33 miles
I have never been an athletic kind. For the past month something has triggered me off and I am busy looking for shit to do. I am open to cycling; kayaking, white water rafting and anything that will help me sweat a little and push my body to its limits. This past weekend I did something which I had never even dreamt of doing. It is amazing as to how much your body can take when you don’t expect much from it. My buddy Mr. gawker, who I have known for the past 8 years, also became a convert a few years ago. He had been telling me to get my ass to his town so that we could do some biking.
That’s exactly what happened the last Saturday. My wife was out of town on business for the weekend and I wanted to do something constructive with my time and hence I headed down to a small town near Philly. I left home around 8:15, stopped off on the way to my sister’s place to pick up a bike. I was at gawker’s place by 10ish after a lot of arguments with him over directions. I had told the idiot to give me his address so that I could put it in my GPS but he refused to do so cos he felt that the GPS would take me away from him rather than to him. Anyways, I finally got to his pretty neighborhood. The best thing about going anywhere else other than Jersey is everywhere else is prettier, cleaner and less populated than jersey. It is a good change. I went to gawker’s house. He gave me some Creatin supplement or some bull shit claiming that I would feel as strong as superman in his chaddhi. So, we hung out for some time where I said hi to Mrs Gawker. She wanted to know whether I wanted anything to eat and I said no. Gawker and me headed to dunkin donuts to eat some crap and then we headed towards the Valley Forge trail. I was bloody excited about the whole thing. See, the idea was to bike through the trail which was 20 miles long and end up in downtown Philly. The carrot for us rabbits was the beer at the end of the journey.
Gawker had a clean water bottle for himself which he filled with water. I had forgotten to take mine and he gave me a water bottle which had water from ancient times in it and smelt like shit. Being the warrior that I am I rinsed it with good clean water from the fountain and filled it with water. The weather was cloudy and pleasant and it was perfect. The sun wasn’t there to beat shit out of us and it was all set to the tee. Gawker had gloves for his hands and a gel seat for his arse. He was kind enough to give me his helmet. I guess he gave it to me cos he wasn’t using it and also the fact that he knew that I hadn’t biked in many years and didn’t want me to end up with a cracked skull. We set off on the trail. This trail runs by the Schuylkill River which is beautiful. We started riding like maniacs. At first I was peddling like a mad man and was ahead of our man and then I started getting tired. I also had no clue about the gears and how to handle them but in time got that too. Man perfects by practice and improvisation. Anyways, we set off and after the first couple of miles I was pretty tired and then I started slowing down. Then I realized that I had to be consistent and not ride like a pea brain. Slowly I got my bearing and then we started functioning at a healthy pace with him in front of me by 100 yards. He has done this trail many a times and seemed to be pretty comfortable on his ride. Me, on the other hand was doing good but my palms and my buttocks were killing me. My palms cos of the weight on the handle bar and my butt because the seat was violating me. All said and done, after a while I got used to the whole discomfort and we continued on. The trail wound here and there and there and here. It was awesome. The peace was good. The mind is almost in a trance while the physical body is consistently churning out energy. We stopped for a pee brake somewhere half way and then set out again. At the 16th mile, we stopped at the famous Manayunk brewery and this is where we committed out first sin and mistake. Being the knuckle heads we were and beer lovers we were, we ended up having a couple of beers. We set off again and got to the end of the trail which was by the arts museum in downtown. Gawker wanted me to to do the whole thing. He congratulated me and was proud to be my friend. He said that he was amazed I could do it. From there we set off in the quest for getting lunch and some more beer. We met up with a friend of mine for lunch at the triumph brewery on Chestnut Avenue. We had a couple of beers, some food and a lot of conversation with the lady and her husband across our table. Apparently she was half Punjabi and half Canadian and her husband was a goumba from Jersey. After we were done eating, we bid adieu to my friend and the couple we met and began cycling again through downtown Philly. We took the train back to Norristown and then biked back to the beginning of the trail. All in all, he told me that it was 33 miles and I was happy with the number. He now says that it is anywhere between 30 and 33 miles. I will leave it at 33 miles because I like the higher number and my sense of accomplishment is greater at 33 miles rather than 30. The beer didn’t do good things to us. I had a bloody headache the whole day and apparently gawker was all cramped up too because of the dehydration. 4 beers did it to us. The next time, we will not be repeating the same mistake. We are going kayaking this weekend and hopefully it is as much fun and demanding on the body. This kind of pain is beautiful and makes it all worth while. The next day my butt was hurting pretty bad. I was ok with everything else. So all you lazy farts out there who think they cant do stuff like this please wake up and smell the coffee. It is fun. Youth doesn’t stay around for a long time. Make the best use of it.
If you want to know more about gawker my eccentric friend, please visit
http://goose-egg.blogspot.com/
I am surprised he didn’t write his version of our journey through the trail, Philly and back. If I had failed in this endeavor, he would have run home and written all kinds of shit about me. I should thank him though for inspiring me to do this. If it weren't for him, i for sure wouldn't have tried.
In a couple of weeks, we intend doing 50 miles on a bike.
