Tag Archives: commuting

Car Free Musings

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I’ve experienced some really beautiful moments while walking. Or riding my bicycle. Or looking out the window of a bus.

Three years ago, the engine in my car died a sudden, violent death. A spark plug basically exploded and took its surroundings with it. It was a cold, winter day, I was two miles from my destination, and I somehow was able to limp the car there and avoid making the walk in -20F temps. It never ran again. RIP, Saturn Wagon.

I didn’t look for another car right away. I decided to challenge myself and see what it would take to get around town without my own vehicle. I’d go two months, just as an experiment.

Three years later I still haven’t bought a car. Full disclosure: I share a car with my (now) husband, although at the beginning of the experiment, we had just started dating, so that hasn’t always been the case. Continue reading →

Tiny Adventures: All Around Us

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In January, I embarked on a mission to have at least one tiny adventure a week, with the idea that not all adventures have to be big or epic. Opportunities for adventure are all around us, big or small, every day.

Well, I made it about six weeks before realizing that the whole weekly thing was just a bit too much. But, even though my tiny adventure posts have been less frequent, I’ve still been doing them, and I’ve found that my awareness of tiny adventure potential has increased. The more I embark on little adventures, the more they seem to just pop up.

Here are some of the ways I’ve been inserting tiny adventures into my life: Continue reading →

Tiny Adventures: Bus/Bike Combo

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After taking a couple of weeks off,  I have a tiny adventure to report. The exact sort of tiny adventure that I had in mind when I started this little experiment.

Last week I needed to get across town to the climbing gym, but didn’t have a car to do so. I bike around town quite a bit for transport, but there’s something about that commute to the gym that has never felt quite right. The ride is about 10 miles, and there’s a section that is on a bad road. It’s busy, filled with potholes, and has poor visibility.I’ve tried to find ways around it, but there’s really no easy way that I’ve come up with where I don’t feel uneasy in some way. Taking the bus over there requires a transfer, a lot of time, and nearly a mile of walking at the end, so that’s not a good solution either. I’ve tried to figure this commute out for a long time and have never come up with something that felt straightforward and safe.

I took another look at bus route maps, and I realized that there is a bus line that begins close-ish to my house and drops me off close-ish to the gym. Straight shot. No transfers; bus time is only about 30 min. Bike to the stop, bike to the gym. 3 miles of biking total. Brilliant. I decided to try it out.

Enter… tiny adventure.

Continue reading →