Biking on Vacation

After much consideration, we brought the bikes with us on vacation. It made the car look ridiculous and really reduced gas mileage. We talked a long time trying to figure out an optimal configuration for the bicycle logistics. Should the boys have their own bikes? Should Porter ride with Patrick? Should we bring the tandem? Should we bring them at all? Or bring one and rent bikes when we got somewhere? Tandem and Seamus on his own? ETC, ad nauseum. We decided to bring the tandem, a trailer bike, and my bike with the child seat. So far, a week into vacation, we’ve ridden more than 30 miles. On Cape Cod, we did a quick ride from the house into Chatham; we took the bikes to the visitor’s center ride with the lighthouse; we ventured to Provincetown to ride the amazing dunes at ProvinceLands; and we rode the roads on the Jersey Shore to the lighthouse and back. We plan to ride the Boardwalk in the coming days as well as ride to a restaurant or two as well. All in all, it was worth the hassle to get the bikes on the car and bring them along. Porter loves riding in the kiddie seat, and I think it fulfills so many of my fantasies about being a family. We go on these rides together, just enjoying the sun, breeze, sights and each other’s company. We agree that if we go on vacation again, we’ll take the bikes, in whatever configuration needed to get everyone involved! And, for the record, we have two top boxes and a tandem on top of the car. We have the trailer bike and my bike on the back. The kiddie seat is in the top box. Seamus is lucky he’s not the Romney’s dog–we might have had to strap him to the top!

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