That’s exactly what happened the last Saturday. My wife was out of town on business for the weekend and I wanted to do something constructive with my time and hence I headed down to a small town near Philly. I left home around 8:15, stopped off on the way to my sister’s place to pick up a bike. I was at gawker’s place by 10ish after a lot of arguments with him over directions. I had told the idiot to give me his address so that I could put it in my GPS but he refused to do so cos he felt that the GPS would take me away from him rather than to him. Anyways, I finally got to his pretty neighborhood. The best thing about going anywhere else other than Jersey is everywhere else is prettier, cleaner and less populated than jersey. It is a good change. I went to gawker’s house. He gave me some Creatin supplement or some bull shit claiming that I would feel as strong as superman in his chaddhi. So, we hung out for some time where I said hi to Mrs Gawker. She wanted to know whether I wanted anything to eat and I said no. Gawker and me headed to dunkin donuts to eat some crap and then we headed towards the Valley Forge trail. I was bloody excited about the whole thing. See, the idea was to bike through the trail which was 20 miles long and end up in downtown Philly. The carrot for us rabbits was the beer at the end of the journey.
Gawker had a clean water bottle for himself which he filled with water. I had forgotten to take mine and he gave me a water bottle which had water from ancient times in it and smelt like shit. Being the warrior that I am I rinsed it with good clean water from the fountain and filled it with water. The weather was cloudy and pleasant and it was perfect. The sun wasn’t there to beat shit out of us and it was all set to the tee. Gawker had gloves for his hands and a gel seat for his arse. He was kind enough to give me his helmet. I guess he gave it to me cos he wasn’t using it and also the fact that he knew that I hadn’t biked in many years and didn’t want me to end up with a cracked skull. We set off on the trail. This trail runs by the Schuylkill River which is beautiful. We started riding like maniacs. At first I was peddling like a mad man and was ahead of our man and then I started getting tired. I also had no clue about the gears and how to handle them but in time got that too. Man perfects by practice and improvisation. Anyways, we set off and after the first couple of miles I was pretty tired and then I started slowing down. Then I realized that I had to be consistent and not ride like a pea brain. Slowly I got my bearing and then we started functioning at a healthy pace with him in front of me by 100 yards. He has done this trail many a times and seemed to be pretty comfortable on his ride. Me, on the other hand was doing good but my palms and my buttocks were killing me. My palms cos of the weight on the handle bar and my butt because the seat was violating me. All said and done, after a while I got used to the whole discomfort and we continued on. The trail wound here and there and there and here. It was awesome. The peace was good. The mind is almost in a trance while the physical body is consistently churning out energy. We stopped for a pee brake somewhere half way and then set out again. At the 16th mile, we stopped at the famous Manayunk brewery and this is where we committed out first sin and mistake. Being the knuckle heads we were and beer lovers we were, we ended up having a couple of beers. We set off again and got to the end of the trail which was by the arts museum in downtown. Gawker wanted me to to do the whole thing. He congratulated me and was proud to be my friend. He said that he was amazed I could do it. From there we set off in the quest for getting lunch and some more beer. We met up with a friend of mine for lunch at the triumph brewery on Chestnut Avenue. We had a couple of beers, some food and a lot of conversation with the lady and her husband across our table. Apparently she was half Punjabi and half Canadian and her husband was a goumba from Jersey. After we were done eating, we bid adieu to my friend and the couple we met and began cycling again through downtown Philly. We took the train back to Norristown and then biked back to the beginning of the trail. All in all, he told me that it was 33 miles and I was happy with the number. He now says that it is anywhere between 30 and 33 miles. I will leave it at 33 miles because I like the higher number and my sense of accomplishment is greater at 33 miles rather than 30. The beer didn’t do good things to us. I had a bloody headache the whole day and apparently gawker was all cramped up too because of the dehydration. 4 beers did it to us. The next time, we will not be repeating the same mistake. We are going kayaking this weekend and hopefully it is as much fun and demanding on the body. This kind of pain is beautiful and makes it all worth while. The next day my butt was hurting pretty bad. I was ok with everything else. So all you lazy farts out there who think they cant do stuff like this please wake up and smell the coffee. It is fun. Youth doesn’t stay around for a long time. Make the best use of it.
If you want to know more about gawker my eccentric friend, please visit
http://goose-egg.blogspot.com/
I am surprised he didn’t write his version of our journey through the trail, Philly and back. If I had failed in this endeavor, he would have run home and written all kinds of shit about me. I should thank him though for inspiring me to do this. If it weren't for him, i for sure wouldn't have tried.
In a couple of weeks, we intend doing 50 miles on a bike.
Labels: fun
posted by zambezi at 11:49 PM
6 Comments:
Next time we should do the Conewago Trail where beer will not be available to us and so we will be free of temptation. Also it is a beautiful trail. But this one was a good ride and your completion of the trail on your first attempt is truly a great achievement. And yes, next time, we should do 50 miles. I think it is definitely possible.
hi zamzie!
glad to see that y'all still blog. :)
-roo
i am glad to see you that you are still alive and kicking. email me your phone number when you have the time.
ur email is??
im at rai.roop gmail
:)
hello project71
helloooo!!
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