rudderless

Biking

Yesterday we took the bike a couple miles from home and while we were away, what has become Tropical Storm Claudette blew through Key Largo. We holed up at a friend’s house and when we got a good break in the rain, I started home. The girls were quickly asleep in the trailer, which is like a little cocoon with the rain flaps down. We were fine until we turned onto the main road and then wham . . . the wind. You’d think my boating experience would have kicked in and told me that what follows a good thunderstorm is wind and lots of it. It was like mountain biking meets the Keys. Every gust was a Category Three climb to me. It was crazy hard, and so much fun.

Biking is just about the only exercise I enjoy. Especially on a day when I can leave the kids and bike without the trailer. It’s like riding down my parent’s street as a kid, all over again. But for us, it’s become a second vehicle. I can bike to most everywhere I need to go with the girls. The library, the post office, the pool, our friend’s, the beach. I can carry them and a few bags of groceries. We’ve toted a stroller, a fishbowl, a few pool floats (and lost one!). Rosy sleeps on any ride more than ten minutes, without fail. Sophie often sleeps, but likes to hold the trailer flag and sing to herself too. It’s a slower existence. It’s clean, healthy, and guilt-free. It’s wicked cheap.

I must admit I was inspired to bike more by Sarah Gilbert’s Car-Free Diet and her INCREDIBLE bike, the Mamabikeorama. Then Jim from Sweet Juniper had to go and buy a bike and trick it out with two kidseats. It’s rad. And this family bike site is far too much eye-candy for me.

In short, biking gets me out in the weather, makes me work a little bit harder for my modern conveniences, and makes a tiny bit of statement in a town of air-conditioned SUVs. It keeps me connected to the boating people who come in for groceries on their impossibly tiny folding bikes. I wave to the local with the Xtracycle, and the woman who works as the supermarket deli and rides the enormous tricycle. We are a tiny community, but if the blogosphere is any indication, our ranks are swelling. Just you wait.