I rode all the way to Goderich with my Daddy! We crossed a river too!
He said
So as soon as we hit post last week, officially I was readying for a week off at the trailer with Emelia. I still got up early on Monday morning and went for my usual bike ride on the TVP. After I was done that, Emelia and I loading the truck and getting ready to head up to the trailer. The Sherwoods who had the same week off were scheduled to arrive later in the day. But, with the excitement of the week off, Emelia and I wanted to get up to the trailer as soon as possible. And by dinner time we were all sitting around the fire enjoying some laughs and adult beverages.
When talk around the fire talked included the next day’s G2G ride and taking on the Maitland River crossing to do the route from Auburn to Goderich and back, Emelia was adamant that she wanted to join Justin and I for the full ride. So plans were hatched. We struck out just ahead of noon and were knee deep in the river about 15 minutes later. We had packed water shoes so we could keep our bike shoes dry and make the river crossing a lot easier on our feet with all the stones in the river bed. Emelia, just like Justin & I slung her bike over shoulder and navigated the crossing like a champ—even with the moderate rapids we had to contend with. Before we knew it we were back in the saddle and on our way to Goderich.
The whole trip took us about two hours to complete—the ride from Auburn to Goderich is all downhill as you decline 132 m towards Lake Huron where Goderich is situated. Once you hit Goderich, you’re treated with some stunning views of the harbour and lake. The downside is that the return route back to Auburn is obviously 132 m uphill. But, Emelia was a trooper and pushed all the way back, keeping a pace that was not far off my usual cadence. And, of course we had to manage the second crossing of the Maitland River on the day too! But two hours after we started, we returned to the trailer with an impressive ride under Emelia’s belt.
The ride was all the more impressive when you consider later that day we were back to London later in the afternoon to take Emelia to Cheer practice. They’re getting to the point where they’re thinking about where they placing the girls for the season and Emelia didn’t want to miss a chance to impress the coaches. So after her two hour workout on the bike she went through an hour & a half Cheer practice. Shortly after that wrapped, we were headed back up to the trailer and sitting by the fire around 10:00pm.
The rest of the week was more of the same, while Thursday was a very rainy day – her Cheer practice was cancelled – we had a lot less rain this week than was actually forecasted. Especially this weekend which was supposed to be wet most of it, ended up quite the opposite, which was great news for Danielle who was joining us straight after work Friday. We had beautiful weather both Friday and Saturday and made the most of the sunshine. Justin & I got in another run to Goderich and back on the G2G—complete with river crossing again. And we closed out the weekend with a wonderful night around the fire. As always, the week ended a bit sooner than we would have wanted, but we certainly had a great week!
She said
This week was a different one for me, for the first time ever I wasn’t able to join my family for a week’s vacation. I have always taken the first week of the summer off to let Emelia transition from school to the summer. But with my new job and limited vacation time I am not able to take as much time at the trailer in the week this summer. I was sad to miss the time with my family but was so happy for Emelia and John that they were able to have a week together just the two of them.
My week was still busy at work so I had some late nights at work so the week flew by and before I knew it I was back at the trailer spending the weekend with friends and family. Emelia had a great week and weekend, she was so happy to get some time with her daddy and was so proud that she was able to go on some big bike rides with John & Justin all the way to Lake Huron and back!
This weekend was a great time for Emelia – last year with the pandemic Emelia and Olivia didn’t get much of a chance to meet kids at the trailer park, so when they came back beaming that they had met some new girls to hang out with close to their age. Once the kids met each other they were attached at the hip for the whole weekend. It was so great to see the girls happily hanging out and running all over the park together.
This coming week will be another busy one for us. The big event for Emelia is the week is cheer assessments. Emelia is has been working so hard cleaning up on her new skills, she is so excited to get back to training and finally back to full training, full stunting and full routines. She is so excited to get back at it. We are so happy to have her this new sense of normal again. It’s been such a long year, so anything that gives some hope and happiness makes us so happy.