Holiday Cycling

This is our first holiday as a completely car(e)free family.  As such, we were faced with the opportunity to creatively match our choice to bicycle for short trips around the city with our longer trip out to Noblesville to visit with our families.  We've made the crossover from short trip commuters to full on bicycling family.
We planned our route on Monday afternoon, and planned to leave Wednesday morning.  Joshua and I (who both now LOVE google maps) chose roads with low traffic, bike lanes, wide separated bike paths, or, failing all else, worst case scenario: sidewalks.  We guessed wrong on a few of our road choices, but knowing that, the ride home will be much easier.  So with a gulp and a sigh, we dressed appropriately for the mild temperature and possible rain.  We packed our clothing and gear for the weekend into milk crates strapped to our rear racks, then covered them with trash bags to protect our stuff from the precipitation.  We buckled Isa into her trailer, wrapped her in a blanket, pulled down the rain sheild, and off we rolled...
Hearing of a possible job offer for Joshua at the keystone fashion mall, we added that as a stop on our trip.  We felt so funny entering the parking garage at the mall, suited up in our extra layers, faces flushed from the cold or from exertion.  We struggled with where to lock up the bikes until a friendly shopper told us that there was a bike rack on the lower level of the garage.  We rolled down the ramps until we found it.  It didn't look like it had ever been used.  It wasn't even bolted down!   But our heavy laden lot of bikes were not appealing enough to mess with so we locked them to the rickety rack and peeled off some extra layers.  We grabbed some lunch, followed up on the job offer, and let Isa burn off some energy before heading back to the bikes for the last leg of the trip. 
Suiting up again and preparing to navigate the insanity of the shopping area traffic, we unlocked and pedaled on.  We chose a particularly bad route from 86th to 96th street; a road with no shoulders, winding blind curves, and overgrown trees and shrubs creeping over the edge of the road.  It was a little scary, but with the huge flag poles draped with colorful prayer flags rising several feet above Isa's trailer, most drivers saw us from way behind and either slowed down, gave us plenty of passing room, or both.  Still, we will most definitely be taking a different route on the way back south. 
Once we reached 96th street, we crossed at the light at Hazel Dell and caught the bike path that led us the remaing miles to my Dad's house.  96th is the county line road.  What a difference from Marion to Hamilton county!  The separate bike paths made both drivers and cyclists feel more certain of their speed and safety.  As much as I agree with vehicular cycling, separate bike paths and bike lanes are a point at which Forester and I definitely don't see eye to eye.  (See John Forester's classic book, Effective Cycling for his argument against bike lanes and other separate bike paths.)  We cruised side by side, talking, pedaling slowly and surely.  There were almost no stops or breaks in the path, and those that are there are at stoplights with special crosswalks for pedestrians and bikes which alert drivers of our crossing with a blinking light on the signs.  This final stretch of our trip seemed so short and easy after maneuvering the mean streets.  Don't get me wrong, I like riding on the streets, I like riding in the city, and I enjoyed the process of our journey from door to door.  But the ease and leisurely pace that the bike path allowed us seemed luxurious after the first part of our trip.  So much so, in fact, that we're considering biking a few miles out of the way to take the Monon back home. 

I remember Joshua and I talking about living without a car for years before we actually made the leap.  One of our last hold outs for why we needed a car, was that our families lived in Hamilton county and it was too far away to safely cycle.  With that little falsehood thoroughly dismissed, we can't wait to make this trip in more seasonable weather.  We couldn't be happier to be living our dreams and making more of an adventure out of life.