VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - COVID-19 has closed so many businesses and impacted what we do for recreation that it's forced us to look elsewhere for exercise and has us re-evaluating how we spend time with our family. That's keeping one business busy with activity.
Take the Wilson family: Biking on a wooded trail in Virginia Beach has lately become a regular activity according to dad Brian Wilson, who says thanks to the coronavirus, "We are certainly doing a lot more bike riding because of the quarantine."
Mom Melissa Wilson says their kids can't get enough of this family fun. And the questions keep coming from her young son.
"Every five seconds: 'What's the next adventure? What are we doing today?' We just went on an eight-mile bike ride. 'Well, what's next?'"
That enthusiasm is showing up at shops like Fat Frogs Bike and Fitness ever since the pandemic hit. Tim Shockley says he's been in the bike business for 25 years.
"I've never seen it like this before," Shockley told us. "[It] definitely is the craziest I've seen in years in the bike shops."
It's what brought in Joe Grillo and his grandson.
"Jameson is in a hunt for a beach cruiser, and they're hard to find because everybody is doing the same thing: Getting out and doing more exercising."
Shockley says it's been like this non-stop at his shop.
Related: Local bag-making company responds to COVID-19 demand to make something else!
"Right now, we can't even keep them in stock. I mean, they come in - a truck load of them - and they go out just like that!"
He adds that people aren't just buying new bikes - the shop is also overloaded on repairs.
"We have over 80 service bikes in here right now just getting maintenance, so that's also good. People getting their bikes fixed, pulling them out of the garage - [the bikes have] been in there for years, [and] they just want to get them out on the road again," Shockley said.
Grillo says it's an adjustment he and his grandson - and really all of us - are experiencing.
Click here for full coverage on open businesses
"Well, we're trying to figure out the new normal with the social distancing, and part of that is just going out and getting a lot of fresh air and getting our bicycles," Grillo said.
The Wilson family agrees.
"It's a scary time for a lot of people, and we're concerned as well, but at the same we're getting to spend time with our children that we would never have before."
