I'm pretty happy that we've been spending more time around home this summer. It's been great to move along slowly with minimal plans and schedules. Kidical Mass is always one of our favorite activities each month. I love catching up with friends and meeting new bikey families while checking out different routes and activities each ride.

This month, Sac Kidical Mass "board member," Heather, organized a nice 3-mile trip from the Colonial Heights Library to the Oak Park Farmer's Market. The library is home to Sacramento's first seed library where you can "check out" seeds to sow in your garden and hopefully return some after your plant has gone to seed again. We had a stop at the Sol Community Garden where the group has taken over a barren plot of land and turned it into a beautiful community garden for neighbors.

Moving at the pace of the little ones on their own bikes, it took about an hour to get to our final destination, the Farmer's Market. They were generous enough to save some Crop Bucks for the families to spend $5 at the vendors. The market is my favorite place to be on Saturday mornings (May through November) because of the great produce and foodstuffs, wonderful music, and fun kids' activities. It is an incredible community resource and just a few blocks from our house.

Our bike gives us such a great connection to our community. It's not often, if ever, that you get to travel with 25 other people who share a common passion. We get the opportunity to show our kids that biking is fun and safe and show others that we are using a viable form of transportation.

Next month, we're riding to a River Cats' game on July 13th. For more info, check the Sac Kidical Mass Facebook page or our website: SacKidicalMass.org. Come ride with us!

Since our Haul-a-Day still seems to be in production, it's becoming obvious that a long train ride + bike tour isn't going to happen this summer. No problem for us! We've taken the summer (mostly) off to enjoy our local offerings. Our days have been casual but fun and while we haven't had any epic adventures, the shorter daily excursions have still managed to keep us entertained (not that that's difficult to do when you're a rolling bike party). 

Even our Bullitt got in on the action by having a playdate with Neil's new Cycle Truck! 

This morning the boys and I set off to run errands. We stopped at the playground first to make sure all yayas were sufficiently run out. I decided on taking the Mundo today because we needed to go shopping. Last time Big Brother rode the Piccolo, he said that it made his knee hurt. It might be that he's still too short to reach the pedals or just that he was tired of riding back there. Either way, I didn't want to make him pedal if he didn't want to. However, with two kids in the Bullitt box, there's not much leftover room for groceries.

It was really nice riding the Mundo again. I love that bike!

I let both boys sit on the deck this morning because we were all in such a great mood. It was a tight fit and I kept kicking LB's swinging feet. When we left the park, Big Brother decided it was too cramped and opted for the Peanut Shell instead.

When we arrived at Trader Joe's, wouldn't you know it, our spot was taken by another giant Mundo. Ugh, cargo bike parking problems!

We squeezed in around Jarrod's awesome bike and left them there to cuddle.

After filling the Mundo up with almost a full cart of groceries and the two monsters, I started thinking about how nice it would be to get rid of the Peanut Shell. Now that Little Brother can ride on his own, surely he's close enough to be trusted on stoker bars, maybe it was time to upgrade to Monkey Bars?

I got my answer about a mile from home when I stopped at the ATM. I turned around in time to see LB's eyes roll back in his head. He was falling asleep and I couldn't stop it! I had a bag of groceries bucked into the PS and we were so close to home that I thought we'd be fine. Instead, I could tell by the helmet bashing into my back that he wasn't going to stay awake. I enlisted BB's help to keep his arms tightly around his little brother and I rode mostly one-handed to keep LB from tipping over. It was a bit precarious but we made it! I got the sleepyhead into bed, took off his shoes and helmet and he's been there for the last 2 hours. If he had been in the PS or the Bullitt, I'd have just left him in the backyard.

I'll have to make him ride a lot this afternoon to make sure he goes to sleep tonight.

I ride quite a bit and am always surprised that I'm not injured more often. This latest boo boo happened while I was walking the Bullitt fully loaded with kids and when it rolled down the banked road, the pedal smashed my lateral malleolus (the bony protrusion on the outside of your ankle). Sadly, there isn't any padding there and while it's not broken, it's swollen and painful to stand/walk. Being injured always makes me a bit grumpy, especially when it hinders my riding. I might try to get on the bike a bit later today just so we're not cooped up all day. I think it's actually going to be easier to ride than walk for the next few days.

