It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

TGIF! I’m so grateful my kids’ teachers are working so hard to connect and organize classes while we’re all staying home, but I’m still getting the hang of getting the kids online in the right places at the right time. I’m sure it’ll get easier once their schedules settle into place. And it’s nice being home with them and getting to see a bit of what they’re working on. Today I took my 13-year old out to look for the new Minecraft Earth spotted cow tappable between his two classes. He found two of them!

It felt almost normal, doing something not tied to running an essential errand. Very on brand for 30 Days of Biking :) I hope to practice the ride to middle school this weekend, so even though I’m skipping days left and right I like knowing I’ve got something planned.

Flashback
On this day in 2017 we were in Santa Barbara for the day, having gone to Los Angeles (where my father and brother live) for the week.

Our spring break used to fall in April so we usually traveled during 30 Days of Biking, thus all the out-of-town flashback posts, giving the impression we’re adventurous jet setters.

I was born in Santa Barbara and attended college at UCSB so I’d biked there both as a kid and a young adult and it was really fun to pedal around with my own kids. This was also our first trip anywhere with them big enough to ride their own rental bikes (versus me carrying them with a rental cargo bike) so that was especially cool.

Today’s miles: 2.8
Yesterday’s miles: 0
Days missed: 4
Total April miles: 69.7

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

Happy birthday to my newly minted teenager today! We took a ride as a family, to pick up to-go sushi at the kids’ favorite nearby conveyor belt place. I really like the concept of eating lots of take out to keep local restaurants in business, but it’s not in my budget so today’s sushi was extra special. Thanks to having taken a random route on the way home from Target the other day I biked through the shopping center that houses the sushi place and saw that they were open.

I tried to make the day special with waffles for breakfast, presents between online classes, and birthday cake outdoors post-sushi. I’m so sorry for all the kids celebrating birthdays during the pandemic. I think he had an OK day, but I also feel like I didn’t do enough, sigh.

It’s been so lovely out–the weather is finally to the point where we don’t have to dart outside the moment the sun appears if we want to ensure we get a tiny dose of vitamin D; it’s there all day long! (Well this morning was a bit grey, but the sun is mostly out all day long!)

Flashback
This day in 2015 we were on Vancouver Island for spring break. Two other families from Seattle met us there, but they traveled by car and carried a lot of our stuff for us (including the kids’ bikes and my mountain bike) so this was our first and only experience with supported bike camping! We took the Victoria Clipper over and back and visited all our friends in Victoria and camped in Goldstream Provincial Park. Now that was a birthday to remember!

Today’s miles: 4.5
Yesterday’s miles: 1.9
Days missed: 3
Total April miles: 66.9

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

It seems like a weird time for frivolous shopping, but I’ve got a kid with a birthday coming up and I’m trying my darndest to keep things feeling relatively normal each day and I’d like his birthday to be fun. So yesterday I placed an order for basketball-style shorts (practical gifts are fun, too) at Target and today I biked over to pick them up. The new Order Pickup option worked really well, though our closest Target is a small one and didn’t have what I wanted in stock so I biked 30 minutes to the Target in Mall 205. I was tempted to opt for “drive up” shopping so I wouldn’t have to lock up my bike and go into the store, but I feared I’d have to wait in a line of stinky idling cars. When I arrived I couldn’t see any line of waiting cars, but going in was easy–one employee controlled access into the store, basically just having people wait to enter one by one in case someone was exiting, and my waiting bag at Guest Services was immediately to the right, ready for me after a peek at my ID.

I rode to the mall via the I-205 bike path and it was fine, but I opted to bike home on city streets since traffic is very light these days so I could get a change of scenery. I saw several cat trees free for the taking on sidewalk corners–it’s nice to know some Portland spring traditions are still happening.

Flashback
On this day one year ago I took part in the Ladd’s 500 relay in which teams zoom around Ladd Circle 500 times (equals 100 miles). Two years back I was part of Armando’s fun 10-person team and rode a variety of bikes and even my longboard, but last year I was more “hard core” about it and formed a two-person team with Joe in which we switched every 30 laps. I rode my single speed and tried the sprint the whole thing. I also wore a thrift store prom dress. Cool pix by Aixe:

Today’s miles: 9.7
Yesterday’s miles: 0
Days missed: 3
Total April miles: 61.5

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

The weather was nice today, though cooler than yesterday, so it seemed the perfect day to take a big bike ride. I ran the idea by my kids yesterday and they were game. We’d bike up Mount Tabor, our little local volcano. It helped that it’s the same distance as our practice run to middle school the other day. They’ve been up to the top once, when I carried them up testing the Surly Big Easy e-assist longtail cargo bike, and they biked partway up once, when we watched the Portland Adult Soapbox Derby.

The roads within the park are closed to cars temporarily to give space for social distancing on foot and bike so riding in the park was really nice! I have a great route up that’s a bit steep at the beginning, but otherwise the flattest way up, as well as the most scenic and least potholey.

