A ride in between

Being a parent bit into my biking activities last weekend .

Normally, Saturday morning is the best day for a " good one", which means a long ride in a new place. However Nashesha, the kid, needed to get to school and back on Saturday for a training hike in preparation for a class trip climbing Mnt Meru.

I wanted to work on our unfinished 25 year old house on Sunday, and if I ride long then I am too tired to do much ruling out a long ride on Sunday.

I worried about this dilemma / crisis all Friday and saw no alternative but to take the kid to school by 830 am and pick her at noon. I figured it is easier, cheaper, and better to ride bikes to her school and she is willing. I will ride in between drop off and pickup.

We have a lovely ride to Nashesha's school, through suburbia, along a major highway, through a forest, and then a coffee farm, before arriving early at the school parking lot. We lock her bike and Nashesha demands a hug and I ride away.

I haven't a clue where to go, or what kind of ride I should do. I don't have excess energy so I try to think of someone to go visit. I either don't have their number, or they don't answer, or I don't feel like bothering them. I am forced to stop in the middle of the coffee plantation and spend 20 minutes on the phone with work stuff. I have a new phone, a smart phone with more than you need including a GPS. So I turn that on and decide to do a Monduli Mtn loop we did for the last mtn bike race, the first part only. I doubt I have the time, but I can double back instead of doing the loop.

As usual, once I get going instead of going slow and smelling the roses I ride harder and harder. That doesn't mean I am going fast.

The trails and dirt roads are mostly hard but there is some mud. I do the math, I started riding seriously at 9am so I need to be on way back to school 1015. I make it to the forest and commit myself to the loop. I stop and take a picture with the Android phone. It is the first time on this track there is no lose dust .

I haven't eaten or drank so I stop for a nutritious coke and water and a rough building of wood. I talk briefly with the shop owner, but take no picture, and cruise to the highway and down to the school. As I get off the bike I am a bit stiff, and I realize the guards watching me probably think I just rode 3 km from my house, and not the 45km and 900m elevation gain. I stumble and sigh a bit, hehe. I am early so I check out the map made by the gps on my phone, and its features, like elevation and graphs etc. Pretty cool.

Although I was once a bit of a hacker, and I still can figure stuff out, I can't be bothered with end user stuff, so am not sure when I will post a map.

Eventually the kids straggle in , in different physical states. Nashesha is one of the bouncy talkative ones. I find out that John of the UN ICTR has a daughter in the same year, different home class. He is top dog as our biggest client, so that is cool.

I turn off the mapping and we ride home, mostly uphill. Nashesha does well except when I forget she is behind me and am riding up long hills. Eventually she complains and we slow down. Great kid! How can I be so lucky?