Today, I took my three sons on a ride along Wantagh Parkway, which leads to Jones Beach. This path is a local favorite and one of the perks of living so close to the South Shore. My youngest is 4, so I knew this was not going to be as an aggressive ride as last week where I only brought my older two.
Before we set out, I set up everyone’s bikes. I called them out when their lunch was good and digested. Here is a picture of our rides. That mountain bike on the left is over 25 years old and still working great.
For the past few weeks, Giovanni’s riding helmet has been MIA. We have a spare, but it had a lame Transformers logo on it. Every time he has to use this helmet, he complains. So, I decided to pull out my handy can of black spray paint and go to work on it. In seconds, I had a brand-new jet black helmet. I set it in the sun and it dried in just a few minutes. There were still some traces of the underlying Transformers artwork, but a second coat would take care of that.
Here is a link to our route, a mere 7 or so miles. This route had minimal street traffic, which was a big drag with the route we took last week. If you click on the image, you’ll be taken to the Google Pedometer.
Marco definitely had the toughest time, being the youngest. His pace was very slow and I had to frequently motivate them. I promised the kids that if we made it to the second of three bridges, we could stop and have a snack. Well, they made it. See if there at the bottom of the map? That’s the bridge over Goose Creek, a popular little fishing spot. We saw lots of people on boats and jet skis out on the bay. I hope next year my brother and I will buy a couple of those. He has a house on the water and jet skis would definitely make for some good times. We also saw some people tubing. My brother and I tried to convince the kids to go tubing one day i n July, but they were too scared. Maybe next year.
Here are a few pictures of me and the kids sitting on top of a big rock at the end (and beginning) of the journey. The entrance to the bike path is in Cedar Creek Park.
From left: Antonio, Marco, Giovanni.
There I am with Giovanni and Marco. Yeh, with some moose antlers.