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Post Thanksgiving

11/24/2012

5 Comments

 
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What I am so very thankful for, our happy family! Photo by Eleakis and Elder (www.eleakis.com/)
I've never been good at expressing my gratitude on Thanksgiving so it was helpful that after dinner, Big Brother and I came down with the flu. Total bummer but a great excuse to have not posted the usual fluffiness. Black Friday ended up being Sick On The Couch Friday with my sweet hubby hovering over taking care of us. We ended up missing Saturday's "unofficial" Kidical Mass fun ride and my wonderful cousin's visit but luckily bounced back quickly.

I was a bit bummed that it was another missed biking day but the lovely @kyouell reminded me that at this point we really should be focusing on the days we're not in a car, not the days we're not on a bike. That's true. Since we've gone car-free, we've used/been in a car about once a week. That's more than I would have imagined so at this point, I really want to focus on why we are driving and what we can do to minimize those trips. Biking is our constant now, that's the easy part. Whittling away these car trips is my next challenge. It doesn't help that we have access to a car simply and basically free (thanks, mom...and dad!). So now, instead of obsessively tracking our bike trips, I'm obsessively tracking our driving. Once we figure out what our driving "needs" actually are, we'll be able to focus them down to the very bare minimum. 

Now, I'm going to do a cheater post and just tell the last few days through photo--starting with the 25th annual Appetite Enhancement Ride, Thanksgiving, and our quick recovery.
Thanksgiving Day
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Our rig hanging out with Tim-from-Practical-Cycle's rig.
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Cool bikes abound!
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The boys really liked this giant cruiser.
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The amazing Dossetti family joined us to check out the ride. We all left before we got too much of a contact high from the crowd.
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Thank you, Jennifer, for taking this wonderful photo!
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Bringing over the sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving.
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The cutie kiddy table.
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Sleeping baby with a full belly.
Recovery Saturday
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You'd never guess he was puking the day before.
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Check out his new Wald basket. Very Practical!
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He was fine! Geez.
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My little hobo baby.
5 Comments
Lisa C link
11/24/2012 03:55:12 pm

Glad you're all on the mend! The first pic in this post is something I've been wondering about. I've seen pics of people using the Mundo to haul two or three kids or all kinds of cargo, but never another adult & two kids. That's one of the things I'd want to do with it. Well, an adult with one kid at the moment. Maybe two in another year or two. :)

Is it hard to ride with an adult on the back? I imagine the bike would handle quite differently than with a kid on there. I ride with my son in an iBert all the time, which seems like nothing now, but if it were me or my husband on the back, we outweigh Sprout by a factor of five or six...

Reply
Elle link
11/26/2012 11:31:51 am

Hi Lisa,
About the photo--it was really rough to carry my hubby like that. It was just for the photo, to tell you the truth :) The weight distribution was terribly uncomfortable and he was so nervous (he's not a very good passenger).

However, we've since moved the Peanut Shell to the back of the deck so the heavier person can sit closer to the center and that works really well! I've carried adults on the bike, I've been a passenger comfortably, I really love this set up. My 4-year-old moves back and forth between the seat and the deck depending on whom we're carrying, how tired he is, and how far we are going. I've never taken the whole family at once but that's what I'm hoping to try out soon. We've just never actually needed to, it'd just be a test.

An adult and one kid would be really easy. If you don't have the PS, you'd want the little one in a handlebar seat or on the deck in front of the big on. Just try to keep the weight as far forward as possible and make sure none of them wiggle too much. The heavier a person is and the farther back they are, the more wobbly it gets.

Reply
Dorie link
11/24/2012 04:34:11 pm

Hey there, good to see that you're all healthy again.

We found in the first couple of months without a car that we were driving once a week or so as well (even though we pay by the hour/mile). It has dropped off over time as our habits changed; now we only rent a car to visit the grandparents on weekends, or for Matt's work trips (which are non-negotiable). I stopped worrying about it when I realized that the number of car trips was dropping naturally. Also we are less and less acclimated to the unpleasantness of driving, so the appeal or renting a car has dropped off sharply. We spent some time with friends today and they wanted to drive everyone so that's what we did, but the experience was frankly a little grueling.

Driving is now approaching plane travel territory: it's occasionally the best way to get somewhere we want to be, and thus desirable as the means to an end. But it's nothing that we do for its own sake, and definitely something where we think "do we really want to go there?" first. Anyway I suspect you'll end up in the same place in time.

Reply
Elle link
11/26/2012 11:25:48 am

Thanks, Dorie, I"m glad to hear that it's not a crazy amount of driving. I do hope it decreases.

Reply
Lisa C link
11/26/2012 01:37:28 pm

We don't have a car either--just use a car sharing co-op or rentals when we need to drive. Haven't owned one since a couple of years before Sprout was born. We drive 1-2 times a month these days, generally for shopping at Ikea or Costco (though I've done both by bike) & visiting family. If only all Sprout's grandparents would move to within biking distance...

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