Encino, CA - Rhonda & I live near a recreation area called Balboa Lake. We pass it as we drive home from work every day and often see people riding in Asurrey=s@.  A surrey is a canopy covered bicycle, with four tires and two benches so that four people can ride in them. It looks like something out of a 1940's era Hollywood musical. We always thought it would be fun to rent one for an hour or two someday. After all, it looked like such a peaceful and relaxing way to spend an afternoon. We finally decided to do it after work on Rhonda=s birthday, as a little celebration.

So after work on her birthday, August 23, we went over to the lake, found the little place that rents the surrey=s and gave the guy our money. It was about 5:00 and he said he closed at 6:00. ANo problem@ we said, we=ll just be an hour as we take a little ride around the lake. It was a gorgeous day, perfect temperature with a nice warm breeze.AIsn=t this romantic!@ we both thought as we got in the surrey and began peddling past the lake, trees, waterfall and ducks at this very popular and beautiful area.

We saw immediately that we could not simply peddle around the lake, as the path was not wide enough to accommodate both people and surrey=s. So instead we headed toward the east end of the park, passing a National Guard station and a golf course. So far, so good. It didn=t take long for us to realize however, that peddling this thing at a reasonable speed was more difficult than we expected, since it had no gears. We hadn=t even gone 1000 feet and we were already starting to get tired. No problem though, we=ll just slow down the pace a bit and enjoy ourselves. We smiled, talked about our day and remarked what a lovely evening it was. But our pleasant exteriors hid an ugly truth. That truth being the fact that peddling this surrey was a bitch!

We officially stopped having a good time after we had gone about a mile. My legs were sore from peddling and I was starting to sweat profusely. This relaxing and fun activity was becoming no fun at all, especially when we realized that at the pace we were going, there was no chance we were going to make it back in an hour. And it made no sense to turn back. No, we would have to pedal the entire rest of the way around the park, which I later figured out to be well over four miles!

So here we are, peddling like mad men as our goal had shifted from enjoying ourselves to returning this frilly junk heap back to the guy at the rental counter before 6:00. And I had to do all the heavy peddling. Rhonda has been blessed with many talents, but physical strength is not one of them. At one point she got out so there would be less weight for me to move, but it made little difference. I was now sweating like a pig, veins bulging from my neck, certain I was going to have a coronary at any minute. My mood turned dark and ugly. We actually tried getting out of the surrey and pushing it, thinking this would speed things up. It did, but not much, and of course then we had the little problem of not being able to steer! We tried pushing it from the sides with one hand on the steering wheel, but then the tires kept running over my feet. A few stifled expletives later, we came to accept that we had but one option. Peddle through the pain until we reach the rental place, and hope that the reaper would be delayed.

 The next half hour was the most grueling experience of my entire life. Peddle, sweat, curse, hope I don=t die of a heart attack, peddle, sweat curse, hope I don=t die of a heart attack...