My fear of bikes

Commuting around the neighborhood on bikes with the kiddos seemed like such a great idea for so many reasons. What I failed to remember is that I am a really terrible bike rider. As a kid I wasn't nearly as fearful as my sister of the family bike ride, but I'll admit that's not saying much. My dad took us on a lot of rides around the neighborhood and even encouraged me to take a bike maintenance/safety class as an elective in middle school. I took my bike with me to college with the hope of attempting to pedal my way through campus....rarely happened.

Jeremy always thought I was exaggerating about my fears and inabilities on a bike because we haven't ridden much in the last 7 years. (Although the one time we did, I fell off my bike while trying to park in our driveway.)

We did have a great afternoon yesterday pedaling around within a short radius from the house. It was a simple, relaxed afternoon riding bikes as a family, playing at the park, stopping for an ice cream cone....something like I remember doing with my family as a child. The kids were on their own bikes so the pace was slow, the biggest incline was the driveway to the Dairy Queen.

Then we decided to take the bikes to a friend's house. Jeremy hooked up a trailer to each of our bikes and the kids loaded up. I did alright for the first little bit, I didn't even panic when the bike lane ended and we had to ride with the traffic. But then we got closer and we had to go up a little hill and despite my best "I think I can attitude" I got scared and had to push the bike up the hill and then ride the brakes on the way down. Jeremy is pretty determined that I'm going to ride in the Bridge Pedal with him and the kids this year. Considering my fear of riding all those inclines, surrounded by so many people on their bikes, all topped off with being on top of the downtown bridges with kiddos who will probably stand too close to the edge, well...that might be more than my heart can handle.