Riding tandem is something I've wanted to try for a while now. It looked intriguing and when the opportunity came up while we were in Boise we jumped at the chance. Since it was just the three of us, we rented one tandem and one regular bike. Lona and I started off as partners in the middle of downtown on a Saturday morning while the farmer's market was in full swing.  It took us about 8 city blocks to get the hang of starting and stopping. We walked every crosswalk until we got to the greenbelt.  Once on the greenbelt it became a piece of cake. When we started the first person would tell the 2nd person when to start pedaling and we would be off.  I had heard that the 2nd person couldn't see anything and was pretty much blind. With Lona on the front, it was no problem. I could look around her, we talked and laughed a lot and it was great. Then it was time for a change. I was in front, John was behind me. The 2nd person has to trust and really relinquish control.  John and I didn't even make it across the street.  He couldn't help but steer which made it worse. Then the chain came off.  Apparently it is much harder to put a tandem chain on since you have to line up the pedals just so in order for them to function correctly. Luckily for us, a person who was passing us had a tandem at home and showed us how to do it.  Then I rode in the back and John road in the front. Now I truly felt blind. He sat up higher on the bike and has a broader frame than Lona.  I couldn't see anything.  My legs had to stick out a bit so they didn't hit the handle bars and I was always afraid of hitting them on something as we went by.  I couldn't see people coming towards us or obstacles in the path or bumps. He had to constantly warn me.  It was much harder. Finally we found a place for lunch.  Boise residents are so thoughtful.  The greenbelt follows the Boise River and there are houses that back up to the greenbelt.  On resident placed plastic chairs, a bench, a bike rack and a bucket of dog bones for dogs to fetch from the river.  It was the perfect place for a picnic. Lona and John were partners on the return trip with Lona starting off as the lead.  It was hilarious to watch.  I almost couldn't ride.  Then they switched and Lona would take her feet off the pedals and John would do all the work. She said she felt like a little kid in one of the child seats.  That's what it looked like too.  Then Lona and I jumped on for the rest of the ride home with her in the front and me in the back.  As we started down one of the main streets in Boise, someone pulled up beside us and started taking a photo.  Turns out it was one of the parents from the soccer team.  Boise is truly a small city and I can see why people love it here.

Sanpellegrino and salami cream cheese bagels, and sweet peppers were our lunch, complete with a tablecloth.

When we had decided to attend the Boise Regional Soccer tournament I wondered what we were going to do there. Turns out that Boise is an amazing small city.  There is a list of things to do and when I read about Freak Alley, Lona piped up about wanting to see it.  It was free, not far from our accommodations and sounded interesting. I would classify it as an art museum even though it is an alley. There was so much to see and ponder. Yes, these murals are pieces of art but not on traditional canvases. We could have spent a couple of hours and I would have loved to have a little guide.  Some of the paintings had instagram tags so you could see their other works. One of them was a tattoo artist. There were ones that a single swirling brush stroke was two feet and created a portion of a person. Others had so much detail that you had to look at the whole and then step close to get the individual details. Every year in August this alley gets a face light and new works of art are created and displayed. Some pieces were from previous years and made me wonder if there were rules to which ones were painted over. We were impressed and hope to come back and see how it has changed.

So the very next weekend, she had another tournament with her new team.  There was no way I was going to let her quit after a week.  She approached the coach and asked how she could get more playing time.  His response was that she needed to earn it and win it from the girls on the team.  She was ok with that. In fact she thought most competitive coaches should handle it the same way. I think he earned respect in her eyes for this very honest answer. So the next tournament, she played more, not a starter yet, not a ton of playing time, but we see improvement in her movement.  She is developing at such a fast pace instead of being more stagnant.  She is still learning the way the team plays, how the coaches implement things, and they are learning about her. Her team is constantly talking on the field and the players give each other directions, which of course has it's good and bad but mostly good.  To top off the weekend, they won the tournament.  One of the girls came over and asked her, how she likes being on a winning team.  She is getting to know her team and they are getting to know her.

This year Lona decided to try something different.  She had been frustrated and needed a change of pace.  That is exactly what she got when she decided to join NCA.  There were some big changes that she wasn't counting on and I really think that it was what she needed but not what she expected.  With her previous team she was used to being one of the best. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to change that or be able to be on a higher level team.  This new team though, it was a higher caliber team. They were fast, technical and tough. They practiced for a week and the tournament started right away.  The first game she played maybe 10 minutes for the whole game. It wasn't her usual.  The next game, same or less. There was anger, tears, frustration. She was ready to quit. She didn't know the girls on the team. They didn't pass to her.  She was quiet and withdrawn with her coaches and her teammates.  This was new to her. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. We tried to be patient while explaining that the team needed to see how she played, to be able to trust her on the field. She needed to catch up to their technical knowledge and toughness.  I have to admit both John and I lost it with her at different times.  I had to remind myself that her lashing out at me wasn't personal but it was a safe way to vent feelings.  I would still love her when she was done, but doing that to teammates would not have the same grace be given to her.  It also hurt when they played her previous team and she wasn't one of the stars like before. On one hand, I get it and I wanted to protect and nurture, coming along side of her .
On the other hand, this will happen more than once and learning to deal appropriately with it now would be better than later.  It's hard when natural lessons come along but oh so worth learning them early rather than making poor decisions when those lessons arrive later.