Guinevere

It was a deep and sustained freeze all over the land and the horses where confined to the stables. Only the older natives could remember such a deep and persistent cold front. Lake Limerick and I am sure hundreds of other lakes were frozen.Then Merlin sent out the call to Charge the Solstice. This created a great buzz in Camelot, the neighing of thoroughbreds could be heard from all over as knights polished old studded Armor. Word on the street was that the most gallant of Knights would lead the charge with no Armor at all. My heart went to Guinevere and beat a little faster in my chest, but the sky opened and the snowflakes kept coming down, even the Budweiser Clydesdale's stayed in.
The wire relayed a lot of valuable instruction from the old Pro's, but if I may modify the words of Sir William Osler; Learning a skill without instruction is like sailing an uncharted sea, but learning a skill by instruction alone is like not going to sea at all. So one has to go out on that internship.
Xmas 0700 I put out a call to my friend Doug, a local team road racer, high octane,yet very easy to be around.0929 at the Green River Trail he takes a look at Guinevere and shakes his head. "You should make it a dirt bike", he tells me, "your knobblies are not for off-road and get rid of the Garmin" I explain that I had ordered 26 Nokian studded tires but they had not arrived.It was difficult (much more than I expected) to get going. Life is a game of adjustments, so first I let a lot of air out of those "Walmart Knobblies" and then I really lowered the saddle so I could push off from a more stable seated position. I also noticed that it was easier at least on this day to ride the fresh snow with no tracks.Careful don't fall into the green river. You can see the learning curve, eventually hitting 13mph. A whopping 2 miles this ride and back to the truck.
Getting cocky I decided to use momentum to smash through a snowbank rather than circumnavigate it.
I harmlessly crashed into snow and lay there laughing from deep down in my belly for a few minutes.
My brain chemistry was already coming back!

Thanks Doug.