25 Reasons to Love Family Bicycling, #2: Puddle Readiness

In more breaking news about the small pleasures of riding a bike with children, yesterday we splashed around in a staggeringly large puddle.

This little moment of kid joy was brought to you in part by the humble bicycle, which required the kids to travel fully suited in raingear for the sake of a nearly horizontal downpour.  We usually wear just our regular coats for short trips (woolen long underwear keeps the kids warm even if their jeans get a sprinkling of rain), but yesterday's weather forecast included a warning about 30-40 mph winds and heavy rains.  Biking alongside the creek (where the winds seem to be a bit stronger) felt something like a cross between swimming against an angry current and pushing an elephant with my bike.

Anyhow, because they were covered in waterproofed fabrics, the boys were able to really whoop it up in any puddle they liked.  The one pictured here is satisfyingly deep and broad, and there is a little seasonal pond nearby that we tramped around in, too.  Little's enthusiasm meant that we got five -- that's right, five -- separate puddle splashing sessions in today, ranging from two minutes to a little over an hour.  Every time we passed a puddle, he took the bait: before school, after Little and I dropped Big at school, when we returned to pick Big up from school, and then again after school.  Plus one post-nap puddle jump in our backyard, a place which essentially becomes a small lake at this time of year.

I sometimes suspect that other parents think I am a little cruel to subject my kids to these rainy rides.  True, no one likes to be pelted in the face with cold rain.  (Actually, though, Big discovered this morning that he can swivel a bit on his seat and face away from the wind, and Little just tucks his head into my back with even better results.)  But there is no way we would have stopped for all out splashing if we weren't already forced by bicycling to travel with the perfect puddle jumping attire.  And, believe it or not, only ten minutes after we returned, Big begged me to give his brother a nap on the bike so that we could spend an hour or two riding around the model solar system along the Ruth Bascom bike path.  Either he has a very poor short term memory, or he doesn't mind the weather that much.  (We stayed home, by the way.  The bike is the most convenient way to make necessary and short trips, but in weather this fierce, there's no reason to overdo it.)

While we were drying all our mittens and coats above the heater, we folded a few of these origami boats.  We used kite paper (which is waxed, I think) so that the boats might make it through a round in the seasonal pond tomorrow.  I can't say I'm excited for more of this weather, but it's bearable for short trips.  And really, how else would we find ourselves with such an irresistible constellation of puddles nearby?

Bike vs. Car: Staying Warm in Winter Weather

"Aren't you just freezing?"  I think I've been asked this question (or some variation on this question) at least a couple of times a week since October.  Last winter was the same -- people seem to think that I must be cold and uncomfortable riding my bike through the rain and (relatively) low autumn and winter temperatures of Oregon.  Isn't this how "off-season" bicyclists are often seen in North America -- as gluttons for punishment?

Actually, I am quite comfortable on my bike in the cold weather.  Over time, I've figured out what keeps me warm, and I wear it.  Simple, right?  I'm not seeking out discomfort and chill, I am wrapped in soft wool scarves and mittens, happily avoiding it.  I'm always tempted to make people feel how warm my hands are when they make remarks like these.

Just before Christmas, I needed to have some unexpected surgery.  During my recovery, I've mostly stayed at home, but I've also been transported to a handful of places in the passenger seat of a car.  In the course of these little journeys by car, I've been shocked at how very cold it feels to sit in a car before the engine has warmed enough to get the heater running.  (And the weather this year has seemed unseasonably mild, at least from my perspective.  I'm sure I would feel colder in a more typical winter.)  In a car, I've noticed, I am cold on my walk from the door to the car, cold for the first few minutes inside the car, and then cold again when I step out of the superheated car to walk to my destination.

When I am walking or riding my bike somewhere, in contrast, I stay warm from my door to my destination.  I bundle up inside, scramble around getting my keys or my thermos of tea, and then I walk out the door feeling very warm and bundled.  Then I get on my bike and pull my scarf up over my nose if needed -- still very warm.  In fact, I usually take off a layer if I'm riding for awhile.  I notice a bit of chilly wind on my cheeks, perhaps, but I typically have warm fingers, toes, ears, and nose.  (Unless someone sneaks my scarf from the basket by the door to make an astronaut costume for the dog.  There have been some big sacrifices around here lately in the name of space exploration.)  Our climate is milder than some, true, but even in the nastiest of Eugene weather I'm usually quite comfortable.

