The RBR Rally was over the father’s day weekend. Gareth joined me for a ride along the 20 mile route - the same route that did him in last year.

This year, though, I came prepared. I packed water, food, medicine, diapers, a towel, sunblock, and an MP3 player. Bringing all the extra gear sure added to the weight, but we got through the ride without any major meltdowns.

We also cut it short by 5 miles, turning it into a 15 mile ride. At the 7-8 mile mark, the group stopped at a general store for a refresher. I took the opportunity to ask Gare if he wanted to continue on to our destination or turn around and head back to the car.

He chose the latter.

We had a nice solo ride all the way back to the car and managed to finish the ride without either of us hitting the wall. That’s a good ride in my book.

Monday was a lovely day for an hour long ride, so we did just that. Since this was the first extended ride of the season, we kept to the local neighborhood. We normally ride to Gareth’s elementary school and ride loops around the playground because it’s nice and flat - and because we can do figure eights around the basketball hoops.

I’m not so sure we can keep doing that.

While riding along a wall of the school, I noticed a sign that is either new or has escaped my attention for the past year. It read, “NO SKATEBOARDING, ROLLERSKATING, OR RIDING BICYCLES.” My suspicion is that it’s new because I can’t imagine having missed that on all of our prior playground rides. Plus, it was suspiciously clean and shiny.

My approach here is largely going to be to keep riding there until somebody yells at us, at which time we’ll just move to the parking lot. Certainly, we can stick to riding on the streets, but these flat self-contained areas are a lot more relaxing.

Gareth, the bike, and I have been invited to make an appearance at a local Make-A-Wish fund raiser in order to convey just how great M-A-W is and what it has done for us. Here’s hoping our colds tone it down just long enough for us to say or do something inspirational.

Last January, when Gareth first received his bike, we grabbed the first day that wasn’t below 30 degrees and went for a ride as we couldn’t wait until Spring to take the Pino for a spin.

Now, a year later, we’ve done it again.  Only this time, the temperature was more around 60 degrees.

We just went for a quick ride around the neighborhood, which was all we could squeeze in given that I have fallen out of cycling shape and the available daylight faded fast since I wasn’t able to be home to ride until about 4:30PM.  Regardless, we got out there.  Can’t wait for Winter to pass!

The last entry questioned our lack of rides. That’s not really a problem now. Gareth and I did neighborhood rides on the 19th and 22nd, followed up by another ride on the Lower Trail on the 23rd. The biking bug has definitely bitten again.

In other news, the whole family will be biking in this year’s Tour du Port in Baltimore, MD on October 21st. This event will mark the first time Gareth and I will engage in extended road riding. Until now, we’ve stuck to trails, paths, and maybe a short stretch of street near the house. Brandy will also be making her road debut on the Catrike.

After some extended rides with the rock climbing harness, Gareth has professed his love for the comfort it affords him. This is great news as it means he is still happy to ride even after an hour and a half! One of these days, I’ll get photos together to show what modifications we’ve made with everyday materials in order to facilitate his cycling.

I’d tell you if I knew. We did a short (2 mile) ride on August 25th with some other family while at a reunion. Since then, the Pino has received no love. These days, Gareth would rather play Wii Sports Baseball.

On the one hand, it’s his bike and he’ll ride it when he wants to. On the other hand, I want to ride it now.

Has it really been nearly a month since the last ride? Painfully, yes. As the temperatures climbed into the 90’s, Gareth decided that riding his bike was not a priority over playing with Star Wars toys. My itch for a family ride finally brought the drought to an end.

On Saturday, August 11th, we drove out to the Lower Trail with our bikes and gear in tow. This was our first time doing two things: 1) using Gareth’s new rock climbing harness as a hip/lap restraint; 2) packing the trike panniers with Gareth’s supplies for a rest stop.

Let’s talk about the harness first since I’ve mentioned it in the past. It worked really well. The harness has two plastic loops meant for hanging supplies (like chalk bags) that are situated on either side of the primary restraint. All I needed to attach that to the bike was an appropriately short and taut bungee strap. The only trick to using the harness is that we have to put it on Gareth before we put him on the bike. The old restraint remained on the bike at all times. A small price to pay for a restraint that works much better for Gare. He told me that it was much more comfortable than his old hip restraint, which means that rides should be much more tolerable for him now.

The big lesson I learned on our 20 mile ride was that Gare needs to get off the bike at some point or else he’ll become quite uncomfortable. When Brandy bought a rack for my trike, I purchased panniers for it shortly thereafter. We put them to good use for our trail ride, packing them with a blanket, spare diapers, Gareth’s food, a camera, repair tools/supplies, et cetera. This allowed us to stop on the trail and attend to Gare’s needs (like the need to stretch) in order to prolong the ride. As a result, we ended up doing 5 miles before stopping off to rest and returning back to the trailhead. At no time did Gare express discomfort or a desire to stop the ride.

Actually, he really loved this ride. The Lower Trail is wide enough that we could ride right alongside Brandy. He got a kick out of being able to reach out his hand and touch his mom, and I got a kick out of being able to see my trike in action without actually being on it.

The trail itself is a beautiful, well maintained, flat stretch of crushed stone traveled by some very friendly folks. If you’re in the area and looking for a relaxing ride, it’s definitely worth the time. The only thing I would caution is that if your bike/trike is greater than 36″ wide, you might have difficulty getting it through the trailhead fences.

Gareth and I headed out for our customary Saturday morning ride today, doing about an hour of riding in circles while I belted out a few of his favorite songs.

Nothing new there, but what was new was later in the evening when Gareth said he wanted to go for a walk. We let him choose our path, and it was evident to me that we were walking the same streets we biked. We stopped to ask him if he was showing mommy where we rode. Sure enough, he said yes.

With the exception of one street, he took us on the exact path we traveled that morning.

Gareth and I rode his Pino in the Colyer Lake 4th of July parade this year. It is a small community parade that invites anyone and everyone to get in line and traverse the two mile parade route.

Thanks to a gentleman handing out free beer, the parade made frequent stops, giving us plenty of opportunity to sit and wait for the tractor in front of us to get a move on.

We had a great time, though, and got lots of reactions from the spectators.

Our family went camping at Parker Dam State Park over the weekend, so we took both Gareth’s bike and my trike, allowing the entire family to go for a ride.  I highly recommend that park if you’re looking to camp in the central PA area.  It’s incredibly well kept and offers lots of activities.

If anyone out there would like to buy a Hase Pino but save about $2,000, take a look at this listing over at BentRider Online. With only 100 miles on it, it looks like it is in excellent condition, and you can avoid shipping costs if you’re in the Huntsville, AL region.