Okay everyone, I would like to invite you on the journey of my last Sunday. Ignore the fact that my phone is in Spanish, but take note of the timestamp (2:46) on this note of what I wanted to write my blog about and I will honor my 2:26pm, Sunday, July 14 wishes. So first, some background. If you’ve been reading through my blogs, you might remember that my family came a little over a month ago. While we were in Galway, they went to the Waterford Greenway and in my Week 3 blog I said “I would love to check that out at some point while I am here.” This past Sunday I did. I rented an ebike and decided to bike 46km (28.5 miles) from Waterford to Dungarvan. The note above is of the lessons I had learned and was thinking about as I stopped for lunch at the halfway mark.

1. I’ve never been super great at riding bikes. I live in the mountains and so I gave up on trying to relaxingly ride a bike a long time ago. So I was being very careful and any time there were dogs or children or sticks in my path I was very quick to remind myself that everything would be okay.
2. Coming down to bike for hours was COMPLETELY out of my comfort zone, but I knew I had to do it. And let me tell you it felt so good.
3. It was such a nice day and I was really enjoying the weather and the beautiful scenery. The bike ride was giving me time to think and relax. I don’t always make time for that in my day to day so it was really nice.
4. Again coming with that I was really happy to be biking and seeing so many beautiful things. I was really enjoying just being there. Me and my bike and the beautiful nature.
5. Anyone who I told about this plan immediately told me I shouldn’t, and I can’t blame them. I am normally an avid anti biker, but I really wanted to try this. It was really empowering to know that I could do this against the odds.
6. This. Is. Comedic. Gold. You might be able to tell from the tone that I am not putting in the effort to take out of my writing that something happened during this bike ride after 2:46, but yes by lunch time I had had a couple little falls whether that was from dogs running in my path off leash and not wanting to hit them or other things outside of my control, but just keep this one in mind as we move through the journey.
7. The one time I had a little fall there were these little girls no older than 10 who were alone and asked if I was okay, which I totally was, and I felt a little embarrassed, but I kept on biking. I knew that when I was their age, seeing older people fall really helped me feel confident in my biking abilities so I just took it and moved on.
8. I went to lunch, and I got myself a nice sweet lemonade, and was planning on getting ice cream after the bike ride to celebrate because, like many, I believe in the power of sweet treats.
9. Now, I’m honestly not sure what I was referring to with this at the time. Like at one point I had an opportunity to go off the trail and down to see something pretty and I didn’t. Maybe it was about finding the right setting on the bike to become comfortable, who knows, but now it really means something else to me.
10. At lunch I got a table for one and it was my first time doing that at a nice, sit down restaurant, and it was a really nice and freeing feeling. There were these ladies singing and they sang my favorite song and it really felt like everything was just perfect.

Now my not even thinly veiled foreshadowing will cue you in to the fact that after 42 out of the 46km, over 90%, 4 hours of biking, into the trail, a bee flew into my eye. I freaked out. I crashed. I had to go to the hospital and get stitches in my forehead. Now. I was wearing a helmet and there were these really nice people who helped me and wrapped my head and took me to the hospital and I am all good now, just a little swollen. I fell at 4:30, not even two hours after I wrote this note. But I think it still holds.

1. I didn’t cry and I was very nice to everyone including myself along the way.
2. I stand by this because I also learned so much about myself in these moments and the recovery after.
3. I’ve had a lot more alone time now recovering as well which has been enlightening.
4. I still wouldn’t have changed my decision to go to the Waterford Greenway because I am safe and okay and I gained so much happiness and peace from being there in the moment.
5. While there was a little bit of a sting to my statement of having biked the majority of the Greenway, you better believe just like here I started every story (even at the hospital) with the fact that I had biked the clear majority of it. I am still very proud of myself.
6. I actually laughed out loud when I remembered that I wrote this. But I did get right back up and before I saw the giant cut in my forehead I was really going to keep going.
7. I have been very open and honest about the whole thing. I joked since I have so many bruises on my knuckles that the “well you should see the other guy” comments could be flowing, but since the other guy is just a bee, I won’t go there, and I think it’s important to tell the truth even if it is a little embarrassing.
8. I’ve had lots of ice cream and consumed a lot of media these past two days while recovering, and it has been really nice. I needed this.
9. I have definitely learned (from everyone and their mom telling me) that in the future maybe it would just be better to get stung by the bee.
10. I am making a reservation for one next weekend, and I am very excited for it.

So there you have life lessons with Kayla. I am doing really well and I look forward to my not as selfie filled last week and a half in Europe.