Most people seem to prefer wearing only light layers when driving in the winter, relying on the heater in their car to keep the cold away.  It's awkward to buckle yourself into a car wearing heaps of layers, and since the heat is often turned up quite high in cars during cold weather, it might feel too hot to wear a hat and mittens and a big bulky coat.  Plus, with a seatbelt on, it can be difficult to remove layers when the interior warms up.  Most of the folks I know who usually get around by car seem to be under-layered a lot of the time.  No wonder they see me outside and assume that I'm cold.  For those few minutes they spend outside moving from car to door, they're very cold!

Actually, I have to confess that this used to be me.  My friend Erin rides her bike long distances (and short ones) in all kinds of weather.  Not that long ago, I saw her choice to ride her bike through the winter as some kind of mystifying self-sacrifice.  Why was she always turning down my offers to give her and her bike a ride home?  Did she really think it was fun to ride her bike on a chilly evening?  Or, heaven forbid, in the rain?

Of course, Erin was right.  It can be fun to ride your bike in the winter, as long as the astronaut dog doesn't have your scarf on.  Take the car?  Something in the reptile part of my brain instantly recoils at the thought of chilly air blasting from the defroster and freezing dashes from car to destination.  No, thanks.  That would be too cold for me.

Being Here Tonight

This afternoon, I rode the bus back from my teaching job.  The driver – it’s always the same woman – pulled up to my stop, and I pushed open the back doors.  The air was especially brisk as it hit my face.  I had a handful of errands to run by bike with my children today before dinner, so my steps were quick.  The wind picked up behind me, pushing me along.

When I walked in,the house felt a little cozier than usual.  My children, in turtlenecks and wool socks, were gathered around their aunt at the kitchen table.  There were still a few peanut butter cookies left.  As my boys poured forth all the news of their day, I washed my hands.  I let my frozen fingertips linger under the warm water, considering my to do list.  I looked outside, and saw a veil of heavy raindrops spill down from the sky.  A few of them became slush as they hit the window: frozen rain.

On the sofa, the children had installed a down comforter and a stack of picture books.  I imagined a cup of tea there, too.  Hot tea.  I glanced again at the freezing rain on the other side of the window, then to the picture books.  I mentally moved the handful of errands in my appointment calendar for Wednesday afternoon into the Thursday column. 

If you are a parent, then you already know what it is to have a little more on your plate than can be comfortably tucked into.  I hope that you also know the pleasure of putting the to-do list aside from time to time.  In my opinion, one of the unexpected benefits of getting around by bike is that, sometimes, I decide not to do it.

I could have made it work to get out on that errand somehow.  If the errand was really urgent, I could have left my children with the neighbor for a few minutes while I ran around on my bike.  I could have chosen to do the highest priority errand by bus.  I could have made it work to get everyone outside and on the bike had I really needed to.

But none of those options felt quite right.  So I looked at my list, realized that nothing really had to be done right away, and reorganized my calendar a bit.  I fished a cookie out of the jar.  I set the teakettle to boil, and asked my children which books we ought to read first.

As we pulled the comforter around us, the first few flakes of snow found their way out of the clouds.  Perfect. 

I wrote this post on Wednesday evening, but didn't have a chance to proofread and post it until after midnight.  I decided to preserve some language that reflected the original moment at which I wrote this: tonight, this afternoon, etc.

Friday Family on Bikes...Mine

First, an introduction:

I'm Emily.  I work mostly as a stay-at-home parent to Bigger (age 4) and Little (age 2).  I also work one day a week at a rural elementary school as a writing teacher.  Both of these jobs are my dream jobs.  My husband, Austin, is a superhero: he works full-time as a carpenter, and spends his evenings in graduate school studying library and information science.  He is also an amazing husband and papa who makes seriously good waffles.

Austin and the boys

No, my kids are not actually named "Bigger" and "Little".  But this is Eugene, so I understand why you might be curious.

Our family bike setup:

Our family bike setup is currently in transition.  While we are awaiting the arrival of a Workcycles Fr8 Uni this spring, I am riding Austin's hybrid bike with a ragtag circus of kid and cargo attachments: a Bobike Mini front child seat with windscreen (you can get one in Eugene at Arriving by Bike), a Follow Me tandem coupler that allows me to tow Bigger's bike behind mine, and an extra-large milk crate for hauling a limited amount of cargo.

Our new bike will be able to carry two children on seats mounted to the rear rack, as well as one up front on a child saddle.  It will also have a very large, lidded wicker basket up front and panniers on the rear rack.  It will probably tow Bigger's Follow Me tandem, but I haven't entirely made up my mind about that yet.  Installing the Follow Me would allow me to carry four child passengers!

When we got rid of our second car over the summer, I considered a bakfiets or an Xtracycle, but the deal breaker for me was compatibility with the bike racks on buses and trains.  We share a garden on my mother-in-law's 7 acre property in Creswell.  I need to be able to take a bike on the bus to Creswell with me so that I can cycle (instead of walk) the three miles between the bus stop and my mother-in-law's place.  I've also heard stories of folks being denied the opportunity to load larger cargo bikes onto Amtrak trains.  So we're going to see how bus and train friendly the Fr8 can be.  It is a seriously heavy bike.

We love our Follow Me tandem coupler for a number of reasons.  Unlike most tagalong-style bike attachments, the Follow Me allows families to install rear child seats, crates, and virtually anything else on the adult bike.  Once he feels confident enough, I will be able to disconnect Bigger's bike from mine so that he can ride solo on the bike path or quiet streets, and then reattach him when we're heading into car traffic.

While I'm excited about my new bike, I also want to emphasize that it's not necessary to purchase a special bike in order to get around town with your kids and stuff!  If I had decided against the Fr8, I could have made my current bike setup work better for me.  But since we were getting rid of a car, it made sense for us to upgrade to a much nicer bike.

Little, loving his pink bike

 We also have a balance bike used by both Bigger and Little, a pink Strider.  We like that the Strider is lightweight and relatively sturdy, and that it's small enough to hold a very little passenger (both boys started on it at age two).  I would say that I feel that many of these balance bikes are a little overpriced given the quality of the product, and that it is simple to remove the pedals from a 12" kids' bike from the Goodwill for a total cost of $10 or less.  (Our neighbors transformed a 12" Salvation Army cast off into a truly awesome, custom painted balance bike that I hope to feature here sometime.)

Why we choose to ride bikes together:

As Heather pointed out last week, there are too many reasons to share all of them here!

Our decision to give up a car was tied into our beliefs about what is practical, sensible, and fair.  I think that people on bikes, foot, and public transit (and the infrastructure that supports these modes of transport) make our communities richer, more equitable, and pleasant places to live.  I believe that getting around by bike is helping my children to grow up more confident, resilient, and fit.  I think that it will help them to be more independent as they grow older and begin to be able to get around town on their own.  It almost always lifts our mood to get out by bike.  And getting rid of a car helps to free up money in our budget for other things that are more important to us.

What kinds of trips to we make by bike?  And what other modes of transport do we commonly use?

I make almost every trip by bike, by foot, or bus now.  We do our shopping, appointments, playdates, and most other trips by bike.  I ride the bus to my teaching job. We walk to various destinations close to home (the park, the bakery, etc.) regularly as well.  I've started to frequent shops within four miles of our house almost exclusively.  I've become more efficient in the way I run errands.  And because we really enjoy riding our bikes, taking the bus, and walking, I'm more likely to plan a couple of pleasant errand and park trips every other day or so.  When I was driving my kids around, I often crammed several hours of errands into one day in order to avoid the unpleasantness of errands by car as much as possible.

We also love taking long-distance trips by train.  Our most frequent trip by train is to visit my parents' house near McMinnville.  I have taken my two kids on several overnight train trips by myself, which is actually really fun provided that you have the good sense not to let your kids drink the complimentary sparking juice right before bedtime.

