Sunday, February 10, 2008

Is It Real or Is It Memorx?

The past three days have felt like spring has arrived. The temperature each day has been in the upper 70s and the sun has been bright. Our grass has begun to turn a deeper shade of green (we were lucky in that it never completely turned brown this year -- mixture of mild winter and a fertilizer at just the right time last fall) and people are getting out in their yards planting and cleaning.
Because the spring bug has bitten us and because we have this trip to England, Ireland and Scottland planned for June, Robert and I went to our handy, dandy Walmart yesterday and made a purchase of two 26" bicycles. His is the boy bike in bright red with black fenders, mine is of course the girl bike in bright blue with silver fenders. These are the plain jane kind of bikes like we rode back when we were kids. No gears or breaks on the handlebars, just push forward on the peddle to go forward and push back on the peddle to stop. If you are going uphill push a little harder on the peddles and if you need to slow down going down hill push backward on the peddle. So far we have managed to keep all of that straight. I even got brave and rode with no hands for a little (very little) ways yesterday.
We rode for about 30 minutes yesterday when we arrived home with them (they were pre assembled) and again today after getting home from lunch. Our goal is to ride each day that something isn't falling from the sky. We want to be able to keep up with the young kids on trip and pass up some of the old (but younger than us) folks --- we are just that way.



This is my family when I rode a bike with no fancy gear shifts or brakes --- I'm not even sure the bike I had was equipped with fenders --- I do remember that the bike Billie had was green and mine was blue and white. Beyond that not much memory.

4 comments:

Donna said...

Wow, it still amazes me how much you and Carrie look alike in pictures of you when you were younger. (Notice I didn't say "young.") It also amazes me how Aunt Jo still looks just about exactly like she did then!

Carrie said...

And I don't think I really favor Mom in pictures when I was younger. Not that she could deny me but I don't start to see the strong resemblance in pictures until I'm grown. Maybe I'm just distracted by the humongous glasses I'm wearing in all the pictures. :)

I asked Paul this weekend why we don't own bikes. I want a three-speed as I don't need for more than that. But we do need at least that. We have big hills around our house so "pedal harder" isn't always an option. Use-higher-gear or get-off-and-walk are it. :)

Julie said...

This is great. I have a fancy bike my husband got for me, 18 gears and a shiny blue paint job, and I think I have ridden it once. I need to ride my bike...

This sounds like a great plan, and a great trip. I am just a little jealous, even if I am going to Italy next month -- I love London and would really like to see more of the country!

Donna said...

Hey Moma, I'm tagging you for a meme. Check it out on my blog.