First Bike Ride

This morning, I took Jackson on his first bike ride. The sun was out and the sky was beautiful. But in the words of Hitch, "I saw that going differently in my mind." Once we got moving, he was fine; but, getting him into that seat and then trying to keep him from taking his helmet off was a huge hurdle to cross. Note to self: put the helmet on after he's in the seat!

Jackson seemed to enjoy the ride. We passed by the chickens, sheep, cows, horses, and goats and stopped at a playground that we found hidden in our town. Linda, our neighbor, told us about it last night...praise God. It was so fun! There was a tall slide with a fort at the top, two swings, sand, and a zip line. We had so much fun. Jackson would swing in my lap for hours if my hamstrings wouldn't burn off.

The ride home from the playground was a KILLER. I seriously thought I might not make it. Just so you know, our town is VERY hilly. There are hills EVERYWHERE. We were going up the main street (literally...up) and about 100 feet before my turn (and a downhill section), I had to get off of my bike and walk the bike and Jackson up the rest of the way! I thought my legs might collapse under me. They felt like jell-o and I wasn't even done with the steepest part of the ride - MY STREET!

Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I couldn't wait to go again once Jason got home. I wanted to take the trails behind our house that go through the forest. Well, take the trails we did. But we took a trail that's across the forest from our house. Jason decided to take it once we had approached it and stopped (no running start...thanks Jace), and let me tell you...it was uphill FOREVER!!! Jason had Jackson this time, but I still had to get off and walk my bike up for about two minutes. I needed a break! And my pelvic bones were so sore.

(Ronald, I think this was harder than biking in Switzerland. Well, it was for me since I'm not as in shape as I was back then.)

The trail was awesome! It was so beautiful. We saw two deer and we got to go through water and mud! I had mud splattered on my pants and arms. It was great!

Jackson seemed to enjoy the ride. You'll see in the photos that his seat rides in front of the rider, not in the rear like most. I think he liked it because he could see so much more. We had a great time. Once we were home, we both looked at each other and said, "That wasn't that bad." No, it really wasn't. Two times in one day and on the first day on a bike in over 2 years was probably overly ambitious! Oh well, I've gotta start somewhere!