It is official. . . I am old!

The kids in my neighborhood have been building ramps to jump their bikes off of. I am outside with my girls and I watch them. It is fun seeing them get excited about getting that little bit of air. One of the kids has a mountain bike, so I hopped on and proceeded to jump the ramp. The kids were impressed by how much air I was able to get off the heavy mountain bike. So I road back up for a second launch.

Before I get to the second jump, let me tell you about the ramp. It was an 18in piece of wood propped up by two rocks. The top rock was only about 6in wide. You had to hit the ramp right down the middle. The mountain bikes wheel base is longer than 18in and it has a shock in the middle.

I don't go as far up the hill for my second run, as I am just going to casually jump. I make my approach hit the ramp and know instantly that this is going to hurt. You see it is not good when your front wheel is descending while your back wheel is not yet off of the ramp. Add to this the clacking sound that the board bouncing back on to the rock, letting me know that I did not hit dead center. The bike tilts in the air. I twist, turn, and shift in the air trying to get the bike under me straight. Alas, I ran out of air before my adjustments were made.

A couple seconds later, I untangle myself from the bike. My elbow hurts, to be expected. My knee hurts, to be expected. My toes hurt, huh. Yeah, I was wearing sandals. I am bleeding, but nothing is broken. As injuries go, it wasn't so bad, but that had to be the lamest crash I have ever experienced. I wasn't going for big air, and I wasn't trying anything fancy. I hit the ramp and fell down.