The thrills of biking as a family

We've been biking together for three months now, and it's been one of the happiest times of my life.  Granted, the weather has been relatively nice, as it's spring, but we haven't avoided biking in rain or heat unless there were other factors preventing it (i.e. lightning and thunder, or we all needed to be completely dry when we arrived and wouldn't be able to change clothes).  At the moment, our routine is that we automatically bike places that are within five (biking) miles of the house, and if time allows and the route isn't too difficult or complicated, we'll bike a bit further.  The most we've done in one day is about twenty miles, to the local family school and back, with a break for time at the school in between, and our regular trips around town are between three and eight miles, round-trip.

So while we biked all over the place, I've thought about why I (and everyone else in the family) enjoy it so much, and why biking is always our first choice for transportation.  

My reasons

     1)  I get to talk to my husband

I talk to him all the time, of course, but when we're biking together, we have more time and fewer interruptions.  Our conversations dip into all the topics we've wanted to cover and all those we already have, and it reminds me of when we were dating and walked back to the dorms together after ballroom practice.

     2)  Fresh air and nature

It's common knowledge that most people aren't getting enough fresh air and time outside, and the addition of somewhere between thirty minutes and four hours of time outside each day makes a difference for us.  With enough sunscreen, I don't even get burned while biking, and the air feels so good as we pedal.  Also, the greenways and trails in our area go through some swampy and well-forested areas, so we get to see and hear lots of wildlife on our trips.  From the three deer the kids and I saw close to the Third Fork Creek trail one afternoon to the rabbits who stopped to watch us go by on our way back from Southpoint the other night, we get to see so many more animals and birds than normal, despite living in a neighborhood where deer walk placidly around the house to find the best plants.  One of our regular trails has so many frogs on it in the evening that we do a frog count and bike slowly to avoid hitting them.  So far, no mistakes.  Our highest frog count on one trip was twenty-six frogs on about a mile of trail, including giant bullfrogs and the tiny frogs that you can barely see.

     3)  Continuity

As much as I love going places with my family, I really dislike the whole "load into the car, strap in, stay inside a vehicle in order to get somewhere" thing.  It interrupts the continuity of the day, somehow, and I was so excited when I realized that loading up the bikes was nothing like that.  Maybe it's because we're outside, or because the kids like the bikes so much, but the flow of the day is so much better when we bike places instead of driving, especially when we're going somewhere close, like the grocery store or restaurants that are less than two miles from the house, when driving feels silly, but it's often too hot to walk comfortably for more than a mile.

     4)  Exercise

When I was in college, David and I danced six days out of seven, often about twenty hours a week.  I became very fit and strong because of that, and I miss it now, because dancing once or twice a week isn't enough to keep that up on its own, especially after having two children.  Biking adds lots of exercise back into my life without my having to say "now I'm going to exercise" or needing to find time when the kids are less likely to interrupt.  David is at a computer all day for work (and who am I kidding, for fun as well), so the exercise makes both of us feel so much better.

The kids' reasons

     1)  No carseats!

Robert doesn't mind his carseat anymore, but Katherine thinks that carseats were designed to torture poor, innocent children who never did anything to deserve it, which results in struggles to get her strapped in at least 80% of the time.  In the bakfiets, however, she sits happily waiting to be strapped in, and she almost never cries while we're biking, unlike her frequent crying jags in the carseat.  Somehow, two hours in the bakfiets is infinitely better than five minutes in the car.  

     2)  They can see everything

Children in carseats (and in vehicles in general), often can't see much outside the car until they're tall enough to see out the window, which leaves them with a pretty boring view most of the time.  But both children can see everything from their seats in the bakfiets, can point out vehicles and animals and roads that they recognize.  They love seeing where we're going and what surrounds us, and I love that they're getting to know their hometown better than they would from the backseat of a car.

     3)  They're together

When we were shopping for a cargo bike, Robert's one request was that he be able to sit beside his sister.  He loves sitting with her and holding her hand, or hugging her, or just showing her things as we go by them and making her laugh.  She loves being able to fall asleep, sometimes leaning on his shoulder, sometimes with just her hand on his leg, and knowing that he's next to her.  They're best friends, and they are happy to be able to bike together, close enough to touch at all times and hold hands if they want to, which isn't always possible in the car.