Monday, February 20, 2012

Eat before riding

We had an interesting experience on our family bike ride Sunday afternoon. We went east out of town along a grassy track in the wide open with a strong side wind. Tristan got off his bike after half a mile, middle of nowhere, and said he was hungry and felt sick. I said didn't you have a snack with everyone else? No. I thought through the contents of my pockets and announced I had no food and that we'd just have to ride slowly. I said he'd be fine. He wasn't convinced or interested in getting back in the saddle. I felt the planned adventure ride to the cow pasture evaporating and dissipating before it even started.

Paulos came to the rescue. "We should pray for Jesus to give us some food. Jesus, please give us some food for Tristan." He unclasped his hands and looked at me. Now what?

I told Paulos to walk that way and I'd walk this way and we'd look for the food. I didn't see any and neither did Paulos. I convinced Tristan to get up and we'd look for the food on the way to the bridge we could see in the distance. We looked for the food as we rode our bikes. We almost drove right over it. There were some corncobs lying right in our path, partly dried and glistening in the sun. I don't know about you but that's food to me so I picked one up, bit off a few kernels and started chewing, and offered some of it to Tristan. He seemed less than thrilled with Jesus' choice for his snack but gave it a try. The other kids were anxious to give it a go as well.

With some incredulous jubilation we carried on our way and found some fun bike riding places. We decided to head home after a while.

Apparently the corn wasn't enough, because in some deep grass at the turnaround I spotted a dirty plastic bottle with some ice and water in it. For some reason I picked it up. It had a lid. I checked the lid and saw the security ring intact. We now had something with which to wash down our freeze dried corn.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Grandma Bike

Wanted: 53cm road bike frame or complete bike, preferably old and cheap.  
I'm building mom a bike as a Christmas gift from me and some of the siblings.   
I'll use an old frame but build her some sweet wheels and make the best riding 
budget conscious cruiser ever seen.