2 Kids, 1 Fetus, 1 Mom, 1 Bike - 34 miles

Yesterday my boys and I took the triple tandem out for it's first great adventure.  We biked a total of 34 miles from our house in Renton to Seattle and back.  It was awesome/exhausting.  First of all I just have to say, my kids are flippin ALL STARS!  I could not be more proud of them.  Biggest highlight of the trip was the repeated sentence that came out of each of their mouths, "Explores of the world never quit!" and "We can do it, keep pedaling!"  It is this type of perseverance that really can make this Mom melt.  You see, our bike has the custom label "this bike belongs to the Explorers of the world"  which is now our group name.  Soren thought up this tittle, and I hope it will fit us accurately one day.

So, our goal of leave time was 8:30am but due to life we left at 9am - 6 blocks later had to return because I left my money in the other bag I was originally going to bring.  Then started off again.  Then 2 blocks later, my seat shifted and we stopped to fix it. In the process we got our multi tool stuck and had to bike home again to get another tool to fix it.  Needless to say it was frustrating.  But we were off for good at 9:20am for the first leg of the trip - 22 miles.  We did great until about mile 10 ish when we were suppose to get off the trail we were on and get on another one via 10 turns on different street roads.  This is were we got lost.  I had used a website called, www.ridethecity.com that gives you the best bike paths from point A to B in and around Seattle.  It was great but for the safest route we had to make 77 turns on different roads from our house to my sister in laws.  I had the road turns printed off but no real map........a thing I quickly regretted.  I ended up having to call my sister in law and she coached us to our new trail..........and this is when it got hilly.  Really hilly.  By this time my legs were tired.  I haven't been doing much cardiovascular activities since, well probably last summer, so I am definitely out of shape.  And between that, being 23.5 weeks pregnant and having a triple tandem where my stroker are 7 and 5, I am not sure what was the biggest handicap.  Well, whatever the reason, I have never spent so much time in gear 1:1 as I did on the last half of this ride.  Gesh!

 The boys at our lunch spot.  You can kind of see the hills in the background.  Why can't my boys ever take a normal picture?

 After 4.5 hrs we reached Cousin Theo's house.  I was hoping to make it in 3hrs.  Ooops.  The boys never complained so I thought over all it was quite a success, however, Theo had to go to a wedding at 2:15 and because we left late, got lost and all the hill, we didn't get there until 1:45 - bummer!  Luckily they let us stay after they left.  I was ready to take a nap but played some board games with the boys instead and after 2 hrs Xander was rearing to go.  We biked 2.6 miles down some steep hills in Seattle to Pioneer Square to pick up the light rail.  The station was underground so we had to carry the bike 6 flights of stairs to catch the train (and another 6 flights when we got to our end destination).  But the up side was the whole 10 ft bike was able to fit without taking it apart.  That was cool.  It also felt great to miss all the hills back.  We were dropped off at Tuckwilla were I thought I would have to call a friend to pick us up (Ryan was working that day) but the boys felt good and wanted to bike the 9 miles back.   The sun was shinning and I was feeling good again so we decided to go for it.  We biked on some busy roads with no shoulder for about .5 miles which was probably the sketchiest part of the whole ride, and I prayed the whole time we wouldn't get hit.  Luckily my prayers were answered.  I'd Hate to wipe out most family on one trip - Ryan would be sad.  The boys did get a little antsy at one point when we hit a trail again and started bugging each other, but since the sun was shining I could see exactly what they were doing by our shadows.  It was awesome.  "If I see your shadow touch another persons handlebars or body, then you will loose one spoonful of your victory ice cream to your brother for each offense!" I threatened.  Problem solved.  We were doing pretty good until we hit the massive mile long hill just below our house.  My legs were so tired, I just couldn't bike anymore and we walked it, which was hard in of itself.  Xander seemed to be doing the best physically......he also pedals with power the least frequent I think.  Either way, I was impressed with him.  I was impressed with both of them.  Their sprits were high and they did awesome!  We made it home at 7:30pm.  It was a long day, but oh so fun.

Us finally making it to our Seattle destination.  We had tied dyed matching shirts for a triple tandem adventures a few months earlier.  This was their debut outing.

Most interesting things

• On the Cheif Sealth Trail there we all these gardens that looked like pea patches for immigrants.  The way they used sticks and ropes looked straight out of mexico or Africa and the few people I saw working them fit the profile. It was interesting.
• A man who looks like he has had a hard life, commended me on being a great mom to my boys.  He said, "look, you even make them wear helmets. You are such a good Mom.  All they did when I was a kid was.....well, beat us - chuckle chuckle"
• I stopped in downtown Seattle for directions briefly and 2 people passed me and wouldn't respond because they had earphones in their ears - these are 40 plus year old men.  I had to wait for someone with nothing in their ears so they could hear me. It was strange.  We live is such a plugged in world.  
• Hearing lots of "No way!  Look at that!"  comments.  

       

Me 34 miles later with my overly large 23.5 week belly.  I mean seriously, don't you think I should be 30 weeks with a belly looking like that?  It is going to be a rough 17 weeks.  The future looks grim.

Well, we did it.  It was awesome and I feel so lucky to do adventures with these boys.  I must admit there were some moments (like when we were lost) I wondered if we were going to even make it, but I am glad we did.  I seriously couldn't be more proud of them.  They never complained and they always kept pedaling.  There were times they were goofing off behind me and I seriously wondered how hard they were pedaling, but their happy giggles with each other made me carrying their weight all worth it.   I hope they have good memories of their adventures with me.