by Kavin Anand
Bal Sabha has had a tradition of a bike-ride-cum-picnic for several years. This year the picnic took place on Aug 25. We usually leave Columbia at 7am and reach Rocheport in 2 hours. During the short break there, we take pictures and get some water and snacks. Then the more challenging ride back to town starts. We have lots of things to look forward to- the picnic, the partying, the bragging about our accomplishment! We kids wonder if are old enough and strong enough to complete the whole entire trip to Rocheport and back.
Once we are on the trail, we constantly encourage each other to go a little longer and encourage the younger kids that it can be done! Importantly, after the trip, we want everyone to know that we rode a bike all the way to Rocheport and then back to town – a total 40 miles – in a morning! And, one last thing…anyone who has not tried this trip yet should do it because it is the most amazing bike ride ever!!
This year’s picnic was at Twin Lakes Park. Several Indian families come to this picnic to celebrate and have some fun (even if they don’t do the bike trip)! We kids enjoy the picnic because we can finally get our tired feet off the bikes and start playing! This year we took the group photo on a scenic bridge that leads on to the dock. We all had a blast this year because we got to play two new games – sack race and the balance-a-lemon race! In the sack race the adults get their feet into a waist-high sack hop their way to the finish line against 10 kids. In the lemon race we had to balance a lemon on a spoon and try to speed walk to the finish line without dropping the lemon. If we dropped the lemon we had to go back to the starting line! Then of course we had the tug of war. But then we all noticed that the adults were watching us very carefully. Next thing you know, they were trying everything out too!
