The Apple Doesn't Fall far From the Bike

I rode my bike to the store for last night and as I was approaching my garage, pictured above I did what I always do.  As I approach my driveway I burst a bit of speed and I swing my right leg up and behind me over the seat and then bring it up between my left leg and the left side of my bike.  By this time I am standing with my left leg on the left pedal and sticking my right leg out in front of me, leaning the bike into the left hand turn to my driveway.  The edges of my driveway are banked and I always hit the northern edge coming from the south and use the bank of the driveway and a bit more lean to make the left turn.  The edge both slows the bike and flings the bike harder left and I use the momentum to complete a near 180 degree turn that ends with me applying the brakes just as the bike comes to a stop where it is pictured above.  There are extra points involved if I can rest against the door of the garage with my right handlebar without having to put my feet down to the ground.  

As I performed a perfect example of this maneuver last night I thought about "The World According to Garp" and how Garp would kill the lights and fly into his driveway to the delight of his children.  Those of us who have read it knows how that works out in the long run.  

Then I had a better though and a better memory, one of my dad and his driveway antics.  When we lived on JP drive, and probably later when we lived on Country Lane in Hays, KS my dad would park his pickup on the street in front of the house.  

He would approach from the north and make a hard left into the driveway pictured above, cutting the left hard to where it was more like 115 degrees instead of 90, this would point him at the basketball goal.  He'd head almost towards the pole before hitting reverse hard and throwing the steering wheel the opposite direction to the right.  The front end of the truck would swing out into the street as he reversed and the truck as if by auto pilot would park perfectly in front of the house in line w/ the curb.  Dad made it look so easy, and I could never make it work.  I'm pretty sure dad enjoyed watching me fail at this maneuver because he seldom failed to point out how well he could do it.  He tried on any number of occasions to teach me the skill, but it just never took.  I like to think I could do it now, because I have an amazing amount of tight parking experience, but I can't say that with much confidence.

After I posted this I had another realization.  The one leg over the bike seat and back through the other leg dismount is another dad move, albeit one I learned to perfection.