Dashing Through the Snow along the Mississippi

The Twin Cities' weather this past week has been a bicyclist's delight.  The bike lanes were mostly clear of snow and ice and morning and afternoon commute temps were in the delightful twenty degree zone.  Many of us pulled out our summer bikes to revel in the conditions.  My five year old even rode his bike from a friend's house back home. It seemed like a stolen moment that many of us made the best of.  I bike commuted more this week than in months.

Snow did come on Thursday afternoon, so I was back on my winter bike with its studded tires.  Another 1/2-3/4 inch layer of snow came Friday, perfect for beautifying the bike trail while not impeding progress.  After a quiet day at work on December 23rd, I was psyched to take my 12 mile Mississippi River route into the Christmas Holiday.  Here are some photos I snapped along the way.

 

Beautiful pre-sunset light over the Mississippi River in Saint Paul. 

I didn't pass any bikes the whole way home last week nor this week. But 6 others had passed since the snow fell hours ago. 

This route is great for wildlife sightings.  Here is one of the several white-tailed deer I saw.  The best sighting this fall was a red-bellied snake crossing the path.  It was caught in the cool weather.. and very cold as discovered when I picked it up to move it off the trail. 

I love the quiet on this route.  It was magically broken as I was cruising up the old railroad grade and heard this train approaching from behind.  The Polar Express?

Back in our neighborhood I made a point of biking by our local Christmas light hotspot.  This week's commutes have also been a great chance to enjoy the beauty of some great Holiday light displays along my usual route home on Summitt Ave.

Here's to another great year of experiencing the seasons along this great Mississippi River route home. 

Car-free by the Numbers

What do we mean by "car-free"?  No, we have not completely sworn off cars.  We simply don't own one.  Our car-free (or car-lite) life includes many modes of travel.  For about a year and a half in 2009-2010 I dutifully recorded every one of our trips away from the house to see how much we used each of the many modes of travel.  I call it the Riding Phrius Data Project.  It is a pretty cool dataset.  Like many cool datasets, it has yet to be fully explored.

Below is a sneak preview into how many miles we traveled by bus/light rail, bike, rental car, visitor's rental cars, etc. for the 9 months from March - December 2009.  It does not include air travel, the Achilles heal of most people's carbon footprint.  In this 9 months we traveled a total of 7176 miles, 58% of which were divided equally between public transportation and bicycle.  I look forward to sharing some more gems from the Riding Phrius Data Project. 

The Annual Bike Haul of the Christmas Tree

Part of our car-free family life is the annual bike ride to pick-up a Christmas tree.  With a 2 and 5 year old it was especially fun this year.  As you can see below, they were great helpers.  With Theo riding his bike for the first time for the Christmas tree run, he also picked up a few tricks. 

The chosen tree with two happy boys.

After many years of Christmas tree pickups, Theo knows just what to do.

The annual photo of us and the tree on the bike cargo trailer.

Theo realizing the possibilities... of grabbing a ride.  Reach, reach...

 

"Got it!"  (giggle, giggle)

Another trailer for daddy to pull. 

Busing and Triking it to Church

A few years ago, like many parents with young children, we started attending church. While not in our neighborhood, we were drawn to Plymouth Congregational Church on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. It offers probing, progressive preaching, a deeply engaged congregation, wonderful music and youth programs and much more.  Theo and Henry really like to go to church school and Hillary and I get a peaceful, reflective hour together in the service. 

So how does a car-free family get to a church that is 4+ miles away?  Usually by bus. Two buses actually.  We can hop on the #21 heading west and pick-up the #18 heading north up Nicollet Ave.  If we are lucky it is a 30 minute trip.  If not it can be 40 minutes.  Sundays aren't great bus days, with lower frequency even on busy routes. Luckily, if the bus connection is bad, we can usually find a taxi waiting in the K-Mart parking lot and get a $5 ride the last mile, a convenience that's especially helpful in the winter.

And as of yesterday, we added a door-to-door taxi ride to the mix.  Yes, we are usually pushing the bus schedule.  Yesterday was the day we completely missed it.  In frustration Hillary suggested we just go home.  But Theo's tears over missing church school, as well as our own desire to go, led to Plan B.  So we called a taxi and $14 later ended up getting there earlier than if we had caught our bus.

Here are some images from a recent Sunday when we took the bus.  And then an earlier Sunday when we biked.

Train-obsessed Henry checked out The Polar Express from the church library to read on the ride home. The library is a favorite stop for the kids.

One advantage of a bus and kids- no car seats!  They love looking out the windows and always want to sit "up high" for better views. Sometimes one or both fall asleep on the way home.  The bench seats can be an advantage in this situation. Another perk of the bus, Hillary and I can take turns reading the Sunday paper.

On mild spring and fall Sundays we will occasionally bike to church.   We can cruise westwards on our nearby bike highway, the Midtown Greenway, and then do the last mile or less on Nicollet Ave.  A few weeks ago when Hillary had to work, I did my first solo trip to church with Theo and Henry in the Kangaroo. 

Theo looking ahead on the Midtown Greenway.

"Stop it with the camera" he is probably thinking.  Soon he was blocking my camera view with a book.  This was a beautiful day to do this ride. 

A favorite destination after church school- the church courtyard with its fountain.  Theo and Henry love chasing each other through the bushes and jumping off walls.

Ok, solo church dad looking a little disgruntled, but all in all this was a great church outing with T and H via the Kangaroo.

Pizza on a bike

School day and everyone was headed home late.  I was commuting home from St. Paul.  I got the call from Hillary who was headed home in the Roo trike with T and H after T's tennis lesson.  "How 'bout we order a pizza," she proposed.  "How 'bout I get a bake-at-home pizza at Papa Murphys," I replied.  I turned around and headed there.  I got the pizza and wondered how I was going to get it home without it turning into a plastic-wrapped wad of pizza sauce, toppings, and dough.

With a little ingenuity it is amazing what you can strap to a bike.  After scratching my head for a moment, I slipped one end of the pizza box into my left pannier rain cover and snagged one box corner with the handle of the right pannier.  I wrapped the left pannier's strap over the left side of the box.  But how to tension that strap?  Ah, the side benefits of a cable lock.  I unwrapped enough of my cable lock and slipped it through the strap, relocked and voila - the pizza was level and well secured without any added strapping.  Little did the pannier company, Jandd, know that their rain cover can double as a pizza delivery sleeve!

Minneahaha Falls by bike with Bro and family!

We were blessed to have my brother (sometimes incorrectly referred to as my twin), his wife and daughter visit us during their 3 week circumnavigation of the Great Lakes from their home outside Ottawa, Canada. 

Heading out.  Cousins in the Roo.  Henry on the Bobike.

Quintessential Minnehaha Falls shot.  Nice look, Henry!

It was a very hot and humid week.  The water was a wonderful relief.

Dinner, fish half eaten.

Nice halo, Henry.

Theo's 5th Birthday in the Park by Bike Cargo Trailer

Another big birthday to rally for - Theo's fifth.  Theo had many requests for this one - a scavenger hunt, pinata, a sperm whale cake, all at a favorite spot - the "Giggly Hills" along the Mississippi River Gorge.  Hillary's mom was in town so we had access to her rental van.  But how could we quickly carry lots of stuff, including a long table, all the way to the trail-only accessible site?  Leave it to "Tully" our bike cargo trailer.  Tully is a tough one, built to haul up to 300 pounds, and long.  Now that is a burly trailer.

Soon after we went car-free some eight years ago, we did some reading on how to do it.  Acquiring a bike cargo trailer was highly recommended.  From a friend who worked at Peace Coffee- our awesome local coffee roaster that delivers much of their coffee by bike (!) - we learned about Bikes At Work trailers.  These are serious utilitarian cargo trailers built in Iowa.  We soon purchased one with the savings that we reaped from reduced car insurance costs.  Tully has served us very well hauling groceries, bales of straw and bags of potting soil, brush (buckthorn), xmas trees, and even furniture to sell as a mobile yard sale.  But this time it was Mission 5th Birthday along the Mississippi River Gorge.

Hauling in full coolers of food and water, watermelon, scavenger hunt materials, fold-up table, blankets, rain gear,  etc. I popped off the bike trail and rode the short dirt trail in. The uphill was a bit of a challenge but I managed by walking the bike and trailer.

Add a table cloth and voila you have a perfect table for serving four pizzas and watermelon to a bunch of pre-schoolers.

Mormor chatting around the trailer table.

Pinata!

The Birthday Boy enjoying his sperm whale cake.

Packing to head home and catch a bit of a refreshing rain storm. With a bike trailer you can roll your load right up to the house for easy unloading!

"What happened, you guys came here by car!"

Yes, we did.  Tonight was the end of the season picnic for the Seward Concert Band that I play clarinet in.  This year's picnic once again coincided with Hillary's mom's visit for Theo's birthday weekend. But this year I was struck by how many people noticed our car-full arrival. Perhaps we should have parked out of view!

For a car-free family visits by friends and family with rental cars are a minor bonanza. In fact in past years, soon after each of the boys were born, these rental car-full visits by Hillary's mom racked up hundreds of miles through trips to outlying stores and visits to friends and sites in the greater Twin Cities area.  With some luck I think we'll keep the mileage down this weekend.

Open Streets-Ciclovia Minneapolis 2011

The biking joys of Minneapolis rose to a new level this weekend.  Yesterday was the grand opening of the RiverLake Greenway.  Today,  for the first time Minneapolis closed about 2 miles of a major 4 lane street (Lyndale Ave.) to motor vehicles.  For 4 hours bicyclists, walkers, strollers, runners, roller bladers, and more flocked to cruise up and down the street during Open Streets 2011.  We popped Henry in the Bobike, stuffed Theo's bike with him in the Winther Kangaroo, and headed down the Midtown Greenway to Lyndale Ave.  Within half-a-mile of Lyndale, Theo couldn't wait any longer and got out to ride his bike.  He was definitely out to break his long distance biking record today.  Little did we know he would end up biking nearly 7 miles, much of it on the new RiverLake Greenway - the first time he biked on a bike route with cars (albeit few).

Here are a few videos and pictures from the day. 

"My bike is a kite!" (above).

Biking on the RiverLake Greenway for the first time (below).  We were surprised by the extent of its  rolling hills.  Here Theo is pushing up one of the hills.  It was a little nerve-racking at times having Theo on the road, crossing intersections for the first real time.  But there was relatively little traffic, he has gotten a lot of biking practice, and was listening very well.

 

Minneapolis' bike share program, Nice Ride,  was at Open Streets in full force.  Here they are making "Nice Cream" while biking. Gotta try some next time.

Mayor Rybak dueling it out for the slow bike race.  Go Nice Ride!

Gorilla Yoga and a Bakfiets bike.

Decorating Theo's bike at one of many bike decorating stations.

RiverLake Greenway overpass above 35W.  Note the blue yarn bombing behind me.

The Bobike seat is great, until your kid falls asleep.  Should have gotten Henry home earlier, or at least into the Kangaroo trike where he could have slept without the head bobs.

We are looking forward to the next Open Streets event! 

Theo's first fish and other fun at Powderhorn Park

Today we loaded up the Roo trike with the boys and fishing poles and biked to Powderhorn Park for "Take A Day Off".  This was a great event to get city kids and families engaged in outdoor activities.  It was co-sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation, and REI.  It was fun to see some colleagues from DNR there and spend a relaxing few hours in the park canoeing, playing frisbee, trying archery, and fishing.   After many failed past attempts, Theo caught his first fish today- a yellow bullhead.  He was very excited, as were we.  Here are a few images from a very fun mini-adventure.

Bike Walk to Work Day 2011: DNR bike commuters unite!

A high point of Bike Walk Week is Bike Walk to Work Day.  Not only are there great restaurants and cafes offering complimentary goodies to bike commuters, but there is the chance to recognize the impressive community of bike commuters in the Twin Cities. 

But this year was even better because a coworker at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources organized a bunch of us to meet at the  Downtown Saint Paul Bike Walk to Work Day event in Rice Park.  Here is the crew.  Thanks to Kelly for bringing us together.  It was great fun to meet up and then ride as a small pack through downtown St. Paul to DNR.

Every day is different, but no fish this time

I always enjoy meeting other bike commuters along my route, especially when they are recent converts to the joys of bike commuting.  Today, I met one such person at the work bike lockers.  We were both looking at the cloudy skies and wondering if we'd get caught in a passing shower.  I commented that I hadn't checked the weather but that I had checked the Mississippi River levels  online.  I wanted to get an indication of how passable my river route home through Lilydale would be.  She then commented how much she loved bike commuting and was doing it more and more.  She noted how "every day of bike commuting is different."  So true, and my commute through Lilydale today confirmed it.

I reached the  Lilydale section of my river ride home. Good sign: the road gate was open.  The surface of the Mississippi River was rushing just below the road's level, but enough time had passed that the many inches of river sediment had been plowed from the once flooded bike path. Reassured and optimistic, I took the bike path through the floodplain forest.  Soon I reached a flooded section of trail.  Hmm...I had encountered a flooded section last year (see below) and successfully biked through with dry feet. But this was a different section and a very different flood year.

The water flooding the path was irresistible, so still, reflecting the tree canopy above.  Its surface was speckled with tufts of cottonwood seeds.  Thinking of last year's successful fording of the water, I plunged in with two wheels. The water rose as the bike descended... 1 inch, 3 inches, 6 inches, feet wet as they churned through the water.  Don't slow...9 inches, 11 inches, my panniers are now cutting through the water.  Luckily it got no deeper and I  stayed upright.  I reached dry ground, feet dripping. I emptied the water from my panniers, finding no fish.  I dried off the bottom edge of the iPad that had suffered the crossing and headed to the next crossing.

Yes, every day of bike commuting is different.

Riding Phrius goes to Greece

Well, at least the Andy part of Riding Phrius. 

By being car-free, we prevent all these carbon emissions by riding bikes, taking public transportation, and only using cars when we absolutely have to. But unfortunately much of that savings gets blown with airplane travel to Ohio and Pennsylvania  and other distant states to visit family and friends.  But this time I have really blown it... by going to Greece with my dad. 

Dad is 87 and loves to travel.  He discovered Penn State University trips several years ago and has gone on at least half a dozen.  They are a good deal and they are run by an excellent tour leader who likes having him on the trips. But he hasn't been able to go on one for over 2 years.  Every time I see him, he mentions how much he wants to travel.  So through a collective family effort of Hillary letting me go for 12 days as she stays with the boys and my brother staying at the house with mom, I am the one that gets to accompany dad on this group trip to Greece.  Rough.

I was a little leery of this trip. I did the last trip with him 2+ years ago to Spain and Portugal.  Four hours before we were going to fly home from that trip, Dad discovered that he had lost his passport.  With a trip to the Seville police station, a lucky connecting flight past the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, and some fast foot work on the part of the tour leader, he managed to get another passport.  Do I really want to travel with this guy again?  Well, obviously the answer was yes. 

Late this afternoon we arrived in Athens.  Just as we were getting to the passport inspection station we hear over the PA system, "Passenger Mr. Holdsworth, please come to the service counter".  Oh boy, what is it this time?!  After worrying about the worst things it could be, we learned that the airline had left dad's suitcase at London Heathrow.  As the tour leader said, this guys is cursed.  We should have the luggage by sunrise and we hope he has gotten this out of his system for the rest of the trip! 

Day 27 of 30 Days of Biking

With a late day at school and work, we spontaneously opted to eat dinner at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants, the Birchwood Cafe.  I biked from the Hub Bike Shop and met Hil and the kids at the Birchwood.  I hadn't been there in months and had a great chicken stew.  It really hit the spot on a cool evening.

We also had a fun bike ride home for Day 27 of 30 Days of Biking.  Day 27 was a big one for Theo.  For the first time he biked on his own bike across one of the Mississippi River bridges. 

Here are a few pics from our evening ride home from the dinner.

Alleycat: "I'm a Cheetah!"

Theo's favorite way to get in his daily dose of 30 Days of Biking is what we now affectionately call "Alleycat".  Alleycats are informal bike races typically in urban areas.  I have a work buddy who first told me about alleycat races, but I have never done one.  Last year Theo and I started doing "preschooler alleycats" - minor bike chases in the alley behind our house.  We do circles and figure-eights around trash cans between our neighbors' garages.  It has actually proved to be a great way for Theo to advance his bike skills and learn good lessons from a few "soft knocks".  Hillary caught us on video and in photos during our post dinner Alleycat the other night.  Theo was so fast that he declared, "I'm a Cheetah!" Here are some of the photos: