As for the route, we needed to drop a few packages in the mail, so we took the route to school as the local USPS office is across the street from his school.
I fully expected to go slow and we did. There were a few sections where the grade was in my favor and in one case I also had a tail wind. As Stone tasted speed, he encouraged me "faster daddy, faster" ...
I would apply a bit more pressure to the pedals ...
Him: "No daddy go Ten fast, go ElevenTEEN fast"
Me: "hhhhuuuuuhhhhh ffffeeewww hhhhuuuuuufffffeeewww" ... " that takes more than" .... hhhuuuhh fewfew hhuuuuhhhh" ... "energy than I have"
Him: "Faster daddy"
Her: "aahhhh ee aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhAAHAHAHA"
As we came around a corner and went up a hill, they were reminded that I was pulling them and things went by more slowly, so they got quiet and observed more around them as it took a while to pass by. I would get a few questions from him, after time he understood it was hard to hear each other so he didn't persist with his latest inquisition.
One of the sounds other than car noise and wind and heavy breathing was a few varieties of birds. Quite a few are milling about and the first few migratory fowl have started to arrive. A nice change.
I had scouted most of the ride in a vehicle and the one section I didn't think to check was a side walk on the "busy" road on the final approach to the store. As I made the right turn I saw that the paved section was still covered in snow so I took the "gutter" option next to the road.
I left some minor divots, and thought the return trip might get interesting as on the way back I would be going uphill in that area. Nothing too steep, but considering the fact that their trailer might sink a bit I might have to hop off and hoof it to the left turn back onto pavement.
As I unloaded the items to be sent I was asked how we got there ... I had the packages, the kids and my bike helmet still on. I guess that does not look too normal. I mentioned we arrived on a bike. He was then puzzled as to how the kids arrived, and I explained they had a separate trailer. We thanked him for helping us and headed back to the family bike thingy.
As expected, as I got to the very top of the gutter section on the way up, things went very slippery and slow. I didn't have to dismount, although I did make some slightly larger impressions on our way out. Evidence of some of the nastiness can be seen on their screen / plastic protector of the trailer below.
Immediately after the slow, slushy, muddy uphill and left turn is the longest downhill section of the ride. As I completed my roll up the next hill and started pedaling again I noticed it was fairly quiet behind me.
I didn't think too much about it as I was feeling better as I had been riding for a bit over thirty minutes, and typically it takes me 45-60 minutes to really "warm up" on a bike ride.
As we turned into our parking area, I went through the usual routine of garage door opening, bike walking in, garage door closing and kid removal.
This is when I realized he had passed out. He hasn't taken a nap during the day in over two years ... really ... less than 50 minutes in the trailer and your head falls over ... so I did the right thing and took pictures.
Cheers
