I hate to have to make this announcement, some told me just to "make it up today," but I can't. My 365 day attempt has already come to an end. After 4.5 months, I missed a day of riding. Of course, some of my days of "riding" were a bit of a stretch and occasionally consisted of a loop around the backyard, but I had still managed to get on my bike every single day. Yesterday, I didn't. It was the first day of class for my exchange student program, I was out from 7am-8:30pm, came home to a screaming baby, kept forgetting to jump on the bike as I was running around trying to tie up loose ends, then fell blissfully asleep before I remembered. Dang. I knew that it would be very difficult to manage riding during the program but I thought I'd still be able to sneak in a loop somewhere, big or small. The three weeks of the program doesn't always have a set schedule, a bikeable commute (since my/a car needs to be avalialbe for emergencies) and this ONE day is always insane. 

So what did I do today? Give up and finally take a biking rest? 

Nope! 

Piled three teenagers from China, my hubby, the two kiddos, and myself and rode a short distance to the farmer's market. 

Then, after our initial test ride, we went back home to meet up with more friends. Our favorite biking family, who also happens to be one of my favorite host families (thanks!) brought their student--Lluis, kids, and grandpa to go for another biking adventure. Nine bikes, 13 people, 1 trailer, two baby seats, and 14 miles equals a pretty epic journey. 

We rode down T st., over the R st. bridge, into Old Town, onto the American River Parkway, all the way to Discovery Park. 

Iit was really, really cold. That didn't stop most of us from hopping in and cooling down. I'm surprised that no one got any flats from the numerous thistles that covered the ground. We had a great lunch of tamales from the market and other goodies. We decided to ride home the other way, continuing down the American River Parkway.

A touch of excitement close to home when we had to turn around due to an armed stand-off with the police a few blocks ahead. The cars coming down were frantically waving us back and telling us to turn around. So we did. Unfortunately, while we were making our legal left turn (since the location of the stand-off didn't give us many options for an alternate route), a woman in a blue Beetle decided to bear down on us at a red light. As we were making the turn, she kept revving up behind me, really close so I yelled back to her to wait. She screamed back, gunned around us, still screaming "get on the sidewalk." I managed to let her know that that was illegal, but I'm pretty sure that point of reason was beyond her comprehension. Bit of a downer to end an otherwise amazing afternoon ride. 

Later, the boys and I headed out to a BBQ at Jennifer and Randy's house on the Mundo. We don't have enough car space for all of us with our "extras" and the students were too beat for another ride (look an extra ride to cover for yesterday...). Strangely enough, while making another legal left turn, I was (albeit calmly) told that I *should* be on the sidewalk. I informed this gentleman in the giant SUV in the inside turn lane that it's not legal. He was shocked and told me that it still would be *safer* to which I said "no, it wouldn't." He then crept forward so as not to have to talk with me again. 

I always seem to have the most trouble with drivers when I am making left turns or riding out in the street for whatever appropriate reason I am doing so. I assume that this is because I am finally visible to them and they perceive that I am slowing them down. Really, if anything, they could be delayed a few seconds by going farther around me or waiting for a clear time to pass (if they give us that courtesy). So many lives would be saved if drivers could somehow understand that we have a legal right to the road. They yell at us for not obeying traffic laws and then yell at us again for doing so. Focusing on the 1000 positive comments to every 1 or 2 negative ones really helps keep me calm during these moments of confrontation. Keep those thumbs-up coming! 

My favorite part about our Mundo is that it continually grows and evolves with our family. It's not like a trailer or kid seat that is outgrown quickly and needs to be replaced. Our newest addition: stoker bars for Big Brother! Not that he needs to be out of the Peanut Shell or that we're ready to move Little Brother to the back yet. My biggest reason to get the stoker bars was because I felt that our minivan was missing out on valuable passenger space. There have been many times that I wanted to take an extra person with us but couldn't because the Peanut Shell was in the way. I've ridden with people hanging off the back, behind the seat but it's difficult to balance a heavy load behind the wheel and it's not very comfortable for them, either. I kept imagining going on fun bikey dates with the hubby but we'd always have to go on two bikes. I like the idea of him schlepping me around sometimes. We also have our exchange students coming this Thursday and this also opens up the possibility of them coming riding with us, even if they don't ride bikes. 

