Living life in the Land of the Rising Sun: Caught in the Rain

Santa gave me a retro bicycle for Christmas this year and I hadn't gotten to ride it yet until last Friday. Russ was off work that day and asked if I wanted to go to the nearby athletic park (the Comprehensive Sports Park) and ride while he did his walk. The park is huge and has trails that go for miles. There are 5k, 4k and 3k trails marked for the walkers/runners so Russ has found plenty of area to get a good long walk in at this park. There is a huge sports stadium, several soccer stadiums, an indoor tennis pavillion as well as outdoor tennis, a water park, several basketball areas, several playgrounds and a running track. We could see the park from our balcony so shortly after we moved in we went out one day and drove until we found it. Russ has gone there every couple of days to walk since the day we located it and has gotten fairly familiar with the park. This was only my second time to go and this time he used a different entrance and went to a different parking lot than we did the first time. We decided to go before lunch because we could tell it was building up for a rain and we wanted to get our walk/ride in before it started. We took our rain jackets just in case. Smart thinking on our part.

Homeless lady cooking food

When we got to the park, I rode next to Russ until we got to the trails and then took off riding. He told me the 5K trail went along the seawall so I decided to follow that. Russ took off on a different trail and we ended up getting to the seawall at the same time. I rode until the seawall ended and turned around and met up with Russ again. By this time it started sprinkling so I put my hood up and started riding back towards the park. As I rode away he said to follow the sea wall until it ended and I'd be back at the park. His "ended" and my "ended" meant two different things though. What he meant was ride until you come to the point where you have to go between a few metal poles to continue on...but the seawall didn't end there so I went through the opening in the poles and continued on the trail that still followed the sea wall. The trail I followed ended at the main highway that we drove in on. I wasn't sure which way I'd need to go to get to that entrance so after riding up and down that road a little, I turned around and went back up the hill to the park. While riding on the main road looking for the entrance, I was touched by the sight of a homeless lady underneath one of the bridges who was making a meal in a wok (the food smelled delicious too). She had a full kitchen on that cart. I stealthily took her picture before riding back into the park.

By this time the rain is starting to get a little heavier. I made it back to the main park but I was totally turned around by that time and wasn't sure which direction the parking lot was. Just as I got in the park area I got a text from Russ saying that he was back at the car. He'd managed to get there just as the rain started so he wasn't too wet...yet. I texted him back and said, "that's good because I'm lost. I'm not sure which way the car is". He said "just ride towards the track". I said "I would if I knew where the track is." I sent him a picture of the building I was standing by but it took awhile to send so since the rain was picking up I started riding again to see if I could get my bearings as to where I was in relation to the car. I stopped again twice and took other pictures and sent them to him to see if he could tell me which direction to ride.

It seemed like all three pictures arrived to his phone at once because he texted back and said go to where you took the first picture from and I'll be there to meet you in three minutes. I started laughing because I'd driven around quite a bit since I sent the first picture and now I didn't know how to get back to that first one. My next text said: "I don't know where that is now." I can see him shaking his head in my mind. "Silly woman". So I finally got to the big stadium we can see from our balcony and found a building nearby with an overhang, sent another picture and stayed there until Russ walked to me. He too was now soaked from trying to find me.

So you'd think my story ends here with us proceeding together to the car but no.... he points me in the direction of the car and says to go down the hill and follow the trail to the parking lot. I went ahead and started riding in the direction I thought he said and as I get to the bottom of the hill my phone beeps with a message from Russ again that said. "Wrong Way". I turned around and couldn't see him walking down the hill I'd just ridden down and I couldn't see him again. He sent another message telling me to ride around the stadium and I'd find the parking lot. I went the long way around but I did find him eventually. Finally after getting thoroughly drenched we made it to the parking lot and car. It was really pretty funny when it was all over.

I did enjoy riding the bike without the pesky gear changes to think about. It felt more natural to me to have the brakes on the pedal like in my younger years. As usual I stopped many times to take pictures along the way as I rode. I try to collect plenty of pictures of interesting things for blog posts.,,.like xylophones along with music to play on the bridge near the seawall, more family gravesites or the frog shaped drinking fountain. My favorite was the sign on a house that said "happiness" for rent. I'm tempted to call the number and ask how much it is going for these days. I'm sure we'll be going to this park more often as long as we live at this apartment and maybe someday I'll be so familiar with it that I'll never be lost again. The rain jackets that Amber gave us for our birthdays were lifesavers and really did a great job keeping us dry on the inside. It was fun getting lost in the rain and being rescued by a good looking guy walking in the park.