Night Rider's Lament

OK, so there's really not much "lamenting" in this post, but it was a title of an old Garth Brooks song that has stuck with me...

Friday, the local metro park had a night ride. After a cookout at the neighbor's, I loaded up all three kids to head out. Strangely, Henry didn't want to ride his own bike... I think he was a little nervous about riding at night. So for the first time in a long while, I was pulling all three kids:

The twins barely fit in the trailer at the same time these days:

We found some blackberries to pick along the side of the trail. I picked, the kids ate:

The night ride started at the far end of the park, so we had a bit of time to kill after riding up there. That meant it was playground time:

Henry tried the firepole for the first time and quickly mastered it:

I'm getting my setup on the Camargue dialed in: the Open Bars are working well, especially with some new grips to break up the blackness:

I've also installed my VO front rack and a generator light:

My current light location will interfere with a pannier bag, so I need to make a new bracket for it... one of these days.

At 8:30, we set out. Most of our ride was just in the dusk, not the actual darkness:

I guess that's the only thing I "lament": at the south end of the park, where everyone turned around to head back in the growing darkness, we split off to head for home. It was already past bedtime!