Biking on Belle Isle

Can you tell which bike is Evyn's? Our 4' 9" eight year old is riding a big girl mountain bike now.

We love to go biking and have recently discovered a really cool place to ride and explore. This place is full of history as well with many spots along the trails marked as being significant part of Virginia history, something I know nothing about. I can tell you about the Alamo but not about Jamestown or the Civil War. Anyway, this place is called Belle Isle and just like the name implies, it is an island surrounded by the James River. This is the bridge that we cross to get there. It is suspended from a road and the kids have decided that the car noise above us sounds just like being at a bowling alley - and it does.

Almost three weekends ago, we bought both kids new bikes since Evyn's was not working and Reed's was a little small for him, and we headed downtown to Belle Isle. We started our ride and did not exactly know where we were going, although we thought we did. Several miles later we were at a dead end and realized that we had to turn around and retrace our path. All was well until Reed's pedal started falling off. It got to the point where we could not even finger tighten it to keep it on - we needed tools and, of course, we had none. Holly and I were going to alternate walking his bike back but then his back tire started locking up and would not roll..on his brand spanking new bike. We ended up having to carry the brand new bike at least a mile, if not two, all of the way back to the car. It was hot. We ran out of water. Evyn was complaining like crazy, and our adventure was not quite going how we thought it would. We reached a narrow trail with a cliff on one side and a fence on the other. Being tired and hot and unhappy, Evyn got a little sloppy and got her handlebars caught up in the fence and nearly plunged down the cliff. Luckily her bike landed on her leg and prevented the worse case scenario, but we all made it out three hours later, very tired, thirsty, hot and bruised (poor Evy).

After dinner and showers, I was tucking the kids into Reed's bunk bed. I was telling them how great I thought they did with riding all of the distance that we covered and that we would go back to Belle Isle soon since they never got a chance to play in the river, which had been one of the things that they had really wanted to do while we were there. I told Reed that I was sorry that his brand new bike ended up falling apart on him like that and that we would take it back to Walmart the next morning and get him a better one. At this point, Evyn says, "You know Mommy, Walmart might not have the best made stuff, but they have guaranteed low prices." I learned two things from this experience - never ride into the woods on a bike without tools and always remember that if you buy something already assembled, never assume that it is put together correctly, ESPECIALLY if you bought it at Walmart.