Not a lot of biking lately. We’ve been stuck home the last two weeks with chicken pox. The older kid is just about over it, but the little one hasn’t caught it yet so our quarantine extends for up to four more weeks.

Last week, I was able to get out alone to swing by the F5 Bike to Work Day Street Party. Sadly, I arrived too late to say hi to my Kidical Mass friends, but I got my free water bottle and stopped by Dutch Bike Co to check on the status of my on-order internal-gear hub. It’s in! However, the official purpose of my trip out was to pick up calamine lotion and groceries so I logged the 8.8 miles as a Team One Less Minivan Group Health Commute Challenge trip. And, wow, I was able to fit a lot of groceries on the bike with no kids! Plus I ran into my friend Julie with her husband and two kids (both at the after party and at the grocery store) so we had an unofficial Kidical Mass ride home together. Her 14-month old is in an iBert front seat and the 4-and-a-half year old is on a trail-a-bike.

Since today’s trip was to drop off the bike to have the new hub installed, it doesn’t seem appropriate to count the miles. The internal hub also has eight gears, but they’ll have a bigger range so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to make it up the steep hills between the bike trail and home. And yes, that’s a six-pack of Hoegaarden in the front baby seat.

Daily distance: 3.8 [ineligible] miles
Bike Month cumulative: 72 miles