Tan&Dem Adventures 06: Anniversary Ride

02 April 2021

Filed under ysrealm

There is one place Hubby has always wanted me to see, but it was a torturous uphill climb by bike. Double the torture if we were to use the tandem bike. So, he HAD to choose that particular ride to be what we would do during our anniversary. I think it was payback for my […]

There is one place Hubby has always wanted me to see, but it was a torturous uphill climb by bike. Double the torture if we were to use the tandem bike.

So, he HAD to choose that particular ride to be what we would do during our anniversary. I think it was payback for my suggestion that we go to Sagada on our honeymoon, so many years ago. He was afraid of heights, and he was on high alert during the whole rickety bus ride (to and from) on the unpaved road inches away from dangerous cliffs.

The place he wanted us to go to was Marian Hill in Angono, Rizal. According to him, there were about 6 uphill climbs, that were worse than what we did in our Rizal ride.

Something was off when we set out early in the morning. Something I couldn’t put my finger on. Hubby was not in his element. He was probably feeling something off as well.  We haven’t been riding for more than an hour when he said he needed to stop and rest. It was not a good sign.

Once we got to the foot of the hill, Arnel, our photographer/videographer/traffic controller friend, said he would pick up his son who also wanted to ride up with us. So we spent a few minutes just waiting. I observed Hubby and again the feeling that something just wasn’t right nagged at me.

When we were ready to climb, I decided to film everything. I set up my phone on the bike and started filming. The feeling of dread was still there, but I didn’t want to ruin the anniversary ride, so I just continued on.

We haven’t even reached the first steep incline when something happened: something snapped and broke and we stopped abruptly. Thank God Hubby had excellent reflexes, or else we would have gone splat on the rough road.

So this was what was off. The bike chain broke. Sigh.

Hubby and Arnel spent a couple of minutes trying to fix it, but one thing was sure:  the tandem bike couldn’t carry the both of us going up the hill. So what happened was, Hubby took the bike uphill, and I ended up riding with Arnel on his motorcycle.

 

Not ideal, but at least Hubby was still able to show me the wonderful view at the top.

 

On the trip back, I thought I would be riding the motorcycle forever. But once we got to flat road, Hubby asked if I wanted to ride the bike with him again. Hell yeah!!!

We stopped by a restaurant and ate breakfast. I loved the umbrella décor!

And then, we were off to go home.  And then, it happened.

We were in a busy intersection AND THE BIKE CHAIN BROKE AGAIN!

Again, Hubby’s reflexes prevented any accident. But we had to run for our lives when the traffic lights changed while we were still in the middle of the busy intersection. Thank God we were minutes away from the subdivision, so back to the motorcycle I went, and Arnel and I drove back home so he could get the pick-up truck to go back to where Hubby was stranded with the injured Tanny & Demi.

So much for a romantic anniversary date, right? Well, we still had a barbecue that night at home with the kids, so that counted as our anniversary dinner. I also got flowers. We would have wanted to bike together up the Marian Hill, but, fate had other plans for us.

Maybe next time.  Tanny & Demi have some fixing and rehab to go through before they can ride again.

Check out the video below of our ride.  1:26 is when the bike chain broke.