68 and Sunny
Posted by Byron Watkins Sunday, March 06, 2011
My son was dying to see Rango, the new animated movie about a chameleon that helps a town believe again. It was a beautiful day, so instead of taking the car we hopped on the bikes and rode over to see it. My son is six but he has made a couple of fairly long in-town bike trips. His largest round trip is about 10 miles.
We rode to Manchester Cinemas which is about 3 miles from the house and I actually got him out into the bike lanes today. It was one of the first times I had done that. Normally, I will ride the bike lane and I have him ride the sidewalk next to me but the areas we were riding had good bike lanes and bad sidewalks (go figure) so I thought i would start to teach him how to use them. He did a great job. Being six, I still find his mind tends to wander quickly so I have to keep focusing him with my voice as we ride. He will get in what I call the “bike trance.” It’s that state where somehow you are the only thing in the world and the effort of riding feels more like flying. This, compounded with a six year olds ability to be distracted by the tiniest breeze, it can sometimes be difficult to keep him focused on road obstacles.
If you heard someone yelling, “Hey! Pay attention!” that was probably us riding past your house.
