Doodlebugs

Posted November 4, 2021 at 5:54 am by

Aging but Not Slow­ing Down (well not slow­ing down too much anyway)

Louise and John Dus­trude have enjoyed out­door activ­i­ties all their lives — boat­ing, (includ­ing sail­ing, row­ing and canoe­ing), hik­ing, walk­ing and bik­ing to name a few. How­ev­er, a few years ago, notic­ing that her sense of bal­ance wasn’t what it used to be, Louise gave up her bicycle.

But then in Sep­tem­ber of 2020, through a serendip­i­tous chain of events, she was able to test ride and then ulti­mate­ly pur­chase a used recum­bent tri­cy­cle. It’s a Ter­ra­Trike Ram­bler,  a “Tad­pole” style of trike, with 2 wheels up front that steer and one chain-dri­ven dri­ve wheel at the rear.

“I feel so much safer on this trike than I did try­ing to bal­ance my two-wheel­er” Louise says. “And what’s more is that uphill climbs are eas­i­er because I can just stop to rest if I need to — all the while sit­ting on the seat with­out hav­ing to step off as I would on a bike”. Soon after she got her trike, John saw how much fun she was hav­ing and he soon found one for himself.

Now, even though both of them are in their 90s, they con­tin­ue to get out­side for fun and fresh air and some exer­cise too. “But it’s not about ‘exer­cise’ ”, John says. “I don’t like to exer­cise — I just like to go out­side and have fun”. John also still has his two-wheel­er, a large E‑bike that he rides all over the island. But with the new trike, he and Louise can have fun together.

“And one of the best things this past year, espe­cial­ly with Covid” Louise adds, “is that we’ve been able to get some social­iz­ing in, while still main­tain­ing social dis­tanc­ing. We see many peo­ple when we’re out trik­ing who stop to ask us about our ‘Doo­dle­bugs’. I hope more peo­ple see how won­der­ful these are, and I would love for them to join us out on the side­walks and low-traf­fic streets.”

The video above was cre­at­ed just for fun by Tim Dus­trude and his wife Shan­non Dean. Turn your sound up and go full screen with it for the best experience.

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6 comments...

  1. LOVE!!!

    Comment by Margaret Bell on November 4, 2021 at 7:43 am
  2. You guys are amaz­ing. Thanks for shar­ing this with us, Tim and Shan­non. Gives me hope for get­ting on a bike when I’m 90!

    Comment by Kristine Brown on November 4, 2021 at 4:12 pm
  3. Won­der­ful! Best regards to John and Louise!

    Comment by Darcie Nielsen on November 5, 2021 at 9:13 am
  4. I kin­da hate to see trou­ble-mak­ers cruis­ing through qui­et neigh­bor­hoods ter­ror­iz­ing people.

    Two of my favorite San Juan Islanders!

    Comment by Steve Ulvi on November 6, 2021 at 6:49 pm
  5. Two of my favorite peo­ple, always giv­ing me a goal to reach. This made my day!

    Comment by Anne Pope on November 7, 2021 at 7:06 pm
  6. sooooo great Tim!! anoth­er great exam­ple of how excep­tion­al your fam­i­ly and you are! what emis­saries for enjoy­ing life and stay­ing fit no mat­ter what! looks addic­tive! and what great footage of all the var­i­ous ter­rain they can go over!

    Comment by Pam C Fry on November 12, 2021 at 7:08 am

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