Entries this day: Memorial_Loop_Easter_skate

Memorial Loop Easter skate

Happy Easter!! 7 April 1996

Today I joined some of my friends out at Memorial Picnic Loop to skate and have a picnic and skate some more. The place was *packed*. At first this kinda bugged me, but then I realized that the cars slowly driving through the loop made great obstacles! I carefully skated past them, around them, or between them, (not over them) at high speed. I found that essentially no matter how close the cars drove together, they would leave at least 6 inches between the mirrors. That allowed me to tuck and skate under the mirrors between the cars if necessary. I totally loved it.

At one point, about 8 or 9 such daring (or stupid) skaters were ziggin and zaggin through the cars. We had great fun.

At one other point, I zigged when I should have zagged, and suddenly there was a skater in front of me where I wanted to go. Doh! I could not put on the brakes fast enough to stop before I kaplowed over the skater, so I grunched into the car beside him. My shin made a resounding thunk on the trunk and has a pretty good lump on it. I made amends with the driver before I continued.

At a different other point, I saw some of the guys I had been skating with stopped in a parking area. So I stopped over and they said they had a ramp. I was all, "um, no- I don't have knee pads on today so I shouldn't" One of them brought it out and I noted it was a straight ramp, as opposed to a launch ramp. Hmmm.. Okay.. so I did it. The first time, no sweat. The second time, I kinda messed up my landing, so I slid on my skate boots and wrist guards. "Did you hit your knees?" they called. "Nope! I was like Bambi on the ice, but I did not hit my knees." Whew. I jumped once more very small jump with no problem.

I skated around the loop a total of about 12 times, I'm guessing. That would make it about 14 miles total. Great skate for a great afternoon.