The Weehoo is Here

 The Tandem is now Complete

 At last the Weehoo is here ... there is a lot of excitement! Mike was so excited when it arrived, he picked up lars & Roxcy from preschool to take them home in it and they live 5 minutes away. Lars loves it ... he sits on the front seat of the Weehoo and pedals ... he is the man, he reminds me so much of Mike, Mike was such a tough little boy, he could really push himself physically from an early age. I took him on his first 5 day tramp when he was about 8 and he did it all, carrying a pack as big as he was, he looked so cute ... all I could see was his legs ... he did not complain ... once. Roxcy sits on the back ... moving around and enjoying all the sights to see, in her own world. Roxcy reminds me soooo much of lucy. Who knows what goes on in Roxcy's world or where it is, but it is full of love, laughter, happiness and I belong here ... you are here for me!

We have all done some test runs on the Weehoo. Pete and I biked home from the Lyall's family barbecue, 8 miles, with lars & Roxcy in the Weehoo. It was a beautiful night, perfect light ... a perfect night. The road was up and down ... with the odd steady incline ... towing the Weehoo the inclines felt like hard work. While riding up one of these inclines lars was in the back saying 'you can do it ... you can do it'.  Our own little cheer team. On the downhill we must have been going nearly 35-40 MPH at some points, with lars cheering loudly from the back. At one point we registered 23 MPH on the flat.

As you can see by the photos the Weehoo is a tandem trailer. The heaviest of the children sits in the front ... that is lars and he pedals, Roxcy is a tourist in the back seat. lars is an awesome pedaler and loves having a position of responsibility. There is a small basket on either side of the seats for drink bottles or rations, a small pannier bag on the back and on the back of lars' seat is a net holder for books or toys or any other important piece of travel equipment Roxcy might see fit to take on a road tour. To make us even more visible on the road there is an orange flag attached to the back of the Weehoo.

We took lars & Roxcy to church on Sunday in the Weehoo ... it was looking a little dark and had that 'it's going to rain' look, but we thought we had plenty of time. As we took of there was a little bit of thunder, but you know ... the weather does not determine the activity ... so we carried on. Here in VT when it rains, it really rains ... like a torrential downpour and it is very rare to have rain without thunder and lightening. We can hear thunder rumbling miles away before it actually reaches us here in Windsor, so we kept on going, thinking we had plenty of time. We were too far to turn back and down comes the rain, thunder and lightening! The children were great ... not a squeak ... well not a moaning squeak. I sang a Queen song to lars 'We are the Champions' ... and he started chanting ... 'we are the champions' over and over ... he was so cute. We arrived at the Chapel absolutely drenched! Roxcy was really upset that her dolly got wet. Chris brought a change of clothes for the children ... so all was good.

I am terrified most of the time ... I am scared that something awful might happen. Changing the gears is a little unreliable ... sometimes they go in to their proper place and sometimes they fight all the way. While we are peddling like crazy uphill and wanting to change down or up, is not a good time to be deciding if they will do what they are told. As the gears struggle to go in and we are working hard I start to have images of the bike coming to a slow halt and we fall of with our feet still stuck in the pedals. Now with the Weehoo in tow every movement from the back triggers images of the children lying on the road in a mangled heap of tandem bike and trailer. Pete still rides a little too close to parked cars for my liking and I get a bit of a start ... but now the children are on the back I am more anxious about them getting hurt or something. I am working on it though and my fear has not stopped me from getting on the bike.

For Carly

Enjoy these videos of our Weehoo rides...

Taking off from the Lyalls

Coming Home from the Lyalls

Arriving Back @ 18 Pine Street

FYI ... I love my new bike helmet.