After a five-year hiatus from riding a bike (FIVE YEARS!), I'm back.
I bought my first bike when I was a freshman in college: A blue Trek mountain bike. Of course I had bikes previous to that when I was growing up. But this was the first form of transportation that I actually purchased with my own money. Baby Blue and I had many, many good years together. I can remember riding her back and forth to class. And on Tuesday nights, when I had to stay on campus super late to edit the newspaper, she always got me home safely.
When I moved to Des Moines, I lived about three miles from work - the perfect bike commute. And bike I did. Nate and I have very fond memories of biking down to the farmers' market on Saturday mornings, picking up our greens for the week, and riding home for a nap. We rode in a pack of friends to see music downtown. It was a glorious two years with Baby Blue.
Moving to Austin cramped my biking style, but only briefly. When we first moved there, biking to campus was a bit challenging because of a massive hill. Since I had a flexible schedule and I like to walk, I usually just walked to campus. Baby Blue continued to wait for me. Then we moved to a different area of town, with fewer hills, and biking was BACK for nearly two years.
Then I got pregnant and was uncomfortable riding as my belly expanded. So, I stored my bike in our carport. I usually kept it locked, but sometimes forgot. One day I didn't lock it. Since I wasn't riding it regularly, I didn't check on it every day. Nate came home from work asked where my bike was. Baby Blue was missing. She was gone forever. I still miss her.
Then I had Benny, we moved to Denver and I was bike-less. I bought a BOB stroller and focused on running. Nate bought me a new bike for my birthday, but without a bike trailer for Benny, I rarely rode it. When I got a job, the bike got moved to the back of the garage and didn't see any light until Sunday.
We found an inexpensive used Burley earlier this spring. Benny is getting really good at riding his bike. On Sunday we decided he was ready for a longer ride on the road. We hooked the Burley up to my bike, strapped Lila in and off we went.
In less than a week, Benny and I have been on six bike rides together! On my 101 Things List, I had a goal to go on 10 bike rides with Benny by May. Looks like we'll reach that goal and then some!
Hello, bike. I think I'm in love.
2 comments:
Yay, how wonderful! Go biking mama! We have a Burley sitting in our garage waiting for C. to turn 9 months old, that's when we said we'd put her in it and give it a try. We're going to start on one of the very smooth paved trails outside of town to see how she likes it. I'd like to be able to go back to cycling all around town with her in the trailer.
Hope you and Benny have many more fun bike rides together! Are you biking with Lila at all?
S.
Thanks for the inspiration! Yes! Lila is riding in the Burley. She likes it for the first 15 minutes or so and then gets bored, pulls her helmet off and wiggles. I think it's her age and a wiggly phase more than the trailer. I keep it attached even when she isn't riding because it's great to carry stuff in.
C. is nearly there, right? I love how mobile I feel with the bike and the trailer. I'm going to start working from home in about a month, so we'll never have to leave our biking bubble :).
P.S. Our trip to Iowa will likely not bring us to Ames. Nate's grandma lives in Waverly, so we'll be lucky to visit Des Moines!
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