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.

Friday Family on Bikes: Samantha, Andrew, and Little Ding

It's my pleasure to share this interview with Samantha, the blogger behind the informative and cheery family cycling blog Ding Ding Let's Ride.  Samantha's blog includes describes not only her experiences as a year-round bike commuter in Chicago, but also a wealth of resources for adaptive cyclists.  Samantha's blog is a new favorite of mine, and I hope you'll enjoy learning more about her family and their bike adventures in Chicago, just as I have.

Samantha, Little Ding, and Andrew

Who are you?  Introduce yourselves, please.

I am Samantha, aka Ms. Ding of the family cycling blog Ding Ding Let's Ride.  I write about the Chicago city biking adventure of myself, my partner Andrew (aka Mr. Ding) and his 6 year-old son, Little Ding. 

 

What is your family bike setup?  How is it working for you?  How has it changed as your child has grown? 

I've been riding a mountain bike for over 20 years and this past fall I bought a Dutch Workcycles Omafiets which is now my primary bike.  I made the switch because I spend most of my time these days riding around the city to work, on errands, to the grocery store, and on rides with my guys.  And when Andrew and I get in a “date night” now and then, it's usually via bike.  I wanted an upright bike that would be easier on my clothes (fenders, skirt guard, chain guard, etc,) that I could ride in more normal clothes, ride in dresses, and lug gear and groceries.  Andrew has a  hybrid and a cruiser bike.

We were carting Little Ding around in a Burley trailer, but he was starting to outgrow that last year so we looked around for a bike for him.  He has Cerebral Palsy, so finding a bike for him was difficult.  Luckily, we found a great place that adapts bikes for kids and we got him a very cool adapted kids bike that was not nearly as expensive as the $1000-$3000 that many adaptive bikes cost.  It's great to have him riding his own bike with us - he rides on the sidewalk right now, usually with Andrew behind him, and me on the street.  The downside of having him on his own bike now though, is that it does limit the distances we can cover as he is only able to ride about two miles total – generally a one mile ride to a place, then a break, then ride back.  This summer we'll be working on his endurance.  A cargo bike or family tandem would be nice, but we don't have the storage space for something like that. 

Ms. Ding and Little Ding.  Little Ding's adaptive bike is in the foreground.

Why do you choose to ride bikes together?

I got rid of my car when I moved to Chicago in 1996.  You don't really need a car in the city, I didn't want to deal with the hassle and expense of maintaining a car in the city, and I already had a bike.  When I met Andrew, he loved that I was car-free, and he dug out an old bike and started commuting and riding with me as much as he could.

When we all moved into our family 'tree house' (our apartment is on the 2^nd floor, surrounded by beautiful, old trees), we wanted to keep riding as much as possible and include Little Ding in as many riding activities as we could, hoping he would share our love of being out and about in the city, on our bikes.  Andrew had a car, and though we tried to work out a way to get rid of it, we could not.  We have to run Little Ding to various therapy appointments around the city, and back and forth between his mom's house and ours, and even though we we live about 15 minutes away by car, it's not an easy quick bike-ride between the two homes, especially when we're lugging all his gear (bike, wheelchair, etc), so we've kept the car. 

What kinds of trips to you commonly make by bike?

• Commuting to work, both regular 9-5 shifts and even Mr. Ding's on-call work, year-round
• Grocery shopping 
• Riding to the park/playground
• The “Guys ride” to their favorite neighborhood hotdog stand
• Andrew and I - out to meet friends for drinks, dinner, brunch, lunch
• Weekend errands, shopping
• Baseball games (the Cubs have a bike valet service, hoping the White Sox get one)
• Because of his CP, Little Ding's feet get worn out walking in his braces. He can however, ride a bike a bit further.  We sometimes drive to places like a neighborhood festival or parade, park the car wherever, and let Little Ding ride to the venue or sometimes at the venue, saving some wear and tear on his legs.  We walk alongside or behind him, or bring our bikes too.  We've worked out  the same sort of strategy to go the beach or the Lincoln Park Zoo (both locations that we can ride to ourselves, but are too far for Little Ding to ride all the way from our house).   Andrew works near the zoo/beach, so we are lucky to be able to park at his office.  It's worked out well as a wheelchair alternative.

Are there other modes of transport your family frequently uses?

We take public transportation often as well, and Little Ding loves riding the bus.  Since we are only two blocks from a major bus line, he can walk to the stop if he doesn't have to do too much more walking afterward. 

Would you share a great moment in your family biking experience with us? 

