Critical Mass

Our local Critical Mass ride was celebrating it's second anniversary tonight. We were all so exhilarated to be there with the 120 riders. This is an approximation of our route.

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We biked from home with our friend Ashley and her one year old daughter. It was their first ride. We had all sorts of troubles getting out of the house when trying to hitch our second trailer to her bike. We decided to use the rear bike seat instead. When we finally headed out, it was with 5 minutes till start time, but the crowd didn't leave us behind!

 

This was Elliot's first CM. He was amazing out there tonight. The other riders were very concerned about him on the down hills and he was smokin'! He made it up all the grinds, even the one I couldn't. We are all sort of basking in a bike high.

The New Family Caravan

As part of our efforts to trim the fat, financially speaking, we are driving less and biking more. I have whittled our car miles down to less than 20 one day each week for the past several weeks. We have been working down our errands and appointments to places with in walking/biking distance or in proximity to places we need to go in our van, which we are trying to sell (hint, hint).

The most troubling thoughts and planning has been on how to transport four children when there is only one adult. The past week and a half has put this scenario to the test. There were many different ways this problem could have been solved. Our 9 year old can ride independently but needs an escort for traffic areas. Our 7 year just got his training wheels off a couple weeks ago and has no experience on the streets. We didn't even consider having the 4 and 1 year old on bikes. We looked at trail gators, triple tandems, follow me tandems, a double tandem and a single with trailer, and Xtracycles amongst other things. We didn't have big money to invest initially so here is what happened.

Elliot learning to ride without training wheels at the park, June 2011.

Last year someone loaned us a small Fisher Price bike trailer. We had one adult bike, the trailer, a toddler rear seat and bikes for the older children. Brent would take the little boys out in either the seat or the trailer depending on where they were going and how many were needing to go. Elliot and I stayed home and London rode along side.

My neighbor got wind that we were a bike short and offered up one in her basement that needed some work but wasn't being used. Wonderful! I took it to Huntington Cycle and Sport for a tune up, rear tire and crankshaft adjustment. $50 and 60 minutes later I had a bike. Another friend heard about what we were doing and saw how small the trailer was for our 4 year old and gifted us a beautiful Yakima trailer. I have some of the most generous caring friends.

With Elliot getting better at riding and shortening our errand distances we started out. Our first single parent ride was to a local community garden to volunteer. Elliot and London rode independent. I hauled the little boys in the trailer. It worked wonderfully. It was a great practice trip to see what we needed to get packed, where every one would sit, how helmets and tools and first aid kids were going to be used, etc. We were now a family caravan on the streets of downtown.

Our caravan parked at the community gardens, July 2011.

Introductions and Greetings

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)

 My ignorance of who Mahatma Gandhi was and all the things he stood for is staggering. I feign naivety on many many subjects. The quote simply has a poignancy that motivates me at this time in my life.

Brent and I married in 2002. London is our only daughter. The boys from eldest down; Elliot, Avery and Oliver.

June 2011 at Pilot Mountain, NC

We currently reside in West Virginia.  I have taken short term, part time jobs over the years but resolve to be the mother of these children and wife to my husband. Given that I feel Brent would be a much better full time parent, I spend the rest of my time gawking at the masters degree I haven't finished and all the things we hope to accomplish with our time as it passes.

The course of action for the six of us is steadfast in reducing our debts to the many generous lenders over the past 15 years, prepare for our emotional, physical and financial futures, all the while plucking away at the day to day in a 2011 culture. While simple is our desire, as we all know, we don't always get what we ask for. We take it as it comes and hope to leave behind us something better.