A BIKE RIDE

We got cruiser bikes a few years ago to take leisurely bike rides around town.  I wanted something that looked vintage, but still had gears since, contrary to what some might think, we do have hills in Kansas (at least around where I live).  I love the chrome on this bike, but since the day I got it, I knew it was missing something.  A basket on the front, of course!  How else am I supposed to store a little boombox for music as we cruise around the block, a la the movie "Now and Then"?  For some reason, whenever I think about riding bikes, I picture those four girls going on fantastic adventures on their bikes singing along to a radio strapped to the front of one of the bikes.  Everybody needs their own soundtrack for adventures.

So for three years, I was complacent with not having a basket.  I thought surely Wade would pick up on the many hints I dropped and "surprise" me with one for an anniversary or birthday. Cut to this weekend when we planned on going on a bike ride with my parents to a local pizza place.  I determined a few hours beforehand that I would not go on another bike ride without a basket.  So I made Wade hunt down this wicker one at Target while I was working on things for my craft fair this weekend and forced asked him nicely to put it on my bike.  It may have made us run a little bit late, but I had a cool basket to hold all our stuff!  I proudly showed my parents and scoffed when my mom said things would probably fly out of it.  Just to show her how great it was, I offered to store her jacket in it until she was ready to wear it.

And off we went!  Wade and I rode our bikes along the streets to the trail head, while my parents drove with their bikes.  About 30 seconds after leaving, I hit a bump and my mom's jacket flew out of the basket.  At that moment, my parents were just passing by me in their car, and I could see my mom's face mouthing "I told you so" as I ran after her jacket that had landed on the ground a few feet away.  I guess mothers do know best.  Oh, well.  There are always a few kinks to work out with anything new.

Without further incident, we made it to the trail and started our epic journey.  The trail is the site of Kansas City's last streetcar line.  After the streetcar was no longer in operation, the tracks were removed and the city built up a great trail.  I love it because parts are surrounded by a lot of trees, while other parts back up to cute shopping areas.  We took our time and enjoyed the perfect fall air.  There aren't many really perfect nights that aren't too hot or too cold, so we really lucked out.

We made it to our favorite pizza place, parked our bikes, and ordered a pitcher of beer to celebrate our harrowing journey.

We probably sat there a bit too long, because it was pretty dark when we started riding again.  Not too dark to stop for some ice cream on the way back, though.

I swear we didn't plan to all wear a yellow shirt

Oh, and on the way back, we also noticed some "birds" flying around.  Nope, it was just a huge swarm of bats.  We had heard this area had a bat problem. I'll say.  Not sure if you can really see them in this picture, but look really closely.  See all those black blob things in the sky?  Yep, those are just a ton of bats, and you all know how I feel about bats.

We will definitely be doing this again soon.  It was a great time and made my heart happy.