The journey from fat to fit. Road trip, woo hoo!

DD9 and I had this big plan.  We were going to ride our bikes to a farm 5 miles away that has u-pick and a nice market.  Friend of mine said, wow, that’s ambitious, it’s pretty hill.  So I decided maybe we should scope it out first, plus we needed to go to the store and it was near where we would be biking.  Loaded the bikes on the bike rack, thinking worse case scenario, we’ll go to the store, load our store goods in the car, then park at the trail head and bike to the farm.  That would still give us a 3+ mile bike ride and would eliminate the big hill from our house to the trail head.

Long story short, we drove past the farm and OMG it was very hilly, so we ended up driving to the farm with our bikes on the car, which is a form of biking is some warped logic, right?  I mean, we went there WITH our bikes, just not ON our bikes.  We bought rasberries, blackberries and sour cherries for canning, plus hit the grocery store and bought pectin and jars and lids.  Also bought some yummy local tomatos to have with dinner.

Then we parked at the trail head and decided we’d just ride the trails for a little while.  TALK ABOUT HILLY.  Our version of mountain biking went a little something like this: push the bikes up the hill then coast down.  Approach next hill, repeat.

WHY would anyone want to ride a bike uphill on purpose?  I do not get it at all.  And I’m talking little baby hills here, not mountain bike territory by any means.  DD9 was afraid to go too fast downhill.  I was loving it.  She said, “What am I going to do if you get hurt?”  I told her to take the cell phone out of my pocket and call 911.  Ha.  She didn’t like that at all.

Got home, googled how to make jam, and cooked up our berries.  We made freezer jam with all of the berries, but tomorrow I am going to try boiling water bath canning with the cherries.  We’ll see how that goes.

Then it was time to go to DD9’s violin lesson.  It’s 2.5+ miles each way.  We get about ten blocks and she is whining, doesn’t want to go up the hill.  So we would ride two blocks, stop and drink water.  Did this for about 10 blocks until we were no longer going uphill and were flat.  From there we made it to violin OK and even had a nice big hill to coast down at the end.  We all know what going down a nice big hill on your way TO your destination means, but apparently this isn’t so obvious when you are nine, so she was not freaking out, yet.

Had the lesson, everything is swell, and now it is time to bike home.  We get a couple of blocks and we’re at THE HILL.  DD9 starts in.  I can’t do it.  I can’t do it.  I am thinking NEITHER CAN I, BUT YOU DON’T HEAR ME WHINING ABOUT IT!  So I’m being the cheerleader, come on, we can do it, we’re so tough.  She’s not buying it and gets off to push her bike up the hill.  I decided to teach that kid a lesson, and I stood up on my pedals and hauled my still chubby ass up that bitch of a hill without stopping!  I thought I was going to die.  But I made it.

I turned around to glare at DD9 in triumph, and she is pushing her bike up the hill with her head resting on her arm on her handle bars, half asleep.  I said, HEY, LOOK AT ME, I MADE IT UP THE HILL.  She looks up and starts crying because she wants me to get off my bike and push.  UGH.  I said no way, I’m biking all the way home.  Eventually she got back on her bike and rode home, but JEEZ what an ordeal!

As part of the continued mother-daughter bonding fun that we were having, I made her pull the stems off of 3 lb of cherries while I pitted them.  I think our bond is now pretty much set for life.  What a job pitting 3 lb of cherries is.

Now she is in the car with dad going to the grocery store that is about a quarter of a mile away.  IN THE CAR!  Can you believe.  She now considers dad to be much more civilized than mom, what with his fanciful car driving to easily walkable and bikeable locations.  ((My new rule is if it’s within three miles, no freeway, we’re biking it.))

Whoever coined the phrase lazy days of summer obviously didn’t have shit to do, because I am going to need a vacation to recover from summer vacation if we keep at it at this pace!  I’m kind of glad I have to work tomorrow.