Biking Family

Marty and I have been biking all of our lives. We both learned when we were 7 or 8 and in elementary school rode pretty much everyday. Back then it wasn't for exercise or our health, it was because that was what kids did. You rode to school, rain or shine. You rode to your friends house. You rode to the local grocery store to pick up bread or milk for your mom. You rode to get away from your siblings. And most of all you rode to just ride.

Somewhere between the late 70's/early 80's to the present, riding has disappeared from most kids lives. There are a lot of boys still riding but not young girls. When you go to an elementary school, check out the bike rack. Or do they even have a bike rack? Ours does but there maybe 4 or 5 bikes in there each day. Most of the kids are driven by their mom or they ride a bus. They ride a bus in a subdivision that the school is in that there is only one way out of and the school is at the entrance. They ride a bus from the farthest point of this subdivision which is maybe 1/4 of a mile. What has happened that our kids don't ride bikes to school?

Mine do not simply because we don't live in a subdivision but instead we live on one of the busyiest two lane narrow shoulder highways in Arkansas and are three miles from the school with no back rodes that would be safe to ride because of all the speeding drivers.

But I degress. Because my husband and I grew up with bikes as feet, when our daughters got to the point they could peddle, they were given there first bikes. It was slow going getting them from bikes with training wheels to straight up two wheels but three years ago we were successful. We have spent the last three now getting them to learn to pick up their pace and go longer distance. Now we're not talking miles upon miles, we're just talking 1 or 2 along the River Trail in NLR. Well, this year their heights (because my girls are not going to be short women) we had to upgrade their bikes. We had upgrade Dad's from the Wal-Mart special to a GT two August ago and he had been telling me how much easier and faster it was but bikes are now expensive and I just knew he was full of crap. Well two Saturday's ago, after the girls had biked the 14 miles from the NLR submarine up to the NLR side of the Big Dam Bridge and back and my baby is complaining of how much her back hurts and I've watched my eleven year who is only 8" shorter then me with her knees almost up to her chin, my mind was made up. We were not going biking again until those girls had bikes that fit their frame. Both were on 20" tires on 9 to 10" frames. What in the world was I thinking. Well, we started looking at the lower end markets (Wal-Mart, Academy Sports and the like) but my husband was not satisfied with anything. We made our way to Arkansas Cycling and Fitness and both girls with in minutes had picked Trek's that they were in love with. The guy (and forgive me because I'm terrible with names) that helped us was a true doll. He helped us size the girls and made recommendations for them. The girls got exactly the bike they wanted but in their size. One is now on a 26" tire and 15" frame and the other is on a 26" tire and 13" frame.

Well, we had to take those for a spin, so we loaded them in the truck and headed out to the trail right then. The girls took off like rockets. Now Mom is still on a Roadmaster from Wal-Mart and Marty and the girls are sporting aluminum frames and gears that shift with a press of the thumb. I had to work hard to keep up. It was a labor of love but it was labor. The girls were all smiles and no complaints about my back is hurting.

Lucky for me, I'm the special girl in my husbands life, because he couldn't stand it that I had to work so hard to keep up. Saturday, he purchased me a Specialized bike from the same guy at Arkansas Cycling and Fitness. I'm not a high tech bike sort of girl. All I really care about is will it shift gears with ease, will it travel down the trail and what color it is. I've been looking at the bike and the adult women are just not appealing to me. Well my fabulous husband did great. This one has all the tech stuff he wants me to have and I got a color that I can stand (metalic baby blue) and gears that shift without throwing a chain or having to wait on them to change.

I had to pick the bike up yesterday because it wasn't even on the showroom floor. The awesome guy had to put it together for me. That's a first for me. Well the girls and I meet Marty at the Submarine after work and we hit the trail. Man, what a difference. Other then my butt hurting because of a different saddle, that was awesome. We cruised down to the bridge and back and it was just fabulous. I even passed Marty and Em going up one of the hills because they were going to slow. That is a huge improvement.

Wow. Thanks Arkansas Cycling and Fitness for helping get us on the trail even more. I can't wait until 5:00 pm tonight.

Proud Parents

Marty and I are so very blessed. Our girls are such well balanced, even tempered, well behaved pre-teens. They are responsible and so very pleasant to be around.



Emily completed the Red Cross babysitters course this Saturday and is a certified babysitter. She is so excited about doing it that she came an immediately got on the computer to go through all CD of resource material they gave each student and then organized a babysitting notebook. She is determined to be known as a "good" babysitter. I hope someone we know needs a sitter soon so she can put her new knowledge to work. She so is looking forward to it.