While I was stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, for the Ordnance Officer Advanced Course, I essentially had two modes of transportation. Well, three, if you count walking as a mode of transportation, and four, if you count running as another mode. But I wasn’t really counting, walking or running. I considered walking and running as leisure pastimes. I walked just to get around between buildings on post or when traveling short distances. And I ran various distances for exercise. But my two modes of transportation were my red Chevy van and a silver 10-speed bicycle. I had bought the 10-speed bike just before I came to Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. I had bought the 10-speed bike specifically so that I would have a cheap mode of transportation to ride around while I was attending the Ordnance Officer Advanced Course. At first, I just used the bike to get around on post during off-duty hours. That worked out pretty well, and it gave me some pretty good exercise. But I soon discovered that the bike was lacking in one area. I had no way to haul anything. If you’ve ever ridden a bike, you may have encountered this problem yourself. It is a royal bitch to try to carry something, especially if it’s heavy, if you have no way to haul it on a bike. That problem is exacerbated when said bike has caliper brakes instead of brakes that are built into the pedals. The problem is further compounded whenever you attempt to traverse a hill and need to downshift or upshift. In such cases, you may need both hands to steer and shift the bike and maintain control. What was that question? What is exacerbated? Seriously?!? Well, the answer that I used to give my kids was: D-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y; look it up. That was the answer that I used to give my kids. However, I understand that you are not my kids. You are my audience. Therefore, exacerbate means to make a problem worse. So, having those goddamn caliper brakes instead of brakes built into the pedal meant that I needed at least one hand free to slow the damn bike down. This became even more necessary when I was going downhill. That only happened a few times. But it did happen. If you are like me, you probably mastered the technique of riding a bike without hanging on to the handlebars. That simply means that you could steer the bike without hanging onto the handlebars. Hopefully, you could also ride the bike for an extended period of time without crashing it as well. When I was younger, I was pretty good at that. Now that I’m getting older, I have found that I’m not as good as I was back then. In fact, I can’t balance on a bike worth shit at all without hanging onto the handlebars. And sometimes even then, balancing the damn bike is a challenge. But that’s another story. Anyway, once I realized that I needed a cargo rack to mount on the rear of my bike that I could then tie down and haul cargo such as bags and backpacks, I decided to head down to a bike shop in Aberdeen. That trip proved to be my first foray off post with the bike. Over time, I started riding my bike further and further from Aberdeen Proving Ground. My first long distance trip was between Aberdeen Proving Ground and the city of Edgewood, Maryland. That trip was about 11 miles one-way or 22 miles for the round trip. I rode between Aberdeen and Edgewood on several weekends because a couple of my friends from my class lived in Edgewood. Another trip that I routinely made on weekends was from Aberdeen Proving Ground to Bel Air, Maryland, which was a 24-mile round-trip distance. I even rode the 40-mile distance between Aberdeen and the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. However, I must say I only made that trip a couple of times. Cuz 80 miles is a long way to ride a bike. I don’t care who you are. Well, okay. If you’re one of those Tour de France dudes, 80 miles is probably chump change to you. But I ain’t one of those dudes. So, 80 miles ain’t chump change to me. Eighty miles is a long ass goddamn way to me. It doesn’t seem that long when you’re in a car and zipping along at about 75 or 80-miles-per-hour. But believe me, it’s a long ass goddamn way. If you don’t believe me, just ask me. Better yet, try walking it. Yeah. That’ll take you a day or two. You might even get a blister or two. And blisters that pop and started to bleed hurt like shit for a few days. They just generally make your life miserable. If you’ve ever had blisters on your feet, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Yeah. Like I said, 80 miles on a bike is a long ass goddamn way to ride in one day. Especially if you’re just doing it for fun. Another thing I noticed when I was riding my bike was that I never ran into any exercises in futility with the local donut patrol, which always seemed to be a good thing.
by 
by 