one hundred and seventy three

During a mostly snowless winter in 2011-12, Catherine mastered her two wheeler. She was confident and excited about riding, and during last spring and early summer she did a fair amount of riding.

And then it happend, her first big spill. The fall brought about skinned knees, wailing, gnashing of teeth and a promise of “I am never riding on hills again!” It also made her very hesitant to ride her bike at all. I was able to coax her onto the tag-a-long, but for the rest of the summer and fall she flat out refused to ride on her own.

As this spring turned to summer I was anxious to get her back on wheels. It is a perfect situation for cycling. Our current neighborhood is a perfect place for a girl on her bike to explore. As a cyclist myself, I really wanted to help her enjoy riding so I put the bikes on the 3 bike car rack and looked for places to start riding. (Isn’t that how most parents feel about passing on their passions to their kids?!)

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been bringing C’s bike and E’s trike over to Bradley Palmer State Forest to ride. The long paved road, with gentle hills has been great for building her confidence back up. Tonight, Catherine I and went on a longer ride through the park and we passed the spot where she crashed last year. After she passed it without issue I mentioned it and commented that she hadn’t even had a problem. Her face lit up with the realization of it and we continued on. Bless my Mama’s heart!

And as if that wasn’t good enough, as we headed back toward the car a little voice from the bike next to mine said, “I wish we could go riding together more often, Mama!” To which the only response can be, of course, “I think we can make that happen, kiddo!”