Yesterday was one of the finest days I’ve had in a long while. The weather obviously contributed to it – but through some odd chain of events starting at 7:00AM, the universe kindly urged me to enjoy the day alone with my daughter exploring the city. I had a day planned out, like the trained middle manager monkey that I am, to take the kid to daycare, get to the office, and then do the Hooky Wednesday session at Palos for a half day jaunt in the woods with Nevada Dave and DaDoubleG. The day would have gone that route, had it not been for the fact that I placed my wallet which held my phone, cards, cash, and ID on top of my car. Yes, I drove off.

By 8:00AM with the help of my neighbor and my impeccable little girl who repeatedly told me ‘Papi, I help find your wallet’ – I was in a state of unbelievable calm and well impressed that my daughter, cared about this stupid piece of leather its contents, only because she saw it was important to me. The first phase of children’s selfless acts to help someone had me in a wonderful frame of mind. At 8:30AM I received an e-mail from the gentlemen who found my wallet and phone – so the day started looking up and karma had begun its revolution. I figured it called for a celebration – and I looked at my 3’2″ sidekick and asked if she wanted to go riding with papi since taking her to daycare after faithfully searching an hour with me was reason enough to stay the day with her – her answer was ‘YES!’. I had thought of hitting up Tati Cycles yesterday evening as well, so I figured, I’d make that the lunch hour destination around 2PM to meet ‘J’ and pick-up some fly colored skewers that I had seen he had in stock. So the girl and I stocked up the Burly trailer, hitched it up to my bike and the journey to 53rd street from 5100 N. began. The weather was absolutely perfect for riding.

We hit up the trusty lakefront bike path – which at noon – is not so bad of a predicament with people on the path, and I’m pulling a trailer with a super cute kid, so I mostly feared the gals on roller blades who would coo over how cute my girl looked in her helmet while almost riding off into the sand or the rear of a jogger ahead of them. I had a couple of pathletes who found the urge to challenge me and my trailer and work their way dangerously and stupidly around me by playing chicken with the commuters and joggers in the wrong lane. My girl enjoyed the show and as she saw people ride past – she wasn’t having any of it and proudly exclaimed ‘Papi, go faster! Go faster!’ – I guess she doesn’t like it when people passed us. So when I found a few wide berths which aren’t many on the path before downtown, I drilled a good hard pace powered by my Led Zeppelin T-Shirt flapping in the breeze and getting heavier with sweat by the minute. By mile 14 – the girl fell asleep in the trailer with a cool breeze blowing about her and her cuddling her favorite green elephant, coincidentally donated to her by a cyclist’s friend’s daughter. I arrived to 53rd street and wind my way through the tree covered historical grounds that is Hyde Park and found the shop easily. I pulled onto the sidewalk and a funny thing happens – the wheel falls of the trailer!

‘J’ is a soft spoken guy with a love of bicycles and all things orange. He has gleaming blue eyes that reveal a very young spirit and even bigger persona as you talk to him in person. His immediate reaction when saw me pull up on the sidewalk was as astounded as I was that a wheel just fell off my trailer and with my daughter still in it no less. Good thing he owns a bike shop! We worked through the problem and thankfully it was resolved if temporary, but we both were confident he fixed it. During the fixing of the wheel, my daughter helped herself to several apples, carbon wheels, and even assisted one of his customers showing her how to use a bike pump. I had been meaning to get to J’s shop for a while now and moreso meet the man behind the ‘Tatitos’. It was great to talk bikes, and life, and realize that we had a lot more in common than just our love of bikes and the cyclocross scene. Karma turned yet another wonderful revolution as he didn’t charge me for the bike fix and I gladly picked up the actual skewers I was looking for and played host to my daughters curious nature about all his colorful inventory in his shop. A friend now known in person and a great visit to the shop that brings us the wooled wonders from Hyde Park. Off I scooted with my newly fixed trailer, and daughter waving goodbye to Hyde Park and its beautiful denizens in great cheer for the happy sun.

I made it past the Aquarium back north when another rider stopped me to tell me that my rear skewer looked loose on the trailer – I looked back and investigated and it turned out the skewer cap was coming loose but the tire was held on tight still. Befuddled, I had no choice but to chance it as I had 11 more miles to home and the daughter is looking weary in the trailer. So we headed off carefully with me constantly looking back to ensure the wheel wouldn’t surprisingly take off. During those awkward moments, by Division and the lakefront, I came across Adam Clark, and old friend, framebuilder, and proprietor of ‘Pedal to the People‘. He was doing exactly that – setting up his portable shop at the lakefront assisting bike riders. I stopped and we exchanged a great conversation on our going ons and he took the skewer once again to review its issues. After a short bit, he concluded the skewer would hold but to definitely get the factory correct skewer to ensure full compatibility and with that vote of confidence the journey began. My daughter had been playing with even more bike tools at this stop and enjoyed the barefoot run around the grass.

We made it home by 4:30PM – my wife was home already for a happy reunion to the great day. At 6PM my wallet was returned while I made pasta with pesto. All in all – reflecting back, I did admittedly miss the dirt trails, but passing up an opportunity to play hooky with my daughter was too good to pass up. And I enjoyed the day greatly, made a new friend, revisited with an old friend and watched the karmic revolution transpire before my eyes. It was a day for cycling, family, friends, and further realization that it exists daily in our fine city.

As far as ‘training’ goes – pulling 70 pounds 42 miles might actually qualify me as the keg puller for this weekend’s Half Acre Gravel Metric Century.