Austin carpools to his job as a carpenter each day.  He sometimes has to make trips of up to 50 miles with large loads of lumber and tools, so I think that this is a pretty sensible option for him.  The final few car trips I make a month (between 0 and 3, typically) typically involve and social obligations in distant areas at times when there is no bus service (or very limited bus service).  The moms at Carfree with Kids have a great post about this which is helping me think about how to collaborate with friends and family so that visiting is more convenient for all of us.  One of the goals I have for this year is to try to get to rural family members' homes at least a couple of times a month by bus.  I'm hoping that this will help us refine our rural bus trip routine so that it's more automatic for us to visit our rural family members this way.  Plus, if we're getting to folks' houses by bus regularly, they'll understand if we can't make it to some of those late weekend events.  Not to mention the fact that my kids are always asking for more bus trips!  At $3 for a day pass (the kids are too young to pay fare) it's a cheap thrill.

A bike tip for other beginning family bicyclists:

See if there are Kidical Mass rides where you live.  Meeting and talking with folks at Kidical Mass helped me build confidence about riding my bike with my children when I was just getting started.  I learned some family-friendly, low traffic routes to my favorite destinations.  I've gotten advice about family bike setups, and seen some really interesting family bikes in action.  And I've met a community of people who enjoy riding bikes with their kids.  There's a Kidical Mass in Eugene tomorrow -- meet us at 3 pm in Monroe Park!

A Little Wiser, Every Day

The last ten days have been a breathless whirlwind of activity.  The kids and I helped out with a few odds and ends for the Kidical Mass ride (it was really fun, by the way), I wrapped up a couple of loose ends at my new job, Austin finished his first term of grad school (while also working full time -- I am married to a superhero), and we headed up to the mountains for a long weekend in the snow.  There was a homemade Christmas gift all-nighter thrown in there for good measure, too.

Whew!

It felt like I didn't have a spare moment to think about riding my bike.  I used it to get from point A to point B, but my rides lacked the mellow, contemplative ease that I had been enjoying earlier in the month.  Now that I finally have a few minutes to catch my breath, though, I'm realizing how much I learned in this long, end-of-term, pre-holiday week:


1. My bike is capable of standing upright on its own!

Bigger points out our new kickstand

Though I missed the weekend sale at Arriving By Bike (and their Friday bike social -- I was cleaning out our chicken coop at Grandma M's), I made it there on Monday to purchase a new kickstand for our crazy bike.  (We have a large milk crate on the back rack and a Follow Me tandem coupler that connects Bigger's bike to mine, so a single kickstand is insufficient.)  Every time I stop in for something, the folks working there are so helpful and friendly.  Thanks, Courtney, Alexander, and Paul!

Anyhow, if you are thinking of getting a Follow Me tandem for your child's bicycle, I would strongly suggest you get a sturdy double kickstand.  Our Follow Me was slightly off center (and missing a couple of bolts) after several recent tip-overs while loading and unloading groceries.  (I look forward to posting a thorough review of the Follow Me soon -- overall, we love it.)  Alexander helped us replace the missing bolts and gave the Follow Me some long overdue TLC.  (I later learned that he has a bike blog that includes some really lovely photos.)

Though the bike is still a little prone to tipping when I've got lots of cargo in the crate (I think that panniers would help), having a functional kickstand has made a world of difference.  Hooray!


2. Riding a bike during a busy time forces me to relax.

This one is such a no-brainer.  Though I still have my share of holiday-related hustle and bustle, I don't have to fight traffic or feel stuck in my car.  Fresh air (even when it's cold fresh air) feels so right to me now.


3. Bigger's mood can be improved by asking him to carry appealing cargo.  Especially chocolate.

This is kind of a goofy facial expression, but I think Bigger is trying to convey...salivation?  He is always proud to carry something for me on his bike, and this chocolate may have been his favorite cargo so far.

I think that Bigger will be moving up to a 16" bike soon, and I'm going to make sure that it has a nice rear rack for whatever cargo he may want to haul.  Just think of all the chocolate we could bring home if he had a nice set of panniers!


4. Double leg kickstands can help you convert bare sidewalk into a bike rack.

Monica and Paul Adkins taught me this on Saturday's Kidical Mass ride.  While I wandered around for a minute or two searching for bike parking outside Mezza Luna, the Adkins family had their two Xtracycles parked on the sidewalk just outside the restaurant's window sans rack, with only the wheels locked to the frame.  I never think to do this because Eugene is notorious for bike theft, but if you are sitting within view of your bike, it makes sense.  Their kickstands are sturdy enough that they were also able to chain their kids' bikes to the longtails.

