First, we learned that I had been given some false information on whether or not Dragonflies have legs. Then I become even more confused when bug sculptures and damselflies got thrown into the mix. Now I fear I’ve made some enemies in the dragonfly community and they will not rest until I pay for my ignorance. Well it’s either that or I’m incredibly clumsy. I will let you, my intelligent and good looking readers, decide.
My mom, Carson, and myself met my Aunt Nancy up in Geneva with plans to bike the path along the river. It was a beautiful day, not too hot with a nice breeze. We headed north from the Fabyan Forest Preserve. The bike path is curvy and it weaves in and out of the woods and runs right along the Fox River. About 2 miles up the path I hear a buzz near my ear and see a large dragonfly by my head. I feel it hit my hair and I assume fly away. About a minute later I hear an even louder buzz and realize that the damn bug is stuck in my hair. The logical thing to do would be to lightly apply my brakes, get of of the bike and remove the bug from my hair. I choose a different tactic. I freaked the hell out and started swatting at my head while still biking fairly quickly down the path. When I realized the swatting wasn’t helping I slammed on my brakes. This caused me to fly from the bike and land hard on the ground. No permanent damage to me, a few bruises, sore shoulder and a cut or two but I will be just fine. My bike did not fair as well. It’s alignment is wonky now and I broke some plastic near the gear shifter dial and I broke of a reflector.
After the crash we biked back to the car so that I could rest for a while. My mom and Aunt rode some more while Carson and I took a tour of the windmill at the forest preserve. We took the tour right as they were beginning operation of the mill for the day and it was really interesting to see how an old mill operates and all the work that goes into catching the wind properly. All of my life I thought a windmill turned or it didn’t, I didn’t know that they have brakes and could be turned to maximize the potential. Since we were planning on biking the whole day I didn’t bring my camera along. While I’m sorry that I missed some good photo ops, I am glad it wasn’t on me when I crashed the bike.
After the tour I was feeling stronger and we biked with my mom and Aunt 1.8 more miles down to an art fair in Batavia. They had a bike check where we were able to leave our bike in a secured area while we wandered around the fair. The art fair featured a lot of the same artists as the show went to in Genvea a few weeks ago. I enjoyed looking around, especially at the photographer’s works, but there wasn’t much in my price range at all. My price range is from very, very cheap to very cheap. When we finished walking around the fair we grabbed some lunch and took the path up the other side of the river back towards the car. About .5 a mile from the car it started to thunder a bit and rain. By the time we got the bikes loaded on the rack and into the car it started to pour. Our timing could not have been better.