As we got ready to head out on the Crazy Train this morning, I was surprised when Little Brother announced that he wanted to ride "his" bike, the little 12" loaner that I picked up from friends a couple weeks ago with the idea that it's time for Little Brother to learn how to pedal. He's gotten on it a couple of times, usually makes me hold him up for a few tries around the yard as he pedals forward a couple times then sends me jerking to a halt as he hits the coaster brake. It hasn't ended very prettily, me with a backache and him announcing that "his" bike (the Strider) was better. So today, although we were in a hurry, I wanted to encourage his enthusiasm for pedaling. I held onto him as he set his feet on the pedals and instead of running along side, I just let go. Off he went, about 30 feet before he crashed into the shed. We were all so excited that I forgot we had someplace to be and turned him around again. Another 30 feet of pedaling and then another! It wasn't a fluke! He was riding on his own! 

I didn't get any video of his first couple attempts but after we got home, Little Brother gave it another go.  By golly, we've got a house full of pedalers now! There is no fear in this kid at all and he's riding a full year earlier than Big Brother's first tries. There's still much work to be done--power pedal starts, braking, proper lane positioning, etc. but I am so excited!   

Here is a short compilation of his afternoon progression. Forgive the crappy editing (by which I mean total lack of editing) and out-of-focus video. My kid can ride a bike! 

John Lucas has done it again! Our friend, Neil, is now the lucky owner of the very first flat bed Cycle Truck. It still has a ways to go to get to its full load maximization but with John's awesome frame and Neil's ingenuity, this is going to be the coolest work truck in Sacramento! 

I finished up my last day of teaching for Project Ride Smart in Natomas for the season and I could not be happier with the experience. It was amazing to watch the students develop bike handling skills and acquire practical road safety knowledge. These kids are already better riders than most people out on the roads and know more rules than many of the motorists, too. They will be so much better drivers (of any vehicle they choose) as the grow up. This program really is an investment into the children's own safety as well as for the greater community of road users. We need this as standard curriculum all over the United States! 

Of course, my last day wouldn't have been exciting enough on its own so the road decided to throw me a giant chunk of glass to tear through my tire. Luckily, the flat happened at the beginning of the trail and I was in a safe enough location to wait for my mom and the boys to pick me up. Sometimes it's great to have some help from a car and my wonderful mama. Now I have another excuse (not that I needed one) to go visit my friends at Practical Cycle! 

With a couple of old inner tubes and a nice wide berth, Bullitt and I managed to bring Linus home. My shed's been pretty empty lately with many of my bikes being laid up with injuries--flats, stripped bottom brackets, bad bolts, etc. This is what happens when I don't hang out enough at Practical Cycle. Thankfully, my dad changed Linus's tire while I was at work and I got it back home safe and sound! I think I looked odd enough that no one questioned my set up.

Goodbye, May! We closed the month with respectable mileages: Little Brother at 78.5, Big Brother at 70, and I surpassed my goal of 250 to reach 365. I hadn't had any time to go on long rides this month so that was all pretty much just our day-to-day errands and commutes. It is pretty cool to see how that added up. I didn't realize how easy it was to get up to 15-20 miles just by riding around town.

This last week, we've been trying out a new morning routine. Both boys ride their own bikes and because traffic is so light on the two blocks to daycare, Little Brother has been allowed the privilege of riding on the street with Big Brother and myself. He understands that this is just for specificl occasions and if he doesn't listen, he'll be back to the sidewalk or walking immediately. I take the outside position with Big Brother sweeping from behind and Little Brother zooms along as fast as his feet can fly. Our friends just dropped off a small pedal bike and I'm excited to get LB on it to practice.

Yesterday was our Farmer's Market and in just the first hour, the racks were filled (it probably helped that our Crazy Train filled an entire side by itself). The Piccolo has been a great addition to the Bullitt. It is so stable and easy to ride with, plus it frees up desperately needed cargo space for delicious produce, extra children, small bicycles, the usual.

We picked up a spare child and the borrowed 12" bike and rode home.

We were too fascinating to not get our photo snapped by a local photographer covering a Farm-to-Fork story and David was kind enough to share his photo with us.

In the evening, I went to a memorial service with my parents for a wonderful man who passed away a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful service with lots of great memories and stories about Don's rich life as a biologist, avid bird watcher, and dear friend to so many.

It was nice to be able to bike to the memorial and have time afterward to reflect.