COSTCO via Cargo Bike!

A JOURNEY IN PHOTOS

(OK, “journey” is maybe a little strong…)

 

So, this was my first time attempting a Costco run by bicycle.  Why I waited until it was winter, four days before Christmas, and a week before TWO of my children’s birthdays (for which we would need provisions), I cannot say. I was pretty sure the Mundo could handle a decent-sized warehouse load, but I left the kids at home (just in case).

The city is beautiful in winter, even if we don’t have snow. I missed having my little ones with me, but a solitary ride downtown was quite refreshing. Usually I’d have to take the freeway to Costco…thankfully, though, not today.

I love that the bike trail is is right on the edge of downtown. I find that I do so much errand-based riding nowadays that I don’t take advantage of the river and the bike trails nearly enough. Serendipitously, though, Costco is right behind the bike trail on the other side of the river, so today I get to enjoy nature, see the water, AND procure 36 organic juice pouches for a houseful of ready-to-party kindergartners.

I love these old foot bridges that span the Sacramento and American Rivers. This one is parallel to a venerable old train bridge, lending a great timelessness to the area.

I’ve been reading a fair amount of Steinbeck this year, and it has me romanticizing life on the rails. I can’t wait to take our girls on a big train trip away from the civilization, where we can soak in the scenery and bask a little bit in the desolate melancholy that comes with chugging through the wilderness and empty flatlands. A train is like a giant metronome whose repetitive locomotion seems so jarring and novel at first because it is at such odds with the modes and means of our frenetic lives. After awhile, though, it lulls us into rhythms and spells we just don’t get on streets and highways. Man, I wish we had a more European or Asian model of transportation in America…I think it would speak to the better parts of our nature if we traveled in synchronicity on the rails, rather than in our isolated and disjointed manner via the almighty automobile. Alright, pontificating is over…for now…

Seriously, Costco’s just off the bike trail (it’s that big light-tan building in the middle). Who knew? (tons of people, just not me, I guess).

Made it. Safe and sound. Behind me are a million parked (or hoping to be parked) cars. You can’t see them, but–trust me–they’re there.

THIS JUST IN!!! Costco doesn’t have bike parking. I know…you’re shocked, too. I had to make due by hitching a lock to this car display. Anybody want to buy a Kia?

No, I didn’t buy CLAMATO for my 6 yr-old’s birthday party. I just felt compelled to take this picture. Who, exactly, says, “Man, this tomato juice is pretty good, but it could use a little…I don’t know…Mollusk?” And, being Costco, it’s sold in two-packs of huge jugs. There are many, many bottles still available for purchase.

So I got out with a full cart (and stuff underneath). Now, it’s time for some serious arranging using the Mundo’s Monkey Bars, Peanut Shell, panniers, hooks, and all the other little things I’ve added, knowing this day would one day come. CUE THE TETRIS MUSIC!

Eureka! The girls’ bench, Baby Boy’s seat, the plastic IKEA containers on the running boards, and hooked bags on both sides of the Monkey Bars were enough to handle the job. I didn’t even have to use my front wheel panniers, meaning that my steering was easier for the ride back. YUBA, you’re always up to the challenge.

Riding home was pleasant and smooth! I had, easily, over a hundred pounds of cargo, but it didn’t make the ride harder (just a tad slower than before, obviously). All told, the round trip was a tad under 12 miles and about an hour in length. It was so much more enjoyable than driving there and playing parking-lot-roulette. And the capper? I left Costco with two dozen uncracked brown eggs and arrived home with the same!

A week of Thanks, yet a bad week for biking (ending on a good note, though!)

One of the many things I found myself thankful for this past week (yes, far behind family, friends, community, health, grace, and the other building blocks of life) is cycling, especially since I was without it for seven days.  The old saw about absence making the heart grow fonder, in this instance, held true.  I missed my bike, riding with my children, and hitting the road on just two wheels.  I certainly saw enough of it on four…

This is a view I was very thankful for tonight (swirling winds, sharp cold and all), after a week downstate, away from our bikes, followed by a couple days of injury-related bed rest. 

We drove down to Southern California to visit my mom and had a wonderful time.  This entailed, though, driving roughly 600 miles there and 600 miles back.  My surgically repaired spine, residual nerve damage and overall back & neck stiffness made themselves heard loud and clear upon our return to Sacramento Saturday, as I woke up in the middle of the night with some severely pinched nerves, unable to lift my head or contort my back or turn my neck or shoulders without shrieking pain and/or spasms.  Since falling for cycling, few have been the occasions when any of these issues have been present in my life, let alone all of them at once.  So, with the consummate love, aid, and support of my ever-lovely and tireless wife, I was able to take a pair of days to recuperate so that, come today, I could resume the stay-at-home-parent duties (and–not insignificantly–get out of bed and have the bodily stability and flexibility to pick up my children).

[The last two times I felt similarly incapacitated, I was recovering from surgery.  Each one necessitated a month of bed rest with doctor’s orders to not leave the house…at all.  In light of this, these last two days went by quickly.  However, I did not have three children under age 7 when I was last laid up, so I felt quite antsy and powerless as my wife–with typical aplomb and grace–did everything for everyone, all the while dealing with her own fatigue from our whirlwind trip and all that comes with traveling across the state with little ones].

Back to our trip…so, there was no biking during our four days down south, which felt strange.  My Mom lives in an area that’s not terribly conducive for cycling, except maybe for hardcore distance road racers.  I had notions of trying to haul the girls’ bikes (and my own), but our car would not have borne them well.  (Our bike carrier is pretty rinky-dink, and the car is maxed out with the five of us and the baby stuff and the girls belongings.  Even though we travel light and, subsequently, make frequent use of my mom’s washing machine when we visit, our car’s interior still resembles a Tetris game on road trips).  I have dreams of someday stumbling upon a pot of gold to enable us to get some Brompton folding bikes for our travels, but that day has not yet come!

Someday…someday…we’ll all have Bromptons upon which we can cruise…after which we will collapse them in seconds and carry them like briefcases wherever needed.  I’ll grant you, this isn’t exactly utopia on grand scale, but it seems like a pretty good way to travel.  Ahh, someday…

We spent some nice time with my mom, and with my uncle, aunt and cousins, as well as with some dear old friends who make our twice-yearly visits extra sweet.  We indulged in Mom’s ridiculously delicious cooking, watched the sun set over the coast, and had some beautiful and refreshing trips to the beach, which always makes us come alive.

Everything beautiful and poetic and lyrical about the ocean has been written and said a million times over…so instead I will just say that my daughters’ joy and giddiness at the water’s edge takes my breath away. Their gleeful shouts and arm-waving and splashing and running makes even the longest of car rides worth it, every time.

So, back to tonight…(sorry for the disjointed narrative here, folks)…After a day of feeling largely better, a bit of the stiffness and nerve pain returned in the evening, so I took a ride to get my body moving and my muscles loose.  It felt sooooooo good.  Being without a bike for a week is not a hardship or a travesty, but I didn’t realize how much I missed riding, nor how much I need it as a physical and mental release.  It’s one of the main things that have kept me healthy and out of the hospital these last few years, and it has given me innumerable new experiences  and perspectives, especially with my family.  I am thankful for cycling, and for the opportunity to ride and live closer to the ground.

It’s hard not to like a good night ride, especially when the skies are clear and there’s a nip in the air. And, yes, I do realize that I look like a strange plaid dystopian shock-troop soldier behind a black screen. I swear, though, that it’s me just riding in the dark.