KathyRN137
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,882
Chapter 53: Trail’s End
I left off just as Ed, Tricia, Billy, and I were looking over what would be our “ride” for the next hour….a four-seater rented surrey bike with a bright yellow canopy. I had seen these tooling along resort pathways so often over the years, and they always seemed like such fun!
Now, Ed was (and is) an experienced cyclist. Twice he biked from NYC to Washington, DC on the Police Unity Tour. At the time, he had been biking regularly. Tricia had been biking less and less as she got older and Billy could never keep his balance on a two-wheeler. Me... well, lets just say that the last time I biked regularly there were a lot more Paula Abdul, Eurhytmics and Wham! songs on the radio!!
So now you have a little hint of what’s to come….
We rather expected that Billy would not be able to pedal properly; whenever he had been on a bike before, he always tended to wind up pedaling backwards! I had envisioned a slow, leisurely, sight-seeing kind of ride around the resort. Tricia was disappointed that we hadn’t rented two bikes and could race!! Ed appeared to be slipping into racing mode as well...
Needless to say, he wanted to drive and Tricia wanted to be up front. (She wanted to be in charge of the bell.) Billy and I took the back. We placed our bags in the handy basket in front, so we were pretty much hands-free. Ed took a few moments to review the steering and braking mechanisms (funny how they just take your card and direct you to the bikes… shouldn’t you get a little orientation or something?)
Anyway, at least they gave us a map of Wilderness Lodge/Fort Wilderness that showed the paths we could use. Then we were left to our own devices.
We started off down one of the trails that meandered through a shady forest between the two resorts. There weren’t a whole lot of other folks around; I think we passed only one other surrey bike coming at us from the other direction the entire time we were on the trail. Of course, each surrey had a young girl who rang and rang and rang the bell wildly as soon as they came within sight of each other!
Billy kept laughing and trying to pedal backwards and his feet kept slipping off the pedals, so eventually I just reached over and put his feet up on the bar and told him to keep them out of the way. So that’s how I wound up pedaling for two!
Ed was getting a bit annoyed that we were going so slowly... he’s used to a much faster pace. But this was real work! And we weren’t even negotiating any hills; it was all perfectly flat ground!
It was unexpectedly quiet along the paths, except for the sounds of insects humming and birds chirping. I kept my eyes peeled for wildlife, but I didn’t see anything except birds and squirrels. There was just lots and lots of green…
Eventually, we came to Fort Wilderness:
We found ourselves near the stable area, but no horses were out at the time. (We could smell them though!)
At the speed we were going, Ed didn’t think we had enough time to pedal around the Fort... thoughts of the impeding flight home and the driver waiting for us back at the Lodge were nagging him. So, after taking a break and looking around a bit, we did a U-turn and slowly made our way back to the WL and Bay Lake.
We returned the bike and meandered along the path that hugged the white sand beach. Billy ran around in the sand and Tricia spotted a pretty little rock that sparkled; immediately she was off on a mini-quest to find more, but there were none other to be found.
Regrettably, it was time to go. We knew the driver would soon arrive to pick us up and take us to the airport. We walked, Tricia holding Ed’s hand and Billy holding mine. Just a few moments after snapping these last pictures, we were buckling our seatbelts and waving goodbye to the Wilderness Lodge….
Edited to add: But first, we went into the Lobby and grabbed Aunt Rae (along with our luggage!!)
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The flight home was uneventful and we touched down in NY around 5:30pm. As soon as we got closer to home, I ordered pizza for pick-up. Our tummies were growling by the time we arrived at our house by 7-ish. That Roaring Fork lunch had been a long, long time ago!
We dragged all our bags inside and piled them in the front hallway. I was about to head out the door to pick up the pizza when suddenly, one of them began to wiggle and make strange noises! Ed quickly unzipped it and….
Oh No!!
Stitch!! You get away from the kids' Halloween candy!!
“Oh well,” I thought, “I'd better order one more pie!”
The End
Kathy
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Coming Soon: Epilogue & Preview of Upcoming TR: An April Adventure in Autism!
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I am so sad it is over.
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So, when you starting your PTR for the enst one
We love to ride those surrey bikes. I wish I had pictures though, (I forgot to bring my camera) We rode around Port Orleans and it was hilly at times. But everyone would wave at us it was really fun.
I shall have to ask Marissa to resurrect it!
It's not released in the UK until 6th April so guess what we will be buying next weekend??? 
= us this time next week!
= me waiting for your next TR ....!
It's hard work!
BTW...You dropped your ticker for "the other place"... are you still going, or just tired of the flames? 
but I think he finally realized that he was meant to be a lone wolf.....We'll see what happens when he gets back to WDW!!
No birthday trip for me! (I wish, though.) But the upcoming Halloween trip will be close enough!
(Yes, we drove down.)