Even with the new kickstand, my bike is a little top heavy to serve as bike rack for someone else, but I wonder if the new Workcycles Fr8 I'm expecting in the spring will be.  In any case, it was suggested that I try simply propping my bike up on its kickstand and locking it to itself, and that worked quite well for our brief dessert stop.


5. Being a beginner is kind of nice.

Before this year, there were plenty of trips I just wouldn't have known how to make on a bike.  I made (and continue to make) all kinds of mistakes that a more experienced cyclist could gracefully circumvent.  I bruise my shins.  I take wrong turns.  My groceries tumble out when I am loading them into the milk crate.  But one of the advantages of being new at something is that it puts you in the position of experiencing little moments of discovery, too.  Every trick learned, every quiet realization, every first time feels so good.

Longer, Wintry Rides

How do you like the flag growing out of Bigger's head in this shot?  Pretty classy, eh?

This weekend, Little, Bigger, and I set out to run an errand on what is to us (from our centrally-located, everything-within-arms-reach neighborhood) the far north side of town.  Since we were headed in that direction anyhow, I decided to try out the commute to an elementary school in that area that we think might be a good fit for our kids someday.

If you know me well, you know that I am an awful navigator.  I'm just outstandingly poor at it.  For any trip outside of my typical repertoire, I usually use google maps (don't you love the bike directions option?), then check my bike map (this helps me both orient myself to the ride and also check to see if there is a better route), then scribble turn-by-turn directions on a piece of paper.  I do okay, actually, for someone with such a poor sense of direction.  For this trip, which involved two unfamiliar destinations, I used my regular systems, but I did not check the route between the school and the errand, because it seemed pretty straightforward.  And the navigation part of the day went very smoothly.  Our route was perfect.  What I didn't realize was that what I estimated to be a nine mile trip was actually a seventeen mile one.

Mom, you should spend more time thinking about our route and less time photographing this thing growing out of my head.

Do you know what?  Even though that distance is unusual for me, we were okay.  In fact, it was a really fun ride.  Sure, there was a little whining at the beginning of our trip from Bigger, who had to wait longer than he had expected to reach a treat at our second destination.  But Little got a much longer than usual bike nap on the way there.  And on the way home, Bigger was not only less cranky, he was actually asking if we could add another leg to our trip.  And me?  At the end of the day, I felt really, really good.

Washed out but happy at the end of the ride

As I've starting cycling more and more, I find I'm just itching to get out on my bike most days.  Once I settle onto the bike, my kids and cargo piled all around me, I feel something inside me say, "Yes!  Here comes the good part!"  When I head down my driveway, I feel this rush of happiness.  There is a secret about riding your bike: it's fun.  And in my life right now, longer rides mean more fun.  Sometimes when it's late or dark, concerned friends tell me that they hope I don't have far to go.  My wish is the opposite.  I wish that I had more errands to run.  I wish that my children's preschool was a little farther away.  I wish that I didn't live so close to my favorite shops.


I start a new, very part-time teaching job this week.  (I was supposed to start last week, but the bug our family came down with put the kibosh on that.)  It is about sixteen miles from our house, at a small elementary school.  At first, I was looking forward to commuting only by bus: time to read students' work, time to knit, time to catch up with a good book.  I'm still looking forward to the bus ride, but now I'm also imagining what it might be like to try some of that commute by bike.  Before this weekend, I doubted the practicality of cycling that distance.  Now I realize how amazing I could feel at the end of the day if I did bike to work.  (And man, what does it feel like to ride a bicycle without two kids and a bunch of heavy stuff?)  My plan is to try out the route with a friend who is an experienced cyclist and see where I want to go from there.  Wish me luck!

On Sick Days and Neighborliness

The last week or so has looked (and felt) a lot like this:

We spent a long weekend at the coast, feasting with our extended family.  We got some lovely, if unusually windy, walks in, but spent a significant amount of time cooking, reading, and playing inside.  (The above photo was taken at the coast.  That is my dog, but sadly, not my cozy wood stove.)  When we returned to Eugene, we had one full day of good health and bicycling, and then Little and I came down with a stomach bug.

Blech.

