Neighborhood Bike Ride

Thinking back to when I was a kid I have so many fond memories made on my bicycle. I rode that thing everywhere, it was attached to my hip (ha ha). I'd ride it around town to get from point A to point B. I'd ride it with my family to the park. I'd ride it down to and along the river, and I'd ride it through the country roads where I wouldn't see a car for miles. I even competed in bike rodeos as a child, and still have a trophy I won one year. As a teenager I rode it on weekend bike tours, completing 300 miles in a 3 day weekend, stopping to camp overnight. It was fantastic.

Even now a-days I bike when I can. I've made several trips to the grocery store with the kids in the bike trailer (I can fit three bags of groceries in there along with the kids). And I took my son to school many times this last year riding in the trailer. But I had to stop. He simply got too big for it. And he wasn't a strong enough biker to ride alongside me yet. So you can imagine my excitement this summer when he finally decided to leave his training wheels in the dirt and become a two wheel riding "expert".

He's been practicing hard, and today I felt he was ready to try a "real" bike ride. With my daughter in the trailer, my son on his two wheeler, and my husband next to me on his bike we rode all over the neighborhood. We went passed three different parks, stopping in at one so my Olympian in training could show Dad a trick he can do on one of the play structures. We found a new bike trail, but the sign alerting us of the coyotes made my son nervous. The thought of climbing back up the steep hill that sloped downward at the trail head made me nervous. So we kept to the sidewalk and made our way back home.

It was so much fun. I'm really looking forward to many more family bike rides, and I'm so happy that I'm helping my children build their childhood memories with this kind of summer fun.