The Bike Ride That Nearly Did Me In

This weekend has been absolutely gorgeous - green trees, blue sky, warm sun, cool breezes. So Saturday we decided to load up and take a "real" family bike ride. Enough of this tooling around town stuff; we were going to hit THE TRAIL.

Biking has long been a favorite pastime for our family. Over the past several years, we've acquired a couple of child seats, a trailer and recently, a little half-bike sort of thing that attaches to Danny's bike and has handlebars and pedals. It's one of the few ways we've found to amuse ourselves that doesn't involve sitting slack-jawed in front of a screen and/or spending wads of money. (And it's very fuel-efficient!)

I would be remiss if I didn't share with you the picture we got at a graduation party we stopped in at, on our way to THE TRAIL. As you can see, it was a Hawaiian themed party, complete with lays for the kiddos and little umbrellas in the cupcakes. They had a blast, and of course before we left, they wanted to "pose" for a picture. Fun times.

From our starting point, THE TRAIL, which is the site of a historic railroad track that's been paved over in recent years, ran about 8 miles. We (I) figured we'd ride a comfortable distance and then turn around, ride back to the truck, and eat our dinner at a nearby park. It was the perfect plan (if "perfect" could be redefined as "idiotic.")






Since the trail was relatively level, we traveled the entire 8 miles and hardly broke a sweat. The air was perfumed with the scent of spring flowers and alive with the songs of the birds. The sun was warm on our backs. The sky couldn't have been bluer. We even spotted a deer in the woods beside us. The world was a beautiful place, full of love, harmony and endorphins. So when we turned around to make our way back, I expected more of the same.

After about .5 miles, I knew something was different. By the 1-mile marker, I was sweating like a pig. By mile 1.5, it was hard to catch my breath. It was then that I realized, THE TRAIL wasn't level! It stretched out before us at a gradual incline the whole way back! No wonder the first half seemed like such a breeze - we'd been riding downhill the entire time! It was so gradual as not to be noticeable - when riding down. But on the return trip it was a different story. This time, the sun blazed into our faces, the wind blew against us, and the birds were just annoying.


So much for the self-congratulations I'd been handing myself for being in such great shape! By mile 5, I was chugging water and promising God my firstborn if He would only let us make it back alive. Which He did.

I tell you what - a cold meatloaf sandwich has never tasted so good. The kiddos were pretty tired out, too (How is that possible? All they did was ride behind us!). They all asked to go straight to bed as soon as we got home around 8:15 - an unprecedented event.

The day was actually a lot of fun as a whole, but I think maybe next time we'll stick to tooling around the neighborhood . . .