When Tim and I recount family bike adventures to friends and strangers, a typical response is, “What do the kids think”? “Do they like bike touring?”
If we were being completely honest, we’d reply, “of course not”. You’ll soon ascertain that we have a slight problem with stretching the truth.
We get kids on board and excited about these trips by over-emphasizing the potential highlights and skipping the parts we know the kids won’t like.
And sometimes we tell all out lies. Continue reading
Posted in bike touring, bikes, family cycling, kids, Pacific Coast Bike Tour
Tagged bike touring, family, family bike touring, Family Cycling, lies, Pacific Coast tour, plans
What sort of winter hibernation do you enjoy? The Car Free Days family tried to escape the cold and dark by hunkering down at home; reading, drinking gallons of hot tea, cuddling up around the fire, and occasionally getting out-of-town to ski in the Cascade range.
But a few winters ago we started doing something even better with the short, sucky days: dreaming about and planning epic summer bike tours.
Coping with Winter Blahs
With just over 8 hours of daylight during the winter months, Pacific Northwesterners (and Scandinavians, and Russians, and ….) must come up with some way to preserve our sanity day after dark sodden day from November through March. Residents of these northen climes rely on many different methods for coping with winter dreariness. Some use light therapy, others make regular pilgrimages to day spas; soaking in hot pools and sweating away sorrows in saunas. Still others escape altogether with vacations to warm sunny climates. For some reason the historic, go-to strategy of heavy drinking has fallen out of favor. At least in our circles.
A new twist on beating dreary days came from family biking media darling Emily Finch this past December. I spent a good part of my early Christmas vacation living vicariously through her highly entertaining winter indoor-painting-therapy-program: Continue reading
Posted in bike touring, bikes, family cycling, summer
Tagged "beating winter blues", "family bike tour", bike tour, family, family bike touring, family biking, kids, planning, summer, tour, winter
Carfreedays and Shopping: the Journey to Bikes
Tim and I didn’t always grocery shop by bike.
Before the summer of 2007, other than an occasional walk to the store, we bought and transported groceries exclusively in cars. At the time we owned a bike trailer and we could have used that to grocery shop. But dragging it out of the basement or garage and hooking it up to the bike just to go to the store? Nah, too much trouble; the car was easier. Panniers were the same, I had plenty of those lying around. But I was a busy mom and shopped for a family of 4, I could barely fit a days worth of groceries in two panniers, let alone groceries for a week.
August 2007, enter two Xtracycles. Those bikes changed everything. Continue reading
Year Six is D O N E.
We all pedaled up to our local tree lot the other evening, chose a 8′ Noble fir and headed home. Simple, straightforward and almost no drama. Continue reading
Posted in bikes, extravehicular activities, family cycling, longbikes, xtracycle
Tagged 2012, Bicycle Christmas, christmas, Christmas Tree, December, tree, tree hauling, xtracycle
We’re gearing up for Xtracycle Tree Hauling, year six! We plan to get our tree in the next couple of days and promise to post photos of year six later in the week. Not as cute as when the kids were little and riding on the Snapdeck, but still fun nonetheless.
For now, check out years 2007 – 2011. How the kids have grown! More blog posts and photos of all tree hauling adventures here and here
2007, look how little!
Posted in alternative transportation, BIG Loads, bikes, longbikes, xtracycle
Tagged 2012, Bicycle Christmas, Christmas Tree, tree, tree haulin, xtracycle
I really enjoyed reading Todd’s latest post. Especially the retrospective and the Clever Cycles back story.
Todd and Martina have been riding Xtracycles since 2001. I knew they were cargo bike early adopters, but I hadn’t thought about the chronology or the details until I read the post. Continue reading
Posted in alternative transportation, bigger than here, bikes, cargo bikes, family cycling, longbikes, sustainability, xtracycle
Tagged bikes, cargo bikes, Clever Cycles, early adopters, old, xtracycle
photo by David Clifton
If you’re bored with trip stories, you’ll just have to sit tight and wait a little longer for our excitement to pass. Because here at carfreedays HQ we’re not done talking about our Pacific Coast Bike tour.
Bike touring is one of those life changing experiences: you’re not quite the same after returning from an extended tour. But it takes a few weeks and months for those lessons to reveal themselves. Even though we’ve been home for 51 days, we’re definitely still processing the experience. And finding meaning and life lessons in the most mundane parts of the tour. Continue reading
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