Beautiful Sunday Ride - and a Problem

The kids decided that today would be Parents' Day Off.  They encouraged us to stay in bed all day.  They planned all of the meals for the day.  They promised to wait on us hand and foot.

I told our daughter that what I really wanted to do was to take a bike ride out on the causeway over the lake with a couple of friends.  She at first just wanted me to stay in bed, but I finally convinced her that a good bike ride WAS relaxation to me.

She even came with us.

My friends came to our house and we rode from there.  My daughter wanted to stop constantly, but I managed to convince her to only stop a couple of times and keep going until we reached the end.  One of my friends said that she would bike back more slowly with her, so that she could take some stops and build some cairns on the rocky path.

The ride was beautiful.  The causeway bike path is a couple miles from our house, and it goes out on an old railroad fill over the lake.

We actually rode to my hometown, technically.

There is even a bike ferry that runs on weekends in the summer, bringing riders to the other side of the causeway, to my hometown, where my mother still lives. 

Only 231 miles to Boston?  Let's go!

We will be sure to take a ride out to her house this summer..  it's only a couple more miles.

Wishing the bike ferry was running..

On the way back, my friend stayed back with The Girl, who insisted on stopping every 30 feet (if that) to build her cairns.  My friend's boyfriend and I rode back and forth a few times, trying to encourage The Girl to keep going.  I think she was getting tired.

Can you spot the hole?  Poor Penelope.

Then, when we were almost to the end of the causeway on the way back, my tire felt weird.  Our friend had a little pump and pumped me up, but I only went flat again in short order... we discovered a hole in Penelope's tire!  (We also discovered that my front tire was underinflated - which may have contributed to my really slow speeds, as well as the flat tire.  The hole looks like it could have been caused by rubbing from underinflation.  Oops.  I have a portable bike pump on order).

My husband came to our rescue, and picked us up at the end of the causeway after we had walked the remainder of the way.  Now, poor Penelope needs a new tire.

Thank goodness she had the grace not to pop a tire when I was trying to get to work.  That's a good, considerate bike for you.

Overall, this bike trip was 12.4 miles, and we were biking for 1 hr, 41 minutes.  (It would not have been as many miles had we not had to backtrack so many times.. and it would have been more miles had we been able to bike the whole way home!).

Hoping that I can get Penelope a new tire pretty quickly.  I don't want to be grounded for long!  I'm itching to get back pedaling already.