How do you know it has been TOO LONG since you’ve been on a date? When you tell your three year old you’re going and they say “what is a date?!”
Craig took some much needed/much deserved time off of work this weekend and we had something very pressing on our bucket list: mountain biking!
So mountain biking is very different from trail riding like we do with the kids. Trail riding is usually on a paved trail. Mountain biking is in the woods, over tree roots, on rocky slopes, through creek beds, it’s the badass biking. Craig and I had gone once or twice but didn’t get that into it.
On Saturday morning we headed to Decorah – a town notorious for their man made maintain bike trails.
Our bikes that we take the kids biking with aren’t suitable for this kind of terrain so we rented two mountain bikes but they didn’t have any plain old mountain bikes for rent so we got electric mountain bikes. At first, I thought “Well that isn’t necessary!” They grabbed this beautiful bike on display and started explaining how to manage the electric part of the bike and it took a minute before I realized this was the bike they were renting ME! Like holy shit! It was on sale for $7,000!
A lot of people asked “What is an electric bike?” It’s a bike that you can ride with or without the extra pedaling power. It has a battery and when you pedal it will give your pedal more power. Now I realize it was necessary to get up those steep hills we were climbing! We were able toast twice as long on the trails because of the electric assist!
When Craig and I took off we topped out at 20 miles an hour on the trail on the way to the woods ? like POWERFUL.
We. Had. So. Much. Damn. Fun.
I’m so sore, I fell off so many times but then I got better as the morning went on and I wasn’t falling off in places that I previously had. We discovered our favorite routes, we dipped through creek beds, we rode along the side of steep hills.
The rest of the weekend has been honestly just sad. We realize we can’t afford bikes like that. We realized how much we absolutely adore mountain biking. We realize it isn’t realistic to invest in bikes like that because it isn’t something we can do as a family. We will have to keep renting and maybe someday we will save up and the boys will be old enough to come with. In the meantime, we are still coming down from the adrenaline rush.
Then we went to my favorite restaurant in Decorah: KOREANA. I got sushi (and Craig even tried it!) and then we went to the classic Whippy Dip where Craig and I had our first date 🙂
Here’s a funny story: I was actually texting another guy and we were going to meet up at 10 pm when I got off working as a CNA in the nursing home. He bailed on me last minute so instead I texted Craig and said, “Hey, meet me at the whippy dip at 10:10 ish, but they close at 10 so get me a small cookie dough tornado with extra cookie dough and I’ll pay you back when I get there!”
When I got there Craig had my tornado ready for me but he didn’t have any ice cream, he said that he already ate it.”
Months later he reveals he went diving in the couch cushions for enough change to buy me that ice cream and had to borrow money from his neighbor for gas to drive to Decorah ?
We talked and talked and talked that night, even past my curfew. On the way home, I called him and asked if I could see him again and he said yes ❤️ I called my sister after that and told her that I found the man I was going to marry ❤️ Here we are now 7 years later and I still have the same order at the Whippy Dip
That’s what I know! Have a happy Monday guys!
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What a fun date and mountain biking can give you a rush. I did not know some places rent the electric assist bikes for this, cool. Glad you ended up at the Whippy Dip, then and now
What a fun date! The great thing about renting is you have no maintenance costs on something you won’t use much right now 🙂 And I know you well enough now, that if you set the goal of purchasing those bikes in 8-10 years you most certainly will attain that goal!
Love the ice cream date story. I too knew, at the end of our first date that he was “the one”. 40th anniversary happened in June!
Wishing you a fabulous week and I hope you’re still on yesterday’s Adrenalin high !
So glad you had your date with DH! The bikes sound like fun but rental is a good option now! Love the story of your first date!
Writing this before reading your post…praying the farm Craig works for wasn’t hurt by the horrible storms that just blew through Iowa this afternoon. I follow the farm on FB but haven’t seen anything there – I know if there was damage from hail and winds, they would be too busy for a FB post!