Pelotonia, here we come!

Posted on July 7, 2011. Filed under: Family activities, Stuff of Life |

Big C recently let go of her training wheels and took quickly to riding her bicycle on 2 wheels. She initially learned to “ride”, and figured that later on she would do “starting” and “stopping”. She’s fairly proficient at stopping by doing something other than crashing into the neighbor’s yard. She’s just now getting coordinated enough to slow down, stop, and put her feet down. Starting still leaves something to be desired. She requires a full assist for that, for now.

That being said, she’s been daily begging us to go on a family bike ride. Lil C is old enough to ride in the baby seat on the back of Dad’s bike, and I am considering doing a sprint Triathlon in a few months, so needed to get back on the bike and see if I could hold my own for a few miles. So tonight at dinner, Dad hatched a plan for us to drive down to a staging area on the bike trail a little south of town, and ride to Young’s for some world famous ice cream. If we couldn’t make it back, we always had the back-up plan of 1 of us being able to ride back and retrieve the rest from Young’s in the car.
The trip was a total delight. We rode…wait for it…5.02 miles!! It was, #1, not nearly as strenuous as I thought (yes, we were traveling at the 6-year old’s pace, but still…), and #2, so much fun! I definitely can ride 13 miles. I’m thinking more seriously about the ~~diaper~~ padded shorts now, but, yes I think I can do 13 miles. For about 4.2 miles of the ride, we were on the bike trail, which is quite shady, and very well protected. And, obviously, free of motor vehicles. There is a short bit at the end of the trip where you have to ride on a couple 2-lane highways, which felt precarious, and I tried not to think about the safety of the entire situation. One of the highways does have a designated bike lane, but still…
By the time we rolled up to Young’s Jersey Dairy, I was ready to bust a button, I was so proud of Big C. See for yourself!

Lil C is clearly having the most fun here.

I know, right? She's pretty amazing.

After some frozen confections, us girls wandered around Young’s while Dad rode the 5 miles back to the staging area (about 3 times faster than we had ridden down!), and returned with the car to retrieve us and our bikes.

Some silliness while we waited: