First ride of 2006!

This year, my first ride of the new year was not with any of my teammates or any of my other cycling friends, but was with my daughter.

She's not even slightly a ham, not even a little.

We rode along the coast on the bike path connecting Coronado to Imperial Beach. It was a bit windy out there on the way south... really windy actually. Once we got to our southern destination, we stopped in to say hello to my in-laws so my daughter could tell them all about her bike ride and how much fun she was having telling Daddy what to do. Oh yeah, and how much she liked her cookies she was eating in the trailer. Before I started cramping, we got back on the road heading north and then we had a kickass tailwind. We were flying along and caught 5 guys from one of the local clubs and blew right by them! Once you get 70-75 pounds of trailer and squealing child rolling along, you get some pretty good momentum. The best part, and I really wish I could've gotten a picture of it, was that the 5 of them sat in behind us the whole way back into Coronado. My daughter and I were the head of a paceline! How cool is that? I have to admit that as we caught and passed more people, I was feeling pretty happy with myself; towing a trailer and a group of riders hiding from the wind. It must have looked pretty funny to people driving by.

Sometimes it's great to be Daddy. She sat in the trailer squealing and giggling the whole time, periodically yelling for me to "go faster". It's great training towing a trailer and child around, but more importantly, it's just great to have the time with my daughter like this when she is happy and laughing.

It's great to be Daddy.

Tim