Sunday Ride With Minion #5

Olivia and I took off last night, about 6:30/7:00 PM to go on a nice little bike ride in the park. Minion #4 and the paternal one didn't seem to keen on leaving the house, so we ventured off with out them.

She did pretty well going down the hill on the side walk before we hit the park. She did walk the bike a little, but performed much better than last trip - no taking her feet off the pedals as she coasted down any hills!

She was a bit more tired than I anticipated, and was happy we got to stop at the bench in front of Fire Fly Forest. Of course, a picture was taken (Olivia is very photogenic, so it is hard to resist taking pictures of her, I must say.) We then moved on under the bridge, than over the bridge, and down the hill towards the lake in the park.

Olivia was quite pleased with herself - she rode down the big hill off the bridge into the park without slamming on her brakes, or getting off the bike. She announced that she was getting better at facing her fear of hills, and we moved along. However, we soon had to stop; she was complaining of leg pain and just general tiredness. (Good thing they added all those additional benches a few months ago!)

She didn't want to turn around, but finally agreed after we rode up to the restrooms. She had to go - but came out rather quickly. She didn't want to use the park facilities because it was dirty and the doors did not close all the way for her liking. She decided, yep - probably a good idea to head back home now that she had to pee.

So we started riding around the lake, then walked the bikes back up the big hill to the bridge, and I started riding ahead of her down the other side so I could wait for at the bottom of that hill. She called to me, seemed a bit distressed, and I rode back up. Her #)%7##~!!! chain fell off! Sigh. I flipped the bike upside down and tried my best, but the sucker was not going back on.

Lucky for me she was very good about it. We decided since we had to walk the bikes home (she agreed that we should really only call Daddy for emergencies), we would take the short route and not continue to the park.

While we were walking up (yet another) hill towards our neighborhood, the neighborhood unicycle guy rode towards us down the hill. This guy - probably in his mid to late 20s - rides his unicycle all over the place. I have seen him coming back from the grocery store several times holding two - count them TWO! - bags of groceries while ride up that big hill on the unicycle. Very impressive, I must say! Olivia insisted that he must have been in the circus at one point, because where else would one learn to ride a unicycle? Someday I am going to stop Unicycle Man and ask him.

Anyhoo, we made it home, and though we didn't get in a good ride, we did get in a good bit of exercise. Olivia told me during the walk home that she would like to jog to the park next time instead of riding her bike. Ummm...yeah...who is this child and what did she do with MY daughter??? I told her that I wasn't ready to try jogging right now - I have a lot of weight to lose before my knees and ankles can handled THAT. But I told her that maybe some time I will ride on my bike while she jogs in the park. That pleased her.

By the way, I had a FANTASTIC ride in the park Monday night by myself, but will have to write about that later. I am just too beat. But in a good way.