The only change I think I'll need to make is either lower the stoker bars or at least re-angle them. Currently, my thighs hit the bars when I pedal. It's not uncomfortable or unmanageable, just a bit annoying. I can live with it, if I can't find a solution. 

I didn't even think that Big Brother was going to be so ready to ride the stoker bars just yet. He's never shown any interest in hopping on Kate's bike without the seat. I was sure that we'd take awhile getting him used to the idea before he gave it a shot. However, the little guy was thrilled at the idea of being out of the Peanut Shell and took to it quicker than anyone imagined. While Jose and my folks watched nervously from the sidewalk, Big Brother and I rode down a side street to practice. He was so excited! He held on perfectly and comfortably. We then rode another 5 miles home, just like that! 

I like having the Peanut Shell behind him, just in case, and the panniers act as wheel skirts to keep his little feet from getting into the spokes. We got him the leg-up bar from Yuba, too, but it doesn't seem like he needed it. 

I'm so proud of Big Brother for being so brave and willing to try new experiences. I love how he just goes with the flow, absolutely trusting his instincts and abilities. He is certainly able to ride behind me, out of the Shell. I'm not ready to remove the seat, yet, as I'm sure there will be days where I have to strap him down to get him to come with me (I know the parents understand what I mean...) or if we have a guest riding with us. But I am so excited for this new evolution of our bike and biking possibilities. 

It has been difficult to get out on my bike these days. With my job, I have random hours of running around and although I'd love to be doing everything thing by bike, my energy is so drained that I can barely manage getting everything done. Therefore, I've been driving way more than I'd like. However, this is the price that I pay for a job that I love and only does this to me 1-2 months of the year. The other 10 months are mine to ride as much as I can and I certainly take advantage of that opportunity. Considering I ride about 300-500 miles in an average month, it's shocking to see how much my busy-time-of-the-year has affected my riding. At halfway through the month, I've only ridden ~100 miles. I have still gotten on a bike every day this month but more often as the exchange student deadlines approach, it means running outside at 10pm to ride a loop around the backyard. My body is craving riding and we're still getting out as often as possible. Today, we rode about 7 miles to pick up ink cartridges for the 1000s of pages I now sit printing for student orientation. We even got a chance to play at ArtBeast for an hour. 

I try not to beat myself up about the driving that I have been choosing to do (I say choosing because if I really tried hard enough, I could have biked most places). However, with my sanity at stake, I'm letting this month go. 

Some of the highlights of this last week: 

Our Little Loop ride was interrupted by this car accident. A man popped out of his car on his cell phone (still) cursing his mistake of trying to turn left without yielding. The woman was calm but they both just stood in the street not knowing what to do. A woman from the sidewalk yelled for them to get out of the road and luckily, an ambulance had been stopped at the light next to us. Fortunately, no one seemed very hurt, just shaken up. The cars were a mess but everyone made their way around as if nothing had happened. It's pretty difficult to explain to my three-year-old why people would crash their cars. "Why weren't they paying attention?" he asked over and over. 

Another reminder as to how we treat driving so frivolously and forget that they are the number one killers for people aged 1-30 (or so). I also drove past a van engulfed in flames the other day. I could feel the heat radiating off the fire from 3 lanes away, inside my car. Again, we just kept moving along. Nothing to see, hurry past. Once the traffic was clear, other cars picked up speed and zipped along, weaving in and out of the lanes to catch up the time they had lost from the accident. I'm trying to stay as present and aware in the car as I am riding but it's easy to bore myself into complacency. With biking, my whole body is working and my senses are alive with smells, sounds, sensations. In a car, it's a tiny box with a controlled environment. No wonder everyone is trying to check their Facebook at the same time, we're not using enough of our brain! 

