pet peeve

rebelwithoutacar

Pedal

[…]
verb (used without object), pedaled, pedaling or (especiallyBritish) pedalled, pedalling.

4.

to work or use the pedals, as in playing an organ or propelling a bicycle.
verb (used with object), pedaled, pedaling or (especially British) pedalled, pedalling.

5.

to work the pedals of (an organ, bicycle, etc.).

Peddle

verb (used with object), peddled, peddling.

1.

to carry (small articles, goods, wares, etc.) from place to place for saleat retail; hawk.

2.

to deal out, distribute, or dispense, especially in small quantities:

to peddle radical ideas.

3.

to sell (drugs) illicitly.
verb (used without object), peddled, peddling.

4.

to go from place to place with goods, wares, etc., for sale at retail.

5.

to occupy oneself with trifles; trifle.
Something tells me that although you can certainly peddle radical ideas (2) while pedaling, when people misuse “peddle” for “pedal”, that’s probably not what they’re going for.
pet peeve

Happy Bike to Work Week!

rebelwithoutacar

Abus recently sent me my new favorite Tshirt (that’s saying a lot, given my bike Tshirt collection). While I may not be wearing it to work, it will get some good wear, especially during bike month.

I’m also testing out the Abus Bordo lock and pretty happy with it so far. I really only go for this security level when in a bigger city (I also lock my bike to a rack that’s properly bolted into the ground..), but it’s comforting to be able to leave your bike outside and not have that vaguely worried feeling in the back of your mind. My only gripes are that I’m not great with keys and would prefer a combination version, and I’m used to threading a coil lock through a wheel as well as through the frame. But neither are a very big deal (locking skewers are a good idea in higher theft areas so your wheels don’t walk off).
Ride on and prosper 🖖
(That would also make a good Tshirt)

Happy Bike to Work Week!

Riding the Natchez Trace

rebelwithoutacar1 Comment

Once again, I did a bike tour and then took forever to post pictures and details (sorry Don!). I squeezed in an 8 day bike trip over my spring break this April and had to hit the ground running once school got back into session (IEP season, for anyone familiar with special education!).

The Natchez Trace is one of two National Parks in the US known as parkways, that runs 444 miles from Natchez, Mississippi to just south of Nashville, Tennessee. The two-lane parkway roughly follows the Old Natchez Trace, a north-south corridor packed with history, from prehistoric geology and animal migrations to Native American cultural sites to war of 1812 and Civil War battle history; Elvis and Oprah were also born in towns along the Trace. Many people opt to drive the length of the trace; compared to biking it that seems absolutely miserable to me. There are ample camping spots to hang a hammock, interesting historical and informational markers about every 5-10 miles, long stretches where you hardly see any cars, butterflies and wildflowers to keep you company, and an oxygen chamber of trees to keep you pedaling asthma free (which sadly can’t be said for my commute back home).

Want to ride the Natchez Trace? Follow these simple steps:

1. Ask your dad to do the ride with you, because your friends all have children or normal jobs, and your friendships will only survive up to 48 hours around each other with no shower, but family is forever.


(Besides, you inherited your love of breaking rules from somewhere.)

2. Plan your route, or at least request/download maps from this website, and then have your dad plan the route because if he figures out the mileage per day, he can’t blame you when his legs hurt by dinnertime.

3. (optional) Laminate the long and pretty awesome park map that comes in your information packet, because you’ll be looking at it every 5 miles to remember which historical marker is next (there are so many).

4. Figure out if you’re going North to South or vice versa, then change your mind fifteen times as you sort through the logistics of getting to/from Natchez/Nashville. We finally settled on a one way rental car from Greenville to Natchez and having a very wonderful person drive from Greenville to Nashville to pick us up. This put us going from mile 0 to mile 444, with lots of scenic vistas and rolling hills the last few days. In shoulder seasons you have more RV migration traffic, but there’s no way I’d do this in the summer (in April, our highs were around 90 every day).

