Nice Wheelie, Dummy!

Yesterday, we had a few people from our church over at our house for some coffee. Every Friday morning, the men go down to a local restaurant, and the ladies come over to our house.

One of our ladies had dropped her nine-year-old son, Levi, off with the guys and went on to the house.

After the men got done, we headed back to our house. When we got there, the ladies were still talking. Levi must have been uninterested in "girl-talk," because he promptly asked me "Hey Josh, can I ride your bike?" I said yes, and I must not have been too interested in girl-talk either, because I went with him.

Levi did a few laps up and down the sidewalk between our yard and the street. After he popped a few wheelies, he rode the bike over to the fence where I was standing, and asked me a simple question. "How long do you think you can ride a wheelie?"

I'm not sure what happened next. I was instantly motivated to run inside and put my shoes on, come back out, and try. I didn't know far I could ride a wheelie, but I had to find out. I really wasn't that worried. I figured that the worse case scenario would be me pulling a wimpy wheelie and being a little embarrassed. Ashley later said that it was peer pressure. This would only be possible if I had the maturity level of a nine-year-old. You decide.

Regardless, I soon found myself riding the bike to the end of our property, turning around, and preparing for a wheelie. While this was happening, someone was pulling up to the sidewalk in a van to pick up one of the ladies who no longer drives. I had an audience... it had to be good.

I started pedaling.

I got up to speed, yanked up on the handlebars, and pedaled for all I was worth. It was actually a pretty decent wheelie. The only problem was that I was not used to such long periods of riding only one wheel... I lost my balance. When the front end of the bicycle came down, I went over it. I landed half in the grass and half on the sidewalk.

I scraped both knees, both elbows, and one shin.

Amazingly, the woman in the van, the woman being picked up, and everyone in the house missed the whole thing. Levi was my only witness.

At this point I have only two options. I can either grow up a bit, or start practicing my wheelies...