This is my new, heavier cargo: we’ve traded the balance bike for a 12-inch pedal bike.

My five-year old isn’t 100% after yesterday’s slide mishap, but he was up to coming along to see his little brother learn to ride a pedal bike at Cascade Bicycle Club’s Learn 2 Ride for All Ages. Actually, he thought he was teaching the class, so of course he came! It was very impressive that everyone showed up given the downpour. And several more kids showed up after I took this picture.

And it worked! It was so fun to watch the ecstatic kids conquer bicycling. My ringer did figure eights in a huge puddle while his lil bro joined the ranks of pedal-powered people. Then he coaxed a new-pedaling little girl (who’d never been on any sort of bike, just a scooter!) to join him in the puddle. I guess that was his contribution to the course. The class will meet again June 2nd and September 8th ($10)–sign up! I suggested they do it EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND because it really was that fun. Imagine how much fun it would be not in freezing rain.

The only thing that made me nervous was how close my two kept coming to the curb. I told them the story of how I broke my arm when my pedal hit a curb in college (and on the last day of Bicycle Safety Awareness Week!), but my five-year old replied, “That’s OK. I’ve been trained to do this.” Oh, my bad.

After class, we checked out the brand new NE 65th Street cycle track. As I biked us to the top of the hill, we passed the Mayor heading down. We called hello to one another and he said, “You dig?” I think I responded favorably enough that he’ll push for many more miles of cycle tracks.

I didn’t think the new pedaler was cycle track ready, but I let my five-year old loose on it. He did great going downhill, but could only make it part way back up once the incline got too tough.

Here’s a view from the top of the hill. The cutest part is the half-scale stop sign.

I had hoped the cycle track completion meant the bottom of the hill would be easy to navigate, too, but it’s still being worked on. There’s a wonderful closed road that runs parallel to the sidewalk, but it’s not easy to enter from the corner. I’m not sure what the intended bike route is, but it doesn’t seem to be my route of choice.

A bit past the cycle track, we saw a kid bike–16-incher, I think–sporting ape hanger handlebars and an incredibly long seat post, making it adult-friendly. We were all intrigued and the kids began discussing the tandem tallbike they’ll build together from baby bike frames. Freak bikes have a special place in my heart so this made me very happy.

I’d forgotten my keys at home so we stopped at Counterbalance Bicycles to pick up baby’s first lock, a yellow Knog Party Frank so I could borrow it while we had lunch. (Psst…it’s actually orange, but please don’t tell him. Apparently they always sell out of purple and yellow first due to their proximity to the university–school colors.)

And then we arrived home to find my keys in the garage. They must have been there overnight. Oops. But really, I can’t believe this hasn’t happened sooner.

Daily miles: 11.3
April miles: 108.5

Both kids bike-ily delivered to school, I headed to Fremont to meet up with my friend, Alyssa. We often ride our fast bikes when the kids are all in school, but today we were both on our slow longtails. On the way over, I happened upon Barbara and invited her along. Behold our trio of kid carriers: Xtracycle, Surly Big Dummy, Kona MinUte. Yay!

After several days of sun, I’m never prepared for rain. This is Seattle, so I should know better, but it always happens. Must be an innate Southern-Californian-transplant survival technique. The kids were indoors and fine without rain gear, but I was getting progressively damper. I swung by Alyssa’s after our ride (to Goodwill to look for waterproof fabric for one of her fantastic DIY projects) so she could let me use her new rain skirt. It’s awesome! This one is oilcloth, but she’s planning another one with a lighter fabric. Note: if you want people to touch your clothing, wear a waterproof skirt on a rainy day. It was very popular.

Back on the Burke-Gilman Trail I noticed Cascade Bicycle Studio has moved into its new space–by the mama dinosaur and baby dinosaur foliage and next door to The Indoor Sun Shoppe (where you can test out a sun therapy lamp for 20 minutes if you’re having a rough rainy day). I don’t think they get a lot of cargo bikers in the shop, but they kindly let me and my rig drip on their floor while I checked out the new space. It’s big and airy and filled with fancy stuff. They were intrigued by the white cable on my bike–because they couldn’t figure out what it was for–so I demonstrated my Rolling Jackass centerstand. And then I told them about the guys who rode a Madsen bucket bike in a cyclocross race to try to bridge our two worlds. I think it worked. But if CBS runs cyclocross clinics in the fall (they’re thinking about doing so!) and I attend, I’ll bring my cross bike and not my cargo beast.