Hmm...there've been some good ones. Perhaps the first time we hooked up the Burley to Andrew's bike and rode to the Zoo on a beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon.

We parked our bikes and locked them up, and converted the trailer to a stroller and headed into the zoo.  It was awesome.  We took our time strolling around the zoo because Little Ding could hop back into the trailer and be quite comfortable when he needed, and we had all our gear there and it did not feel cumbersome.  There was a kids concert that day that we did not know about that was cool, and then we discovered the kids fountain.  Little Ding took his socks and braces off and hopped around in the water spray with all the other kids and then climbed into the trailer and went to sleep on the ride home.  It was such a great day and it was the day we realized we could really make biking around the city as a family work.  

Do you have any tips or tricks to pass on to other bike-riding families?

Get a Burley or cargo bike!!  Kids love being toted around...who wouldn't?  Bring some water, and some sort of toy for the younger kids, it helps them get used to it when you start out.  If they are anything like Little Ding though, they'll love the ride and fall asleep at the end.  He loved napping in the trailer.  We pulled him around in the trailer in the fall and winter too – just bundled him up and grabbed an extra blanket and wrapped it around his legs and feet.  I've got a great picture of him in the trailer a couple of years ago after we stopped at the grocery store on the way home in February.  We stuffed all the groceries around him – it was kinda funny. 

I love all the adaptive cycling resources on your blog!  Where did you start your search for the best adaptive bike for Little Ding?  What advice do you have for other families interested in adaptive cycling?

We started researching adaptive bikes last spring. Little Ding got an adaptive trike to use in physical therapy (we had been trying to figure out how to adapt the one we had) and he took to it immediately – it was exciting. That got us looking for bikes, or something to get him riding with us beyond the Burley.

We found a used trail-a-bike and took it to The Bike Rack, out in St. Charles, Illinois – they're a bike shop we discovered that sells and maintains adaptive bikes as well as standard bikes (mostly Trek and Gary Fisher).  They were not fond of trail-a-bikes for special needs kids, or at least one with CP, and as they showed us how they were going to adapt it, we could see how there would be a balance issue with Little Ding.  We didn't think we could afford one of the types of adaptive bikes we'd seen, but they showed us a regular kids bike that they had adapted for another customer, and Little Ding tried it out and it worked! We thought it would be the way to go.  We didn't have to buy a new bike from them to adapt, but we did.  They had a cool orange bike in stock, and that being his favorite color, it seemed like a no-brainer.  There's a post on my blog with all the details of his bike, if you want more information.

Doing the research for his bike, and watching how happy he was on his bike, got me motivated to start the blog.  Once we talked to the people at The Bike Rack, and got his bike, I started doing a lot of research online, and trying to talk to people about kids adaptive bikes.  It was realyl hit or miss.  You really have to look hard to find the bikes beyond the one or two brands that come up in every search.  That's one reason I started my resource pages.

Some communities around the country have great programs for adaptive cycling, others not so much.  You really need to check with your local park district, as well as with the hospital or rehabilitation clinic that you are familiar with.  You have to ask around sometimes.  I didn't feel like it was easy for me to find groups and events.  I try to keep up with what's out there, so that other people can find the info and resources more quickly than I did.

Little Ding and Samantha's brother

Are there any changes (to path or wayfinding systems, auto speed limits, bike boulevards, lighting, etc.) that you would you like to see to make bicycling more convenient, accessible, and safe for families in your area?  Are there particular types of infrastructure that improve access for cyclists on adaptive bikes?

Separate cycle tracks, and slowzones , as well as good bike parking are the things that I'm most interested in.  More people will ride bikes as transportation if it is seen as safe.  Not everyone thinks riding in traffic is safe.  Adaptive riders , with unique styles of bikes, benefit even more from separate bike lanes.  So many adaptive riders can't drive themselves, but can ride a bike.  Just think of the independent mobility they have if they can ride their own bike to work or school.

Good bike parking of course follows.  That means the right kind of bike racks, placed so that there is room for multiple bikes of different types to be locked up in a secure fashion. 

What else do you think we should know?

I am trying to put together a family bike ride for any family AND families with adaptive riders, this spring or summer, here in Chicago.  I hope to coordinate with the local Kidical Mass folks.  I'm looking for interested families as well as adaptive bike manufacturers who want to demo their bikes.  I have a couple already lined up.  Any ideas, interests, thoughts are welcome.

Little Ding, where is your favorite place to ride your bike to?

The Zoo, closely followed by the park/playground. 

Thank you, Samantha!  It was a pleasure to get to know your beautiful family.


*All the images in this post belong to Samantha of Ding Ding Let's Ride.  You can find more of her photos on her blog.

