"A Saturday Adventure"

One of Kari's childhood BFF's, Jill Valentine Hill, sent this to Linda recently. It is a paper she wrote back in her Freshman composition class at MCC. Linda said, "You can just see them both in this and it describes Kari so well." So at her request and with Jill's permission, I give you:

A Saturday Adventure

I was in the sixth grade and had spent the night with my best friend, Kari Dulin. It was now Saturday and we had the whole day to play together. Kari had always been a free spirit with no concept of time or space. In contrast, I was always the careful planner, mother hen type.

Kari was the one who came up with the idea which sounded good at the time. We would ride her bikes to go visit my boyfriend, Whitt, who “just lived down the street,” Kari told me.

I should have known from the beginningthat this trip would be eventful, when I had to crawl up on her parent’s car to get up on her father’s ten speed bike. Bear in mind I was 4’4” and weighed 70 pounds. Kari hopped up on her proper sized bike and away we went. The first thing I noticed was that the neighbor’s two dogs were following us. I was terrified of big dogs, but had made friends with these. Pedaling was proving to be a problem for me, even on the level street. I could only reach the pedals on their upward rotation and anxiously awaited each time they would circle back within reach.

I was finally getting the hang of it when we decided to walk our bikes and catch our breath. We must have been gone for a least an hour by this time and I asked Kari, “How far is it to the end of the street?” To this she replied, “We’re almost there.”

Suddenly we looked back and saw a terrifying site. Legions of dogs were headed our way. Not only were they barking, they were running toward the bikes and chasing our two female dogs. There were dogs of every kind, from Butch, the Patterson’s three-legged mad dog, to Miss Molly’s teacup poodle, to Dr. West’s three large Dobermans. Added to these were wiener dogs and unidentified mutts of every description.

My heart was pounding as I knew I had to mount the tall bicycle to escape the dog
brigade. I had to think fast. There was no car to crawl on. After several unsuccessful attempts, with the adrenaline pumping and dogs now approaching, I finally reached the seat by stepping up on a curb.

After several minutes of make-do pedaling, I realized that the large crowd of dogs were interested in our female dogs, not in us bicyclers. We finally reached our destination after about a three hour trek. When we went inside to see my boyfriend and his sister, we were told we must leave. Their strict mother would soon be home from work.

We headed back home to Kari’s by the same route. Unfortunately we couldn’t coax our two dog friends to follow. No doubt they were exhausted from the chase. So Kari and I make the trip unaccompanied. About half way home, my bike got a very flat tire. We called my Mom from a friend’s house to come get us. She was furious, having wondered where we were all day. Riding “down the street” to see my boyfriend may not have been such a good idea after all.