February Bike #1

Our first bike ride this month is a short one. Mostly just around our neighborhood, the surrounding neighborhood, and the city park near our neighborhood. Here's our route to get to the park, and we followed the same route to get back home.

As you can see from the map, if you click on the satellite view, you can see a trail leading off of Independence Ave near the intersection of Princess Anne that will lead you to the Twin Lakes Park. I do take that trail when I'm walking to the park, but I will not take the bike and trailer on there, at least not for a while. It's largely unmaintained back there and I usually have to hike through a huge muddy puddle somewhere along the way, and I just don't care to do that on a bike!

We had a nice bike ride today. This is our first "real" bike ride, and I mean real because our January Bike Ride was just around the shopping center of Performance Bicycles! And the bike trailer wasn't even ours officially!

It was a little bit chilly when going fast down the hills around the neighborhood, but Eliza was dressed appropriately, and I put the rain cover down on the trailer, so that the cold air wouldn't be hitting her face. Then once we got to the park, we began pedaling very slowly, so I rolled up the rain cover to let her feel the fresh air on her face. I think she enjoyed it.

I put a lot of toys in the trailer for her to stay busy.

Stacking cups, camera, peek-a-blocks, a doll, a butterfly rattle, her favorite milk jug toy...oh boy! So much fun to be had in this trailer!

Twin Lakes Park is a wonderful city park. If you've never been there yet, you should consider a visit sometime. There are 2 main lakes, and some smaller ponds off in the woods. There are ducks and geese that are fun to watch swim and honk at each other. There's a wonderful playground there with a big kid playground and a small toddler playground, too. There are numerous picnic shelters for picnicking, but I will caution that sometimes I've seen some shady teenagers hanging out at them, doing, ummm I don't want to know. But...don't let that scare you. This park is completely safe. I see families here all the time. There's a beautiful soccer field where you can find some Triangle Adult Soccer League games going on, or just a bunch of people playing for fun. You can fish at the park, too, but I don't know the rules of catching and keeping, or if you have to catch and release. You'd have to read the rules on the board when you come into the park. The official address of the park is 435 Chandler Rd.

In this picture you can see the awesome playground:

These geese were loud!

Leaving the park to head home:

Oh, and a quick video of Eliza, the soccer field, and the surrounding woods:



Once we got home, Eliza wanted to help me unpack the bike trailer storage area...if only she was big enough to reach in and grab our stuff!

Final synopsis: Nice, easy, short bike ride. Fun!