Winter Cycling With Kids: How We Stay Warm and Comfortable on the Bike

In my garage sits a dusty and lonesome Burley trailer.  I thought that for sure my kids would be clamoring to get in the trailer by now, to escape the cold (as low as 25 F), the rain, and the wind.  Perhaps if I lived in a snowier or more northern climate (like Miss Sarah, of Girls and Bicycles), my kids would be interested in the trailer.  So far this winter, we've experienced some of the colder and rainier weather Eugene has to offer (including our favorite configuration: buckets of cold rain with strong winds), but I have only heard the words "Mama, I'm cold" once.  (And when he said those words, I reminded Bigger that he could put his coat on over his beloved wool sweater.  He was fine once he added another layer.) I don't know if I have unusually warm kids, or if we are going to be freezing and cranky in a couple of weeks, but right now, we're still excited to get on the bike, and enjoying the ride.

Here is what's working for us right now, in our Oregon climate:

1.  Winter clothing

I've written before about the fact that we spend a little more on winter clothing than other folks in our income range.  Really, though, I think most people I know would have most of this stuff for their kids, even if they weren't riding bikes through the winter.

Here's what the kids wear: long underwear (bottoms only, lightweight capilene or silk for Bigger, and lightweight silk or midweight fleece for Little, who is not warmed by pedaling), mittens (fleece almost every day, but we also have insulated gore-tex ones for extremely cold or wet days); warm, waterproof and windproof coats OR a thick wool sweater; soft wool hats that cover the ears OR a Bern helmet with a winter liner; good shoes or boots (the kids both have Bogs, which I'm told would keep your feet warm even if you poured a cup of water in them first); and soft wool socks.  The kids both have rain pants, but I've learned that they aren't necessary unless there is a true downpour or we are traveling a long distance in the rain.  Their long underwear keep them warm even if their pants get a little bit wet in the rain.

I typically wear a dress with wool tights, and if it's cold enough, a wool sweater.  Then I add my thrifted wool overcoat, which is really not necessary in our weather for the most part.  I choose my wool coat because it is long enough to cover my dress and keep it dry, and because it keeps me warm if we stop at the park and I want to sit down for awhile.  I usually wear it unzipped while riding, because I would get too hot otherwise.  I wear tall leather boots or rain boots (be sure to clean and weatherproof your leather boots periodically if you are riding in a rainy climate!), and if it is particularly cold, I add a pair of wool knee socks underneath the boots.  I have a pair of ancient wool gloves that have been serving me well, and also a pair of technical mittens for unusually cold days.  So far, I've only worn the mittens once.  I've got my eye out at the thrift shops for a wool sweater in an attractive color that I can felt in the washing machine and make some mittens from, because the technical mittens are too bulky to be practical on most days. I have a pair of soft wool arm warmers that I will occasionally use.  My coat buttons up around my neck, but I'm working on a soft alpaca cowl to keep my neck warm.  I could use a winter liner for my Bern helmet or a pair of earmuffs, but other upgrades are ahead of those ones in my budget.

2.  Engaging bike activities

 I don't think I could have predicted how important this is to staying comfortable on the bike.  People who are bored are more likely to be cranky.  Cranky people are more likely to whine and kvetch.  And cranky, whiny people can do a pretty good job convincing everyone else around them to be miserable.  I'm sure that enjoying ourselves doesn't actually raise our body temperatures, but in our family at least, in-transit games and other entertainment keep us so busy that we don't think about (or whine and make everyone else think about) rain or cold.

Bigger, pausing to watch construction on our way to the library

Here's a short list of things we do that keep the kids engaged (and too busy to notice the weather) on our winter rides:

• talk about where we are going or what our favorite parts of the day have been so far
• imagination games (putting out forest fires on your ride, pointing out dangerous lions, piloting ships through a big rainstorm)
• songs (yes, that's me singing "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain" on the bike path)
• stopping to watch interesting sites, even just for a few seconds (their entertainment value increases if you continue to talk about them as you ride away -- and it's good for your kids' language and cognitive development, too)
• checking out winter lights -- like we'll be doing tomorrow on our way to eat free pie with Kidical Mass
• road trip bingo, pick one: hoot and whistle each time you see winter lights; ding the bell at every letter "S" you see; eat a small treat every time you see another cyclist, etc.
• recite or retell a favorite story or poem (this may sound unusual, but when you think about it, most kids and parents have at least a chunk of Goodnight Moon, or If I Ran the Zoo, or something memorized)
• mitten friendly book, snack, or toy (for Little only, in our family, since he is the only true passenger)
• talk to friends we spot on the way, or who are joining us on our trip (hooray for Heather and her son S on Tuesday!)
• shout something about your, um, incredible speed ("Let 'er tear, Mama!" or "You're going to break the sound barrier, Bigger!")

