Bicycling

For my birthday I got a bike. Like most things in this house that are not food, we bought it used. I found it on Craigslist Friday after several weeks of searching while I borrowed Bayley's bike occasionally. I love it. The seat is considerably cushier than Bayley's hard, narrow one and the handlebars are positioned higher so I can sit up more as I ride rather than leaning in over them. My kids assure me that my posture is not too reminiscent of the Wicked Witch of the East.

It has been years since I had my own bike. It is now possible for our whole family to go for a bike ride together for the first time since Erin was a baby and she rode in one of those horrible little seats mounted on the back of Kris's bike. After church yesterday we loaded all the bikes into the back of our bus and drove over to a favorite riverside bike path. We had to take both cars to get all of us and all the bikes to the path. Fionn and Liam are still tricyclists, so when we all ride together they ride in a trailer on Kris's bike. Infinitely better than the old seat that Erin had. So Kris is pulling over 75 pounds extra behind him up and down the hills. I don't know how he does it, but Fionn and Liam think it is a blast. They scream and giggle and even hold their hands in the air when they go down a hill. They were carefully coached in proper roller-coaster etiquette last December at Disneyland.

Ten people of varying riding skills and personality styles all trying to stay more or less together along the trail can be interesting. Generally Noah and Ronan ride first with the rest of us strung out behind them in a long line trying not to run into one anothr too often. At the tops of hills many of the kids prefer to stop and wait for the person ahead to get far enough ahead to allow for taking the hill at top speed without fear of having to slam on the brakes suddenly to prevent a collision with someone who may be taking it more slowly.

At one point in the ride I heard a muffled scream from around a bend ahead. I came around the corner to see three of my children stopped and staring off the path in the direction of the river which at this point along the trail is at the bottom of a steep incline directly beside the path. I experienced a brief moment of panic before I too could see Noah and his bike only a couple of feet down the hill. We made sure he rode more towards the center of the path after that!