Two-Wheeler

      I was a bit of a late-bloomer when it came to learning to ride a two-wheel bike. I was in 2nd grade and almost 7 years old! We lived in a farmhouse in rural Gobles. It was a challenge to find a spot to learn to ride a bike when we had no sidewalks! I tried to ride with the training wheels in the yard but it was just too hard. Finally, my dad took the training wheels off and I would just coast down a little hill in the front yard. When I reached the bottom, I would just fall over, get back up, and push my bike back to the top of the hill and start it all again. One fall day in mid-September, I coasted down the hill but this time I felt something different...I felt the sensation of balance! Now I knew what it felt like to ride a two-wheeler! I came to the gravel parking spots we had and I called to my mom to show her that I could do it! I remember her standing on the cement block steps to our house, very pregnant with my sister, cheering me on. I find it ironic that I learned to ride a bike just days before my sister, Kathy, was born and now she is my very best bike riding partner. The day that my sister came home from the hospital and I met her for the very first time, I was still bearing the wounds of my learning to ride "wipe-outs" on my elbow and knee.