Schoolless

Not-so-minimalist

As someone who has never gone on a self-supported bike tour, I harbor perhaps a somewhat distorted image of such an endeavor. I imagine a lone figure against the dusky horizon, with panniers holding only the barest of necessities: tent, sleeping bag, change of clothes, some cooking utensils. Spare, self-sufficient, autonomous, economical.
Add a spouse and two school-age kids, and the picture changes radically.

Two, count'em, two BikeFriday Family Tandems being readied in our garage.

I have done car camping with my family. We have all the stuff. Regardless of the duration of the particular camping trip, you just throw all the stuff into the car, and go. It doesn't matter that we're only going for two nights. The car always looks like we're going on a cross-country road trip. But we don't care, because the car doesn't care.
We have read about and admired families that travel together by bike. Ironically, even though (or is it because?) we own a bike shop, we have never tried this ourselves.
So now that our youngest child is seven, we had this idea that we would go on a camping vacation by bike. A short little trip, just to get our feet wet: bike the I&M Canal to Starved Rock, camp a couple of nights and come back. You wouldn't think we need much for a trip like this; just the essentials.
Unfortunately, most of our car-camping equipment is unsuitable for towing in a bike trailer, and our planned 4-day trip has resulted in a mountain of equipment that had to be bought, begged, found and borrowed.
I have a feeling that with all the stuff we need, our bike tours will be no different that our trips by car: even if we're only going overnight, we'll look like we're ready to go around the world.
Maybe one day, we will.

Waiting for the Green

(Originally posted on my other blog, but I'll save you a trip. You can read it here.)

The end of winter never seems as near when the seed catalogs start arriving, as the end of summer does when the first fall J. Crew catalog shows up in your mailbox.
Why is that?

But winter is coming to an end. Mark my words. Sooner or later it will be over.
To prove it (to myself, I suppose, more than to anyone else), I decided to go for my usual walk, despite the arctic cold. Walking is my therapist, my sanity preserver, my meditation. Unfortunately, this joyful and affirming experience often breaks down at the very place that should be the safest in the world:
THE PEDESTRIAN CROSSWALK.

The culprit: right-turning vehicles driven by oblivious people. At most intersections, the green light for cars inevitably coincides with the WALK light for pedestrians traveling along the same line. You would think that common courtesy and sense would prevail. Cars are, after all, considerably larger than pedestrians, and capable of inflicting significant damage on impact. Furthermore, in inclement weather (such as today's frigid conditions), cars provide a measure of protection for their inhabitants, and common consideration for fellow humans might dictate that drivers yield the right of way to those traveling on foot. 

In the Loop, this is generally less of a problem, for pedestrians, in any case, simply due to their sheer numbers. Once the light changes, they flood the crosswalk, and drivers, like it or not, must simply wait.
Not so in my backward, SUV dominated northwest side neighborhood. The city of Chicago, no doubt looking out for the interests of transit users, has been placing bus stop covers near major intersections. These booths, in addition to shielding CTA riders from the elements, also provide needed advertising revenue to the city. Unfortunately, the ads obscure right-turning drivers' view of any activity in the crosswalk.

So there I was, three-quarters of the way across the street, when I was suddenly approached by a Buick. I stopped. The Buick stopped. I took a step forward. The car lurched forward. I stopped again. It stopped too. Up to this point, my gaze was trained on the Buick's bumper, now within inches of my knee. I chanced a look at the driver. She was hopping up and down in her seat, waving impatiently, and yelling for me to "go, go, go!" Like hell I will, lady. Slowly and cautiously, I put my toe in front of the car. And again, the car lurched! So naturally, I stopped. The car stopped to, but in her frustration, the driver made it bob up and down as she jumped in her seat. I made a big production of putting my arms out toward the car, and walking in a giant circle in front of it as slowly as I possibly could. At last, I reached the sidewalk.

Now, I had to cross the other street. Here, a right-turning Navigator positioned itself in the middle of the pedestrian walkway. This car is so fat, so high, and so wide, that there way no way to establish eye contact with the driver. If I couldn't see her (maybe him? I dunno), surely she could not see me. This left me no choice, but to let her go ahead and make her turn against the red light. After this, it would be my turn. No such luck. As I thrust my foot forward, another SUV came careening by, clearly also bent on ignoring the "no turn on red" sign, maneuvered deftly around my extended leg, and turned without so much as a backward glance...

Sheesh. It's a wonder I made it home in one piece.

Still, walking, even when I'm fighting for breath against the northern wind, or with drivers for the right of way, usually helps me get my head on straight, and get a more positive outlook on things. When I come back from a walk, I often undertake absurdly optimistic projects, such as sowing mesclun seeds in the middle of January.

May the holidays fill your spirit...

Our family has decided that, in lieu of many pricey and unnecessary gifts this year, we were going to donate a couple of bikes to people on the other side of the world. People for whom the bicycle is not alternative transportation, it IS transportation.

Athough there are many other organizations that use bicycles to send aid to people around the world, we could only choose one, and we chose to send our donation through World Bicycle Relief.

Chris and I actually met some people who do the work on the ground for this organization, when we went to the annual Interbike trade show in September. It's hard enough for us to imagine how different some people's lives are from our own. Our kids had no concept of it. We spent a long time looking at their website, and learned about the humanitarian work they do in Zambia, and the countries affected by the tsunami of 2004. We found those places on a map, read folks' personal stories, and looked at lots of photos.  We talked about how despite glaring difference s in lifestyle and resources, the needs of all people are the same as ours: food, shelter, clean water, access to healthcare, education and jobs.

If you'd rather not succumb to the commercial frenzy that is Christmas in this country, consider giving a bicycle to someone who really needs it. May the holidays fill your spirit for many miles to come...

Dearly Departed

Since Halloween this year falls midweek, many of us will celebrate it today. I am going to resurrect (pun intended) a nifty little post I ran on another blog last spring, because I think it is fitting. I really should have waited until All Saints Day, but I don't think it would get as much traction then. So, here we go:

What's this?

(For the record, this photo was taken through a hole in the fence located just east of the defunct train track at Bryn Mawr and Kostner. The Sauganash Woods residential development is visible in the background.)

It all started when Chris and Peter discovered a granite headstone on a disused train track that runs behind our house. Chris dutifully notified the authorities at the local cemetery, who took keen interest in the abandoned stone, and vowed to return it to its rightful owner, ehm... resting place.

For as long as we have lived in this neighborhood, there have been rumors that when the cemetery sold the land that would later become the Sauganash Woods development, graves were displaced to make room for the homes.

Seems that there is a little more substance to these rumors than I thought. While on a family walk earlier this year, we spotted something weird. Don't be shy. Follow me, as we go exploring. Enter here:

The picture becomes clearer and more puzzling at the same time.

Snakes!

"This afternoon, dad took us for a walk. Lucas & Isabella were visiting. We saw a snake slithering by. Dad caught it."

The kids saw three snakes altogether. Peter captured a video of a wild snake chase, but we have not figured out how to post videos yet (gotta get friendly with youtube). The snake appeared to be trapped in between railroad ties, and Chris wanted to rescue it. In retrospect, the snake probably did not need to be rescued, but Chris caught him,and released him into the woods.

There are a lot of garter snakes in our area. Our neighbor's late cat had a penchant for catching them and bringing them indoors for her to admire (eeek). Another time we found one hanging out under a stepping stone along with some crickets, which it was devouring one by one.

In theory, I like snakes, but I'm glad dad was along for this walk, because I would not have been willing to handle one.