If all of the above fail, ridiculous howls of agony from Mama seem to lighten the mood so that we can get out of the occasional whiny rut.  (Even though we've only had one weather-related whining episode this winter, there are apparently many other reasons to whine.)

3.  Warm beverages or snacks

If you want to ride your bike through the winter with your kids, go out right now and find yourself a thermos for hot drinks.  I learned this trick from my friend Heather and will never forget it.  The morale-boosting and warming effects of hot chocolate, mint tea with a bit of honey, or any other warm drink are not to be underestimated.  If we are running more than one morning errand (or running a long one), I will make a pot of tea or stir some milk, cocoa, sugar, and nutmeg together on the stove when I am getting my breakfast going.  I seal it up in the thermos, and it's still hot when we get to our errand.  The kids can have a sip or two while I lock up the bike at the grocery store.  It keeps them busy close to the bike, it warms them up, and (in the case of homemade hot cocoa) it offers a little protein and nourishment on the go.

We are also frequently on the lookout for opportunities to stop for a little snack or lunch somewhere warm.  If the snack in question is itself warm, all the better.  Toasted bagels at the library?  Good.  A big bowl of noodle soup at Toshi's?  Even better.  Soup and bread in front of the fire at Hideaway?  So cozy.  I used to avoid eating out with my kids because of the impact it seems to have on the budget.  Now I take more opportunities to get a little something on the run because I'm saving money by riding my bike.

One final thought, and a question: Little's windscreen, comical though it may be, also keeps him out of the wind and rain for the most part.  I'm curious to see if he'll be quite so warm if we switch to a rear seat.  Anyone out there have experience with this one?  Does the adult's body keep kids on a rear seat out of the rain and wind?


Happy riding!  And if you're in Lane County meet us tomorrow at Mezza Luna for the Pie to Pie with Kidical Mass!

Snow Day!

We had all sorts of bicycle errands planned for today: grocery shopping, a park trip, and a run to the library.  When I woke up, though, I saw a light dusting of this outside.

Snow!  In Eugene!

While I believe that cycling in the snow can be fun, practical, and safe (check out Dottie from Let's Go Ride a Bike, and Julian on Totcycle), I didn't have the confidence to set out on my bike today.

The reason I chose to walk rather than bike today is that the ride quality of my current family bike setup leaves something to be desired.  Frankly, in slippery conditions with a full load (meaning kids + groceries or other bulky cargo) it's like riding a bag of squirrels.  I LOVE riding my bike -- don't get me wrong.  And with a few inexpensive improvements (namely rear panniers to replace the high-center-of-gravity milk crate and a cargo bike kickstand for stability when loading and unloading), this bike could get me where I want to go with greater agility and grace.  Well, greater agility anyhow.  This bike is lots of fun, but it's more circus pastiche than elegant vehicle.

Actually, do you know who loves this bike? Teenage boys.  Every single time I go out for a ride with my son's bike on our tandem coupler, at least one teenage boy notices and appreciates our bike.  Using slang that makes me feel very, very old.  ("Sick bike!")

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to upgrading to a bike designed to carry lots of kids and cargo soon.  My Workcycles Fr8 should be arriving in March.  March!  How terribly long for such an impatient me to wait!

In the meantime, Grandma M very kindly combined our shopping with hers and dropped off all the groceries we will need for our holiday feast tomorrow.  Thank you, Grandma M!  Austin took the morning off from work to play with Little in the snow.  The last time it snowed here, Little was only a few months old, so the experience of seeing familiar streets and gardens covered in snow felt very new to him.

 

Bigger had spent the night at Grandma M's after our bus ride, so he was snowed in (if less than an inch of snow and ice can be described that way!) in Creswell.  He had a grand time taking care of the chickens, horses, and other animals down there.  Here he is checking out some snow on a cold frame and helping to clean out the chicken coop.

Back in Eugene, we walked through the snow to get ingredients for Austin's eggnog waffles, and then later through the slush to drop off the weekly egg order for Little and Bigger's teachers and pick up our CSA from Open Oak Farm.  (They still have spaces available, if you are reading this locally...)  By the time we returned from picking up our CSA, it was dark outside, and quite chilly.  Perhaps it was in the twenties?  We were pretty warm in our regular cold weather uniforms, with an extra layer of wool sweaters or long underwear thrown in, and gore-tex mittens for Bigger and I.  Little made do with a mismatched set of mittens we dug up from last year's winter clothes.  We tied them to a length of yarn that we had threaded through his sleeves so that he wouldn't lose them, which worked well.

