In September, Mr. Katie bought himself a new bike. It was exciting for me because I love bike riding. I have hybrid bike and when I was a young, recently college graduated person I lead bike trips as a summer jobs, for teenagers. One of the places I got to lead a trip to was Prince Edward Island, Canada.
It was pretty great. After the summer of leading bike trips, I signed up for and participated in the Mid-Hudson Century ride. I rode the metric Century, which is 62.5 miles. Some of the friends who I participated with rode the 100-mile Century Ride. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired when we were done.
I continued to ride frequently throughout my 20’s. I have been mountain biking several times, though I don’t own my own mountian bike. When I lived in Pittsburgh when I was in library school, I enjoyed biking around the city and discovering new places that I had never been on foot. I also liked riding around the downtown on weekends and evenings when it was all but deserted.
Once Mr. Katie and I got together, I continued to ride, but I started riding less. Mr. Katie got a hybrid bike similar to mine in 2009 but he found it to be somewhat uncomfortable. He always assumed that it was just him and if he rode the bike enough it would get more comfortable, but it never did. We continued to ride but, in the meantime, we moved to the hilliest town in the world (Bellefonte, PA). I might be exaggerating, but maybe not. See picture below
We started riding less and though we continued to ride once we moved to the Lehigh Valley and it became more difficult once we had two children. We did purchase two bike trailers and sometimes I would still ride alone, but it became a matter of logistics to pull two small children in trailers. (Though, Mr. Man learned to ride a two-wheel bike this past spring, so in the foreseeable future he will be able to peddle himself on our rides). On the positive side, we do live less than one mile from a trail-trail that spans 18 miles and connects to three different playgrounds.
Enter Mr. Katie’s new bike. It is an electric bike, ebike, and it has large tires. Mr. Katie finds it much more comfortable than he last bike. He called up the company who made the bike he bought and got some guidance on what sort of model he might find to be the best fit. The bike came a little more than a month ago and it has been awesome so far.
I love his ebike because he can pull the boys in the trailer and I can ride alone, while we all ride together. It has allowed us to take family bike rides several times a week when Mr. Katie gets home from work. We pile the boys into one trailer that Mr. Katie pulls, and I lead the way. We often ride on the bike trail and make a stop at a playground before we turn around and ride home. Sometimes we also ride on the country roads outside of town.
Coming home as the sunsets really makes me feel alive. As a primarily stay-at-home mom, I often feel like it is my duty to be organized and have dinner on the table at a certain time. This is pressure that I put on myself. These days, on bike riding days, I do usually pre-make dinner, but when we are pulling in back home at 6:45 or 7:00pm I feel wilder. I feel like the temperature of dinner matters less and who cares if things aren’t perfect for dinner. I feel like the 24-year-old that I was when I lead those bike trips all those years ago.
I dread it when daylight savings time starts next Sunday. We are going to lose our extra daylight in the late afternoon/ early evening. I am trying to convince Mr. Katie to start going in at a super-early hour so he can come home from work earlier for us to ride. He doesn’t know if his work situation could work that way. It will be okay if he can’t. Perhaps I can start riding in the morning or maybe our bike riding will have to be relegated to the weekends. It will be okay either way. I just like knowing that I am still the person that I was when I was young.
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Thanks,
Katie
This just might be the past that pushes Jim into buying the electric bike he’s been thinking about for years! Or maybe not, he can live vicariously through your adventures . Great post!
Hi Aunt Heidi,
Thank you. I hope Uncle Jim buys one. They are a lot of fun. I rode Brendan’s before and I was amazed at how fast you can make it go.
You surprise me and I learn more about you as I read your blog! Bike riding has always been fun. That you led rides in Prince Edward Island was news to me! Mr. Nicholson did several rides to the shore with his sister and father as part of the Sunoco fundraising. As always thank you for sharing!