Springfield Anecdotes

Greetings!

The last few days have been awesome because I've gotten to ride my new bike several times. I rode twice, about a total of 25 miles, on Thursday. On Friday I rode about twenty miles. All my previous rides have been with a partner, but today I rode solo at least 25 miles and it felt great! Above all, I have not fallen even once yet since I started using my clipless pedals. Today, though, there were some stumbles and rather frightening moments when I was climbing a hill and didn't have enough momentum and was so weak that I didn't have enough energy to get out of the clips in time before I stopped my bike. But I ended up not falling, so I count that as a victory! Today I went past Eugene into Springfield, through Springfield, and beyond into some very hilly, steep neighborhood roads. Notable moments from today included (not in chronological order):

-Wanting to throw up (but not) and almost falling over by the time I reached the top of a hill, and then suppressing a panic attack over the fact that the prospect of climbing the Rockies this summer is starting to sound very, very scary.
-Running out of water and having to stop to ask a middle-aged man doing yard work if I could fill my waterbottle. After several awkward pauses, he offered to take it inside his house and fill it. He'll never know this, but I loved him in that moment because I was THIRSTY (this is after climbing hills).
-Biking past a boy that looked eerily like Justin Bieber from the Bieb's early days.
-Stopping to rest near a house in which someone was very enthusiastically rehearsing with their full drum set.
-Realizing that I didn't have any food and that I was famished because I had been riding already for an hour and a half and had only just turned around--I proceeded to walk my bike into and through the aisles of a "Save-a-Lot Food Store", a weird little market off of the road I was on, and bought a single apple for 38 cents. This store also carried what they labeled "Cello Carrots," which is super exciting because I play the cello.
-IT DID NOT RAIN ONE DROP WHILE I WAS ON MY BIKE TODAY. And I was on my bike for.....3-ish hours. High-five, Eugene!

More stories to come tomorrow, for I have a 30-35 mile ride planned with a group of older gentlemen that I know through a family friend. I expect to have interesting conversations, and to be sore after having to keep up with them.

Cheers,
Nina