Myette.org

As some of you have undoubtably heard, this is the summer of bikes.  A few months ago Michael took the big leap and learned to ride a two-wheeler without training wheels.  This was a pretty huge accomplishment and just as we were getting used to the idea of Michael’s newfound mobility his younger brother decided to take his own leap forward.  Jacob at 3 1/2 years old shook off the shackles of the training wheels and set out on his own.  In case you haven’t seen it here’s a video from that first voyage.

The riding came easy, the stopping a little harder.  But by the end of the first day he had the hang of it.  The starting, on the other hand, needed some more practice.  So yesterday we went out to the parking lot at our church just two blocks away and practiced some more.  ”Left foot down, strong foot up.  Push off with the left, push down with the strong!”  Three tries and he was racing off around the parking lot with Michael while dad lounged on the grass under the trees.

We now have a very potent combination.  Two boys on bikes and a bike path just three blocks away that stretches out 15 miles in either direction.  So this morning as Erika and Maggie went grocery shopping the boys and I set out to ride the Old Plank Trail and see how far we got.  We were feeling pretty good as we rode 3.4 miles round trip to a park and had peanut butter and tortillas for a snack.  We got home and were working around the house when Michael came in saying that our neighbors were going for a bike ride and he and Jacob wanted to go too.  The Gaiers live across the street and have become good friends in these short few months.  Three of their kids are the same age as our three, but they also have another five.  So their whole family was heading out for a bike ride and we decided to join them.

Three adults and nine kids age 2 to 19, we headed out.  I was worried about Jacob keeping up so the deal we made was if he got tired, he and I would hang back and ride home together while Michael rode on.  It never happened.

We stopped at two parks, assorted water stops and one small crash.  9.77 miles in all for our second bike ride of the day.

As you may suspect, Jacob was asleep in about 15 seconds tonight.  Hardly unexpected given his two bike rides and 13.2 mile total.  The last entry for this excursion comes from my iPhone which provides some fun stats and a GPS map of our route from the second ride of the day.