The bike and trailer together at last

I never knew what a difference a bicycle could make. When first pulled my kids in a bike trailer this spring, I fell in love with it. It was fun to watch them have fun and I liked the exercise. Now that I have my own set I expected it to be similar. Wow...No. I strapped the kids in. I hooked the trailer to my bike and I set off. Not too bad. We live at the top of a little incline so it was pretty easy sailing for a hundred feet or so. Then I have to turn left into the street and right away I have to drop the bike into the smallest gear I have cause it's straight up a hill 30 feet. Then we dropped off our rent and went up another hill. It felt like my legs were on fire. I was tired after 3 minutes. We rode around for a half hour or so, up and down the hills in my neighborhood. It kicked my butt. But that's good, right? Part of the reason I wanted a bike was for fun with my kids, but the other part was that I wouldn't mind getting rid of some extra inches. After a while we rode by a park in my complex and so I let Annie and Alex out to play for a little bit. After only twenty minutes my thighs where so tight I could barely walk. I just can't believe how much more tired I was after this ride then I was after the ones at my parents. But then my parents live in Florida where the hills are minimal, and they are serious bikers. They've been riding for at least thirty years now, and know what to look for in a bike and now that their kids are gone, they can afford to drop some money into really cool bikes. I bought an OK bike, but my bike is worlds away from my parents. It's heavy, needs a little TLC, and it's not road bike; it's a mountain bike. The extra work will be good for me, though. Maybe someday I'll be able to fit back into this dress that's been hanging in my closet for four years now. And if not, I'm going to have lots of fun riding around and making memories with my babies.