I Wore a Turban on a Bike

Idaho, fall 2011.

We all know how Mutter and Vati adore going to Idaho. And I'll admit, we've had some pretty memorable times there. One of these times relates to Vati's favorite passtime, cycling. First, to preface. We have about a million cruisers at the Idaho house. Literally. Every time I go up, a new one appears. And every time I go up, we stop at the bike store to look at more. But, as they always say, the more the merrier, right? And it turns out, we really do need a plethora of them. I feel as if I have people coming out of my ears when we're all together there (in a good way). The cruisers have been a huge hit among us Idaho goers. Maybe two reasons are because now EP and I can work on our trick that will hopefully one day give us entrance into the circus (as part of the cast). We have gotten fairly good at holding hands while cruising down the street, a nearly impossible feat. Also, B and I often cruise down to the snow cone shop and have an extremely difficult yet enjoyable time trying to get back to the house (yes, we ride one bike, me, hanging off the edge of the seat, clutching B desperately with one hand and a snow cone with the other while B pedals strenuously. Or the time when we all went to the Deli to eat those strangely addicting burnt ends and no one knew where EP had gone. After about 20 min, B decided to go look for her. It turned out that EP had gone all the way home and was cruising around town for ages looking for everyone.

One day, E, B, EP, Vati, and I decided to take a bike ride. As you may know, I usually take one outfit to Idaho. After all, no one knows me and it is farm country. This time it was my famous frog shorts from the Rainforest cafe (I still enjoy wearing these around my apartment, lucky for me I'm not at home anymore, I am leery of leaving them anywhere near Mutter as she tries to throw them in the garbage every time I turn around) and I had on a white tee with a tank underneath. Also, my hair was in my Asian topnot and I was going for the all natural (pronounced "naturaaaal") look in the makeup department. So, there we are, all cycling along like one big happy family. I should mention that my cruiser was the only one without gears. This becomes slightly problematic when you encounter large hills. On we cruised past horses and of course, we had to make a pass by the house with the outhouse. The strange things that you find in Idaho. We probably passed the tractor house as well, I forget. It was getting unbearably hot, and I was working harder than everyone else. Of course, this is to be expected with a no gear bike. I did the most natural thing I could think of (keeping with my theme of the day) and took off my shirt and wrapped it around my head in a sort of turban fashion (yes I still had on a tank top, must clarify for the P's out there). Alright, I couldn't very well hold it and bike at the same time. I guess I'm not good at all types of multi-tasking. And on we rode. Vati and I were up ahead and E, B, and EP were slightly behind us. Just then, I heard some boys calling out. I turned around as best as I could to see a pickup truck of a few shirtless high school boys. They awarded my sisters with some cat calls, understandably and then inched their pickup slowly forward. Their cat calls were abruptly cut short upon seeing a crazy with a shirt wrapped around her head and a hard core intense cyclist. I think they drove off rather alarmed.

Contrary to what E, B, and EP may have thought, this experience did in no way hurt my self esteem. High schoolers, what do they know? I'm worlds above them in maturity. If I want to wear a turban around my head and frog shorts, I will do just that.