LCD 4 - Haunting Halloween Bike Commuting

The month of October counts down to a end. Soon this Halloween night will break into a November dawn. The Low Car Diet Challenge will be over.

I will be able to leave town for distant locations! I will be able to buy more than a saddlebag full of groceries, and take the dogs to the park without running them thru neighborhoods and forests! The freedom! The speed! The convenience!

Honestly, things won't change much when the clock turns to midnight tonight. I have long had a fondness of self powered commuting, and it is lifestyle choice that I enjoy experiencing. Sure, there will be many occasions that I will choose to take a car for practical reasons, but given the choice and opportunity I would much rather bike or run almost anywhere. It has been a rewarding month of bicycling, a really great time.

The final week Haunting Halloween Bike Commuting!

Thursday night my friend Alex and I biked out to Midway (amazingly enough my fourth trip out there in October) to visit the FearFest Haunted House. I do promotions for the event, and we had set up a after hours photo shoot of the haunted house. In true halloween style the fog was thick and it rained on us the entire way there and back. Alex even took a side slide across the road, smashing off one of his headlights (his second whipe out of the week!) It was great fun, and a little disturbing getting to photograph the haunted houses and their twisted staff of monsters and victims. I imagine that we were one of the few who had biked from Columbia to the event.

Saturday night was really one of the greatest bike events ever to happen in the world! The Bike Halloween Party! Bike in Movie, Bike Costume Parade around town and other goulish mayhem! A large group of costumed friends and I cruised the loop around downtown Columbia after dark. In true halloween parade fashion we threw candy to the unexpecting public and did whatever we could to get as much attention as possible! After the home football game there were many bar patrons that seemed to really enjoy our ridiculous antics! Who wouldn't enjoy seeing a legion of costumed night riders cruising down the street infront of you! After returning to the party we gathered around the bonfire and watched classic horror films (Halloween, and Evil Dead 2) on the outdoor movie theater area.

This Saturday is the MidMo Brr ride. The next big costume bike ride for many riders of the event. Based off the Iowa BRR ride (which is another long legacy in itself) this ride goes from Flatbranch Park to Rocheport. There will be a few hundred people on the ride. I encourage all of you to come and enjoy a great social bike ride down the katy trail. Hope to see you there.

Thanks for following the adventures of the Low-Car Diet. I hope that I have helped encourage/inspire some of you to commute by bike when the opportunity presents itself.

As we say on RAGBRAI -

Bottoms up and rubbersides down!

Cheers-

MikeD

LCD 3 - Rockbridge Revenge

3 weeks into the low-car diet. The temperature has dropped and there have been many rainy days. Times I have asked myself if should I pass up the opportunity to travel somewhere due to the time and physical discomfort involved. Being a self employed stay at home kind of guy, I was able to escape from the heavy rain, cold days in the early week. Only having to sport the rain jacket a couple of times. Cold weather and rain can really change the mood of a ride.

The biggest obstacle of the low-car diet actually has been organizing with the schedules and responsibilities of those who interact with me on a regular basis. From telling my wife that I will meet her at a restaurant in 20 minutes (I tell her to give me a 10 minute head start), or telling friends that I will meet them at FearFest at the Midway exit (give me a 30 minute head start please) it takes proper planning to meet on time. Last minute commuting by bike, can be a solitary endeavor. Rewarding, but not always social.

The Rockbridge Revenge Trail run was this last Saturday. The event is a 10k and 20k race through the wooded, hilly, muddy and rocky park. Really, one of my favorite events all year! I bundled up early in the morning and rode to the park. After chatting with some good friends and watching the start of the 20k, I decided that I had better visit the restroom before beginning the 10k event. Apparently, I was in there to long, because when I came out the race had already started and many of the runners were already way up into the single track in the woods. Yikes! I threw all my warm weather clothes in the direction of my bike and ran towards the pack. After plowing through trees and zig zaging through the groups of runners I finally caught the front group of runners. I am going to give credit to the month of hard bike riding that my legs never gave out and my lungs didn't explode by the end of the race. I finished a strong second place (first in age group). I am really happy about that!

With daylight savings time less than a week away, its time to get those bike light batteries replaced and ready. Time to bundle up the layers of clothing and prepare for the cold weather ahead. One exhilarating week to go!�

The race begins!

Everybody runs into the woods!

"Hey, wait for me! I was in the bathroom!" - Photo courtesy of Alison Hodgson

Post race rest - Photo courtesy of Alison Hodgson

Alright!! - Photo courtesy of Alison Hodgson

Portrait - Photo courtesy of Alison Hodgson

Fellow low Car Dieter Alison Hodgson

LCD 2 - Low Car Challenge? High Bike Opportunity!

I feel lucky to have a month full of excuses to get back on my bike. Everytime, I need to go anywhere its another opportunity for fresh air, exercise and a feeling of relaxation. I will take advantage of this situation any time that I can!

