For five long years I have been begging. "Please can we, as a family, ride the railway trail this year?" And each year I'm met with resistance...so, I let it go and wait for the next summer to bring up my request again. But this year something quite miraculous happened. When I posed my annual question, everyone agreed...and surprisingly, I didn't have to use threats...or even bribery. I was stunned and thrilled! So, after I retrieved my jaw from the cottage floor, we headed into town and geared up. Steven shared with me that our rental agreement allotted us four full hours of gorgeous lakeside cycling. I was ready. I couldn't wait to watch my girls enraptured faces as they pedalled the afternoon away. It started out in the most fantastic way. Smiles were visible all around, the wind was gently blowing our hair from our faces and the 68 degree temperatures were unbelievably perfect.
Our first rest stop (7 minutes in) took us down a weathered set of stairs to the shoreline where the views of Little Traverse Bay were ideal. The girls were joking with one another, Alissa was giggling about the bird poo that landed on her handle bars...all was right with my bicycle world.
But, as the saying goes...all good things must end. And it sure did about thirty minutes later when the girls realized our tour would take us approximately three to four hours, twenty miles, into the wind, and they cracked. Undeterred...I enjoyed myself immensely. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.
