Life with Rowan: The day of the ride.

Sorry, this post has been hi-jacked by Richard. See Elaine is too tired today to do any typing at all. She was very busy from early morning cleaning toilets and doing other household chores. While mommy was busy working her fingers to the bone, Pa-pa and son went swimming.

We bundled up all our neccessary swimming equipment into the Caverns Drakensburg Resort back-pack and headed off to the YMCA. Earlier in the week Elaine had signed Rowan up for swimming lessons, he was to be in the Shrimp class.

Rowan and I got there with time to spare, the class was to start at 10:45 and we were in the changing rooms taking off our clothes at 10:25.
Rowan did not mind getting undressed in the strange place but he really did not like the feel of the floor under his bare little feet, so we had to put shoes back on for the walk to the pool.

Swimming lessons were great, lots of fun and chasing balls, and "One Two Three" jumping in the water. Actually they made us sing this song about an alligator that jumps in the water and all Rowan was singing was "One Two Three" and then looking at the others to say "What's the hold-up? Let's jump."

After much splashing and ball chasing it was time for home.

Time passed.

Rowan Napped.

Then I tried to mow the lawn but could not even get the mower to run. It's a second-hand old thing that a friend at work gave me. He said it was 'cos he didn't need it but I'm beginning to suspect that really it's just bust, and he's sitting in the trees somewhere 'round here looking at me through binoculars and laughing as I pull and pull and pull and all it ever does is give out a big puff of very blue and stinky smoke and nothing else.

Ah-ha but Elaine came to the rescue and said that it was nearly 5 o'clock and it was time for a bike ride on our new bike and trailer. So we loaded up the car with all the stuff and went down to the river to the bike path.

The weather by this time was great, a little on the nippy side but no wind and clear skies.

So the plan was that I'd pull Rowan along the bike path while Mom races to a spot ahead where she could take some pictures and then we'd meet her there and go home from there.

It all worked out, Rowan and I had a good ride. He was very silent and looked rather amazed at the whole thing whenever I managed to look around behind me. Elaine did not have much luck. She was going to go to this graveyard all alone to see if it was photogenic enough but she ended up getting a bit lost and ran out of time.

So in the end Rowan and I rode, well I rode, Rowan just sat there apparently thinking heavy thoughts, for 6 miles. That is about 104km.

Pictures...

I forgot to tell you about the fun Rowan had in the morning, before all the cleaning and swimming. We sat in his play-room playing with his trucks and made little garages for them.

Here Rowan is looking at the river while I get the trailer assembled for our ride.