Inconceivable!

It just doesn't happen this way!

People who take up cycling suffer miserably and gloriously for months as they work their mileage and endurance up bit by bit until the day finally arrives -- usually after six months or more of regular bicycling exercise -- that they ride a distance of 50 miles or more without dying an unnatural death.

And yet, our 16-year-old son, Gogan, who has ridden a bike maaaaybe a half-dozen times this year for a grand total of maaaaybe 15 miles, joined us on rented bikes last week as we rode from Eugene to Salem via a very picturesque and wrong-turn-laden route.

80 miles! -- on a bike with three broken spokes, resulting in a wobbly rear wheel, resulting in friction as the tire rubbed brakes and frame. The kid didn't even complain! I'm the one who noticed the broken spokes!

Okay, he confessed to disliking the 10-mph headwind we faced all day and the 6% grades we climbed as we approached Salem. But he learned very quickly how to draft behind his tall parents, and he's strong and thin and suffered with stoic grace and determination up the steepness.

Someone who's never ridden a bike more than about a dozen miles is just not supposed to be able to jump aboard a crappy bike and ride 80 miles.

And yet Gogan did.

That's my boy!

So now is he going to join his parents on occasional future bike rides?

NO CHANCE!, says he.

Anyway, here's a video of Gogan demonstrating Class II drafting skills in the face of interminable headwinds...




P.S. In another day or two, Why Howard Laughed will be visited by our 10,000th guest. Make yourself at home. Hope you didn't find your way here by Googling something stupid.

Update: Not totally sure, but I think the 10,000th visitor to Why Howard Laughed was none other than my very own dad! Way to go, old-man-who-can-still-beat-me-at-tennis-on-a-good-day!