Recreational & Family - Perfect Father's Day...

So, after a leisurely early morning and breakfast (real pinhead oatmeal with rasberries and a hint of maple sugar), the three of us (me, my beautiful wife and our adorable 8-year old) set out to hit some of the local bike trails. After a few miles on lightly-traveled streets, we turned onto the Alum Creek trailhead in Westerville (a suburb of Columbus, Ohio).

Spent the next hour or so tooling along mostly shady trails at a pace dictated by my 8-year old on her Trek 220. Listened to my wife comment on how she had never expected it to be so pretty, and how she never thought she would enjoy biking so much.

Decided to detour to a local ice-cream place for a cone before starting the ride home. Saw my daughter old deftly recover from what would have been a nasty spill if it had been me (8-year old reflexes and gymnastics classes paid off).

I was dreading the one hill between us and home (not steep, but l-o-n-g) with my 8-year old, because it was getting pretty hot, but she chugged on over it (glad we had lots of water, though).

Total of 20 miles for the day (a long ride for an 8-year old) and we all had a great time. Got home, got cleaned up, and chilled out reading with my kid on the couch. :)

Kotts

That's what it's all about; great ride!!!

Sounds a bit like my Father's Day. Now unfortunately, my wife got called out of town on short notice (death of an Aunt), so it was me and my two girls (age 4 & 11). After a breakfast of French Toast and the trimmings, we decided to play with bikes.

My 11 year old had a growth spurt (now 5' 2"), so her Trek MountainTrack 220 (24" tires) now looks a bit clownish, so I put her on Mom's K2 Rosario. Minor adjustments, clean the geartrain and rims, and she was off and running. Guess I'll have to get Mom that 'pedal forward' bike she has been looking at. The 4 yr old no longers wants to be in her Burley Bee trailer, so it was time to check out that new Trek MountainTrain 206 (actually a leftover Gary Fisher, but same thing...) that I bought a few weeks back (against the wishes of my wife). Yes, I live dangerously! She is away, so let's play....

A few trips up and down our road quickly showed how nice the trailer bike is, and how adaptable my little one can be. I told her to just look at my back and enjoy the ride. A few pictures of the broad smile told all! The tow bike is my 2002 Trek Navigator 200. Not flashy, but works great for me.

But not wanting to press my luck too far, we threw the bikes and the Bee trailer on/into the van, and headed for the RailTrail. Ten miles of biking, some random playing, an ice cream stop along the way, and dinner at a local diner completed the Father's Day events.

Steve

My Dad's Day was great as well. We just moved, so I unpacked the tandem recumbent trike, and changed the configuration. I used to have it set up for the wife & I, with 2 child seats, one behind each of us. The oldest boy now being 4 years old, I decided to set up the stoker position for him, and just keep one child seat. By the time it was all set up, the youngest was asleep, so I got to take the 4 year old on his first ride where he was pedaling; with just the two of us. Lots of downhill at first, but he was really enthused by all the excited comments we were receiving (for our cool rig). At the 1/2 mile gap between the two trails, we had to make a dash to make the only stoplight before it changed, passing another Dad w/ trail-a-bike in process (his kid, "Woooah!"). We took the 1/2 mile bridge over the River, and stopped at a trailside bike shop for a dinosaur horn for him. We got a scoop of ice cream and turned around, mostly uphill on the way back. Almost home, he said he was getting tired, so I guess 10 miles was the perfect length. He had such a great time that he's asked to go on another ride every day since. He always liked the bike rides we took as a family, but I'm excited that he seems to have made the transition to being an active participant so well.

Sounds like many others had a great Father's Day like my family did. My wife and I packed everyone up (3 girls ages 5, 3 and 9 mo) and we headed out to the Rail Trail with my Aunt and Uncle. We had a really nice and faily level 15 mile ride before heading home for a big family dinner outside with grilled chicken and fruit salad. Great Ride and Great Food equals Great Father's Day!

That tandem idea with the little ones sounds like alot of fun. My oldest was born there in Northampton when I was a student at UMass. Too bad we're not still out there, it would be fun to ride together with the families.