We had another wonderful Kidical Mass ride, a park-to-park jaunt with about 20 of us. While I was a bit nervous that no one else would show up, suddenly, a hoard of awesome looking bikes pulled up. It was a great group of mostly regulars and a new father-son duo with an awesome Weehoo. We got to check out Melissa's new Follow-Me-Tandem and test out our Bullitt-train. Somer's son also had his zippy Isla Bike that he's been tearing up--in fact, he just learned how to skid. As we rode the 2 miles, Jarrod and his family showed up and tagged along. 

Have I mentioned too many times that this month has been flying by? I managed to squeak out my May Is Bike Month goal by hitting my (personally) modest goal of 250. The boys are nowhere near their pledges of 100, though. We're doing our best and riding when we can so that's good enough for me. 

I've been thinking lately about how lucky I am to have children who love to ride. Big Brother's biking skills have progressed so incredibly. He's scanning over his shoulder like a pro and working on using his hand signals as he rides. Today, I made the mistake of offering lemonade when we got home and he got so excited that he started to lose control. Amazingly, he was able to hop off the bike and keep it upright enough to come to a stop without biffing it. This is probably at least 75% of what we teach our 5th grade classes in the bicycle education programs (minus the attempted biffings). 

Speaking of bicycle education programs, this is the result of the hard work and dedication that the NNTMA has put into their Ride Smart programs and May Is Bike Month encouragement. More bicycles and trailers showed up at the end of the day as parents came to pick up their children. Put some money into an alternative transportation management association and look at all the rewards a community gets! I love teaching the bicycle and pedestrian classes!  

And then speaking of teaching, last week, I made a major decision to pull back away from working part-time at Practical Cycle and invest my time and energy in the classroom and on the bike. Although I love being apart of the wonderful team at PC, I wanted to be on a more flexible schedule that allows me to be doing what I feel I'm best at: riding a bike and teaching others to do the same. 

And I get to spend more time with this awesome kiddo, too. 

I feel like I alternate between minimalism and gimmie! gimmie! when it comes to my relationship with stuff. Our home isn't fancy, the boys have a couple of Ikea buckets worth of toys, and there's not a lot of clutter choking up our lives. However, when it comes to gear, that's a whole other story. In the past week or so, my gear collection has grown and I'm thoroughly enjoying each piece. 

Wind Blox: the lovely folks at Wind Blox have been interested in expanding to create a set that works for children's helmets as well and I've been complaining that it's difficult to hear the kiddos because of the wind. 

The three of us each have a set now (and I was so grateful that the divvying up went so easily). So far, I've realized that it's a pretty subtle difference because there is still wind, however, I can hear the surrounding noises clearer--birds, child chatter, vehicles, the rockin' tunes, etc. I feel like we haven't been screaming "What?" back and forth to each other as often. One of my other issues has been that my ears get really sore from the constant wind and that hasn't been bothering me lately. Anytime I'm unsure if they're doing anything, I just pull them away a bit to double check and the wind blast comes right back. I want to try them out with a road-bike style helmet to see if that changes anything because as you can see in the photo above, the angle of the Nutcase straps leaves an extra gap. 

Touring gear: I had a couple of gift cards to use up, one for REI, and it just happened that their anniversary sale popped up. I snagged some awesome stuff at REI and Campmor for less than $20 (after the cards). 

I'm hoping that the Thermarest is enough for the boys. I'm going to cut it in half for easier packing and the flexibility to move the boys around while sleeping. They're light enough to not need a thick pad to sleep on so this should give them enough support and insulation (and tough enough for them not to destroy it quickly). It was the irregular so it was even cheaper. The titanium cook set was on sale at REI, it's super light and comes with two pots and two frying pans/lids, all nestable in the mesh bag provided. It's a pretty tiny set, now that I've seen it in person, but I think it should be fine for the three of us for touring. I'll invest in something bigger (or thrift shop) for our group rides. The boys also scored some swim gear that's UV resistant so I think it will work double duty as bike wear, too. I'm still waiting on my Hydroflask to get here. Seriously, it's like it's Christmas around here--but better because I got to choose it all. 