July's Kidical Mass made up for all my lack of riding this week. The boys and I rode out to Discovery Park, a great ride in itself. This month's Kidical Mass was a picnic and ride. The boys were pooped even before we left. Big Brother fell asleep on the way over but woke up joyously when we reached the train tracks. Not missing a beat, he picked up his usual running commentary. For this section of the trail, he loves to tell me how the tracks are broken and asks why they are broken and who is going to fix them and look over there, boats! I love it! He seems to have set scripts for different areas "What happened to the road?" "I think someone spilled paint on the road and someone else drove their car through it." We sometimes even get to pick who is the asker and who is the answerer. 

Another fantastic Kidical Mass group. Some familiar faces and some new friends (and one new host family!). We ate and ran around, checked out each other's bikes, then rode about 2 miles down the trail. We had a couple of spills but they were quickly remedied with some trail-side blackberries. Little brother fell asleep for the ride home and Big Brother sat thinking quietly as I got a chance to talk bikes with Warren on the way home. 

Finally, check out this great article about biking with babes by Anna Fahey of Sightline Daily. Great photos and inspiration. Another wonderful piece that has gained incredible (and deserved) notoriety is Bike Portland's piece on Emily Finch, mother of six, who bikes everywhere with her brood. It has certainly gone viral. I've had it sent to me at least a dozen times, probably more. At first I think, I must not be doing enough but that quickly turns to: if she can do it, so can I. My favorite part of the entire piece has got to be the comments at the bottom. Emily's sense of humor in spite of all the naysayers is fantastic. They feel the need to comment on everything from where she lives, her income, to her family planning choices. When you get on a bike, you sure put your life in the open for everyone to judge. It's a good thing she rides a bike a lot because Emily seems to be one of the happiest people I've seen (not that I've seen her in person, but I'm enjoying her company on Twitter). 

I got a wonderful message a month ago from a fellow biker from New Delhi. He said that he had taken up biking two years ago in India and his life has changed because of it. My favorite part of his message was "Good luck on the biking community. Let us grow it stronger." 

I was so excited to hear from someone so far away and I immediately asked a million questions about the riding culture in India. Luckily, Tarun, is very patient and gave lots of great info as well as some fantastic photos. I think it's only fair to share them with my readers. Thank you so much, Tarun for your contribution to this blog as well as to the global biking community! 

In Tarun's words:  

 Hope you are doing great! The pleasure is equally mine to get in touch with fellow biking fraternity and health and environment enthusiasts!

The biking culture in India is growing now since few years and we organize and participate in lot of road and mountain biking events such as Himalyan MTB challenge, Nilgiri MTB challenge, Tour de Delhi, and lot of other Brevet activities. In Delhi the biking community got active three years back and now is vibrant group of riders of different demographies. Some of our active groups include Pedal Pushers, Delhi, Delhi Cycling Club, Delhi cyclists, Pedalyatri, Gurgaon, Lutyens Bikerz Zone, Noida Cycling Club. We meet every weekend mornings (coordinating the rides via facebook or google groups) and weekday evenings to ride good odd 70-80 kms on an average. Delhi also has some good trails in Arravali foot hills, and Delhi ridge and some good road routes such as Delhi - Gurgaon- Faridabad Road, Canal Road, Rohini, and Noida- Greater Noida Roads. 

Many of us have also started going to work on our bikes, however this is still not prevalent due to reasons such as heat, unsafe roads, and most importantly cycling beyond fitness is seen as a sign of poor financial condition (I feel bad about it). However thanks to rising traffic and petrol prices and falling health that people have started taking this. I get a lot of enquiries from people who want to start riding and join the group. 

We would love to host and help any of your friends who wish to visit India on a cultural/biking travel - some kind of a biking exchange.

Keep riding because life is a cycle! :-)

It's amazing to me that cycling can be such a unifying force to both bring people together and to help change the world. It is interesting to me that we face the same challenges as a biking community and we understand one another's situation. I would love to visit India and check out some of the beautiful roads and fun group rides. I love the number of helmets I see in the photos! 

