Ah, a lazy, crisp Saturday with very few plans. What a wonderful thing.
Caden had a birthday party to go to this afternoon at the home of his favorite classmate, Alex. A bike-themed party. Duncan was devastated not to go so I told him mommy would pull him "fast fast" in the bike trailer all the way to drop Caden at the party and all the way back and he could have a donut instead of birthday cake. No problem, right?
Well first, I haven't ridden my bike yet this year. I opened up the garage and there it sits, bike trailer already attached - behind a pile of snow tires and the tools we used to build the climber. Strike one.
I gamely move everything out of the way and extricate my bike. Both tires and both trailer tires are flat. Strike two.
Ok, pump here we come. I manage to get all the tires pumped up, although one of the trailer tires is not quite right. It'll do to go 'not too far' to the party for which we don't want to be late! Off we go!
We get around the corner onto the main street and all of a sudden I can't pedal at all! I nearly fell off my bike but managed to get my feet down. Caden crashed into the trailer of course but we were all ok, except my bike pedals won't move AT ALL. Strike three. You're out.
Or... was I? A random man driving by in a white pickup pulls over and offers to help. With a sock and a screwdriver he FINALLY manages to unjam my chain from where it is wedged between the front gears and the derailer (turns out this guy is a moving man so clearly no wimp and it took him all of his strength to get it out!). I'm covered in grease but my bike can go so I thank the wonderfully helpful man, and we head off.
Around the next corner I realize I'm in a very tough gear and heading for a hill. No problem, I'll gear down. Alas, there goes the chain again. Strike four!?
This time I was smart enough to stop the pedals as soon as I felt the chain go slack so it didn't jam again and I was able to fix it myself (wishing all the while for the dirty sock my good samaritan had used to keep his hands clean on the chain. No such luck.
We DID make it to the party, only 10 minutes late, but I had to do the rest of the ride in high gear because I couldn't risk changing gears again. Thank heavens I have been taking spinning classes the past 6 weeks! Still, spinning classes don't seem to accurately predict being stuck for a long time in the same gear while pulling a 30-pound preschooler in an old and slightly rickety trailer!
Clearly, I'm picking Caden up with the van!
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