Kate's S24O

Up to now, both boys have had a solo overnight camping trip, but Kate hasn't... and she hasn't been shy about reminding me of this fact. Friday was the annual Persied meteor shower campout at Blues Creek Nature Preserve up past Ostrander, and I decided this would be Kate's trip. I got home from work, we had dinner, threw our gear in the trailer, and hit the road:

We stopped at the same playground Henry and I have stopped at every trip in the past:

This picture pretty much shows the extent of this playground. Not much of a playground, but I was already in need a break. I haven't done much bike train pulling this year, and I could feel the difference in every pedal stroke. Also, I was lazy and was using the trailer for the gear, instead of packing more carefully and fitting everything on my bike and the trail-a-bike, as I can usually do a for a two person overnighter.

We ground northward, slowly escaping the Friday traffic in Dublin. Kate was impressed by the quarry:

 It took us nearly an hour and a half to get to our ice cream stop in Ostrander;

They were almost *out* of ice cream, which would have been greatly disappointing, as we had been singing the "ice cream, you scream" song for the last few miles. But they had ice cream, no one had to scream, and we were satisfied.

Another biker crossed the street and offered to take our picture:

Thus fortified, we rolled through the last few miles to the nature preserve. I set up our camp:

While I was doing this, Kate was practicing her monkey bars at the playground:

We camped next to my friend Charles and his family, who have ridden in from Delaware. Charles didn't have to drag a trailer, but he did lug an eight person tent on his Long Haul Trucker. Kate asked, "why is our tent so small?"

After getting set up, we lathered up with bug spray and joined the group for a night walk. No pictures here (because it was, you know, dark), but we heard several owls call out, and spotted a few. Good stuff. By the time we got back to the camp, it was after 10:00, and we were both ready for bed. There would be no meteor spotting for us again this year.  Kate was asleep quickly, and I brought ear plugs this year to deal with the loud neighbors. That was a good call.

I woke up before Kate:

and had time to finish a library book on my iPhone. After a cold breakfast of bananas, dried fruit, and sardines, we hit the road for home. Kate's hands were getting tired, either from the bike's handlebars or the monkey bars, so she spent part of the ride home in the trailer:

So finally, I was glad I had dragged this trailer with us. Still, this might be the last year that I can fit any of the kids in the Burley. Maybe I'll look into a BOB trailer for next year's camping gear.

Bike notes: I rode my Velo Orange Camargue with the Albastache bars. This is the second year in a row for the VO on this trip (my bike history for this annual trip: Fargo, Rawland rSogn, VO). It did fine, though I had to stop and tune the front brakes to stop them from rubbing. As well, I'm finding the Albastache bar isn't the best thing for going slowly. More on that in a later post.