Then I popped into Free Range Cycles to stick a Pedaler’s Fair flyer on their community board. Free Range’s Kathleen was just written up in OutdoorsNW Magazine (So was I, so they’ll put just anyone in there, but Kathleen is the real [steel] deal). Alex was working on an Xtracycle. I hate to break mechanic/bicyclist privilege, but I bombarded Alex and Kathleen with questions. The owner is an artist who uses it to transport canvases these days since her kids are too old to be cargo. I’m intrigued by non-human-cargo cargo bikes. I expect to have one someday.

Those first two stops were impulse stops, but I eventually made it to Hub and Bespoke to check out caps. I found a great little Ibex wool cap that fits under my helmet. And the ear flaps fold up if need be.

Hub and Bespoke also has a funky VANMOOF on display. I’ve never seen one in person, but J.C. Lind seems to sell a lot of them as evidenced by his Facebook page updates. I’ve only seen pictures of their profiles so it was surprising to see the lights integrated into the frame. I still think they look weird, but weird with function. The H-and-B VANMOOF is from Charley+May, “located on the top of Queen Anne Hill.” I think I’ll suggest to Alyssa we use that as a future kid-free bike ride destination…but with our quick bikes.

Daily miles: 15.0
April miles: 89.3

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

I’m sure Engine Engine Engine version 2.0 will make an appearance this month and finally get a write-up, but most days when I want to coordinate school dropoff with some fast bike time, I drag the empty trailer behind the Big Dummy and leave it at preschool for four hours. This morning the bike counter acknowledged us–sometimes the trailer confuses it–and we were bike number 976 of the day at 8:54am.

After dropping the kids at their respective schools, I swapped the Big Dummy for my little road bike and met my friend Astrid to check out her new bike and treat her to breakfast as a thank you for sending me a Craigslist link to the most amazing kid bike (to be a birthday present in a couple weeks–you and the birthday boy will see it soon!). We met at Solsticio on the Burke-Gilman Trail and then hit Recycled Cycles for Brooks Proofide for Astrid’s fancy new saddle.

Speaking of fancy and new, Recycled Cycles has the 2013 Kona Ute and MinUte.

Next we rode downtown (numbers 1371 and 1372 at the bike counter this time) and as I was bidding Astrid farewell at a bike rack, who should pull up but the Jimmy John’s delivery woman I have seen around lately. Naturally, she’s my favorite…though I haven’t seen if she can track stand as well as the guy with the gold components. She pulled up to the rack, swore a bit, and manhandled a bike that was hogging two spots (and by that, I mean that she gently lifted it and moved it slightly to the side). All very exciting!

I had a bit of time before preschool pickup so I did some route experimenting for a Critical Lass ride to Pedaler’s Fair. I think I finally got it sorted out on this third attempt.

I still had a bit of time, because I always seem to have extra time when zipping around with the road bike so I stopped in at Wrench Bicycle Workshop. Last night on the Menstrual Monday ride when my bike started squeaking, Kelli of Yoga for Bikers said it means my chain needs lube. Kelli is among the new round of soon-to-be Cascade Bicycle Ambassadors and she’s already ambassador-ing!

So I pulled the preschooler home in the trailer and later on we used the Big Dummy again to pick up his brother. Slow bike, fast bike, slow bike.

Daily miles: 18.4
April miles: 62.3

The last day of March was glorious–sunny and summery and full of bike riding and friends. But while April started out cloudy and cool, April means 30 Days of Biking and is therefore the best month of the year. You’ve heard me say this before: I love 30 Days of Biking! It’s what changed me into an everyday bicyclist. It’s a great way to be tricked into seeing just what’s possible by bike. Some repeat participants have goals above and beyond simply biking each day, such as go farther. I’m tempted to up the ante, too. I’ll try to go farther, for one. Also, lately I’ve been using our car once per week so staying out of the car all month would also be nice. I’m not making it an official declaration just yet, but I probably will after a bit of mulling. And certainly oodles of new adventures and cargo-carrying feats are in order.

On to today’s biking…
Only one kid goes to school on Mondays so our day started out slowly, with a four-block ride to our local elementary school (and four blocks back, natch). Afer a bit of hanging out at home, we rallied and biked over to Ballard to pick up Pedaler’s Fair flyers at Swift Industries because I like distributing flyers. And since we were so close, we stopped in at Dutch Bike Co to get the skinny on their new shop (and eat pastries). Alas, there will not be coffee on site with the bikes at the new place, but the beer garden makes up for that. The address is on Leary which made me a little leery (ha), but it’s at the corner of teeny NW 48th Street, the cross street by Dutch Bike Co’s current (and future cafe-only) location. Yes, there will be two parts to DBC: cafe in the Kolstrand Building and bikes/beer in the new spot.

After fetching the kindergartener, we biked to Northeast Seattle for the memorial walk a week after a horrible car crash involving four pedestrians, killing two. We walked in the streets with a police escort, making a long stop at the intersection of the collision. It was lovely and heartbreaking and Mayor McGinn attended and later announced some safety improvements for the area.

I don’t often make it up to the northeast because it’s all uphill. Today, while zig zagging our way uphill, kids arguing (“It’s a puppy!” “No, it’s a doggie!”), and me whining at them, we found ourselves in front of Chez Car Free Days. What luck! Nothing like witnesses to end an argument. Anne led us the rest of the way to the walk, graciously waiting at the crest of each hill while I caught my breath.

I asked for route advice heading home, because neighborhood friends will always have better route advice than Google maps. Except they all wanted to send me uphill. Until it was discovered I hadn’t yet seen the new 39th Ave NE neighborhood greenway. Of course I want to go out of the way (and it wasn’t even very far out of the way) to go all downhill rather than uphill!

The greenway was easy to spot from 70th thanks to multiple signs and the new pedestrian crossing median islands.

And the greenway itself was glorious and full of bikes! In the seven blocks I traveled, I saw six oncoming bicyclers–the first one so distracted by the cherry blossoms, he was riding on the wrong side of the quiet street and nearly hit me head-on. Talk about a sign of a bike-dominated street, right?! The other bikers all kept to the right and I was particularly happy to see a dad pulling a trailer and a mom with a front baby seat. We saw one pedestrian walking in the safe street, but numerous others on the sidewalk. Also on the sidewalk I saw a girl riding a kick scooter and a cat being walked on a leash, both on the Neighborhood Greenway Checklist in my mind. Here’s the south end of the greenway, where it meets up with the Burke-Gilman Trail. The whole length of it is covered with these two-way sharrows. Wouldn’t it be nice if the only place we saw sharrows were on safe, quiet greenways? (That’s assuming the current sharrowed streets all turned into bike lanes and cycletracks).

The kids were inspired by all the walking (I have to admit the bike makes us all a bit lazy in terms of walking) and my five-year old insisted on walking past his school on our way home. He thought it’d be great exercise and make the hill easier for me. How could I resist? He didn’t want to get back on the bike once things flattened out, though, and I didn’t want to travel the remaining three blocks at a snail’s pace. Fortunately I talked him back on because I had places to bike and people to see!

I left the kids with Mr. Family Ride and made a rare solo night outing to attend the year’s first Menstrual Monday ladies ride (First Monday of every month, meet at the International Fountain at 6:30 and ride at 7:00). Nine of us biked from the Seattle Center to Loretta’s Northwesterner in South Park. It was a nice, flat 9.7 miles which included rescuing a drunk guy on crutches with a bag of beer cans who had fallen in the middle of the street. Menstrual Monday to the rescue!

Here’s my parking spot. Because it’s not often I can lift my rig to park sideways, but also because there was nowhere else to park.

Loretta’s has a converted Airstream trailer on the back patio where we hung out for drinks, food, and music before heading back north. Fun times!

