How did You get to School?- Part 4

The rest of the ride was uneventful until we got to the infamous Breakneck Hill. Once Jack made it half way down the hill, he was going too fast for the road’s condition. He began to swerve back and forth in the middle of the road. He fought to keep control. He was lucky the road was no longer muddy. I was worried he was going to wreck. All of a sudden, as Jack was going up the next hill, a large blue truck came barreling over the hill on our side of the road. I was far enough behind Jack that I was able to get way off the road.

“Jack!” I yelled. “Watch out. There is a truck coming. Get out of the way.”

Jack looked up with fear in his face. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do. I saw the school’s driveway up ahead and hoped that he would make it to there in time. At least he had been riding as far to the left as he was able to. At the last minute he was able to turn into the driveway. My face showed my relief as I caught up to him.

“That was close, wasn’t it, Sue?”

"Yes, Jack it sure was close. I hope that doesn’t happen again. You did a great job, though. There are just some crazy drivers on the road.”

“I hope there aren’t any on the way home”

“I don’t think there will be. We will be leaving school before they are done hunting.”

“Thank goodness.”

“I see the teacher waiting for us. Let’s get over there so we aren’t late.”

was very glad that ride to school was over. I knew, though, that anything could happen on the way home.

How did You get to School?- Part 3

It was an especially beautiful fall morning. The sky was clear, the temperature comfortable. Once we were half a mile from our house, we saw some antelope and mule deer. The yellow, red and orange leaves on the changing aspens were beautiful.

When we reached Boxelder Route, we knew we were going to have to watch for traffic. It was the beginning of antelope hunting season, so the road would be busy with the morning hunters. We rode on the shoulder where we would be farther away from traffic. The larger pieces of gravel made it harder to ride, but it was safer than being on the road.

Jack sometimes went down hills too fast and almost lost. I really didn’t want that to happen today, because of the extra traffic. We made it down and up the first hill with no problems. On the second hill, I was the one who began to swerve in the newly discovered mud. My heart was racing. I was swerving more and more as I gathered speed. Fortunately, by the time I made it down the hill I was beginning to gain control. As I zoomed up the next hill I finally began to slow down enough that I realized I had been so concerned with myself that I hadn’t been paying attention to Jack. I hoped he would not have my near catastrophe, since he was four years younger than I. Despite his outer toughness I knew that when he got hurt he was the biggest baby. I knew of several times when he had fainted when he nicked his hand. I anxiously watched as he safely maneuvered the same course.

How did You get to School?- Part 2

I thought about my school as I started falling asleep. It was very unique. What made it unique was that it was a trailer house that used to be a bank. It had one big room, one small room, and a bathroom. The walls were painted yellow, the floors were orange carpet and the trim was brown. The curtains were a hideous orange and brown, but at least they matched the rest of the room. Another unique feature was that there were only five students and one teacher. We were in the first, third and fifth grades. My last thought before I fell asleep was how much I loved going there

Before we knew it, the sun was shining. It was time to get ready for school. We got out of bed, dressed and went into the dining room where Mom had French toast, fruit cocktail and orange juice waiting for us. We ate quickly, because we needed plenty of time to ride to school. It was a cool morning, so we picked up our sweatshirts on the way out the door. On the way to the shed to get our bikes, we put on our bulging backpacks filled with our schoolbooks and lunch.
It was a beautiful day for riding our bikes the three miles to the rural school. It was a mile from our house to the county road. The mini super-highway we were riding on was our recently upgraded two-track dirt road. It was nice to have a wide, smooth road: we could ride our bikes next to each other more easily.

It was much faster this time, because of the road improvements. The only steep section of our road was the draw, but this time Jack, age six, did not have to push his bike up the hill. I was glad, because it wastes time when you have to walk instead of ride. I could tell that Jack liked it, too, because he had a great big smile on his face.