No Problem

This morning the boys and I headed off on an adventure of our own. Both received two-wheelers for Christmas and have been dying to go on a ride so I loaded the three boys (Mackenzie and Nelson were out), two bikes and a jogging stroller into the car and headed across the river to a path specifically for this activity (read - NO CARS). No problem...I thought.

We started from the recreation center because I knew there was a water fountain and bathrooms there - a good start for my crew. Sure enough, by the time we arrived, someone HAD to go potty. We got out and walked to the center, which was closed. So we loaded up again and drove to a bathroom...no problem.

After some much needed relief we drove back to the path, unloaded the bikes and went to the water fountain to tank up before the ride. It wasn't working...no problem. I grabbed the water bottle from the car and off we went.

Not more than a hundred feet into the ride, one of my guys began to complain. "My legs hurt Mama." "Can we turn around?" "I'm tired." "I'm thirsty." No problem, I thought, I'll just distract him until we reach the water fountain on the path.

In the meantime, the other son was having the time of his life. We worked out a deal where he could ride ahead of me, the baby in the stroller and the boy constantly complaining on the bike. When he got too far ahead, I'd call him and he would turn around, ride back to us and go ahead again. No problem, we're still having a relatively good time.

About fifty feet before we reached the water fountain, I heard a clunk and then jogged past a bike pedal on the ground. I looked ahead and asked slightly less complaining boy if that came from his bike. Indeed it had. This, I thought, could be a problem.

I stopped the boy ahead, pulled in the stroller and tried like crazy to fix the pedal. Soon another cyclist pulled up next to us and offered to help. He was just as inept as I was. We walked the bike to the water fountain where I found a cyclist with a pack on his bike. I asked him if he could help but he had no luck. Okay, this is a bit of a problem.

We filled up the water bottle as the third cyclist, who actually had tools, offered his help. He got the pedal in better than the rest of us and so I was hopeful. He wasn't sure the pedal would stay on but I told him not to worry. After all, we were turning back here. I asked about how far we were from the parking lot. "1.7 miles," was his empathetic reply. Houston...we definitely have a problem.

We turned around and headed back. The pedal fell off again thirty feet later. So the boys very graciously took turns on the one working bike and pushing the stroller, while I wheeled the broken bike. The entire 3 1/2 miles took us a little over an hour, but we made it, relatively unscathed and happy.

"Thank you SO much for taking us on a bike ride Mama," said the happy bike boy. "I wish we could ride forever!"

"Yes," said the now uncomplaining boy with the broken bike, "thank you for the bike ride."

"You're welcome guys. How bout we go get a Frosty?"

"Yay!!!" came the high pitched screams from the back of the car. And suddenly, no more problems.