Daily miles: 43.9
April miles: 43.9

I wanted to do something epic for the last day of 30 Days of Biking, but the forecast called for all-day rain. And it’s Monday. Not to create an excuse, but in thinking about it, I realized that biking everywhere really makes each day epic. The bike adds a sense of adventure to every trip–especially long trips, but even just the two-mile run to preschool.

I also noted that just 15 miles would put me over 350 miles for the month. That would be pretty epic, even if we didn’t travel somewhere new in achieving it. Just the fact that I’ve gotten to the point where not only does a 15-mile day sound possible, but not epic, is amazing. But I settled on just doing a bunch of fun little things.

After dropping the big kid at preschool (where we were not the only biking family–a classmate rode all the way from home on his 16″ bike while his mom took his baby brother in an iBert front seat on her mountain bike) we went to Short Stop Coffee. I haven’t been before, but have wanted to go to see the small Henry paintings. There wasn’t a good bike parking spot I could see, but no one was going to use the porch in this weather so I stuck my bike there.

The place is covered in Henry and other murals and the coffee and food is good. I think we’ll be back in the summer for sandwiches and [dairy-free!] smoothies. I had their signature drink, the Rico Mocha: Mexican Ibarra and Ghirardelli chocolate with cayenne pepper and cinnamon. The bathroom had the best murals. The toddler thinks skulls are owls (his fave) so he was quite taken by the mermaid with starfish covering her boobs holding a skull in each hand. Here are some G-rated starfish:

Then we stopped at Fred Meyer for more bungee cords and zip ties. I wanted a bungee net after reading how awesome they are on Hum of the City, but the smallest they had was four feet by three feet (which Mr. Family Ride just pointed out would be great for behind-the-seat loads so I think I’ll go back for it). I think I’ll need to find a shop that doesn’t keep their zip ties and bungee cords/nets in the automotive section if I want to find a front-rack-sized one.

Next up I rode to the top of kite hill at Gas Works Park. I took the gentle back route since I’m too long to manage the hair pin turns on the front. I also took the gentle route down because the toddler was adamant I not ride straight down the grassy slope. Even without the exciting descent, it felt pretty epic to climb that tiny peak.

Then we paused at the fish-shaped bike corral outside Essential Baking Company. The owner of the bike on the crosswalk sign was locking up as we arrived so I hollered to him, “Hey, why aren’t you parking on the fish? I was hoping I’d have a neighbor!” I think I scared him because he scurried into the bakery. Perhaps he didn’t realize it’s a bike rack. He knows now.

Then a look at the bike tree on Densmore. Our current arguments on the way home are over which route to take. The big kid likes Meridian (“Colored houses!”), but the little kid prefers “Bike tree! Bike tree!”

And our final fun little thing was a detour an extra block north to follow the Neighborhood Greenway home. I was hoping to discover the sharrows on my street, but they still stop a block shy. It’s just a matter of time, though.

After preschool pickup, we headed back to Gas Works Park so we could all ride up the big hill. The two-year old decided he wanted to ride on the mamabike halfway up and rather than reload the FreeLoader with his bike, I draped it over the stoker handlebars.

It slid off the bars on the way up, but stayed on the bike OK without scratching the paint so we all made it up without incident.

A group of tourists had me take a photo of them so I had them take one of us. The toddler couldn’t take his eyes off a passing tugboat, but two of us flashed our victory smiles.

We tooled around the park for a while and picnicked by the sand pit while the wind whipping around us. It was a great day for kite flying, but not such a great day for biking.

Inspired by our bike commuting preschool friend, I left the kids on their respective balance bikes as we headed for home. We took the sidewalk instead of the Burke-Gilman Trail since there are so many full-speed bikes heading in both directions. They didn’t make it all the way–not even all the flat section–but it was still pretty exciting.

This evening I realized I was only 1.2 miles from hitting 350 miles for the month. I thought about heading out solo after the kids were asleep, but dismissed the idea as silly. But those kinds of rides are totally in the spirit of 30 Days of Biking. Even if it’s in the driveway in one’s pajamas at 11:59pm, it counts. And what better way to end my month than with a just-get-it-done 1.2 miles. I tried to sneak in an errand and rode to Kinkos to print Critical Lass posters, but it turns out I had the wrong version on my flash drive so it ended up being a event-free ride after all.

