It’s A Good Friday Ride With Mr. T

Mr. T on a walk this afternoon down to Dry Creek behind our house, not long before our ride. He loves the creek, and we saw it several times on the ride. "Look at water?" he often asks.

It was cold overnight with a low of 32, but despite a frosty start to the day, this turned out to be a gorgeous spring Good Friday in Iowa.

On Thursday evening, Katy’s three kids came to stay overnight with us. We went up to the Bowman Woods School play area—the ladies (Amelia, Nikayla and Audrey) walked, while I took Mr. T in the trailer attached to Audrey’s bike. I didn’t use my bike because Audrey assumed it might be a good idea to have “carrying capacity” in case Nikayla wanted a ride home, but when we left the play area, she said she wanted to again walk.

Well, Audrey, Amelia and Nikayla left first while I loaded Mr. T. They headed north to walk up to Boyson Road and then to turn south on Kent. Tristan and I took the south way out of the park. When Audrey came to Kent, she turned left. When I came to Kent I turned right. Both of us were headed to Sussex.

And we met. And Nikayla, by then, two blocks in to the walk, wanted to ride, so she got loaded into the trailer, too.

Today, for one reason and another, Nikayla didn’t nap when Tristan and Amelia slept, and Audrey was trying to get her to lay down later, so she suggested Mr. T and I take a later afternoon bike ride.

Well, you don’t have to push us very hard. I’m such a biking fan that I write a biker blog. Mr. T pretends to be me with his toy bikes, announcing, for example, that he’s “going to work” when he gets on a bike, which he will then ride between kitchen and living room before returning and noting that he has “come home” and has to “put bike away.”

Did I also mention he tilts his toy bikes at a sharp angle when he gets on and off? And grunts audibly during the mounts and dismounts? He’s imitating the noises an old man with a tall bike makes when getting on or off—noises he has heard many times. His impression is hilarious partly because it’s pretty good.

Anyway, off we rode using my bike with the front child seat. We headed to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail and went north to Tower Terrace Road. It was about a 90 minute round trip—a bit longer than it would take me riding alone, but I go more slowly when I have Tristan, and not just due to extra weight, but extra care, too.

It was a fun ride. Mr. T is a great bike companion, partly because he just obviously enjoys it so much, and partly due to his almost constant narration of the biking experience.

Finally, as a bonus, an early Easter bouquet of flowers shot this Good Friday as Tristan played outside this afternoon. I shot these with the "regular" lens of my Nikon, at about 50 mm, so I was right on top of the subjects and pretty happy with the focus at this short distance: