Mama Bear on a Mission

The more I try to get around Orlando by bicycle, the less simple riding a bike becomes.  I’ve enjoyed a great deal of freedom riding my bike–you have to love anything that makes you go “wheeeeeeee!” down a hill on a regular basis.  However, riding has also brought about a great deal of awareness.  It seems that so much, down to how and where you ride, becomes political.

Our Set-up Part I: The Radish

I’m always extremely curious about other people’s bike set-ups; I like to see what works for other people, particularly stuff tested out by other biking families.  When Jesse and I first considered diving into the world of kids-on-bikes, I went into an internet-searching frenzy.  Unfortunately, we don’t have any bike shops that carry cargo bikes and there’s no Consumer Reports for cargo biking.  Along this mode of thinking, I thought I’d post about our bikes.  First up is the Radish!

Peace, Love, Hope, and High School Students

‘Tis the season to be jolly and pretty much nothing makes me happier right now than my hubby’s amazing high school students.  My husband has been teaching at the same school for several years now and, since both my daughters have been enrolled in the on-campus daycare program, I’ve grown to have pretty high expectations for the students.  However, what I’m seeing lately blows my mind.

Month One Update

I’m happy to report that I have survived the first month of this challenge–yay!  Unfortunately, I still have a lot of room for improvement.  We put a total of 449 miles on the car in the first month; if we keep driving at this rate, we’ll be looking at 5,388 for the year–well above even the 25% goal.

After all, tomorrow is another day!

Alright–I’m going to mix things up a bit.  In a new twist on the Friday the 13th norm, I’m actually going to STOP freaking out.  I’ve spent most of this week kvetching and I’m ready to move on now (I’m sure this is wonderful news to my hubby).

I went out for a nice walk with Viv today and was sort of processing a SWOT analysis in my head.  Yes, my brain does strange things when under stress.  Since it would clearly be a bit too much geekery to actually write out a SWOT, I’ll just list some of my thoughts:

I love you Orlando, but we need to talk…

Orlando, I heard the news and I think we need to have a talk.  I love you, but this just isn’t going to cut it.  You’ve got to prove to me you’re willing to make a change!  I thought we had come so far together–and now there are kids involved!  Who stood by your side when people said that you’re nothing but a second-rate, wannabe metropolis?  This is the best you can do?

It was bad enough discovering that you are actually a set of triplets pretending to be one city or finding out that your unhealthy habits had left your arterial roads nearly permanently clogged.  But this…it’s enough to seriously test my commitment to you.

Wait, what am I saying?  No–this is for better or for worse.  I’m not like those other girls that said they loved you, thought they could fix you, but left as soon as the going got tough.  This love is for real!  I’m gonna’ keep riding your streets, Orlando–because I believe in you!  I know you can be better than this!   It’s okay–a lot of cities at your age do the whole “fast cars” thing, but you need to settle down now and start focusing on your family. I know you’re trying.  You’ve worked really hard on the trails and Baldwin Park was a big step for you!  But now is the time to step it up–let the world see what I see.

This should be interesting

So you know how I like to jump in headfirst?  Well, back before my Radish even got here I booked us a campsite to go camping–by bike.  Yep.

We did a test pack tonight and I’m quite pleased to see that it looks like I will be able to carry all of our camping gear on my bike without the trailer!  I’m really happy that I don’t have to worry about pulling the trailer and adding to the length of my bike.  Jesse will carry the kids, the dog (yep), clothes, and the food.  I’ll carry the 8-person tent, two adult camping chairs, the stove, air mattress, sleeping bags, and the kitchen gear.

My Radish is like the Volvo of Bikes

It’s official–I learned how to ride a bike this week!  Yesterday, I finished up Part II of the “Confident Cycling” class.  This was a pilot class for the Florida Bicycle Association; Part I was a three-hour lecture-style class and Part II was a six-hour road class.  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the thought of adding on one more thing to my already crazy week (especially 30+ miles for the class on Saturday!), but I am really glad I went.

Wonderful weekend followed by a slight case of the Mondays

Another lovely weekend by bike.  Saturday a friend called and invited us out to Lake Eola (downtown) for the Fall Fiesta in the Park.  My first thought hovered somewhere around the idea of “don’t you know we have to bike everywhere now?!?”  However, one of the most important rules we made about this challenge was that we would never turn something down because of biking.  If we didn’t want to go, fine – but not going because it was too many miles out of our total or too hard to bike to was not an option.  Otherwise, what’s the point? Anyone can live on 4,000 miles if they stay inside all day!

I can’t believe I almost missed it.

It was so chilly in the house this morning and the fan was doing it’s lovely white-noise thing and I just didn’t want to get up.  I kept thinking about how long 17 miles sounded and how tired I was.  Instead of an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, I think it was more like a cat and a puppy:

Keeping the faith

Sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith. I avoid sensational news for this very reason – seeing all that ugly gets depressing, especially when you’re trying to shepherd kids through the world. Unfortunately, sometimes riding your bike brings you face-to-face with the anger and tension other people are carrying around. This morning, I was using a relatively busy street to cross a major highway. I was first at the light and as soon as it turned green, I heard “HOOOONK!” The driver behind me laid on the horn the entire time we were crossing. I’m finding it all very humorous at this point, because really—it’s been all of 10 seconds. Normally, when I’m behind other cars, I experience the same delay trying to cross and I’ve never thought of ringing my bell like a maniac. As soon as we get to the other side, she pulls into a left turn lane next to me (I was controlling the lane, as I always do) and screams at me through the passenger window, “I AM IN A CAR!! GET OUT OF THE ROAD!!!!” I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just smiled really big, waved, and gave her the peace sign. I’m sure this infuriated her even more, but I was truly at a loss. As soon as she sped off, I wished I had said, “This is a vehicle, learn the law” or “Nice role-modeling” considering she had to lean over her kid to scream at me (a child that looked way too young to legally be in the front seat, I just can’t help but add). And I don’t know why, but it made me terribly depressed. The thought of someone being so incredibly angry over a 15 second “delay,” the thought of someone acting like that in front of their kid, the thought of someone screaming at a stranger – it left me overwhelmed.