The Life and Times of a Navy Husband

A few Saturdays ago, the whole Litchford family walked down to our local bike shop, Ten Speed Spokes, to get outfitted for summer.

Our primary purchase was the CoPilot Taxi, but we also needed a helmet for Sean, a mirror for Dad, a basket for Danielle, a kickstand for stability while loading, and a new pump.

There’s a quick story about the old pump. Last year, we purchased Sean’s Badass Stroller, a.k.a., the Viper, and I had a hell of a time getting the tires properly inflated all summer. The main problem was the front tire, which takes most of the abuse from bumps. I assumed the problem was with the tube, and eventually had it replaced (after riding around for months with it basically airless, the only thing keeping the rim off the road being the rigidity of the tire’s rubber). Well, come to find out, the pump had gone defective. I can’t believe it took me a year to figure that out.

In any case, now that we are outfitted with all the necessary gear, we’ve been doing a little riding—and boy am I out of shape.

It didn’t take too long to get used to the additional thirty-ish pounds (Sean’s twenty-five, plus the seat) riding over the rear wheel, but it also didn’t take long for me to realize that I’m not going to be cruising all over the island this summer.

When I initially hatched the plan to put a child seat on my bike, I thought I’d be able to keep the panniers I have, thus making it a great errand vehicle. But I had to ditch the panniers. So now she’ll mainly be for recreation/exercise, and I had a great idea: Sean and I are going to train for next year’s Bike MS: Virginia’s Ocean to Bay Ride.

I’ll write more about the event and our progress. I might be deluding myself thinking I could do the ride with a toddler, but maybe not. In the meantime, it’ll be fun exploring Newport on wheels this summer while we’re in training.