I’m know I’m not the only person saying this tonight: I’ll miss you, 30 Days of Biking!

Today’s miles: 14.9 miles
April cumulative: 350 miles

A new chapter in cargo loading: two balance bikes, large bag of food/clothing, and full set of beach toys. I couldn’t fit the sand toys on the side so I just bungeed them behind me. I can only find one of my bungee cords (the kids like to use them to create trains by linking trucks together), but one did the trick. Mr. Family Ride thinks we should build a little shelf behind the bike to perch loads like this on…a useful suggestion after his obligatory “That looks sketchy” and my obligatory eye roll.

We discovered seven blocks in a row of new Greenway sharrows! NE 44th Street from 1st Avenue N through Burke Avenue N is prettily painted.

The Greenway turns south at Burke and there’s a new directional sign:

The beach was a bit cold, but that just meant there was room in the parking lot for Mr. Family Ride to come out and join us later in the day. The balance bikes were used more in the sand than on the path and the little guy’s new bike basket carried its first load of wet sand. We’ll see how long this one lasts.

The boys opted to drive home in the car (“So we can see more stuff, faster!”) and I let Mr. Family Ride take the bag of sand toys, too. Even with the balance bikes on board (just 19 pounds total), I was able to take the short and steep route home. It’s still not fun, but it is quicker. On the way I saw the old Ballard Railroad engine in action so those boys in their fast car missed out.

Today’s miles: 14.9 miles
April cumulative: 335.1 miles

I really wanted to attend West Seattle CoolMom’s Think Outside the Car event today and accompany West Seattle Spokespeople there from Lincoln Park. BUT that meant leaving the house at 7:30 to catch the 8:30 water taxi…which didn’t happen since our late night saw us all sleeping in until 7:15. I really should have packed up the night before (I say this every day!), but we eventually got out the door at 8:05. Too late for the water taxi, we took the long way around and I remember looking at the clock thinking, “Where will I be an hour and a half from now? Will I be all the way to Lincoln Park?” So I pedaled pedaled pedaled for that 90 minutes…thinking about trying to find my way uphill to the event alone…wondering if they’d have coffee at the event…thinking how nice it’d be to give up and have breakfast and COFFEE. So after 13 miles I called it and we stopped at Bamboo Bar and Grill at Alki Beach. We came here two years ago for brunch and really liked it and they’ve since added fish tanks! Containing real fish and toy dinosaurs!

The CoolMom event went until 2pm, but I wasn’t feeling up to tackling the hill so we stayed down at sea level. I’d brought balance bikes for the Cascade bike rodeo, but didn’t think to pack sand toys. There are no drug stores in Alki, which I hadn’t noticed before and is nice, but not so nice if one needs sand toys. Fortunately, we found Coastal and the day was saved. I picked up some pricey, but sturdy shovels and a big bucket that will make great additions to our sand toy stable.

After much beach play, we had our own bike rodeo which involved riding barefoot over sand and rocks and along the beach-front path.

I still love the novelty of riding separately. We didn’t get too far on six wheels, but once the little kid decided to play passenger, the big kid and I rolled two miles to the water taxi.

This was the Big Dummy’s first ride on the water taxi. It was too big to maneuver to the bike rack so they had me park by the galley. I was worried there might be a rule against big bikes on the water taxi (I hadn’t thought to check ahead of time), but they assured me it was OK–they just hope not too many show up at once.

The waterfront was packed, but the bike pathway on the east side of the street is closed for construction and the two car lanes have been cut down to one so I inched my way along the sidewalk. I got a “Nice steering!” from a pedicab so that felt pretty good, but I can’t wait for the trail to be back in business.

Alki was a little flat for the boys so we stopped at Gas Works Park on the way home. We swung by the Go Means Go going away party (Ryan fishes in Alaska all summer so he can spend the rest of the year doing bikey stuff in Seattle). My bike was the only one there with a kickstand, but the hipsters were intrigued by it.

