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!