As Tarun rides in New Delhi and I ride in Sacramento, it is comforting to know that we are riding together, in a way, along with so many others to help bring awareness to the need for safe and accessible cycling all over the world. Tarun and his friends are helping to change people's preconceived ideas that riding a bike is less prestigious than driving a car. Look at all the smiles! Thank you for sharing a part of your biking world, Tarun! I will take you up on your offer one day. Please know that it goes both ways :) 

The boys and I rode in a neighborhood parade for the 4th of July. I kick myself because we should have gone to a different parade that was more organized, we would have been announced as we passed by, and there was a vendor area afterwards that we could have gotten some exchange student attention. It was hard to decide in the morning and ultimately, I chose the parade that was a mile away from my house as opposed to the one that was 8 miles away. At the time, I just couldn't get our rig out the door in time for that long of a ride. Instead, our silly billboard of a bike got some funny looks. We ran into a few friends which was nice and we basically scooted the Mundo along the parade route since it moved so slowly. I refuse to take the sign off my bike even though I feel as ridiculous as anything and I keep imagining getting a phone call regarding my biking--sort of a "how's my driving?" bumper sticker. If I even get one host family from it, it'll be worth it. I think after my program, I'll need a new sign, without my phone number on it--suggestions? 

Crazy month has turned into bat-poopy insanity...in a good way, of course. Juggling my kiddos and my job gets really difficult these days. My wee ones get pawned off on any relatives within baby-throwing reach (luckily, I can't throw a baby very far and between the hubby and my folks, my kids are pretty safe). Since I am using most of my free time to either work or pretend to work by staring at the computer, willing host families to come my way magically, it doesn't leave a lot of time for biking. I am thankful to have worked biking into a regular part of my routine already because if biking hadn't already been ingrained into my life, that would be the first thing out the window. I've already had to drive three times this week but that is compared to the 11 times I've headed out by bike instead. The heat also makes it difficult to get on the saddle, but as Big Brother said once we started moving "Hey, it's not hot anymore!" It's only hot when you stop. I wish I had more free time to go the "long" way home or to take the extra hour to make my longer trips but that's not an option for me right now. In my head, I think of all the wonderful ways an electric assist would make my life more enjoyable. I don't want to get trapped into thinking that my car is a necessary evil because then I would get wrapped into believing that I can't get rid of it. We still plan to and we still will. Each trip I've taken could have been done using a shared car program or an electric assist bike, I could have planned the timing better to account for babysitting needs. In a month and a half, I will have more time than I know what to do with (I'd like to believe) and for those times, I dream of camping trips with my boys and epic tours up to Portland. I start thinking about how I will fit in a bike trip around Sardinia and the next bike I will get once our car is gone. Those things keep me moving, even when I can't be pedaling. 

I purposely decided not to keep a rigid count of my miles in June since May had made me so crazy, I thought it would be better to focus on just doing the essential amount of riding, not stress myself, and focus more on the adventures and self-challenges of biking as transportation. The Mundo was almost always my go-to choice for trips since I was almost always either carrying cargo or children or both. On the few trips that were fun, solo trips, Mr. Mobic was my zippy backup. They are such opposites that they complement each other nicely. It also seemed like whenever I was on the Mundo, Jose was on the Mobic and vice versa so they were getting fairly equal use. It's great that we're finally figuring out what bikes work best for our lifestyle, as opposed to which bikes we think we're supposed to use or that look the prettiest/fanciest/lightest. We are certainly embracing our car-freer lifestyle more and more as the months go on. 

We started to get the ball rolling on cutting the car out completely these last few days. I called to get pre-approved for a loan to pay off the car so that we can sell it. Everything seemed be be going well until we went down to the dealer who then passed us back up to the bank who then told us that our buy-out was much higher than we had thought with the addition of sales tax (blah) and that our car's value was lower than we thought (if we were to go through a dealer). That left us with a bigger chunk of money due than we had anticipated and ruined our momentum for ditching the car so soon. It's probably a good thing as my exchange student program is just weeks away and the sane people are telling me that it's best to make big changes after my crazy month. That car will be toast in August, after the students. 

