby Field. These trails are very wide, and mowed, but don’t lead anywhere. We can follow all of them in less than an hour. If I’m feeling particularly obedient, and Boss Lady is feeling particularly confident, she sometimes lets me drag the leash so I’m sort of able to run around and play. We play fetch. I sniff animal trails. We investigate deer paths. Boss Lady always promises that One Of These Days we will devote some unspecified length of time to fully investigating these deer trails. We never have yet.

So, back to this evening. The Boss Lady was taking stock of my complete disinterest in the evening’s adventure and was trying to devise a way to excite me. Which is when she lit upon the idea of biking out through the Rugby Field. It’s flat enough for the bike. And while it is just a field, it’s not too rough. Much to my delight, Boss Lady steered the bike towards the Rugby Field, navigated the big marble blocks blocking the entrance (it’s sort of kind of private, but not really) and off we went.

It went ok at first. Then Boss Lady realized that she really needed to shift to an easier gear. She did so and continued peddling. I was romping and trotting and generally very much enjoying myself. Except I was moving a little too fast for Boss Lady. She couldn’t keep up. She shifted to an even easier gear and peddled and peddled and peddled. She still couldn’t keep up. By this point, we had reached an open area with a small stream and the rail road tracks not too far away. Boss Lady’s legs were burning. She decided we had to turn around. I was forced to slow down to maintain the same speed as Boss Lady on the bike. It felt rather peculiar; our roles were reversed. Normally Boss Lady is ahead of me constantly encouraging me to keep up or go faster. She is sometimes forced to slow down just a little so as not to drag me along. Suddenly she was the one going slow and I was encouraging her to hurry up.

When we got back to the road, we continued toward the boardwalk. We had to turn around early because the sun was setting. On our way back, we encountered a fellow with two dogs. He was just pulling up to the Rugby Field to let his dogs run around. He had a Great Dane and a Pug. The Great Dane and Pug were well behaved and allowed off leash. The Great Dane came over to say hi. I got excited. We kind of sniffed, grumbled, bounced around and she trotted off. Boss Lady and this fellow exchanged pleasantries and then parted ways. I’m thinking Bike Rides that involve the Rugby Field should be our new evening adventures.