Susan Senator

This morning as I saddled up, Max wandered outside, fresh from sleep. “Where ya going?” he asked.
“I think I’m going to First Encounter [the best public bay beach around here] through only back beach roads. Why? Wanna come?”
“Yeh.”
Yay! Maxie is one of the few bikers in my life who really keeps up with my pace, and what’s more, I don’t get to spend a whole lot of time with him just having fun together.

We set out soon after and took a turn down North Sunken Meadow. This bent around to a dirt road. The woods parted for us and we bumped along, thankful that we had our dirt bikes (Mr. Yamamoto has very thick tires that sing when they go fast enough). I had never been down this path and it was very exciting. We even met a friend from our town, a woman who was on the School Committee the year before me, who also helped me get my recent teaching job (she’s a professor at B.U.).

The road passed by a bay beach, but soon we hit another dirt road that seemed to be going in the wrong direction. It didn’t matter; we doubled back and found our way. I felt high from the scents and the sights, just endless salty-fishy blue-gray water, small dunes and rutted roads of creamy brown sand, and tall itchy grasses.

A few more times of getting lost, going deep into the wood, and through a small meadow. I just couldn’t believe my luck, and being able to ride and ride through these mysterious, uncrowded paths at very crowded Cape Cod.

Eventually we came to a main road, which was not part of the plan. Who should come riding by but Dad. He went exploring with us a bit more, but we simply could not find anything but dead ends. We had to take the main road, which quickly brought us to First Encounter where Mom waited on a bench. We hung out with her for a while, ate a snack, and headed back, a total of 11 1/2 miles. I felt like I had been to Brigadoon, and I want to go back Briga-soon.