When we lived in Nashville, TN, we had a beautiful flat piece of land on a flat, dead-end road with 5 houses.  We played outside all the time.  We messed around in the yard and we rode bikes.  We rode bikes constantly. 

Isaac started riding his little Red Flyer tricycle there and graduated to a two-wheeler with training wheels.  He was briliant on a bike.  He got better and better and quickly was able to ride without training wheels.  In fact, he was so good that I took his training wheels off one day and he jumped right on his bike and rode off.  He never has wrecked since that day.

Charleston, WV is not flat space.  We moved here when Abigail was 3.  She had just started to ride bikes in TN so moving here definitely stunted her bike riding ability.  I suppose my brother and I were born on bicycles.  Not sure how my Mom worked that out and I sort of hope we keep it that way.  Anyhow, we were always on bikes and I need for my kids to be that way too.  It’s been tough here though since we have no flat space to ride.

There is a neat area in Charleston called Kanawha City that has neat homes and flat back streets right along the river.  Typically, there isn’t much gunfire, during the day at least, so we were able to ride pretty freely this weekend.  Several of the back streets are very bike friendly.  Cars typically are aware of bikes so it’s an ideal situation.  Our only barrier until now was how to get all of our bikes to Kanawha City.  We have a bike carrier but none of us was smart enough to figure out how to use it.  This weekend, after 3 years of holding out (seriously), I caved in and finally read the instructions.  We hooked it all up and made it to flat ground in WV!  We rode bikes like when I was a kid (i.e. with abandon!) and had a blast and will definitely be back!  The best part is that my bike has a speedometer so Isaac and I had fun watching our speed (the speed limit in Kanawha City is 25…I can say no more for fear of the repercussions).  We were careful to obey most of the rules of the road!

(Isaac’s first bike!)

Were you a “biker” when you were a kid?  If not, what did you do when you played outside?