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by Alex Reynolds, 04/08/2020, Traverse City, MI

Middle School 6-8 Category


Let’s go for a bike ride,” my mom said.
“Ok,” I replied. “But let’s go to the library this time.”
I had been out of school for 3 weeks because schools were closed due to
COVID19. I hadn’t seen my friends in 3 weeks because of the stay at home orders. My soccer and track were cancelled because of the rule of no groups larger than 10 in one place. The only times I had talked to my friends were over Madden 20 on my Xbox. So to go on a bike ride on Monday at 1:00 sounded like the perfect thing to ease my boredom.
We filled up our water bottles, checked the tire pressure, and grabbed neck gaiters to keep our faces warm. We hopped on our bikes and headed out towards the TART Trail. When we arrived at the trail there was no one to be seen.
We reached the caboose on the trail and had only seen two people on the way which was unusual. There were very few cars on the road. So little in fact, that we didn’t have to wait for anyone before we crossed. We then rode along the bay passing a few more people but definitely not as many as usual.
We made it past West Bay park without seeing many people but there were quite a few people on the trail from there to Clinch. After Clinch, we went through a cool little underpass that took us to the other side of the road, near F&M Park, then to the library.
My mom said, “I’m still feeling good, so let’s go pick up Pearl’s shoes from her school.” We needed to get my sister’s shoes because she hadn’t had time to get them before schools were closed. The custodian had been nice enough to put them outside of her school so we could go grab them.
“Ok,” I replied. “Let’s go.” We took the TART trail around Boardman lake, over Boardman River, and to my sister’s school. “Wow,” I exclaimed. “There is absolutely no one in town right now. It looks like a ghost town.” My mom laughed and we rode down Oak street. We picked up my sister’s shoes at her school and it was weird to see that her school was empty at 1:00 on a Monday afternoon.
On the way to the bay we only encountered 2 cars which was crazy considering how busy downtown normally is. We were able to ride in the road without having to worry about cars zooming past us. We crossed Front Street with ease and made it to the bay where we rode along a street until we reached the TART again. From there we rode down the TART trail until we arrived home. My dad asked how the ride was.
“Overall it was a fun bike ride but there was little to no one on the trails,” I replied. It definitely represented how unusual life is right now.