You never forget how.

May 1 is a national holiday (Agriculture Day), and we decided to spend the long weekend in Port-au-Prince for some always-needed out-of-Dezam time.Our friend Ben just bought a bike a few weekends ago in St. Marc, which brings the total number of bikes at the Depps' to 2. On Friday morning Ben and I decided to go for a ride. Port is built on a hill, so everywhere is up or down and we decided to go up first to get the hard pedaling out of the way.

I hopped on the Ardis Silver Bike, which bears a sticker proudly announcing that it was handbuilt in the Ukraine. Ben was riding his new, circa-1980 Trek road bike. We pedaled out to the main road and start cranking up the hill. Immediately my heart started thumping and my lungs turned to fire. As I was cranking up the hill I put my head down and just thought about breathing and spinning the pedals. Maybe I was taking in too many deep breaths of exhaust, but fatigue hit me hard and I asked for a breather. Okay, not so bad, I haven't been on a bike in 9 months so what can I expect? We stand, I breathe, we continue on.

Another mile up the hill - wham-o, I start feeling nauseated. I pedal over to the side of the road where I, um, expeditiously empty the contents of my stomach onto the pavement. What a milestone: first time I've ever experience exercise-induced sickness. I got it out of my system and drank some water. I didn't feel 100% sick, just the very urgent need to throw up. (I guess I didn't look too bad, as Ben told me he wished he had his camera. Thanks.) We continue to the top of the hill in Petionville where I chicken out, deciding that it's best we turn back as I don't want to throw up again.

We tear back down the road, passing cars and buses. The feeling of speed, wind and weightlessness from the top of a bike was amazing and I remembered why I missed biking so much. So it sucked to throw up from biking (and it's only the 4th time in my life I remember throwing up at all), but well worth it. In a few weeks some friends are coming to Haiti to visit us and they agreed to bring my mountain bike with them. Now I have this crazy nervous anticipation eating away at me, first because I can't wait to ride more and second because I'm not quite sure I can handle it. Ah, let's blame it on midday heat and lungfuls of exhaust.

Bring on the hills and the heat. It's worth it.