I Am Not Adventurous

I was talking with someone and I said, "You know, I'm just not very adventurous." 

And then we laughed. 

'Cause earlier in the day I had biked on a (mostly downhill) bike trail with my front brakes taped together. 

And why on Earth was I doing that?

The long story involve me being good at two things:  being a therapist and being Adam's wife.  The short story is basically because the good folks at the Wounded Warrior Project asked me to. 

The plan had been to go recumbent biking down this trail.  I had never ridden a recumbent bike, but they are relatively more stable than a bicycle (with three wheels and being all close to the ground).  So I tested it out and got all excited, but then the person in charge of the bikes decided that I was "too short" to ride any of the recumbent bikes. 

(As an aside, I am 5'7" and have never been told that I am "too short" for anything.  For some reason this guy was convinced that I was the shortest person in our group, even though two of the ladies were barely over 5'0".  But whatever...)

So I offered to ride a bicycle.  Which I haven't done since the seventh grade.  And really wasn't sure if I still knew how, but I was willing to believe that saying about "it's just like riding a bike.." 

And then my front brakes didn't work.  So the guy taped them.  And we prayed that they would hold.  And I buckled my bike helmet (PS I had never worn one of those either...eek!) and took off.

And, at times, it was the most terrifying thing I have ever done.  There were more than a few places where I strategically planned my crashing so that I wouldn't mess up my face or my stunning teeth (that we had JUST PAID OFF!).  I was willing to risk pretty much the rest of my body and hope that some of that magical health insurance would take care of it!

But I did it.

(There are no pictures of that taking place 'cause I was so freakin' scared.  I was really just focused on staying on the bike and keeping my face intact.)



And there was the time they asked me to go skiing.  This is me at the end of Part 1, Day 1, where I am wet, scraped, and bleeding from my skiing adventures.  No one else looked like this.  (I love how PROUD I am in this picture!)

In my defense, Indiana is relatively flat, and I had never been skiing before.  And I was terrified.

But here I am at the end of Day 2.  Less wet.  Less bloody.  Still terrified.  And very high up. 

But I did it.  I mostly skiied down the hill.  (Yes, there was some falling/sliding involved, but nothing like it was the day before!)



Oh yeah, and white water rafting?  No biggie. 

(I'm in the back left (bottom right on the pictures).  Thank goodness the helmet hides the look of terror in my eyes. 

So, not only was I very very scared, I was cold.  After years of tailgating the IU/Purdue game in November, I thought I had officially experienced the coldest I have ever been.  And that's just not true.  It's a whole different thing to be cold and soaking wet and scared. 

Water in Maine in May is COLD.

But I did it.

And then there was the time that I came home and told my husband that I thought we should fly about 7,700 miles around the world to adopt our children.  And that we would need to buy a house and save about $20,000 before we could do that.  And that I thought it was possible to do all that in about a year. 

And we are doing it.

Maybe I'm more adventurous than I think...