awesomeness

sometimes is it a cool ass shot like that. But today.

Today (or at least the morning so far) is pure awesomeness. Well i dunno I guess my range of awesomeness is pretty broad. Plenty of things would qualify. But today. We all got a bit of extra sleep last night - finally hit the pillow early. As such heading to bed early Lucy (our dog) wanted to go out, and was very persistent from 5:30 to about 5:45. Heck it was sunny, she went to bed early - so I needed to get up. At least that was her thought. And well. Started the morning routine and at 6:15 I thought about the discussion about everyone riding in and decided to see if I could find the trailer hitch (easy - awesome), dig out the trailer (man i have a lot of boxes that need to go into the recycling bin), clean it up, air up the tires. And wow. Heck we're ready to go. 6:34, time to wake everyone up! The oldest is sometimes hard to get out of bed, but when i said "Would you like to ride your bike to school today?" she was bolt upright and bright eyed and ready to go. The youngest, when prodded in her sleep state with "would you like to go for a buggy ride to school?" her eyes stayed closed and she grinned and nodded her head, still 1/2 asleep.

L (the youngest) was so excited. She hadn't gone to school/daycare in the trailer since August. She was grinning the whole way in, every time I looked back she was beaming and happy. The road is two lanes, no shoulder and bumper to bumper for 1/2 mile leading up to the school so, we hopped on the sidewalk for that stretch of it. And that worked okay. The people getting in and out of Dunkin Dounts actually let us across.

K Dumped it trying to ride across a ramped curb over to the playground to lock her bike up on the fence (no bike racks - what a surprise). She was just so excited and proud to have ridden in on her bike that she kinda took her self out. But she was okay. Pretty tough.

But, she wants/needs a new bike. her old one is getting small, and she REALLY wants a cyclocross bike (like her daddy, and so she can do the kids races this year on a cross bike). So. Anyone have, know of, a used 24" or a really small 26" cyclocross/road bike that would fit a tallish 9 year old? drop me an email gewilli at gmail if you got a lead. Thanks (her birthday is coming up soon).

So after we dropped em off my wife and I had a nice ride in the rest of the way on the bike path till we went off and hit our separate ways.

I had forgotten what it was like to haul the trailer. But that smoothness was still there, no hurky jerky pedal stroke, smooth as butter, even out of the saddle. Seriously, power or no power, if you want a smooth stroke (a good first step before trying to make power) get a trailer and stick 50-70 pounds in it and go for a ride.

Yesterday was a bad day for Bend. Larsen of course, such a heart breaking loss, he was a Legend in cycling, among the greatest US riders. Add to it Horner's withdrawal from the Giro. It was the right move for him but it hurts because he was in such good form. Damn he was doing well. Hopefully he can get it all sorted out and recovered for the Tour. No way to recover from the loss of Steve, but if I make it to Bend this year I will raise a pint or two in his honor.

I can't wait to pick the girls up and ride home tonight... can't wait.

Heddwch
G