two hundred and forty four

I was an avid cyclist in middle school and high school. I even rode a fair amount in college. But the early years of our marriage and the first years of parenthood were very dry as far as cycling was concerned.

In 2010 I broke the dry spell by registering for the PMC and buying a nice Trek road bike. I banked a whole lot of miles during training and over the two day ride. It was great to be on a bike again, but it was a lonely affair. In order to ride I had to have someone stay with the girls. That someone was always Peter, so my rides were solo.

The past few years have offered me plenty of opportunities to convince myself that I’ll only ever ride alone. It was so hard to break out of the woe-is-me mindset. I could barely imagine how we’d cobble together bike gear for four, never mind how to foster enthusiasm and energy.

But then we came here for the summer and fell in love (or back in love, in my case) with the bike trails all around the island.

And just like that, we have become a family that bikes together.

With Catherine on her own bike, Esme tagging along behind, attached to my good ole bike and Peter on my Dad’s wheels, we make a sometimes wobbly, but always enthusiastic group on the trails.

Today’s ride found us going from Oak Bluffs to South Beach (left and right forks), to the Right Fork Diner for lunch and then back up along the beach back home. All told we pedaled almost 20 miles.

In hind sight, I shouldn’t have worried. It doesn’t matter much what we do together, we tend to find our own fun. It is just extra special when our group fun happens to be just how I pictured it to be!