The Adventure of using Public Transportation

Yesterday was a somewhat adventurous day when it came to visiting my parents in Kaysville. We decided to take the FrontRunner (Salt Lake City's version of commuter rail) to get from SLC to Kaysville (which is about 25 miles north of the city). In order to get to the FrontRunner station we had to either walk, take the bus, or take TRAX (our light rail system). Well, it ended up that we were running late leaving our house so we decided to walk until we saw a bus that was headed to the frontrunner station...but each time we saw a bus that was going where we needed to go we weren't at a bus stop...so we walked faster, then we ran, then we finally caught the TRAX just one stop away from the station. We got to the station with one minute (literally 1 minute) to spare. Jake had to buy his pass so I kept pushing the 'door open' button on the train so he could run and catch it before it took off. Just as we sat down in our seats, we were off!
Then on our way home there was a fire at one of the oil refineries near the train tracks, so we were able to take the train as far as the Woods Cross station, then had to be bussed from there to the Salt Lake station. From the Salt Lake station we got on TRAX which we took to City Center and from there we walked home. 
Whew, I'm tired just typing about it...this was defiantly not the easiest or fastest way to travel...but it worked, and we kept one more car off the street.

Imagine

So, this week has been a bit easier without a car. Despite the rain.

I saw this shirt a couple of days ago and had to get it for Jake. We have discussed many times about how great it would be if there were more bikes on the road than cars.

Today both of us were off work and walked around the city; to the Gateway, Vosens, grocery shopping, and walking the dogs. It was a really nice day to be outside and not dealing with parking. Tomorrow we'll take the frontrunner to go and visit my mom.

Gotta love public transit, especially when you have a free pass :)

lil' over a month

Well, we have been 'car-free' for over a month now and rather than getting easier I think it is getting more difficult to not have one. There are a couple of big reasons why I am finding it hard: firstly is our dogs, and second is our love of the outdoors...it is especially hard to get both our dogs and the outdoors together anymore. Not that we are die hard hikers but it is nice to be able to throw the dogs in a vehicle when we want, for however long we want and go hike a freakin' mountain. Jake is standing strong, wanting to remain car-free which is good, since I'm ready to cave and just go buy a damn truck.

Now to just teach our dogs to be work dogs

Would we look silly biking up millcreek canyon with two bike trailers carrying our two dogs? Maybe, but I don't see any other option to taking them hiking with us without going out and renting a car for the day. Renting a car everytime you want to go somewhere in the mountains isn't very cheap. Hauling two dogs that way between 60 - 90 lbs. would definatley get us in shape! Although, we would then also be hiking after that... I don't know if I'd trust locking up my bike and trailer to a tree somewhere; I guess I could just 'park' it out in the woods so it would be less noticable. Oh, or we could mountain bike up the trail with our dogs running along side. That's totally doable, right?

I'm not sure we would have any where to store bike trailers if we ever got some. Our little apartment is pretty small as is. We thought about just renting a small storage unit, but then that's not all that convient to having to ride down there each time and pick it up.

In the long run investing in a bike trailer would save us from renting a car each time we need to go do a costco run. One of the larger items that we buy there is Eli's dog food.

I knew this wasn't going to be easy.

This weekend reminded me of why I liked having our Jeep.

We went up to the cabin in the Uinta's and really enjoyed it up there. It rained, the sun shined, the wind blew, we saw the most amazing display of stars and the milky way that I have ever seen, but then Sunday morning came and I felt rushed that we had to hurry and get things cooked, and cleaned, and packed so that we could get the car back in time. Plus we had to give ourselves extra time to clean it since it was the first trip that SUV had probably ever made off pavement. Then I started thinking, hmmm...we really used to do more hiking, take the dogs places, and just go more places in general before we got rid of the jeep. What will happen when it starts snowing and we want to take the dogs snowshoeing or skiing, or whatever? It is gonna get pretty damn expensive to 'rent' a car each time we want to do something.

Not saying that I want to go out and buy another SUV or truck right away, but it makes me wonder where the middle ground is. If we were just 'city people' who didn't really enjoy hiking and camping and playing outdoors then being totally car-free would be soooo much easier. But we have 2 big dogs (kids can go on public transit, dogs can't) which makes doing any outdoor stuff a big ol' pain in the ass for the most part.

Hopefully happier thoughts for the next post...

It's not always gonna be sunny in SLC

Yesterday it rained, and today it rained again...nothing crazy but enough to think...'hmmm, a car would sure be nice right about now'. We ended up biking to the gym yesterday, but luckily we waited long enough that it had stopped raining although the roads were still pretty wet and a bit slick. We learned that my breaks work fine in the rain, but Jakes'...not so good.
We went the entire weekend without a vehicle. Friday night was a company picnic at Sugarhouse Park, which I helped to set up, so I rode the bus home after setting up then rode it there and back with Jake later on that night. Saturday we rode the bus to 'Dancing Crane' so I could get  a new purse. Then we rode the bus back downtown and went out to eat/drink at Red Rock, then on to the Greek Festival. Sunday we went down to Taylorsville via bike --> trax --> bike...then back via bike --> trax --> bike. This next weekend we are planning to go up to the cabin, so we'll be getting the SUV from Ucarshare... ahhhh...

What being car-free means...

Carfree = free from your car, free to walk around fearlessly, free to breathe easily, free to spend your money elsewhere, free from your small slice of the oil supply chain, free to be healthy, free to feel the wind in your hair (Taken without permission from carfree Portland...but I'm pretty sure they are the sharing type, especially if it's advocating...ummm...car-freedom)