(Actually, I am pecking this out one-handed on my sofa, while Little dozes in my lap.  It was a long night.  Parenthood teaches us that we are capable of more than we thought, right?  Like hauling 130 pounds of kids and library books up a hill on a bike, or typing for long stretches with one hand and not much sleep.)

We've been inside a lot, trying to stay warm and comfortable while we fight off this bug.

Little, asleep at last

Before we ditched one of our cars, there was lots and lots of discussion about what that would mean for our family.  One concern that came up was how we would cope when someone was ill.  Would I be able to get to the store with two sick kids on a bike?  How about a doctor's office?  This week has been our first sick-day test of our new transportation setup.  What do you do when you and your littlest passenger have the flu?

I'm so happy to say that we passed this simple test.  The answer?  Stay home.  Isn't that what we should all be doing anyhow?  If I had needed to get to the doctor, I would have either loaded Little into the bike trailer or gotten a ride from a friend or neighbor.  Easy, right?

So why were we initially concerned about working out a sick-day transportation solution all those months ago?  I think it was primarily the idea that we might need to ask for help that gave us pause.  It seems to me that we are sometimes so determined to be independent and avoid inconveniencing others that we fail to give or receive the little favors that build community.  It's sometimes difficult to ask our neighbors and friends for help, but when we do, it encourages those folks to call us up and ask for help, too.

We needed a few things from the store and had our CSA pickup yesterday, and Grandma M ran both errands for us.  I could have easily called four or five other people and asked them for the same small favor.  And I hope those people would call on me in the same situation.  I didn't make anyone else sick by thinking that I should run this errand for myself.  My children and I got to rest and read rather than pile into the car and slouch around the market in a stupor.  And hopefully, I'm inviting Grandma M to think of me when she needs help sometime soon.

I love getting around by bike in part because I've met so many more of my neighbors while using this very physically open and conversational mode of transportation.  It's easy to stop and chat with folks who are working in their front gardens, or walking their kids to school, or cycling around themselves.  (And anyone out there with a family bike knows that it is one of the best ice breakers out there.  Only a very small fraction of cyclists will stop at an intersection next to us without comment.)  The fact that riding my bike may put me in a situation where I'm likely to give or receive help from others only improves that feeling of neighborliness and community.

As I was finishing this post, Bigger woke up and quietly built this cool submarine lighting system out of his headlamp and some loose bike lights.  He says it helps the submarines to navigate when sonar is not a good idea.  Does this kid have a fabulous imagination, or what?

Corners of My City

The other day, I snapped this photo of my children, enjoying a moment in one of their very favorite places in the whole world.  This is a phone booth near a store we frequent.  Each week, after we lock up our bikes, my older son carefully opens the door to the phone booth, I scan it for anything unsafe or unusual, and then we gleefully pile inside.

In the last few weeks alone, this phone booth has been transformed into a rocket ship, an Amtrak sleeper car, a squirrel house, a busy restaurant serving only pancakes and pumpkins, and one of Saturn's moons.  This phone booth has revived the spirits of a frustrated toddler, given an exhausted mother a moment of peace, and illuminated the grayest morning in recent memory.  Even a mention of the phone booth can distract the most determinedly cranky child for a few minutes.  It is our errands day sanctuary.

Before I started to run this errand (and all others) by bike, I don't believe we ever set foot in this place.  In the rush of getting from car to store, we hadn't ever considered stopping to look over this little corner of our city.  But when a family arrives by bike, it is easier to see things.  You are moving at a pace from which it is possible to get a good look at what is around you.  You stop and park your bike and spend a couple of minutes locking up while the children have a 360 degree view of their world.  The children start to point out the big birds' nest on that one streetlamp.  They know the places where herons sometimes fish.  They give names to the engines at the fire station and put squirrel houses in the phone booth.

Why do I choose to get around my city by bike?  There are many reasons, but perhaps the most important one is this: it's fun.  My greatest fear about making the leap from car to bicycle transport was that my children wouldn't like it.  I had no idea that it would become the one part of our day that I can count on to improve everyone's mood.  In the rain, in the wind, even on what used to be our most tedious errand, we love to get out on our bikes.  For hundreds of reasons.  And one of them is this little glass-walled spot.