No one in our family likes to shop, but until we were in the bike store and David was shut down close to crying, I didn't realize he didn't know how to shop. I don't care if we are at Fred Meyer and he sees a pair of gloves he likes, they cost 5.00 and they fit well enough, so we buy them in 2 minutes. But a bike is not 5 bucks. If it doesn't fit right, you don't buy it. I now realize he thought we were going to walk in and walk out with a bike.

That would have been nice. Instead, we were thrown by confusing choices--mountain, road, or hybrid? What size? How far should the handlebars be? How much does it really matter if the bar is .5 inch or an inch from his crotch. Is he really going to come down hard? Where is he planning to ride this bike anyway? Would he be willing to ride a women's bike? And, the most crucial question, color.

The first visit was miserable. I then got some store recommendations, made a bunch of calls and learned most places don't carry a large stock/any extra small adult bikes. I find this confusing and annoying. How can we make a decision if there aren't any to try? We've now gone back to store #1 to look at a bike they had brought over for us--didn't work--and a different store where I got totally confused by the number of things they could change to try to make it work. Will tilting the handlebars really make the brakes easier to pull? At least this time, I explained to David that we were not buying one right away, and he seemed calmer.

I know I'm supposed to do all this on Craig's list. Not my comfort zone.

We tried REI. Our salesperson was very nice, but David once again went into shut down mode--hoodie up, head down. He did actually test drive two bikes. One was a no go, one was possible. Possible is making progress.

We went back to Gregg's, finally at a time when it wasn't too busy and after several test rides, David picked a bike. Then we went home and talked about, and after yet another trip to the store, David has a bike. It's black with pink highlights that, as discussed, could be covered us with cool decals. It's a woman's style bike because that's the type that has the lower bar, appropriate for a tall ten year old boy. Luckily, the term "women's" didn't make him freak out, though it did confuse some of the salespeople.

David loves his bike. We all love that we're done with this shopping adventure.