Commuting by bicycle is a great way to get in great physical shape. Biking your daily routes and special trips can be a tremendous kick start to a new level of fitness. Simply heading downtown to drop a package off at the post office, carrying groceries and cargo up steep hills home, and racing to catch the green light before it turns to red creates a strong level of biker strength. The Bike, Walk and Wheel week in Columbia is a great example of how healthy and social people in the community can be when they take the extra time to physically transport themselves around the town. My amazing wife Katie bikes to work most days of the week, and we also often travel to events in town by bicycle. It is a great chance for us to spend time together and we love not having to worry about finding a parking space (we are always able to park the bikes directly at our final location). Riley the super dog even got into the commuting spirit this week as we did a long run to the dog park. I really believe that she had more fun on the fast run to the dog park than she did when she was actually there!

This week, my friend Nate Smith and I began the process of promoting by bicycle the upcoming cross country race (XCX cross country extreme) that we are co-race directors for. It is amazing how much faster it is dropping of brochures around the city of Columbia when you are able to get around quickly by bike. 5,000 brochures distributed by the end of next week. That is our challenge! I can honestly say that I can get anywhere in town in twice the time by bike than if I was in a car (although sometimes that can be quite a challenge). I do take extreme caution when I commutethroughout the city. I really focus on getting eye contact from drivers at intersections before I make the decision to cross. I was transporting some Electric 6 concert posters for Mojos early this week in a kid trailer. Riding down some busier streets I noticed that I was given much more caution by the cars around me. Cars politely passed me widely and slowly and politely waved me ahead at intersections. The interaction between car drivers and bikers varies tremendously. There are times bikers are almost (and in some occasions actually are) run off the road and other situations where a honking car sports a passenger with a thumbs up of encouragement. The rule to remember is cars do much more damage to bikes than bikes do to them. Respect the same rules of the road as they do and do take caution.

No epic Katy trail rides this week. No road races and long commutes. Simply multiple commutes daily. Normal life traveling by bike. What a great work out!

Back on the Katy Trail

One of the many Historic Bridges on the trail

Back from the grocery store

Kid Trailer - "No Baby on Board"

XCX Promoter

Riley - Super dog

The Low Car Diet 2006

The Challenge: To accomplish all travel in October without using an automobile.

Upon first hearing of this low-car diet, I thought: "I would love to--sounds like a great, fun challenge, but it is impossible. The first day of October I will be driving home from a wedding in St. Louis. I am already out of the game. Wait, doesn't the Katy trail start near St. Louis?..." Upon looking at a map I realized that the St. Charles trailhead was only 7 miles away from my hotel in St. Peters. A window of opportunity opened and I realized that it was possible to make the commute back to Columbia by bicycle. Bring it on. On October 1st my wife left the hotel in St. Peters for Columbia with the car, as I began the trek back home on the trail. My original plan was to make a point of stopping at wineries and bars along the way. After further consideration, I realized that the 150 miles of trail wouldn't leave much time for sightseeing. I would allow myself a beer break in Augusta. I would not pass that opportunity.

Keeping a steady pace around 16 miles an hour, I wasn't able to converse with other patrons on the trail besides a quick "hello" and "on your left". At my tuna and cracker stop in Tebbets, I met a self contained rider from Kansas, who was on a two week solo trip into Illinois. He gladly gave me some of his extra water (as there are so very few drinking fountains on the trail between St. Charles and N. Jefferson) and we exchanged stories and were on our way. It was a beautiful warm sunny day with a challenging headwind and the start of fall colors. Riding on the Katy Trail can be like running on a treadmill, there are times you don't feel like you are going anywhere at all.

11 hours after leaving St. Charles, I met a friend of at Cooper's landing and we rode the final stretch home to Columbia. An exciting start to a full month of biking. The rest of the week involved back and forth biking into town, and occasional stops at the grocery store. I can't forget the fabulous downtown Columbia Pub crawl, the fastest I have ever visited 10 different bars in Columbia.

Friday night was the opening night of Roctoberfest, the motorcycle rally at the Midway Expo center. I had been helping with promotions for the event for months and was very excited for the weekend's festivities. My friend Alison (who is also involved in the Low Car Diet) and her husband Daniel joined me for the dusk/night ride to the Expo Center. By taking back roads we were able to avoid the interstate route that the rest of the attendees traveled. Amazing sunset, followed by a rising full moon. Incredible. After watching the opening event of cage fighting/cage dancing activities, we set up camp in the field. The sounds of passing motorcycles kept us up for hours. The next morning we left early to make it back to Columbia. Daniel was running in the Run for Life Relay, and I promised my dog Riley that I would take her on the Dog Jog 5K. Both started at 9 am. We bid each other farewell and I met my wife Katie with Riley at the race right before the start. In her first 5k, Riley kept a great pace and we finished with a time of 19:36 - 3rd place, winning a gift certificate at Walt's and Tequila. Good dog! After a little recovery time, it was back to Roctoberfest to mingle with bikers of a different breed. After a night of wild entertainment, it was back to trying to sleep in a tent circled by motorcycles. Now that I am back at home on Sunday, I am glad to be off the bike and lounging on the couch for a little while, recouping for a new week of bike commuting about to begin...