Big Rides, with Children - by Amy

The bridge was nice. The ramp up, not so much.

Over the last few weeks, Jamie and I have been trying to do several short rides during the week and longer rides on weekends. The lesson learned was that our biggest challenges aren't our physical limitations -- they are the cute little people on the ride with us!

First, we did the BWI loop -- I believe Jamie may have mentioned that ride in his last post. It was a total of 14 miles, which we did in 2 hours. If you think that is slow, then you have never pulled a 40-lb toddler in a trailer up a ramp to an overpass bridge!

On our earlier, shorter rides, Ray had nothing but love for the bike choo-choo. Ray loves watching airplanes so the BWI ride had additional entertainment value for him. We were cautiously optimistic that he would behave for two hours.

Jamie and Ray and the runway

Somewhere around the point that we started to feel good about being in the home stretch, Ray decided that sitting in the choo-choo was stupid and began kicking the front cover off (yes, we buckle him in, but the cover is only attached with velcro, and as I may have mentioned, Ray is big). Next he started to complain. Then he started screaming.

Fortunately, we had brought Ray's LeapPad in case of emergency. We finished the trail with the sounds of Team Umizoomi blaring from the choo-choo. I was concerned that the other bikers, runners, and picknickers might not want to hear Team Umizoomi, but I convinced myself that it was better than a screaming two-year-old, and besides, anyone looking for a tranquil run wouldn't choose a path by an airplane runway, right?

Despite Ray's meltdown, it was a good ride experience. There were some serious hills, but Jamie and I both felt physically like we could have kept going. The path offers a lot to look at, crossing highways, circling the airport, and rolling through some pretty farms. We'll go back to that one.

For our second big ride, we had all five Britts in tow and decided to stick to the Baltimore-Washington trail so that no driving was required. Ray behaved this time as long as we kept him stocked with goldfish. Our challenge this time was managing a somewhat grouchy 12-year-old girl who did not understand why she should be forced to spend a 72-degree afternoon outside on a bike. Jarod was extraordinarily eager and excited about the ride, which made Natalie more surly, which made Jarod more eager, ad infinitum.

We did 11.3 miles together, then we were in a good place to drop off Natalie at the house. The remaining four Britts did an additional 6.84 miles, for a total of 18 miles in just under two hours.

At this point, we are estimating a day of child-free Climate Ride biking will take between six and eight hours. Not terrible! Every time we go out, we continue to be more encouraged about the possibility that we can really do this thing!