The kids made it all the way up! My 12-year old (on the blue bike) had to rest several times since he hasn’t been biking regularly since last June, but back then when he was biking to and from school I think he could have made it up without stopping. My 10-year old had a mishap (his bike toppled onto him while he was waiting at the top for his brother and me to catch up) so I got to carry him the last little flat bit. I simply twisted a GearTie around his top tube, lashing it to my Xtracycle Hooptie rear bar, but I have my tow hitch attached (I normally don’t keep it attached because we all tend to bang our shins on it while walking around my beast of a bike) for any kid bike hauling of significant distance.

There were a lot of people in the park, all giving adequate space to one another. Two employees from the parks department walked from group to group and gave reminders about social distancing from people not in your same households. We read and snacked in the shade for quite a while before heading home, with a brief stop to snag a free tandem (tandem! the rare two-kids tagalong) Adams trail-a-bike that I had admired on the ride up a block before the park (and therefore a block before the significant climbing started), but opted to only carry on the way down. It’s not for us–I tried one once and crashed into a rose bush so Joe will bring this one to the WashCo Bikes nonprofit bike shop in Hillsboro and the right family will find it there. The last time I towed one of these (April, 2013) I also had the kids on board and it was not easy, but today was a breeze!

Today:

Seven years ago:

Today’s ride was great, but given that we didn’t get out on bikes yesterday (yep, I’ve missed another day of 30 Days of Biking) and we took another big, multi-hour adventure of a ride, I wonder if I should try to get into the habit of taking smaller, simpler rides. I had also toyed with the idea of taking a smaller bike so I could keep up better and trust that I wouldn’t need to carry the kids at all…but then today we found that trail-a-bike so I would have missed out on that!

Flashback

On this day in 2016 we were visiting friends in Minneapolis for spring break. The whole week was amazing! Being in the birthplace of 30 Days of Biking during 30 Days of Biking was amazing! The 11th was the day we went to Mall of America. We borrowed an Xtracycle from Perennial Cycles (thanks Luke!) for the week and biked to the light rail downtown, though I had read about people who biked the whole way to MOA.

Today’s miles: 9.5
Yesterday’s miles: 0
Days missed: 2
Total April miles: 53.8

I didn’t bike yesterday. But I did today! Today I took a tiny trip to Grocery Outlet (no toilet paper but all the other stuff one could want), but I forgot to take photos so here’s Pixie enjoying the gorgeous day:

Both today and yesterday we spent a ton of time outside. Mostly reading, but also walking to the park and playing foursquare. I had planned to get us out on bikes yesterday, but I just couldn’t do it. Our neighborhood has wide streets with little traffic so it’s easy to keep socially distant on bikes, but extraneous trips feel especially extraneous. Even so, I find myself feeling happier today, and I think part of it is relief at having gotten failing 30 Days of Biking over with so I don’t need to worry about not wanting to leave the house going forward. The lovely weather (sunny and high of 76F today and my relentless allergic cough shouldn’t start up for a few weeks yet) is doubtless helping my mood, too, as has a successful start to the kids’ online classes. Related: PPS announced yesterday school will not meet again IRL this school year.

I failed at 30 Days of Biking once before and while that was a lifetime ago and quite a different situation, it was also OK and I learned a lot through failing.

Flashback
On this day in 2011 we were visiting San Diego, renting a Gazelle Cabby bakfiets. It was so awesome to ride around my old neighborhood (as well as far beyond) with my kids and this super-fun bike.

Today’s miles: 2.4
Yesterday’s miles: 0
Days missed: 1
Total April miles: 44.3

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

Today wasn’t half bad. Everyone slept through the night, day two of school from home went well, and we got on our bikes.

This year, like last, I’ve got an elementary schooler and a middle schooler. Last school year I escorted them each to school and back, one mile to elementary, 4.5 to middle. This year working full-time had made it impossible for me to bike to either school in either direction. The elementary schooler was biking to and fro on his own while the middle schooler caught the school bus around the corner. Next year they’ll both be at middle school and my younger son is eager to learn the route. I think we’ll need to do a lot of test runs and this is certainly a great time to do ’em. There are a few busy, uncontrolled intersections so this practice is just as much familiarizing the kids with the route as it is getting me comfortable with the idea of them biking so far without me. I Strava’ed our rides and clocked us at 31 minutes there and 39 minutes back. I’m the slowest in the pack on my cargo bike, but my older kid’s lack of regular riding lately had him walking up the one hill on the way home so I suspect our numbers will improve if I switch to a zippier bike and as they get used to riding this much.

Given that it’s only the second day of classes moving online and schedules are still being finalized, I didn’t know until just before we left home that my middle schooler had a social studies class meeting an hour out. I didn’t want to cancel our bike excursion so I brought the laptop and he attended class at a picnic table at school. I was impressed that his teacher recognized the background right away and asked, “Wait, are you…at school right now?” I was even more impressed at my kid’s deadpanned, “What? I thought we were starting back at school today.”

