the bikes and the bees

Friday I rode to the boy (20 miles). Mostly uneventful.

Saturday I worked and read at his office most of the day and then we started a ride togther. One mile in he hears “ow ow OW OW OW FUCK!!” and turns to see me stopping and pulling over, and he comes back “what happened??”. Well a gianormous black flying thing had landed on my arm and stung me and just sat there stinging! Since there were cars, I didn’t want to let go of a hand and try and brush it off and swerve, so I just pulled over as soon as I could and stopped. My forearm was burning, and already a bit swollen. It just kept feeling burny and stingy, even with the bug gone! Tears came to my eyes, and my sweet boy gave me a kiss. But it hurt, and so he road back to his place with me and I chilled there while he road — Oh wait, that was just one thought. But it hurt, and I was tempted to turn back, but climbed back on. The cool air rushing over my arm intensified the stinging, so I did some parts of the next few miles with my stung left arm against me and just holding on with my right. When we got to the dam at Arrow Hwy he went up it, and I kept going on Arrow to swing by my house and then meet up with him again. While home I put some baking soda paste on my arm, and grabbed some water and bike clothes for a long ride. Usually we go to my place on Saturday evenings, but had decided the night before to stay at his place since he wanted to get some work done. Back on the bike, I met up with him again on Wheeler, rode through part of San Dimas Canyon (the lower part), and we headed back to his place. My arm was fairly swollen and sore, and it made me a bit worn out. All in all a good 40ish mile ride… but my arm is still sorta swollen!

Sunday I planned to just ride home (20 mi), where Mike was going to meet me after he rode and then got more work done. I had played with the idea of getting in 60 miles, since I had 20 and 40 the previous days, but I wasn’t sure. I decided to add on about 10 miles by dropping down to the dam and riding across it and then continuing home. And I played with the idea of riding home by going over GMR. And then I ran into Ronnie, one of the guys I’ve ridden with in the company of Mike and Rich. And he joined me for a bit, and we ended up making it to the bridge on 39 before East Fork Road, which hits GMR. He turned back (after being fun company for an easy-paced climb) and I decided to go for it. I stopped and grabbed a snickers and a red gatorade a few miles from the base of the main climb (at the only place I know of in that whole area) and noticed my arm. Umm… I don’t think it should be that red, or that big. My bike gloves were hurting it, and I ended up just not fastening them all the way for the rest of the ride. I was only about 8 miles from the top of the climb, so I just kept going since going back would have been about as hard. Every bump in the road hurt soooo much! But I made it! And then the fun downhill for a while, and then a bit of easy climbing over to Mudd where I picked up Holly’s car from Alice while also hitting the 60 mile marker. And with a bit over 6600 ft of climbing!

So it was a good weekend of biking. Except the bee part. And the swelling and pain. But meh. My arm is closer to normal size and color again… and I still got in 120 miles!