It’s nice being at Gas Works on a Saturday–lately we’ve been coming on Sundays when the medieval battle crowd is there. It was so quiet without the cacophony of swords striking armor, and the boys were able to ride their balance bikes on the war-free rolling hills.

My bike wasn’t the most exciting party guest for long–someone showed up with the custom job in the above photo–it has a kickstand and is even longer than the Big Dummy. Ryan borrowed it to run it up the side of kite hill and careen down. The kids and I were a little more controlled about our descents, though I couldn’t manage the hairpin turns and also resorted to heading straight downward on the grass.

Today’s miles: 25.9 miles
April cumulative: 320.2 miles

I just read the exciting news about new Greenway sharrows on Wallyhood and today saw some Greenway signs. On 44th and Sunnyside:

And on Stone and 44th:

We played with friends at the Seattle Center and checked out the World Rhythm Festival for a while (and the International Fountain, and a cool indoor terrarium, and the Children’s Museum–phew!) and then decided to meet for dinner down the hill at Old Spaghetti Factory. I’m happy to report that bike beat car by at least ten minutes–and that included toddler laying on the ground (“Carry me!”) on the way to the bike, stopping to observe a moving freight train, and circling the building in search of a bike rack.

I didn’t find anywhere appropriate to lock up so I shackled the bike to a chain at the edge of the parking lot, in the buffer zone between two handicapped spots.

We didn’t use the new weather shield today. We compromised on going slightly faster downhill and on the way home, used my rain jacket as a blanket.

Today’s miles: 18.7 miles
April cumulative: 294.3 miles

Today I built a weather shield for the Yepp kid seat. I’d like to say it’s to protect my sweet toddler from the rain, but it’s really so I could go fast downhill again. The little guy misses his fairing on the old bike and hasn’t adjusted to the sensation of the wind in his face yet. I first got the idea from this DIT: Shade and rain covers for the PeaPod LT article on Every Day Adventurers, though I don’t have the same seat and the drilling of holes isn’t in my repertoire. You Ain’t Got Jack more recently created and step-by-stepped this awesome and easily duplicated D.I.Y. Child’s Bike Seat Weather Protector.

Yesterday we swung by Tweedy & Popp for supplies, but couldn’t find PVC pipe so just got some expensive zip ties. This morning I attached the sunshade from my umbrella stroller (a handed down UPPAbaby G-LiTE) to the seat directly with the new zip ties, but it wasn’t quite high enough and the toddler didn’t like it brushing against his helmet. The holes in the Yepp make attaching things easy (no drilling necessary!), though my pricey eight-inch zip ties were a little on the short size.

Today we went to Stoneway Hardware and found half-inch PVC pipe and slightly less expensive eleven-inch zip ties. My rain cover is more HAIY (half-ass it yourself) than DIY so please follow the You Ain’t Got Jack tutorial to make yourself an awesome one. My initial batch of zip tying things together left me with one arm strap stuck to the pipe. Oops. But once I redid that one spot, things looked very sturdy. It’s four zip ties holding the pipe to the bike and four zip ties holding the canopy to the pipe.

The only problem is, he doesn’t like it! I have a BOB jogging stroller rain shield that fits very well upside down. The back of the canopy is completely open so I don’t have to worry about venting…but of course that doesn’t matter if I can’t put the shield down. Grr.

We rode around with it tucked around the canopy and I zoomed down some hills hoping he’d change his tune, but he chose wind over comfort. I’m not hoping for rain, but I do want an opportunity to get him used to the cover.

The canopy blocks a teeny bit of the view behind me. Even before today, I’ve been thinking about rear-view mirrors. They seem useful for seeing the kids, but I originally got the idea because it’s embarrassing to realize a cyclist has been stuck behind me in a bike lane listening to our inane conversations. A month ago on Dexter a guy may have heard a long, ridiculous, hypothetical discussion about whether or not we should buy a convertible car. And a common theme overheard this week is chasing down and catching pretend trains: “Don’t worry, Mama, it’s a very slow train–as slow as you!” Not that I can necessarily steer the conversations to more mundane subjects when I notice someone behind us, but at least I can try.

Today’s miles: 9.3 miles
April cumulative: 275.6 miles