Thanks so much everyone! My husband and I checked the brakes, wheel alignment, ect. and everything seems in order. We then went over all of the gearing and I feel like I have a visual understanding of how it all works. After that, I went for a "leisure" ride with my son and spent most of the time just playing around with my gears. I am going to ride for a couple more days and than go back into the LBS and get some feedback from them.

I think that part of my problem is that my new bike was hyped up so much that I wasn't prepared to have such a physical learning curve. I also think that becasue of the different geometry, I have to do more thinking than I did on my neighbors bike so I am just getting frustrated. Probably the biggest problem is my lack of patience and my personal sense of competition.

For now, I am going to stick with building base miles and increase my speed and mileage very gradually. This will be my summer of learning!! I can also see the possible need for a "fun" bike to ride around with the kids, but I will have to wait awhile for that!

Thanks so much....when I have a little more time, I will attept to figure out how to post a picture of my beautiful bike!

Stephanie