My Best Friend

It was the beginning of October, and I had gotten the text around noon on a Sunday. It read, I’m outside, let’s get going. I had not expected anyone today so this was a pleasant surprise. I walked outside and there stood my best friend. He had already put my bike on his bike rack, he had probably done this before he texted me. By now I didn’t have a choice, I was either going with or losing my bike. The drive was like any other with my friend behind the wheel; we went was too fast and like always I got motion sick. I prodded him but no matter what he wouldn’t tell me where we were going, he always did things like this. We got off the highway on University Ave and turned down a few roads and then he pulled into a parking lot. It was at the top of a huge hill with a frisbee golf course down below; a large sign read Bairds Creek Park. The name sounded familiar, but I didn’t strain my brain trying to figure out why. He pulled up on the parking brake in his red Chevy Cruze and hopped out of the cab with the same can-do attitude he possessed imminently. Spontaneous mountain biking wasn’t always my style, but it was certainly his. This was the first time we had ever biked on trails this difficult. He was naturally an athlete, as he had wrestled in high school and had a lean build. I however, was not built to be very aerodynamic. We continued down some of the rough and muddy trails not slowing down until we got to the top of a steep hill. When I got up to the top I immediately sat down and chugged water, I was winded. My friend stood on a rock and started howling into the valley below us, I was utterly confused and shook my head. I then asked him why he would do such a thing and if he was even winded. He replied with his usual catchphrase, “Because I really wanted to do it.” Then he would say something like, “I could do this all day!” He flexed his arms, howled again, and then joined me on the ground. We sat for a bit and I cracked a few jokes I had heard recently and we both bragged about our girlfriends. He commented on how the sun was piercing into his soul it was so hot out. We eventually stood back up, refueled and ready to go, and got on our bikes and went down the slope on the other side. We biked a bit more here, and a bit more there; following different trails this way, and that way. We came down to a river that was flowing heavily and biked upstream until we reached the top of a roughly two-foot waterfall. “Let’s cross here.” My friend said already lining up his approach.

“Why in all that is holy, do you have a need to express the dumbest ideas imaginable?” I exclaimed. I had no idea where he got the idea that crossing a river with a bike, even if it was less than a foot deep.

“C’mon it’ll be fun, don’t be a party pooper.” He continued to make chicken noises until I reluctantly agreed with him. We backed up our bikes and somehow, some way, he convinced me to go first. He was always making me do dumb things. By this point, I already considered myself wet, as there was no backing out. I rode across the stream my tire turning this way and that as it his all sorts of debris on the bed of the stream. I had to pedal to make it across without tipping on my side so I drenched my feet totally. I made it and laid my bike in the grass and without too much hesitation I told him it was his turn. “I don’t think you got enough speed bro!” He yelled, “That’s why ya feet are wet.” He backed up about another ten feet and pedaled furiously and stood up as he entered the water. “See.” He said. And then the funniest thing happened. His bike, previously going too fast through the water, came to a sudden stop and he instinctively put out is left leg into the current as a kickstand. “Shit.” We both said in unison, I, of course, was laughing almost hysterically. By this point, the rushing water had soaked up to his knee on one side and his shoe was full of mud. He admitted defeat by river water and stood up to push on his pedals soaking his other shoe until he gracelessly bounded up on shore. “What now?” We both laughed and looked around for a start to another trail. We didn’t have to look very hard as we found one up a small slope. We pedaled fast our feet like bricks. Then something unexpected happened, the trail ended and we came out to a beautiful clearing where the river was shallow and a huge rock wall extended up way past our heads. We had surrounded ourselves with one of the coolest natural structures we had seen in a long time. “I had no idea something like this existed out here,” I said aghast.

“Yeah ain’t she a beaut.” My friend said also in wonder. “I think this deserves a Facebook-worthy picture.” We got into the stupidest poses we could, which resembled a gorilla of sorts. It was all we could come up with on the spot. I later found out that he did know about this place beforehand as his girlfriend’s parents told him, this was the first time he was there but he wanted me to be as excited about it as possible so he withheld that information, like a true best friend would. We took our pictures and gathered our bikes as it was starting to get late and my mom was going to make dinner in a few hours. We packed our belongings into our bags and gathered our bikes and bid that beautiful place farewell. As we biked back we watched the shoreline, my friend, especially, as he really didn’t want to cross at the waterfall again. We ended up crossing in a place with a downed tree and a bunch of stepping stones. That’s where we crossed, and to save time and to not go all the way back uphill as we previously thought we would have to. He had a genius idea, he has about one per year, and we biked out to the road and followed it back to the car. We talked about the cool things we saw as we rested our legs on the drive home to enjoy dinner. I had not even expected to go out that morning and here I was full of new experiences sitting next to my best friend. He also sat there full of new experiences but I’m not so sure he was reminiscing as he was rapping the lines to one of his favorite songs, bouncing his head to the music, and driving too fast. He is more than just my best friend he is my family. His name is Joey.

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