 

There were lots and lots of cyclist out on the Amazon bike path.  They were going perhaps a little slower than usual, but otherwise, things seemed fairly normal, even with lots of ice patches on the path.  Alas, my camera was feeling irritable and would not capture any of the bikes, only their tracks in the snow.

If it snows again this winter, I'd be curious to try cycling in it.  And I've had a few too many frustrating experiences with stability on my current family bike to ignore the upgrades I know I need any longer.  Does anyone out there have thoughts on how I could make my bike less wobbly when loaded up with cargo?

Over the river and through the woods...

...to Grandmother's house we went.  This afternoon we took the bus to Creswell to visit Grandma M.  The boys love buses almost as much as they love Grandma, so there was plenty of excitement in the air while we waited to catch the bus to the downtown (Eugene) station.

Today the weather forecast included the possibility of snow, so you might think we were feeling the chill as we walked to, and then waited at the bus stop.  Actually, with only minimal forethought, we were quite warm, even when the wind picked up a bit.

The boys wore their standard cold weather uniforms: soft woolen caps, sturdy pants with silk or capilene long underwear, soft woolen socks, Bogs boots, and rain coats with either a thick fleece or wool layer underneath.  (Mittens are also a part of this set-up, but they were removed in these photos for snacking.)  We probably spend a little more on cold-weather clothing than most families in our income range, but we spend a lot less on mass-produced plastic toys, movies, etc.  We consider an investment in cold-weather clothing as the cost of year-round access to the outdoors, which is the most stimulating and fun "toy" imaginable.  Plus, we get at least four years out of each item of clothing, since Bigger passes things on to Little in good time.  Our team of grandparents supplies some of these items each year for birthday and holiday gifts, which we very much appreciate.

There's little photographic evidence, but I wore my standard cold weather uniform: soft wool tights (sweater tights from Sock Dreams in Portland today), an extra pair of wool knee socks, tall boots, a simple dress, a cardigan, and a hooded wool coat.  I'm still getting the hang of taking my own photo, so you'll have to use your imagination.

While waiting at the bus stop, we find it best to have...

...a snack.  Little in particular seems to be eating nonstop these days.  We also always bring...

...an imaginary border for our kingdom.  Beyond that crack in the sidewalk lies a perilous no mans' land (and a busy street).

We typically pack at least one book for bus trips.  Our current favorite is a selection of stories by Margaret Wise Brown that Ritta got for the boys.  (Thanks, Ritta!)  It hits the ultimate traveling book sweet spot: compact size, sturdy binding, excellent literary quality, and it's an anthology (meaning lots of stories are available for long trips).  What more could you ask?

Of course, we also bring correct change for the bus (though these boys are young enough to ride free), and aim to arrive a few minutes early.

Today we did not need our book, as the boys were enthralled with the bus and its inhabitants.  On the ride downtown, our bus was packed.  We sat at the back, where the seats are elevated, and talked about our plans for the evening and all the things we saw out the window.  The bus was a little late, so we had to rush to make our connection to Creswell.  I think that next time I will give myself more time to transfer.

Creswell is a small town about half an hour from downtown Eugene, by car or bus.  During our ride there, freezing rain dropped in fat circles on the window.  Bigger and I chatted while Little dozed for a minute or two.  People were knitting, reading, and fiddling with their cell phones (though no one was talking on one, thankfully).  It was a pleasant and cozy ride, and I was glad that someone else was driving through this weather so that I could relax.  We arrived 35 minutes after leaving the station, and met Grandma M. at the stop.  When we walked into her place, there was a fire in the wood stove, and dinner waiting for us in the oven.  Is that a tired mother's fantasy, or what?

Little dazzled the company at dinner with the sequel to this bus stop dance.

One of the goals I have for this winter is to take the bus to Creswell more often, in part because I hope that transit service to this part of Lane County will be improved.  On the weekends (when we most often go there), there are only two (on Sunday) or three (on Saturday) bus trips there per day.  Not only is Grandma M. a big attraction in Creswell, it now has a year round Tuesday farmer's market and Heidi Tunnell's Tuesday bakery, Wednesday dinners, and winemaker barn dinners.  I would love to see more frequent bus service to Creswell so that we could get to these events more easily by bus. 

But for now, the times that we do bus down there are hundred times more interesting and enjoyable than a drive would be.