PE Corona Virus Style

Bike Riding at Baker Butler.  Mark took them the first afternoon of home learning which was Tuesday for us.  The school recently finished a nice track there and they rode around there and played some soccer.  They were under strict instructions to stay away from the petri dish playground equipment.  I was at UVA all day and Mark did a great job working with Jared and Lydia.  Tuesday was actually my last day going into UVA.  I will only be working remotely for the foreseeable future.

One day we went on a walk around the paths at Baker Butler.  We had wanted to walk the Monticello Trail but found out after we drove there that it was closed.  We knew the house would be but did not expect the trail to be.  That was a bummer.  Riverview Park is near there and has a nice path so we drove over to check it out and when we got there the parking lot was full so we turned around.  Too many people for us to feel like we were properly "social distancing".  So we ended up back at Baker Butler and did a quick loop on the paths around it.

Thursday night we headed to Chris Greene Lake and kayaked which was great.  I was not super excited to go as it was getting late and we had things we needed to do but it was beautiful out and it was a really good thing to do. Kayaking is great for social distancing!

Once the water warms up we will have Lydia use the child's Kayak that was Jared's.  For this night we borrowed a kayak for Jared from the Shaw's. 

Three in a row, 6+ feet apart

Today we only did PE.  I had heard about the Virginia Creeper Trail awhile ago and we decided to check it out.  The trail was really fun and easy.  Its not close, we drove just under 4 hours there and then back in one day but we did it. The whole trail is 34 miles and is perfect for bike riding.  It's all downhill or level so you mostly just coast down. I think I braked more than I pedaled. The trail is part of an old Railroad track.  It is now mostly crushed limestone and has beautiful boardwalks you ride across.  They are really fun.  You ride next to the river for the majority of the ride and it takes you through state parks and private farms.  There are rapids and waterfalls and cool  rock walls. We were worried about rain but only got a few sprinkles which was really lucky.  The temperature was perfect and it was beautiful. It was a little long for me, we rode for 17 miles but we are glad we tried it out.  Mark and I rented bikes from a shop there and Jared and Lydia used their bikes. We took a shuttle from the same shop up to White Gap Station and then started our 17 mile ride.  There were a lot of positive about the trail/experience and I recommend people do try it out. The negatives (for us): Jared. That's pretty much it.

I started a little behind the group (just our family) because the shop worker had me wait a minute to get a tire repair kit to take with us.  After about 5 minutes I caught up to Mark but Jared and Lydia were nowhere to be seen.  A few minutes later we caught up with Lydia who was waiting for us but no Jared.  We three rode together and we did not see Jared again until the end of the ride.  He rode the whole thing by himself.  17 miles in a place we had never been before.  I was livid. 
1. I worried he would get hurt or lost the whole time.  The trail is well marked but there are a few tricky spots where one could take a wrong track pretty easily.
2.  Injuries.  We were riding next to the river most of the time and any time I saw a skid on the path my mind jumped to Jared skidding over the edge and tumbling down rocks into the river
3. I was so mad and had to use a lot of energy to control my anger and enjoy the ride, it was not easy
4. This was supposed to be a family outing and he was not with his family the whole time.
5. Would he stop at the end?  We had no idea if he would ride right through the end and keep riding.
6.  We wanted to stop and enjoy the scenery and boardwalks but never felt good about doing it because it meant Jared was getting farther away from us.
7.  There were very few people, we maybe saw 5 the whole time but we did ride by some houses and campgrounds and someone easily could have grabbed Jared. 
8. He did not seem the least bit concerned about going ahead and caring about how it might make us feel.
9. I was constantly telling myself be calm about how you react to him when you see him.  It was so hard to not let his actions control my experience
LIVID

Around mile 11 Lydia was pretty done.  She had fallen a little earlier and cut up her elbow and was just tired.  It was not a hard ride but we are not regular miles long bike riders so it was a big thing to take on.  When we reached the end we finally got sight of Jared.  He was riding towards us all smiley and happy to see us and when I could see he was perfectly fine I said in a very calm voice (I had many opportunities to plan what I was going to say to him when I saw him) "The first thing you need to say to me and Dad is "I'm sorry"." And you need to figure out why and apologize for those reasons.

There was some definite silent treatment and blatant ignoring going on because I was so mad at him.  Once we turned in bikes we had a real discussion about his actions. I am so thankful he was safe and that we met up at the right place.  Mark and I both offered many silent prayers for him.  Jared could have talked to us.  He could have asked about going ahead when we started.  He could have ridden ahead and waited for us or ridden ahead and then ridden back to us.  It was just mind boggling that he never once thought he should stop going ahead. Independence is good. We encourage that but there has to be parameters set.

Onto pretty pictures of the 3 of us riding together. 

The only picture of us together

Red barns and a Christmas tree farm