This all reminds me of my first attempt at a long(ish) bike ride with my wife.

Now, we lived about equidistant from the beach bike path and a bike path that ran parallel to the aqueduct in the desert. For reasons lost in time, I decided that we should ride the acqueduct, not the beach. And it was July.

Water? Nah. No need to carry any of that! We'll be riding right next to an acqueduct.

So we get there, hop on the bikes, and off we go.

Now, anyone with any experience in the Antelope Valley will tell you that the winds always blow from the west in the afternoon. And strong? So strong, the trees in the area are all bowed toward the east. So strong and consistent, there is now a huge wind power generation facility there.

And I knew about the wind. But somehow, its importance escaped me that morning. So off we went, heading ... of course ... east. And boy, as the day went on, we were really tooting along.

It wasn't long before I realized that getting water from the acqueduct was a pipe dream. And when we turned around to head back, we faced a gale of hot, dry wind.

My wife couldn't do it. She stayed while I rode into the tempest back to the car.

My first stop was a liquor store. I bought a six pack of Hansen's soda, and drank it, Conehead style. Yea ... no kidding. And I got one for my wife too, and rescued her from our mini Sahara.

Funny thing, she looked askance at bike ride suggestions from me from that point forward. I wonder why?