Pedal Power

Today we went for the most incredible bicycle ride we have ever been on. All fifteen miles of it and yes, we did take the girls. Lily rode her own bike the whole way and Rosie sat behind us in her little bike seat. We went to Shark Valley which is an Everglades National Park. Went many years ago with my Father and Jeanne and we took the tram tour around but this time we knew we wanted to see all the wild life up close and personal, and we did.

My bestie Jakie joined us with her daughter Lucy. They however wimped out on us 7 miles into the ride and a ranger had to come and pick them up and drive them back to the start. We carried on without them with plans to meet up at the start/end.

On your marks, get set and we were off

Not sure what's with the face. She was riding next to me and didn't expect me to ride and take photos.
Jakie

Mother and ChildSoft shelled turtle
one of our MANY water breaks

We saw so many herons, all right next to us Another gator. No shortage of them here.

This fella was part of the welcoming committee right next to the bike stands.

An old abandoned tram.

After riding for 7 miles these 2 were beaten up, so they sat for a while to recoup.

We were raring to get to the top of the observation tower.

On top of the world, I mean observation tower. This is where we said good bye to Jakie and Luci.

Love this shot.
The easy button!
Once we made it back to the car....all filthy and sweaty.


It was amazing, truy amazing and I have to say that Lily has just impressed the heck ourt of us. Never once did she ask to stop. She was the pace bike and sometimes it was hard going to keep up with her. Both girls loved it.

There was one tiny little snafu, which was me falling off my bike. (very embarrassing but no one saw it happen) After Jakie and Luci decided to get help going back Lily wanted to get going so Jacob and her took off and I stayed for a few minutes with Jakie. We had a rule that if one of us was taking Rosie then the other one had the back pack. Jacob took off and left me with both. After about 30 minutes the back pack was uncomfortable so instead of stopping and rearranging it I did it whilst riding. I slipped off the road and hit gravel and rocks and splat! I tried so hard to keep Rosie upright that I took out a good portion of skin from my knee. Rosie was fine. Surprised but fine. I didn't tell her I was hurt I just hopped back on and took off and tried to catch Jacob up as fast as I could. After seeing a snake in the middle of the road I rode even faster! Rosie thought it was amazing seeing the snake.

I am so glad that Sundays have gone back to being our family funday and not just another day. I can hardly wait to see what next weekend holds. Oh wait, I already know.

We had a picnic lunch before we started and took snacks with us on the ride but when we got back to the car Lily devoured everything in sight. I have never seen her eat that much before. I have never seen her ride 15 miles before either.