I can tell that it's a slippery slope for excuses to rid oneself of such a convenient crutch as a car. There will always be a "need" for a car in most people's mind--work, trips, emergencies, more work. If you don't take a stand at some point, you will always need a car. I think "okay, I'll keep the car until after my students leave." But then, I start to think "oh, but my brother's hoe-down (really) is the next month, we'll have to get to Portland," then, "I'll be out of town after that, the boys won't be able to manage without me and the car." Finally, "my students will be here next year, what would I do then..." and so it continues. I have to put my foot down sometime. Mid-August. Mid-August. Mid-August. 

One of the missing links for our transition has been the lack of extra cargo space. Sitting in our back room has been 15 boxes of exchange student supplies and books. No way I could carry that on my Mundo unless I made about 5 trips. Doable, I guess, but not very efficient. John of Cycle Trucks has an awesome trailer that I've been dying to try out so I finally made my way to Edible Pedal, where it's been waiting for anyone to come use it. I met up with John who hooked it to the Mundo's rack. It wasn't a great hitching location/angle but we did some test runs and he let me ride off with the trailer trailing behind. 

I was incredibly impressed! It rode smoothly, even unloaded. Loaded up, it was even better. The weight wasn't difficult to manage, even with the kids on the bike. The front wheel helps stabilize and hold the load so the connection and bike aren't doing all the work. The wide platform held almost all my boxes. If I had packed better, I could have fit everything at once but I didn't. The only difficulty was because I didn't have a good hitch, the trailer was bolted to my bike and I didn't have an easy way to get it off. Luckily, we had the foresight to tape up the rack before so it didn't end up looking like it had fought with a weed whacker. Trying to turn this beast of a rig around was rediculous. I couldn't back up because I couldn't keep the trailer arm from getting stuck at a weird angle. I attempted to take a wide turn all the way around my yard and was surprised I didn't fail completely. My sheer determination/insanity kept me pulling the bike and loaded up trailer over every hill, ditch, and chicken coop in my yard. I think it took about 20 minutes to get ourselves pointed in the right direction to head back out the driveway. When I got to the school, I faced the same problem: a bike full of kids and a trailer full of stuff that I couldn't remove. Next time, I want a trailer that I can take off and use as a wagon to get everything where it's supposed to be. 

On Saturday, I was back at the Farmer's Market to find more host families. Unfortunately, I loaded up the canopy without balancing the other side and dumped the Mundo (no kids, thankfully). It wasn't until I started riding my bike that I realized I had damaged my brake handle and it's now bent at a funny angle. Bummer but it's a pretty easy fix and not one that has to happen anytime soon. 

While I was at the market, I got more questions about my bike than about the exchange student program. One man was so impressed with it that I had to let him go for a ride. He loved the idea of taking his wife and his granddaughter on the bike. A mom came up and was wondering if she could ride it as she had a neck injury which made biking nearly impossible. She was shocked to find that the upright position didn't hurt her neck but when she tried to get her wee one into the bike seat, the little girl would not have it. In times like that, I am so thankful that my kiddos are so tolerant of biking. I'm sure that some of it is just that this is what they have grown up thinking is normal but I'm still positive that my wee ones are abnormally perfect (although I say that as Little Brother refuses to go to sleep and is currently wreaking havoc but I have selective perception). 

So, month three is down. Looking forward, I have some major obstacles for my 365 day challenge. The first will be the weekend I go to Southern California with my students. I'll have to take the Mobic and ride up and down the hotel hallways if I want to keep going. The second problem will be a trip to Italy...I won't be able to pack the Mobic in carry-on luggage so I don't know how I'll be able to ride each day. Bike rental? Microbike? Cheat and pack my roller blades? I could use some suggestions!