Several inches of snow fell and stuck and while I didn’t want to do a lot of riding, I had two overdue library books nagging at me. I didn’t feel comfortable taking the Big Dummy with its awesome-in-normal-conditions Panaracer T-Serv 26 x 1.75 inch tires so we hooked the double trailer to my mountain bike, a 2004 GT i-drive 2.0. Mr. Family Ride was worried about the trailer slipping back and bumping the disc brake, causing the bike to come to a sudden stop, but it stayed in place. It slips often when I have it attached to my road bike, but either the width of the tube or the freezing temperature kept it well attached today.

I made it a block and a half uphill OK, but had to walk three blocks up 44th to the top of the hill. As I trudged up the road, I realized I should have opted for 45th where the car traffic had melted most of the snow, but I didn’t want to slow the one lane of traffic with my snail’s pace ascent. I was tempted by a block of beautifully shoveled sidewalk, but by then I was at the top of the hill and could handle riding on the road again.

It was hard dragging the trailer over curbs so I asked passing pedestrians for a couple favors–pushing the walk button to get across Sunnyside and join the traffic of 45th and then to put my library books into the return bin.

We took a break from our mile-and-a-half round trip journey to visit the train table at the Wallingford Center. I’d read about the train theft on Wallyhood so we brought a few train cars from our B-team to donate. Turns out someone had already donated some much nicer Thomas trains. I wanted to take our trains back home, but the boys insisted on sticking with the plan to leave them to share. Aw.

The kids stayed warm in the trailer, and this was actually my original idea for winter commuting, before getting the Big Dummy. I wasn’t envisioning this kind of snow, mind you, but I thought it’d be good for heavy rain and cold air. This was the first time I used the removable waist strap on my Seattle-made Tom Bihn Imago messenger bag. I wasn’t sure the cargo compartment of the trailer would stay dry, plus I wanted the library books at the ready for returning.