The excitement I felt as a young boy when I received my first, "grown up" bike was indescribable. Coming from the ranks of a tricycle and smaller bike that I used to learn the basics, I was ecstatic when I moved up to a full size bicycle. I was turning ten years old and the three speed bike served as a coming of age milestone. This meant that I would have to get used to shifting gears, as well as using the hand breaks. You couldn't get me off of that bike, I was on it all of the time.



With the birthday money I received, I purchased a basket to put on my brand new bike. This meant I could help out my mother by running errands for her. I could ride into town to pick up some of the things she needed from the store and carry them back in my basket. It also marked the beginning of exploring new territory and enjoying a variety of experiences that would last a lifetime.

Every day, I went biking with my friend, meeting him halfway down the street so that we could embark on exciting journeys throughout the neighborhood. We often visited a lake located a couple miles outside of town. The entire day would be spent searching for odds and ends like rocks, polished pieces of glass and any other "treasures" we could find. My buddy didn't have his own bike basket, so all of the things we found were placed into mine.

Once we found a very large fossil rock that we thought had the imprint of a dinosaur. We were excited to take the rock home to hit a few times with a hammer. We hoped to find more fossils and maybe a bone inside the rock. At this time, a nasty rainstorm was developing. We raced to our bikes, placing the fossil rock into my basket. On our way to the house, the rain started to pour. Riding our bikes as fast as our legs could take us, we tried to beat the worst of the storm. We were only halfway there, stuck in the middle of the country with nowhere to hide from the rain.

My buddy and I had to go down a steep hill to reach our homes. Just as we reached the top, the wind started to blow hard and the rock shifted from side to side in my basket. I couldn't control my bicycle and fell over. Blood flowed from scrapes on my arms and legs. Everything that was in the basket had fallen into the road. We didn't want to leave behind all of the things we found, so we gathered them up and put them back into the basket. Through the pouring rain, we furthered our trip back to my house.

When we returned to my house, my mother was on her way out of the driveway. She was getting ready to look for us, but we reached the yard before the car took to the street. While my mother cleaned me up, my friend called his parents to let them know he was ok. When my mother caught sight of the large fossil rock in my basket, she couldn't believe the size. Soon after, we set out to break the rock open. Since my arm still hurt from the fall, it was up to my friend to reveal what was inside our find. As he began to pound on the rock, a piece of it broke off and hit him in the eye. My mother transported both of us to the hospital to see a doctor. Our adventurous journeys were put on a pause for quite awhile on the account of the eye patch my friend had to wear and the broken arm I received during my fall.