A weekend of rides

Although you couldn’t tell from the cats, dogs and possibly frogs pouring down from the sky, the weather this past weekend was just gorgeous. The temperatures hovered in the low to mid seventies and the sky was a gorgeous blue. This amazing weather enabled us to get into two family rides, one on Friday and one on Sunday (Bret had to work on Saturday).

On Friday afternoon, we started our ride from a different spot on the trail. This time, I brought our camera (we didn’t have it for the previous rides because we had left it at a friend’s house) and we got some before and after shots. On some of the downhills, I felt like I couldn’t get proper control of the bicycle and thought I was going to be falling on my face. I am literally amazed that I was able to keep the Trek in control. While on our ride, Bret had spotted a beaver dam and its occupant swimming around and wanted to show it to me but I was too far ahead to hear him. We graduated from Oregon State University, the home of the Beavers, so I wish that I could have seen him. Even without ever seeing him/her, I nicknamed it "L’il Benny". On this ride, I was a little disappointed that I was having such a problem trying to control my bike and kept trying to figure out why it was controlling me instead. At the end of the ride, we toured a neighborhood that backed right up to the trail. The homes were beautiful and the neighborhood was so quiet. Children were able to play, two hospitals are close by, close proximity to various shopping centers, and easy access to the turnpike.

Sunday morning we woke up and I knew that Bret had to focus on a finance final exam that he had to do that night, but he wanted to get his mind in gear by going out for a ride. We started out our normal starting point and again, we had the camera. This ride started out a little difficult for Bret as he felt the trailer was being a bit of dead weight. He looked like he was killing himself trying to pedal the hills, especially into the headwinds. Halfway into our ride, we decided that it was best to turn around. Bret also wanted to go across town and ride with our friend George and his friends. They were going to put on about 30 miles. Going back to our van was a million times easier as we having nice tail winds. We made it back to the car and there was a guy there that wanted to know about our trailer and if it worked with a dog. After this small two minute long conversation, we zipped across town and hoped that we weren’t going to be late since we had about 15 minutes to be there before they wanted to take off. Thankfully, George and the other riders hadn’t left yet and were still there waiting in the parking lot for other stragglers that might be on their way. Since these riders are much more experienced than I am and were focusing more on distance and speed, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep up and that really bugged me. I figured it wasn’t going to be fair to either me or them so I watched Liam. Bret decided to take my Trek flat-bar roadbike instead of his Gary Fisher 29er. I told him to take care of my baby. While Bret was getting my bike out of the van, Liam ran up to George and gave him a hug; those two are so close and it makes me smile. We consider George to be Liam's second father. I also got a fabulous picture of Liam, Bret, and George (see the photo above).

While the crew was on their ride, Liam and I walked around their launch point, a local park and arboretum. We found a West Highland White Terrier, a.k.a. a westie, to play with and it was so cute watching her and Liam roll a ball back and forth to each other. They played like this for about 20-30 minutes. After the dog had to go home, Liam and I chased each other around the park, just giggling and laughing. Overall, I found this riding day to be more successful than past rides. I felt that I had more control over the bike, I wanted to go faster, and I was getting to the point where the Trek and I were becoming one and the same. I just wish that I was able to go longer distances. Bret does want of our family rides to be on this path they took. I am looking forward to this!!