We had an awesome bike ride with all the kids today.
It’s a beautiful morning here, and we all had a good night of sleep. It was a bit short as we watched TV until late and everyone woke up around 7:30. It was a nice warm day, almost got too hot, but it was perfect to be out and enjoying the weather.
I got up, got ready, had some coffee and wrote a post, then went outside to start putting all the bikes in my truck. By time I went out there, Ricardo was up and ready and helped me out. I removed everything from the truck, and got my little blue pump so we could inflate all the tires before putting the bikes in the truck. Ricardo was inflating the tires and I was loading the bikes. We put the little bikes first, then the bigger bikes and lastly the kid trailer bike thing. I ended up taking Ricardo’s bike as it had the connector for the trailer for Henrique, and that connector would not work on my bike. I had to fix his bike’s brakes as well, the rear one was not working at all, so I tightened the wire and moved the Y connector tighter, and later I loosened the screw that holds the shoes and it worked good enough. I had a bit of resistance from the brakes hitting the wheels but it was fine. It took a good 45 minutes to inflate all the bike’s tires, load and such.
While I was loading, Carol was making pancakes for the kids, and feeding everyone. We were all done pretty close, so I decided to leave first so I had time to unload all the bikes and be ready to go when they arrived with the kids. I thought we would not want to have all those kids waiting around too long :). That worked out perfectly. Carol and Flavia got the kids ready, sun screen and all, while I went first and got all the bikes unloaded and lined up.
I had put myself with Henrique’s trailer first, then Bella and Vi, then Flavia with Charlie’s chair, then Bia and lastly Carol. We always have an adult first and last as it’s easier to control and protect the kids. I had all the bikes lined up on the side, and they arrived within 10 minutes or so. Once they got there, we just got the kids to their bikes and helmets, decided on direction and we were off.
We went left from the parking lot first as the downtown was pretty close to the right, within 2 miles. I wanted to do at least 10km so we went one mile on the opposite direction from town first. The path is very nice, spacious, there are lots of shaded areas, people are nice, even the more serious bikers were patient with our group, etc. And, it took about a mile for the kids to say they wanted to eat or drink something, hahahaha, so the plan was perfect. We pulled over by a park and got the kids some snacks.
We hung out there for maybe 10 minutes and then turned around and started biking the other way. Soon after we left, Bella wanted to stop again so I could raise her seat. We lowered it so Lulu could ride with her the other day, but the lower seat makes her legs tired fast. We pulled over, I raised hers and we kept going. Later on the ride Vi asked to have the same done for her as her legs were hurting, and she said it was better immediately. The ride from there was still super nice. We went through downtown Winter Garden and the path goes right through the middle of it. It got a little busier there with a lot of people walking by, but the kids did awesome. We went slow and held a line and didn’t have any accidents. A little past downtown there was another park with a playground, so we stopped there as our turning point.
The kids played in the playground a bit and we decided to stop by the Crooked Can brewery which is in a cool area with lots of different food vendors. We rode through downtown again, and when we were close we just walked our bikes across the street and found some spots to park them. The area was pretty busy with lots of bikes so we had to split the group so we could all park. The place was busy, so it took some walking around to find a place to sit. I got a beer and waited with Bia and Bella while Flavia with her kids and Carol went looking for a place to sit. Flavia found something within 5-10 minutes and we had a nice big table by a shaded spot outside. I loved that spot and the whole area. The beers there were great, the food was great, the day was great.
We were having a great time with the kids enjoying such a nice day on our bikes. Everyone had a good time and ate good at our stop. Once done, we decided to head back and look for ice cream later. We were pretty close to our parking spot, so after we got back on the trail, we wrapped up in no time. I had the ladies load the kids up while I loaded all the bikes and we were all done almost together. Hahahah. I drove back directly and Flavia took everyone to get some stuff, including Ice cream.
After I got back, I unloaded all the bikes and loaded my stuff back in the truck, so it’d be ready to go later.
Ricardo had stayed home all day as the home automation people were there. I am not sure he would have done the biking anyway, but he had a good reason to be home. I got a beer and went by the pool. Everyone else arrived soon and joined me by the pool. The kids went in and were playing in there for a while. The weather turned a bit and the wind picked up, and before we knew it the umbrella they had on the patio blew into the pool and everything started flying around. We put the rest of the outside stuff away quick, then went inside and everyone showered.
For the rest of the evening, we just hung out, talked, ate, kids played… and around 10:30pm or so we left. We leave tomorrow to the Keys, so I didn’t want to stay much later than this. It was weird to say bye, but we’ll be back in two weeks and may see them sooner if they meet us somewhere first.
We had a nice day riding bikes and enjoying downtown Winter Garden then hanging out with our friends.