They call me Captain Klutz!

I admit it. I am not the belle of the ball. I've never been good at walking tightropes or balance beams, and although I always try to toe the line, I usually trip over my own feet getting there. Knowing this you can probably imagine how this next story ends.
A while back, while in one of the local bike shops, I ask the owner if he had any regular group rides coming up. As a matter of fact, he does have a very casual, weekly ride that basically tours La Crosse every Wednesday night after work. It apparently started out as a fixed gear bike ride (for ease of explination call it a one speed road bike), but had progressed into a way for friends to meet up and go for a nice bike ride.
And what a nice bike ride it was. But before we started out, it happened. I had just introduced myself to Ken, a nice local man with a beautiful new fixed gear bike. I hadn't riden anything even remotely similar since I was in my single digits, so I was curious. Without me even asking, he offered to let me take a spin, warning me that there was no freewheel (If you stop pedalling, the back tire stops) on the bike. After a bit of a rough start, I was up and moving, coming to a turn in the road. I ready myself for the turn, thinking I was going to coast through as usual, and stop pedalling. Oops. I immediately lose control and crash onto the asphalt, taking about 1/4" of handlebar and leather seat along with it. ( I sprained my wrist as well, but I didn't find that out until 7 hours later when it actually hurt.)
Ken was completely nonchalant about it. Said that now that the bike had a scratch on it, he wasn't as freaked about laying it down. He did reserve the right to give me hell for the rest of the night though. After another 1/2 hour and 12 or so people we got underway.
We started out at Myrick park and, taking back streets as much as possible to avoid traffic, we wound down along the bluffs right down to the southern edge of town. We were taking trails I hadn't even heard of before, along creeks, through housing developments, trailer parks, you name it. Whoever was leading this pack really knew their back streets. As dusk neared everyone stopped to get their head and tail lights ready, we noticed one of our group riding up with a rather large something in his hand. It was an old 70's-ish kitchen cart that someone had chucked. He just couldn't leave something so valuable go, and decided to give it a good home.
We started off again, enjoying the sunset on the water. Before too long it was just plain dark. I was fine with it, or so I thought, since I had been commuting by bike in the dark. As we headed down yet another backwoods, yet paved, trail I slipped off the edge of the path, down the embankment, hit 4" deep sand and CRASHED AGAIN! Talk about a 1st impression.
After a little while, I broke off from the group, mainly since I had no idea what time it really was. They were going out for beers and I didn't think Becca would really understand. She was upset as it was that I was gone so long. The whole trip for me ended up being around 15-16 miles, but that was probably the easiest ride I've ever done. I'll definately do it again, but maybe I'll use training wheels next time.