My perception of what we were going to do and what we actually did couldn’t have been further off. I should have realized something was differnt when I asked Juanjo why he had a bag full of stuff and he responded because each time I have gone with my kids their tires have gotten punctured. I thought it was slightly weird but didn’t think anything of it. I used an old bike of Alberto’s that was in good condition. It didn’t really have pedals because they were set up for clip in shoes. Imagine a pedal but a third the size. The seat, while not initially bad would prove to be unbearable. It started off good, we set out of the town, up a paved bridge and down onto a dirt rocky road. As soon as we hit this road I knew immediately why JuanJo had his bag of tools and spare tires. As we were riding I thought to myself, we couldn’t possibly be on something like this the whole time, but we were. In order to prevent myself from flying over my handlebars, I was focused on the ground and had little time to enjoy the surroundings. But when I did, it was beautiful. The sun was setting, so the sky was a mixture of reds and oranges. The landscape was speckled with vineyards and olive trees.
About halfway into the ride we stopped at a 700 year old castle bordered by a lake. A Castle! I was in awe of it. It was my first medieval castle and i’ll never forget it. It wasn’t that big and we were able to only walk through it, but it was still awesome. Loving history and architecture it was by far the coolest thing I have seen since coming to Spain. Of course to them, it was nothing new and not even that old. With the sun quickly disappearing from the sky, we left the castle. The way home was even more beautiful than the way there. It was also more painful. The bike seat was like sitting on a rock and at the same time we were riding on rocks. It was extremely uncomfortable and my discomfort was pretty much the only thing I could think about for most of the way home. That and getting home. All in all, we rode 26 km. It was awesome to get out of Tomelloso, see the countryside and see a castle.