Well, I was doing about 20+ mph on a slight down grade after the last of the climbs, about 20 miles into a 36 mile fast paced loop ride today. I was pushing kind of hard and looking more down than up on a very deserted road when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. It was a split second of very fast movement and the next thing I knew something slammed into the side of the inside of my mouth. I thought daymn, was that a Bee? Yes, my mouth must have been wide open………

By the way, live bees feel kinda fuzzy when they are bouncing around in your mouth.

I jerked my head to the side and tried to expel the little guy before he had a chance to lock and load. The maneuver did not go as planned, he wedged his little black and yellow self between my lower lip and my gums and proceeded to go all hari kari on me. He left the business end of his hind quarters in the soft tissue inside my lower lip before I successfully launched him to the side of the road in a wad of spit.

It took about a mile of riding before I was able to find and pull the stinger out. I have no idea why I did not stop, I guess it never occurred to me. I just slowed down and kept pedaling

The ride home was about 14 more miles with only one little store about 2 miles away. I got to the store, bought a cold water and asked for some ice after I told the clerk what happened. He said, “no problem”. However, he then felt obligated to first tell me a very detailed and loooong story about his uncle getting stung. This story, mind you, came before he went for the ice! Included in the story were tales of grape growing in the middle east, how exactly that is done, what the uncle is like, stingy, how his aunt said he should ……..Well, it went on and on and I thought it was never going to end as I felt my lip getting bigger and bigger.

Mercifully the story did end and the ice arrived. About 5 minutes of ice and I was ready for the 12 mile ride home. I had a nice tail wind and made great time, there are no stops or even turns almost the entire way, just the deep blue Pacific Ocean on my right as I rode. Amazingly enough there was no pain and almost no swelling when I got home. I felt pretty lucky about that.

Upon hearing my epic tale, my 4 year old granddaughter matter-of-factly informed me that the bee must have thought my mouth was the entrance to its hive…………Hell, it works for me.