Goodbye, bike trailer
In our old apartment, we lived about 300 meters from Sterling’s päiväkoti and could dash over there in whatever weather with Sterling in the bike’s rumble seat. But the house we live in now is a bit more of a commute and while the rumble seat was still fine in pleasant weather, it wasn’t feasible when temperatures started dropping. So in November 2017 we bought a bike trailer! And it has been LIFE for the past year and a half. But after Sterling finishes päiväkoti next week, we won’t need it anymore. I listed it on tori.fi on Monday morning, thinking it might take some time to sell but hopefully we’d find a buyer before leaving for the US in June.
It was gone that same afternoon! I am still processing my feelings. I hardly had time to say goodbye!
This trailer has occupied such a large space in my heart - and, let’s be honest, my front entryway – from the moment we bought it. It was lightweight, it was trim, it was water/windproof (ESSENTIAL), and it had attachments to change into a jogging stroller. It was endlessly flexible: I could take Sterling to päiväkoti in the trailer on the way to work, and then Jeremy could Transformer it into a jogging stroller for the run home. Plus, Sterling could come along on bike rides and errands around town, no problem.
And it was such good exercise! That is what I told myself every time I had to lug Sterling up the really steep hill by our house. I am proud to say that with the exception of when there was too much snow to get traction, I rode up that hill every time and never chose to walk the bike. It was my challenge to myself.
My favorite memories of the bike trailer include:
-the time we carefully secured the mesh cover to protect Sterling from bugs before going on a bike ride and then five minutes later found out (through his screams) that we had actually closed a wasp in there WITH him.
-how the time it took to ride to päiväkoti in the winter is about the same length of time it took the Lusitania to sink, so Sterling would track our progress using that metaphor.
-feeling totally bad-a** taking him to päiväkoti in snow, rain, extreme cold, extreme dark, etc. by bike. (To be fair, sometimes it felt bad-a** and sometimes it felt plain uncivilized.)
-strategizing with Jeremy every school night to figure out who was taking Sterling which direction, in which modality (trailer or jogger). It became a comfortable routine.
-making eye contact with other parents lugging their offspring around in bike trailers. It’s like a club. I feel like we’re very close to nodding heads at each other (but it’s Finland, so we don’t). Those parents with cargo e-bikes, though…I mean, if I HAD a child transportation nemesis, it might be them? We don’t make eye contact or nod, is what I’m saying.
Most of all, I will eulogize the bike trailer by saying this: it gave me freedom to go where I wanted, year-round, on my bike, with Sterling. And that was a gift.
