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Like most married fathers out there you
probably all have a few single friends who occasionally ask you the
question. Why did you get married and have kids? I don’t know if I’ve
ever given the exact same reply twice. Why did I get married and have
kids? Was it love for my wife and the simple primal desire to
reproduce? Or was it the desire to create little versions of myself to
aggravate the hell out of the woman I decided to spend the rest of my
life with. Yeah that’s it! According to her I’ve been extremely
successful so far.
I used to think mountain biking was a
great way to get away from the wife and kids for a while. If that’s
true, then why do my wife and seven year old both have better mountain
bikes than the average north shore teenager? (Built by yours truly of
course). I guess it’s the dream of having my free time with my
buddies, and going for a ride, then coming home for my family time,
and going for a ride. Or it's the desire to create even more versions
of myself again! Yeah, That’s it!
I am one of the let’s say fat
fathers. There are a few of us. For the last few years Arno and myself
and recently Neil have gone out for a father’s day ride. Some
fathers golf. Some fathers sit at home, drink beer and watch the game.
We ride. Wait a sec., we ride every weekend anyway! But this day we
really deserve it and it’s different. It’s a day where we can sit
and chat about guy stuff at Starbucks or DeDutch just a little bit
longer than we usually do. A day where we don’t look at our watches
during the ride to make sure we’re home on time. It’s our day to
ride with no strings attached. Mom will take the kids to hockey, the
weekend birthday parties or piano lessons. We can come in the door
without getting the disapproving look that makes us realize that we
should have walked through that door two hours earlier.
We started our day with breakfast and
coffee at DeDutch. Our plan was to ride Burke. Maybe some Vics,
Espresso or Bean. Maybe we would be able to do Sawblade in its
entirety. We thought this is great. The whole day to ourselves. The
world was our oyster. We weren’t coming back until dusk. No nagging
wife, no kids. Just biking and nothing else. An awesome day in the
making. So we sat talking as the Saturday crowd started filling up the
restaurant. Neil mentioned his baby girl and her sleep habits. Arno
talked about his kids and their hockey achievements. I talked about my
plans for the rest of the weekend with my wife and kids. Then we all
looked at our watches. Time to ride! Hop into the trucks and drive to
Neil’s. Shuttle up to the gun club with Arno. We unload, gear up and
start climbing. I looked at my watch again. We decided to do the climb
up to the top of sawblade and ride the top half and traverse back to
the gun club where we parked. Maybe we’d ride up again and do
something else. I looked at my watch again. We have an awesome run
down sawblade. All three of us, styling all the way. We are huge,
unstoppable, fearless fat fathers. See what the freedom of a no
strings attached ride can do. We get to the bottom where the trucks
are. We think about what to do next. We’re a little tuckered so we
take a breather. After a while we decide that it’s been a great
ride. I look at my watch again. Arno says, "well gotta go!"
He hops into his truck and flys off down the road. Neil and I look at
each other and think "why bust an artery doing that freakin climb
up the road again". Neil and I blow through the black lagoon also
known as "Flywheel" and end up back at his place. We call it
a day and bid each other adieu. I look at my watch again and drive
home. It’s only 12:30.
So to all you fat fathers out there. I
hope you had a good ride with some good friends and enjoyed your time
away. And I wonder if I wasn’t the only one who was surprised to
walk in the front door after my ride and hear my wife say "what
are you doing back so soon".
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