Piccolo: 

BAM! And you thought the Bullitt couldn't get any more intimidating! Our friend, Melissa, found this on Craigslist and spread the word via Sac Kidical Mass's Facebook page. It's an 8+ year old Burley Piccolo that I got for a super good deal (by the way, these things really hold their value but you have to make sure it wasn't part of the recall that happened a couple years ago). It would have been a piece of cake to install, even with the disc brakes because I already had an adapter from the last rack. Unfortunately, once I tightened it all down, I realized I needed a couple extra washers on one side and had stripped out a couple of the bolts and the whole rack was on too tight to get it all to fit back together properly. Fifteen extra painful minutes and a handful of swearing later, it was finally back on as it should be (and will never come off again because the bolts are all stripped now). 

We all took it for a spin this afternoon and we are all loving it! It's so much more stable than the Afterburner that we tried out. Big Brother loves that he can change the gears and work at different levels (although the gears need adjusting, maybe a new cable). I can really feel the help, especially as he gets to the higher gears. I'm hoping to get a couple extra racks so we can swap the Piccolo back and forth between a few of our bikes, maybe even my dad's. 

Finally, something even better than stuff, EXPERIENCES! Join us tomorrow at Tahoe Park at 4:30pm for our next Kidical Mass ride! We have another ride scheduled for the 31st to complete our crazy Month O'Kidical Masses

I am pleased to finally announce my newest adventure: Whimsical Cycle Tours! For many years, I have been trying to come up with a way to combine my love of bicycle travel with an actual career that would allow me to share that joy with others. My tours will focus on the Sacramento area and we will be offering overnight camping trips that cater toward families and casual riders who want to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Right now, we are still in the very beginning stages but we should be starting to offer beta tours over the next couple of months. I could not have gotten even this far if it hadn't been for the help of some very special people, especially Sami for her encouragement and drive to turn this into a reality, my parents for being my very first investors, and Jen who created my amazing logo and website banners. 

Another happy announcement is that our Whine & Chocolate tour is BACK ON!!! It took some soul searching and some number-crunching but I've come to the conclusion that there's no better time than right now to start living our lives exactly as we choose. I want to be able to offer my boys a simple life filled with adventure and experiences. I want to be able to lead by example that one can travel and explore without the need of a minivan and highways. We want to relish in the slow-paced sights of nature and be able to immerse ourselves in purposeful wanderings. 

Many of the exact details of our summer trip hinge on the availability of our Bike Friday Haul-a-Day. Its production has been delayed until mid-June and I'd need some time to test it out and break it in before I'd feel comfortable taking it on a long-distance trip. I'm staying hopeful and flexible with ideas for a "long" option and an "abbreviated" itinerary. I am also hoping that once we can nail down some relatively firm plans, we'll be able to open the trip up to others to join and/or meet us along the way. 

There is so much that I am excited about and while I'm a bit nervous to be jumping into a brand new venture, I cannot wait to open Sacramento up to the world of Bicycle Tourism! 

It's not a debate. It's fact. The climate has changed and will continue to change in ways we are not prepared for. While the media has been slow to jump on the bandwagon of scientific evidence, thank goodness we have groups opening up the discussions--not IF it's happening but HOW we can combat global climate change and better prepare for its already occurring catastrophes (drought, wildfires, flooding, extreme heat). Please join 350 Sacramento in Sacramento's very first Town Hall Meeting on Climate Change this Saturday at The Met (9:30am-4pm). 

One of the biggest changes you can make to help curb your emissions is, of course, parking your car and using alternative forms of transportation. In fact, I'm pretty sure that riding a bike will basically solve just about all of our health issues--environmental, personal, social. I feel so lucky that we have already made the shift to bicycles-as-transportation, it's most of the preparation we need for some of the major changes we will be facing--we don't need a car/clear roads to get around, we are strong and can travel long distances with all we need on our bike, our bodies are used to a variety of temperatures and can adjust themselves accordingly. Now I'm not quite at the stage where I have a bugout kit in my garage and we're not honing our survival skills, yet--I do really love my dishwasher and dryer. However, we all need to be making changes to our behavior--motor vehicle addition is at the top of that list. 

This is a conversation that is sadly just beginning, it's one that we need to continue to move forward and take action immediately. My current action is to continue biking and driving as little as possible while encouraging and helping others to do so as well. My goal is to work at using less energy at home (beloved dryer, sigh) and shift our meals to more locally sourced foods. 

What are you going to do? Let's support each other and share our best carbon-cutting plans. There is no greater need for community than when we are facing disaster and this disaster affects everyone everywhere. This could be a great opportunity to bring back the local-global connection and compassion that we seem to have lost. 

We celebrated another wonderful Cyclofemme yesterday! It was a bit more challenging as not only was it on Mother's Day but it was also the start of the AMGEN tour. I used to worry that no one would show up to the rides but I finally let that fear go and just figure that we're riding bikes and we have snacks so it'll be fun no matter what.

I was especially happy that my friend decided to bring her girls on the ride so I knew it'd be great!

Another 15 riders showed up! It was a casual ride along the American River Parkway to Discovery Park. The wind was killer! My friend's older daughter led the pack almost the entire way, despite the strong headwind. I had her yougner daughter in the Bullitt with the drinks and cookies. Jose and the boys stayed at home for some quiet time.

Somehow our timing was perfect and we ended up catching the very beginning of the AMGEN peloton. I hadn't even realized that they were starting there! We hung out, chatted and ate cookies until we rolled ourselves back toward home.

Our peloton leader was pretty worn out on the way back. She wanted a ride in the Bullitt but it was a really tight squeeze and she decided to continue. It ended up being a 17 mile ride, longer than she had ever done. I was so impressed! I don't think we broke her biking spirit but I'm sure she needed a rest after the long ride.

I got home and immediately traded the Bullitt for the Linus, a nice light bike. A quick ride over to my aunt's house for Mother's Day lunch and visit with family. Lunch was incredible and I ate more than enough to make up for the windy ride.

I'm already looking forward to next year's Cyclofemme! It just keeps getting better each year, new people show up and we figure out different rides to do. Hopefully, we'll be able to turn this into a bit more of an official ride and are able to keep growing!

I can't believe that we're already a week  through May Is Bike Month and I haven't even gotten around to writing about the 30 Days of Biking! Riding my bike is such a regular activity now that it often doesn't even occur to me that there's another way to get around. I can't imagine what my life would be like without my bike(s) anymore. I haven't missed a day of riding since the start of April, not because of any challenge, but because I had places to go and things to do. It feels so great to be able to ride my bike and I am forever grateful that I have a strong, healthy body that keeps me pedaling. Sometimes life gets hectic and overwhelming but the soft hum of the tires is so soothing, it calms my soul. I have another 8 days straight of jobs and events that I'm working on and then a weekend of freedom with one of my favorite people. You might not hear much from me in the next couple of weeks but I am working on something exciting and will hopefully have an update soon. Fingers crossed! 

We decided to go big this month for Kidical Mass and attempt one each weekend. It's so helpful to have such a great board of Kidical Mass parents who are willing to plan and organize these rides with me. Today, we branched into South Land Park territory for a ride to Fairytale Town. The part that I was most excited about for going to FTT was how much they wanted to be a part of our group. David, their grounds manager, had contacted me months ago to find out if we would want to head over there and test out their new bike parking at the front entrance. Of course we did! He even passed along discount coupons for us to use. 

Sadly there were more conflicts and other activities going on this weekend than we had realized so the turnout was a bit smaller than usual. We weren't even able to stay at FTT because Big Brother had a t-ball game this afternoon. It was still great to get out in the fresh (and extremely pollen-filled) air and get a good bike ride in with some wonderful folks. 

Today was also the opening day for the Oak Park Farmer's Market--the best farmer's market in Sacramento. To make it even better, they just installed a new bike rack that was filled with three cargo bikes in the first half hour. I was very impressed at its lockability and how many bikes it fit while still being a pretty cool design. 

The boys and I all got more miles to log for May Is Bike Month and our Tiny Helmets team. This year, I went easy on myself by only pledging 250 miles for myself and 100 each for the boys. 

It's also been busy in the bike education arena for me lately. Last week, I had an awesome day working at one of the local schools during their bike rodeo. We had kids from 1st grade up to 5th grade riding bikes, scooters, and skateboards. There was an obstacle course for them to practice stopping, weaving, scanning, and merging. I was so impressed at how well they all did, even with such a short amount of time. I'm really looking forward to the next month because I have bike and pedestrian classes every week until mid-June!