Bink and I spent the month of April 1986 biking through Ireland. Just yesterday she scanned a bunch of the slides of our trip, and e-mailed me some. Though it scanned in too dark, this is another of my favorite photos of myself (along with the one of me in Spain in 2001).
The guy was a sweetie named Wyatt, who joined us for a couple days. He was biking with almost nothing, while I, you can see, was an over-equipped American. I seem to recall Wyatt had a towel, however, in good Douglas Adams style.
I cannot recommend biking in Ireland in April. The guidebook had said it was the rainiest month, but in my Platonic way, I decided it didn't matter.
I was wrong.
One of the markers of mid-life, for me, has been the ability to take physical reality more seriously. While retaining an appreciation for the ability to ignore it.
More to the point...rather than just choosing to ignore what the guidebook said about rain...you LIED to me and told me that it was the SUNNIEST month (!) in order to persuade me that Ireland would be a better place to go biking in than southern France or along the Rhine--where I had wanted to go.
ReplyDeleteHa-ha-ha!
Of course, being naive at that point, I never looked at the guidebook myself...in fact, to this day, I have never looked at a guidebook for Ireland.
I remember that Wyatt--while traveling light-- had new! amazing! breathable! expensive! rain-gear made with this magic stuff called "gore-tex"! I'd never heard of it before--and now I'd never go on another bike/walking trip without it. No wonder we got so wet, half of that damp was our own sweat that couldn't escape the plastic rain-gear we wore.
I'm SORRY! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I paid my dues for my abominable lies. I will never do it again. (Um...better be realistic and strike that last sentence out.)
ReplyDeleteYes! Gore tex is the fabric of the gods and of galactic hitchhikers who know their stuff. When I think of the rubber rain suits we brought, well.... they were useless weren't they? Left you as wet inside them with sweat as if you had just gone ahead and biked in the bleeping rain!
Still, aren't you glad we went?
I, too, love this photo of you. It's exactly the way you look at this moment (well, minus the bike helmet).
ReplyDeleteYou and Binky are like a comedy team.
re: poodletail's remark--we should be following in French and Saunders footsteps more... Frinky and Binky!
ReplyDeleteSign me up, Ms Saunders!
ReplyDelete