The ride to and fro was a success. There were lots of people with dogs on the school grounds (most area school grassy fields turn into unofficial off-leash dog parks when school isn’t in session) but everyone kept their distance from one another. I’m not sure when we’ll sneak in another practice commute, but hopefully very soon.

Flashback
On this day in 2013 my younger son learned to ride a pedal bike. We were invited to join a learn-to-ride class at Cascade Bicycle Club where my then-five-year old would be a ringer and my then-three-year old would be a regular student. They needn’t have invited us because the class was well-attended despite a downpour. Everyone started biking, including my little guy!

Today’s miles: 8.8
Total April miles: 41.9

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

I’m still worn out and my stressed-out kid had another rough night, though not as rough as the night before. Online school started up today and it went well for both kids, hooray. I got out for a ride with Joe to visit his cats. He’s good at going on bike rides for the sake of riding, but I prefer having an errand attached so this kind of fit the bill for me. It still felt extravagant given the Stay Home, Stay Safe order (though I know exercise is encouraged) so I’m still not sure I’ll be able to keep biking daily if I can dream up a suitable reason each day.

Later on there was the usual twosquare on the sidewalk as well as some bonus longboarding. Pixie doesn’t like being left out of anything so to make up for her barking greetings at us nonstop through the window during twosquare we brought her along for the skate. A canvas Trader Joe’s shopping bag makes an excellent chiweenie shoulder bag, btw.

Flashback
On this date in 2014 I led a Kidical Mass family group bike ride in Seattle. My kids were 4 and almost 7 at the time and mostly did their own pedaling, though I always brought my cargo bike in case I needed to carry one or both of them and their bikes. I noted they were becoming stronger pedalers and we didn’t need to stop for water-sip breaks quick as frequently.

2014 Kidical Mass Seattle

2014 was the year we were also tallying dogs we saw while out and about and we saw zero dogs that day. Today we skated by friends walking their big dog with Pixie in the shoulder bag so despite not getting enough sleep and ending the day with a pesky headache it was a banner day, considering.

Today’s miles: 7.6
Total April miles: 33.1

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

After being up half the night with a stressed-out kid I wasn’t up for much of anything today, but we made it out to the schoolyard to play some foursquare. During our last visit we discovered much of the play area was strewn with little pieces of broken glass so I brought our big broom and swept the foursquare court clean.

On this date in 2011 we lived in Seattle but tagged along on a day trip to Portland with my friend Kerri so she could buy a bike like mine. At that point I had a little city bike with front and rear kid seats and though I had never been to Clever Cycles, I knew they’d be able to match her to a bike. She ended up with a terrific little Breezer with front and rear kid seats. Meanwhile, I test rode a longtail for the first time…though I already knew I wanted to eventually upgrade to one before that.

Today’s miles: 2
Total April miles: 25.5

It’s April! That means 30 Days of Biking and biking every day and hopefully blogging about it each day.

I’m still ambivalent about biking for the sake of biking in general and apprehensive about biking right now specifically so I’m not sure I’ll be a good 30 Days of Biking participant this round. Yesterday I made it out to go grocery shopping, but didn’t bother taking any photos or posting about it so it’s clear I won’t be keeping up that end of the bargain.

Today I biked 11 miles round trip to retrieve a package from Bricks & Minifigs–an early birthday present for my 12-year old from his grandfather. Bricks & Minifigs is delivering locally and allowing pick ups. I had hoped to bring the kids with me, but I am feeling extremely worn out today–not too worn out to do the bike ride myself, but too worn out to drag kids on a ride that’s much farther than they normally go. But Pixie and Joe came along so I had company. We saw a lot of other bikes out; also two roller bladers and two one-wheelers.

On this day in 2014 my small pedalers and I biked to Gas Works Park in Seattle. It was their first time going up Kite Hill on pedal bikes, though they’d scooted up on balance bikes and been carried up on my bike before. My then-4-year old on a 16-inch bike had to walk up the switchbacks, but I could tell he’d be pedaling the whole way up before long. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have made it up that hill today.

Today’s miles: 11
Yesterday’s miles: 2.4
Total April miles: 23.5

I’m on a roll! I wasn’t sure I’d make it out on a bike today, but an errand presented itself and saved the day. I didn’t bring the kids along, but they got their exercise via dog walks, twosquare, and a rainy family jog earlier in the day. For the errand, Pixie the chiweenie and I biked to my 7th grader’s English teacher’s house to pick up a couple books from her porch. Online learning starts for Portland Public Schools students next week.

The streets were nice and quiet and it was the first time I’ve seen the parking lot next to Assembly Brewing empty so we stopped to admire the great mural by Ashley Montague.

Today’s flashback is to April 2, 2015, when we lived in Seattle and the viaduct was still up. The deep-bore tunnel bore, Bertha, had finally been extracted from its long clusterstuck. My older kid used to wear a Blue Angels flight suit every day back then, awww.

This day in 2015

Today’s miles: 4.8
Total April miles: 10.1