Canal Ride

After our initial plans were foiled on Saturday by Halloween madness, I committed to taking my ten year old for a long ride on the Cape Cod canal on Sunday afternoon. He has been wanting to take a long ride with me for some time and I feel that it's time for me to make the kids a regular part of my riding plans if I want them to share my passion for cycling. I feel pretty fortunate that they want to ride and I need to foster that!
So, Sunday afternoon at 1:30 I grabbed the bike rack from under the porch, removed the leaves and spider webs, and secured it to the car. THen spent the next 20 minutes running around like a mad man trying to get my sons bike and my bike on the car, tires pumped up, bottles filled, "where is my helmet?", "Should I bring a vest?" For a family with most every cycling related item under the sun, it takes us too long to get out the door.
By 2:00, we were riding. We parked under the Bourne Bridge, and headed left down towards the train bridge across from the Maritime Academy. My son wanted to make sure that we rode from end to end. No short cuts here! So we rode to the closer end, turned around and rode the full 7 mile length of the canal - which in case you are wondering, requires that you enter the parking lot and ride through the marina in Sandwich before turning around and heading ALL the way back to the other end back in Bourne.
Before we arrived back in Bourne at about 3:30, he made it known that he will not be done when we reach the end! Mind you, it is getting colder, and I'm now picturing us in Sandwich navigating the canal in darkness. I made a deal that we ride another 4 miles total bringing our mileage for the day up to 23. He seemed content with that but let me know that I was in no way off the hook.
23 miles for a ten year old is a pretty decent accomplishment in my book. I don't ever recall riding that distance when I was that age. Of course, he is on a TREK 1000 and I believe I had a striking yellow Schwinn 3 speed at that age.
We arrived back at the car with enough time to get home, clean up, and get to Grandma's for dinner. I finally convinced him on the car ride home that he should be proud of himself and he agreed. I later found out that this was really a test ride for him as he wants to ride the 25 mile course in the Connecticut Challenge next year. I will be with him every mile!
Ride safe.