I’ve been using the car in the afternoons the last few Wednesdays. School pickup by car is such a pain! We leave home half an hour early (school is FOUR BLOCKS AWAY) to snag a parking spot one block away, often involving circling a block or two. Mother Nature has peed down massive amounts of rain just on Wednesdays so rather than hang out in the school yard, the toddler and I impatiently wait in our metal box, watching other families circle and look for parking. Once we grab the kindergartener, we hightail it back to the car and head for tap dance class, hitting several maddening traffic backups along the way.

So why deal with the hassle? Well, we’re moving to a smaller house soon so I’ve been taking advantage of combining trips–first to all-uphill tap dance class and then onto the nearby thrift store to donate a carload of stuff. I’ve made thrift store runs by bike before, but these trips have including fragile stuff (which on the bike I’d have to pack very very carefully) and more per trip. And, yeah, it’s nice to avoid that hill sometimes.

But today we bike! And hopefully all Wednesdays forthcoming.

This morning after school dropoffs, Mr. Family Ride and I walked over to the new place to discuss how we’d fit all our stuff in. I never think we own very much until it comes time to move. Mr. Family Ride thinks we’re going to need a storage unit. I’m determined to prevent that, but it may require more stuff purging.

Before preschool pickup at 1pm, I had time to run three boxes and a metal doggie gate over to the new house. We’re moving 400 feet, all downhill, so I’ll bike move what I can, though the big stuff will be done by professional van-bound movers.

Quick aside: at preschool, I wasn’t the only mom picking up by bike! There is nothing that makes me happier than seeing more bikes!! She has to work this around naptime so biking every day won’t be possible for this family, but this won’t be the last time I have company at the tree.

One more quick aside: heading home I discovered my three-year old has been waving motorists through (appropriately) when we’re stopped at intersections. I sometimes get into “You go”-“No, you go” hand waving wars with drivers. This often happens when I’m turning left onto NE 40th Street which is uphill and has no shoulder and while it’s very polite for westbound cars to wait for me, I’d much rather wait and follow behind than vice versa.

Once home, the three-year old wanted to move some boxes, too, so we did one load together before heading over to kindergarten pickup.

The only thing I don’t like about biking to dance class (well, besides the HILLS) is having to grab my little tapper ten minutes early. Not that driving gets us there on time–we’re still a few minutes late unless all the lights cooperate and there’s a parking spot in the small parking lot. Today’s pickup was anything but smooth. Of all the days for my son to come out of school announcing, “I lost my jacket!” And of all the days for the kids to have been requested to wear shorts or dresses for a Hawaiian dance performance (which was so adorable!). But I remembered to bring along the sweatpants we had layered over him for cold morning dropoff. And thank goodness I ran back into the house at the last minute to grab my jacket. I put my sweater on my son for the ride to dance class:

And then my jacket on him for the ride home (aww, Hawaiian dancing and then tap dancing makes for a tired kid!):

Daily miles: 12.0
April miles: 74.3