Okay - before anyone starts, I readily acknowledge that:
1) My son is riding my old x-mart Schwinn; and
2) He's not wearing a helmet.
That being said, I did manage to get out on a bike path with my 18 year old son. It was a short, 10 mile out and back, but he hadn't ridden a bicycle in nearly five years.
As a little background, last fall I had a fire in my apartment:
All of my stuff that was salvageable was cleaned and packed into storage, including the old x-mart Schwinn, which I had been practicing surgery on (replaced the bottom bracket, all the cables, new brakes, cleaned lubed and adjusted the derailleurs). When I decided to move from the Philadelphia suburbs to Tucson, I called the storage company and had them put all of my goods into a PODs shipping container. I had pretty much completely forgotten about the old beast, but when I opened up the shipping container there it was; and because it made the move with us, my son decided to ride with me:
Here's Jac as we arrived at the Rillito River trail not far from our home:
The Rillito only qualifies as a river because for a few months during the rainy season there is a trickle of water...if you look hard you can see it beyond the railing behind Jac:
But for most of the year in this part of Tucson, the Rillito is a dry wash:
After a rainy winter though, even the desert blooms:
All in all, it was great to get out and enjoy an afternoon with my son. I only wish that his brothers and sister were along, but we left them back in Philly.
Oh, yeah...I almost forgot...this one is for Mr. Beanz:
and my son's reaction to the Beanz shot:
