My mom's friends mentioned to her that they had an older but good Trek tandem sitting in their garage and wondered if she knew anyone who might want it. I called about 20 minutes later and asked if I could get it. 

"Oh, you'll be coming by bike. I guess you can't bring it home. Do you know anyone with a truck?"

"It'll be fine, I'll be able to take it home, if that's okay." 

Who needs a truck when you have a Cycle Truck Caddyrack! It was a long load but I made it home just fine. The tandem needs a bit of work so I'll be stopping by Edible Pedal for a tune up in the near future. 

The second bike that joined our fleet this week was Little Brother's first Islabike! Big Brother has almost outgrown his 16" CNOC so we were getting prepared to pass his down to LB but this 16" CNOC popped up on Craigslist and I immediately emailed the owner, begging for the bike even though I couldn't get to the Bay Area until later that week. He said he had someone coming sooner but would let me know if they passed. I was bummed! Yeah right anyone would pass up this amazing deal for a gorgeous Islabike! This one had been imported from the UK so it bypassed the US standards of needed a coaster brake and it was blue! I was drooling. Amazingly, the first buyer was a no-show so I immediately paid via Paypal to reserve the bike. My parents picked it up later that week on their way down the coast. The seller had about five other families hounding him for the bike and for good reason, too. I'm thrilled that Little Brother will get the opportunity to learn to ride with proper brakes and upgrade from the beast of a bike he's been struggling with. 

I'll be swapping over Big Brother's fenders to Little Brother's bike then we'll be putting our order in for Big Brother's first touring bike complete with a kickstand and rack! I can't wait for him to be able to carry some of his own weight finally! 

I had the wonderful opportunity to volunteer with NNTMA's great event, 50 Bikes 50 Kids on MLK, jr. day. Kids ages 9-17 are nominated by community members and are judged based on their character traits: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Fifty kids are selected to build their own brand new bicycles on this day. It is an amazing event! Although I'm sure it had to be chaotic juggling all the volunteers and supplies needed to keep everything running smoothly, from my point of view, it came together beautifully! Abbey, Mellissa, and Becky of the North Natomas Transportation Management Associate worked so hard to put this on. Everyone had such a wonderful time and you could tell from the students' faces that they were thrilled with their new bicycles. 

The second great event I was a part of last week was our January Kidical Mass ride. Melissa, one of our Sac Kidical Mass board members, had arranged through her work at Regional Transit to have a bus for us to practice loading bikes onto their new three-bike racks. I was really glad to have gotten a second opportunity to test out these bus racks with the cargo bikes because these racks were significantly different from the Flyer's. 

A busy week filled with friends and bikes! 

Today, we were dropping off an old Schwinn for revamping at Edible Pedal. Kevin rode the new HaulaDay and I took Smurfette. Smurfette needed a bit of a tune up to tighten the chain and adjust the derailures. Also, the new Xtracycle decks have premarked cutouts for Yepp Maxi seats and since we have one now, that would make installing the seat wonderfully easy.

At EP, we ran into John Lucas of Cycle Trucks. It was a bevy (conglomeration?) of compact cargo bikes!

I decided to leave Smurfette at EP and took the opportunity to hitch a ride back on the new (Mk3) HaulaDay. I let Kevin drive back and squeezed into the upgraded Whoopie-Deux handlebars (the first set were too low and narrow).

It's hard being a passenger and giving up control but the ride went smoothly. The internal gears were really helpful in allowing quick starts in the city.

Kevin didn't have any problems riding with me on deck. I didn't have any problems being cargo. The foot bars were comfortable. I don't have a seat cushion on this bike, yet, and that would have been nice. Overall, it was a great ride!

On Wednesdays, I head out to Rancho Cordova where I am the bike-pedestrian coordinator at an elementary school. Right now, we scan in kids who are signed up for the Active4Me program. A4M was designed by a local guy to help encourage kids to walk and bike to school. Each student gets a bar code that is scanned when they arrive at school. It immediately sends their parents a message that their child has arrived at school, absolving any fears of abduction or disappearances. It also keeps track of the number of miles the student has accumulated and the number of car trips they've replaced. Right now, we have about 60 kids signed up out of a school of roughly 1200. We hope to double the program's enrollment this year. Today, we scanned in 17 walker/bikers. There are many other students who still walk or bike but aren't signed up. Needless to say, we have a long way to go.

To get to school in time for scanning, I leave the house just after 6am, ride to the light rail station, take the transfer bus, then ride to the school. It gets me there earlier than I need but it's better than the alternatives: a 2-hour bike ride with a couple of difficult sections or a 30 minute drive (that's subjective to my own opinion). I love the restful travel of public transportation. Once I figured out the timing and connections, it all went smoothly. Using my folding bike, the Mobic, was extra helpful because it is small enough to easily fit on the light rail and light enough to pick up for the bus rack while still being a comfortable ride.

It's a new year and time for a post! 2014 was a roller coaster year with more changes than I could keep up with. My blogging fell behind while I struggled to keep everything else moving along. This past month was a wonderful ending to an otherwise crazy year. 

The boys and I took a week off of California life to hang out in Portland where my brother's family live and farm. While we were there, I took the opportunity to check out a bike tour with Pedal Bike Tours. The only tour that worked with my schedule was the Colombia River Gorge tour, which is funny because Fiddlehead Farm is right along the historic Colombia River Highway where the tour would be taking us. This is a popular biking route but I've never tried riding it, hearing mostly negative feedback from people who live out there saying it's too "dangerous." I was looking forward to getting some confidence riding with people who had ridden out there many times as well as learning more about the area's history. 

There was only one other person on the tour with me and I was a bit surprised to find that there were only two bikes on the rack when I was picked up. Our guide, Daniel, drove us to the first of about six waterfalls and we hiked out a short distance while he began telling us about the area. Then, the other woman and I were given our bikes and set off to meet Daniel at the next stop about a mile down. We continued riding and hiking out to different falls for about 9 miles down the historic route. The road was mostly empty and the hikes were short but beautiful. At each stop, we met Daniel who gave us snacks and more information. It was a great combination of on- and off-the-bike experiences. At the end of the ride, we had some extra time so Daniel took us up to another waterfall where we could hike behind and get a different view. 

I loved the tour! It was fun getting to know the other woman while we rode along together. Even the light rain added to the trip. I look forward to exploring the area more on my own next time I'm in town. 

While I was up in Portland, my sweet HaulaDay, Smurfette, was having her own change of scenery. 

She was hanging out with our friends in Folsom. It was pretty easy to get her up on Kevin's roof rack by shifting down to the smallest frame setting and turning around the handlebars. We had to remove the disc brake because it was on the wrong side of the clamp but that was simple enough. 

Luckily, she didn't sit around collecting dust while we were away. Kevin and his son went on a long night ride adventure, checking out the holiday lights and drinking cocoa while cranking out Christmas tunes. Kevin also took the HaulaDay to the store for groceries a couple of times and even rode it to work, probably putting about 100 miles on the bike that week. While it wasn't exactly set up for his riding style (mostly road biking), Kevin loved having all the cargo room and being able to take his son with him on more rides by towing his bike to the trails around Folsom. I had a really hard time getting the bike back from them when I returned. 

On our way home from Portland, we made two quick stops in Eugene. The first to pick up a used Yepp Maxi from one of the Eugene Kidical Massers who had posted it at a great deal. 

Our second stop was to meet up with our friend Alan of Bike Friday! Our original HaulaDay is a beta model and since her arrival, Alan and his crew have come up with many changes to the HaulaDay frame. They were incredibly generous to give me a chance to test out their newest HAD model, the MK3, and let them know what I think about it (much, much more on this subject coming soon). 

So now we have two HaulaDays at home! I haven't gotten a chance to get the two of them together because by the time I got Smurfette away from Kevin, another neighbor jumped at the chance to borrow her for a couple of days. Everyone is loving this bike! 

The newer HaulaDay has some great upgrades and changes which I'm really looking forward to comparing to our original model. I have some swapping to do between the two bikes once I can finally get them both at the same house. 

We have some fun things coming up this year. I'm the new Bike/Pedestrian coordinator for an elementary school in Rancho Cordova and I have some new classes to teach. Also, I'm taking an Adventure Cycling leadership training in May to learn more about tour guiding. Big Brother is just about ready to pass down his Isla Bike to Little Brother which means his new bike will have a rack and gears. I'm looking forward to getting him on that bike and getting him to carry some of his own weight on our bike tours! 

Here's to lots of new adventures and experiences in 2015!