In this, my second CyclistChick blog entry, I shall fondly recall the beginnings of my cycling journey, in which two things come to mind: Honey Pie and tandem. Honey Pie, sometimes referred to as Alex, is the husband of my youth. Some would say I am still in my youth, and I would tend to agree.
Once upon a time, in the year 2006, there came a day when my cycling frenzied husband began his attempt to entice me, the beautiful wife, into purchasing a tandem … and thereafter riding upon it with him. At first, such notions of grandeur eluded him, as I hemmed and hawed at the idea of such craziness. However, after pursuing the matter further, Honey Pie convinced me to try out a tandem owned by some friends of ours, Vic and Jenny. Upon getting all gussied up in Alex’s silly shorts with a padded butt, a jersey, helmet, sunglasses, and shoes that are both difficult to walk in and make funny clicky noises when doing so … I found myself sitting upon the back seat, also known as the “saddle” of a road tandem. I had managed to get my funny shoes “clipped in” to the little tiny pedals. This, in and of itself was a bit scary as I was now “attached” to the bike. Alex was up front, straddling the bike, holding it up along with Vic, who stood alongside spewing words of instruction on the proper riding of a tandem and how to work together.
Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for came … and we were off and gliding smoothly down the neighborhood road. I had no idea that what came out of my mouth next would never be lived down, but instead repeated over and over … and over … by others upon future bike rides. These words, said by me, with much exhilaration were, “I’m riding a tandem!!!” 
And indeed I was. I flat out was riding on the back of a road tandem, all clipped in, riding around on streets with cars and the whole nine yards!
Well, it wasn’t long before we had purchased our very own tandem, a red Burley, along with color coordinated jerseys to go with, of course. Being that my cycling frenzied husband was already quite strong at both running and riding, I was in good hands. I did find, though, that he captains a tandem the way he drives a car, always stopping at the red light at the “last second”! This brought many a moment of fear into his novice cyclist wife. I also recall our first few speedy descents, where I’d say such things as, “Ummm … Honey? Scarey, scarey! Can we slow down?!” (This is laughable now for anyone who knows my love of fast descending!) However, in all of these cases, it is one thing to stop at a red light at the last second or descend fast when you are in control of the bike, but when you are sitting in the “stoker” position, with no control whatsoever and very new to riding, it is quite a different story.
Alas, we learned to work together and enjoyed many rides together, Honey Pie and I … when he listened to me, that is, and stopped for a break whenever I wanted to … and found me a potty along the route!
THE BEACHED WHALE STORY
One fine day, not too long after getting the tandem, Honey Pie and I were frolicking about around town riding east on Lemon, toward Hermosa. Hermosa is the usual smallish street most cyclist’s in our world use to head up to Banyan. However, we passed Hermosa on accident and now had to take Haven, a large and busy street, up a pretty decent climb for newbie tandem riders. When the light turned green we got going just fine and turned left onto Haven, but quickly had an issue with our chain and had to stop on the right side of the street. As cars roared by, Honey Pie fixed the chain with amazing skill and finesse. However, now we were on an incline and sitting at a dead stop. Hmmm. Not a problem for the average cyclist on a regular bike, but for two people new to riding a tandem, this was a bit more of a challenge. Not to worry, though. Honey Pie had a plan! He waited for the signal behind us to turn red, so there would be no traffic going by and positioned the bike just so. The plan was to aim the bike into the street, where it isn’t quite as steep, get our momentum going and then turn up the ascent. Before I proceed, however, I must make it clear that we had a usual way of taking off from a stand still. The left pedal was up in a position that made it easy for us to push together to get the bike moving, while Alex clipped in his right shoe. When we first rode together, I always stayed clipped in, which I was in this instance.
Sadly, however, while Honey Pie had a brilliant idea, it was not executed properly. My darling husband, whom I adore tremendously, failed to inform me, his riding partner, and who’s life was in his hands, of his plan … nor did he get the left pedal up into our usual “taking off” position … even though I mentioned it several times. All of this miscommunication was probably due to the fact that we had a short window of opportunity, which was now upon us and Honey Pie attempted to take advantage of it as quickly as possible.
Well, as you may have guessed, the result of our efforts to move the 27 pound bike and the two of us uphill failed miserably, resulting the bike going down to its right side in what seemed like slow motion. It all happened to quickly and Alex had never gotten clipped in, so when the bike started to fall, he put his foot down right away. I, the novice rider, furiously tried to unclip, which was a pointless endeavor. Honey Pie tried to keep the bike upright with all his might in an effort to protect the woman he loved … yet, like the Titanic, the bike was going down. I could hear the music playing as I was gently laid to rest on the side of Haven Avenue.
So here I am, lying there like a beached whale, attached to a tandem and unable to move. The light had turned green by now, of course, so all of the people traveling from the south side of Rancho Cucamonga to the north side of Rancho Cucamonga were nudging each other, pointing and laughing hysterically at the funny looking woman attached to the quite large, bright red tandem on the side of the road. It was a moment that will be capsulated in my mind for ever and ever … and ever.
The good news is, that was the only time Honey Pie and I went down on the tandem and we had no scrapes, bumps, bruises or blood oozing to show for it. Just a bruised ego!
In 2007 we rode that tandem in the Amtrak Century, my first century ever. Ouchers! That was hard for me, and my booty … but an accomplishment I shared with Honey Pie that I will treasure always. 
