Fourteen miles

On Sunday, I asked the girls what they wanted to do as our family activity. They chose going for a bike ride on the Central Lakes Trail. Unfortunately for Steve that means putting the bike carrier on the van hitch and strapping in our four bikes, one-by-one. It takes at least 30 minutes to complete the task, so we always try to make it worth his effort.
Our family has been biking on the Central Lakes Trail since Abby first learned to ride bike. In the past 5 years, I have never once brought my camera along with; however, in an effort to keep our family activities carefully documented and brought it along this time. OK, I admit it, I basically needed some blog material so I brought my camera along to capture the moment.
Sunday afternoon the weather was 73 degrees and what I consider perfect t-shirt weather. The sun was shining and there was absolutely no wind. Many times, we get out to the Central Lakes Trail and have to contend with a horrible headwind or a strong tailwind, which greatly reduces the fun-factor for everyone. We have also been rained out several times, which tends to raise the whine-factor to the point that I don't want to go back for a long, long time.

We started at mile 184, which is right near the DeLagoon Park access. I couldn't believe how perfect the weather was. As usual, Steve and I each pair up with one of our daughters and ride two-by-two. I started out next to Kippy and together we pointing out everything interesting that we saw. Kippy noticed all the deer deposits along the trail as well as the dead vole and squished frog. I happily pointed out a hawk, the beautiful scenery and every time I saw some red foliage. I would shout out "I see Fall.", which was so much more pleasant than Kippy shouting out, "Poopie!"
It didn't seem long at all and we had already gone 7 miles, so we decided to turn around. On the way back to the van, I biked next to Abby and we talked about her upcoming start of 7th grade the next day. It actually was a really profound mother-daughter moment. It reminded me that we just don't have those types of conversations where we can truly talk about the important stuff when we are distracted at home by the TV, Computer or Wii.

We all thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon on the Central Lakes. The fourteen miles were fantastic! Glad I brought the camera along and so thankful for Steve going through the loading and unloading process 2 times for us.