day four pedal girl

...so i made up for it (the car use, that is) by biking the fanno creek trail all the way to the beaverton city library and farmer's market!  sampled hot sauces, looked at figs, drooled at cheeses...then returned a library book (erin mckean's "the secret lives of dresses") and got a new book and movie for the panniers before heading home ("take good care of the garden and the dogs: family, friendships, and faith in small-town alaska" by heather lende and dvd "happythankyoumoreplease").  i'm going to miss all this daily biking...not that i can't still ride, but life speed will pick up a bit in august with the approaching school year.  even though these lovely open-ended, externally agenda-less days of summer will give way to more full schedules and the "need" to drive to and fro, there are still time cushions to ride to in-service, maybe even jury duty?  i still want to try taking my bike on the commuter train and trimet, for example.  and there are many nice days in september and october where i could do my park & bike routine (drive the big hill between home and work and bike the rest of the flat way, get to school early and change into teaching clothes).  in the beginning of my experiment, my goal was to be totally carless for a week.  i flexed that into being ok with occasionally driving as long as i biked somewhere every day.  i've noticed it in my improved leg muscles and in my wallet $ cutting the cost of gas/mileage.  yesterday after my ride i was too tired to bike all the way to dundee and back to check my cats and pick up my mail, so i drove...and in one day i put more miles on my car than i had all week and i realized i ordinarily drive that much every day without even thinking about it.  needless to say, i'm enjoying my experiment and wishing it was reality!  so tonight, i bike to church.  and tomorrow, one more trip to the grocery store and library.  the more i ride, the more thankful i am that someone was brilliant enough to invent the bicycle.