Making Puddles...

The Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race was in town this week, and we headed into downtown St. Paul to check out the criterium. Finding parking was a bit of a problem, as all of our usual parking spots were along the criterium course, but we were successful. There is a beautiful park in the new apartment/condo development in the northern part of downtown. We had a hard time pulling Anson away from the water fountains, but I think, had he the language skills, he would have told us "Thank you!" because the criterium was even more exciting than water squirting into a pool.

After watching the exciting women's race (and realizing our modest little NAUCC criterium is going to be NOTHING like the real thing, oh well), we headed off to do a little riding of our own.

The excessive amount of junk food Mama has been eating lately made this ride necessary, even though it was starting to get past Anson's bedtime. I wanted to try out a possible 10k route for NAUCC, but we weren't sure how long the Doo would make it in the Burley trailer. So, I was dropped off with my Coker at the start of the route, and then the boys drove off to the end where they started riding towards me.

Thanks to some shoes with some thicker soles, my new Coker finally isn't too tall for me, and I was able to ride with some speed. I made it nearly 5 miles before I met my boys on the trail. Just prior to that, I had some issues with a seriously stinky river (thankfully no body bags this time!), and have renewed my promise to NEVER Coker past a group of apartment buildings on a nice summer's evening.

Anson was pretty excited to see his Mama appear on the trail, as he had been quite upset about dropping her off in the middle of Shepard Road. It didn't take too long before he was asking, "Out. Out. Out." We ignored him as best as we could, as it was past his bedtime and the car was less than a mile away.

I arrived at the car nearly exactly 6.2 miles after the start, making this a good possible route for the 10k race.

Anson was not impressed with our discussion of the advantages/disadvantages of this route, and seriously wanted OUT of his Burley. As J started loading our cycles onto the car rack, I started the process of unclipping Anson from the Burley.

And noticed a puddle. Where no puddles should be.

After finally lifting Anson from the Burley, my suspicisions were confirmed. For the last mile, the poor little Doo had been sitting in a puddle of his own making. We all know how uncomfortable wet denim can be; no wonder he wanted "out"!

Of course, since we were going for a short trip on our cycles, we did not bring along any of the many bags containing a spare diaper. And, he was too wet to continue wearing his clothes in the car. So, we stripped him of his pants, said a little thanks that he was wearing a regular shirt (and not a onsie), and wrapped him in a blanket.

Anson was a little distressed about losing his bottoms in a public park, but when we talked about how he got to be a Naked Boy, he was quite happy! The entire way home, we were treated to songs about being naked ("Nakee nakee nakee BOY!") and there was also a dramatic 'Ode to the Toes' ("Oh piggies, piggies, piggies, oh!).

Moral to this story: Always carry a spare diaper in the car. You never know when you might need it. And, if you find yourself suddenly naked, you should sing about it!