5. Make sure you have road bikes, panniers, camping supplies, and comfy saddles. We brought our eno hammocks because we had them already; I had an eno rain tarp which we used the one night of our trip that it rained very lightly (we really lucked out on weather); the first two nights it was cold enough to skip the bug net but after that the lows were around 50-55 and I needed mine (mosquitos love me). Other camping items on our packing list were a compression sack sleeping bags, inflatable sleeping pads for insulation, a couple changes of clothes (washed clothes most nights), bike repair items, bandanas, stove, fuel, mess kit, and a ton of food. All of this fit into 2 waterproof ortlieb panniers and 2 water resistant axiom panniers, as well as 2 trunk bags on rear racks of our bikes. Front panniers help distribute the weight better, but we didn’t bother with front racks so we made just the rear racks work. I never weighed our equipment but if I had to guess, we were probably around 45-50 lbs of baggage per bike.

6. Make sure you’re comfortable putting in a lot of miles per day, and practice setting up camp; we averaged around 55-60 miles per day with some shorter and some longer days (shortest was 36, longest was 74). It’s possible to go inn to inn, but you’ll have to go off the trace to find lodging. Camping is easy and accessible (we stayed at Rocky Springs the night before we dropped off the car and after the first day of riding from Natchez, Jackson (hotel), Kosciusko, Witch Dance, Tupelo (hotel), Colbert Ferry, and Meriwether Lewis. All the campsites had restrooms with running water, grill areas and picnic tables. Unlike when driving an RV or car, we didn’t have to worry too much about finding an official spot with a parking space – as long as it had a picnic table and was reasonably close to the facilities, we just wheeled our bikes over and set up camp. Several campsites we had all to ourselves anyway, since there are a number that don’t have RV facilities and are intended to be biker/hiker sites.

7. After you ride, keeping making your bike-it list, but also make a plan. Don’t say someday. Go forth and ride!

Riding the Natchez Trace

App Update

rebelwithoutacar

As a self-confessed app addict, I figured I would update my list with what I’ve discovered since last posting about my favorite apps –

  1. Fresh Air

Like Dark Sky for weather, but free. And with pretty visuals.

 

2. Goals


Also free, easy way to visualize habits that you want to build and it has a reminder feature that you can set for a certain time of day. I’ve tried a few similar apps but this one is my favorite because it’s so intuitive. I’m currently using it to remember to log at least 1 mile on Strava per day in 2017 (so far so good!)

 

3. Achievemint


Better than free, it actually pays you to exercise. It’s just $10 per 10,000 points, but you can sync it to apps like Strava and Apple Health, and then go about your usual business. And yes I do have a referral link if you want to try it.

 

 

 

 

4. ByCycling

 

This new app is just released from beta testing, and automatically detects your rides and counts up mileage for you (as long as wifi is enabled). It claims to use up very little battery while running in the background, and so far this seems to be true for me. I don’t Strava every ride, but it’s fun to see how many miles rack up just commuting back and forth. It appears to be pretty accurate too and doesn’t pick up walking or driving as far as I can tell. If you can encourage your employer to sign up, you can put the incentive feature to use as well!

 

 

App Update

Cheers to 2 years

rebelwithoutacar1 Comment

It’s now been 2 years since I said goodbye to my lemon of a car and never looked back. I still have this picture in my camera roll because it’s a favorite memory now; I remember the feeling of nervous-impatient-anticipation leading up to turning in these keys and walking away (OK, I did get a ride back from the dealership, it was a ways outside of Greenville). Later that day I was riding my bike downtown with this euphoric buoyant feeling, and I realized it felt like an actual weight off my shoulders not to own, maintain and stress over a giant hunk of treacherous machinery.

It’s hard to pick a best and worst thing about not having a car. Life is a lot simpler because I don’t feel obliged to go to events on the other side of town where the traffic is abysmal. Purchasing is more intentional because I’m not tempted by regular Target runs and thrift store pop-ins, and I tend to shop locally at stores in bike/pedestrian friendly areas where I get to know the owners and only buy what I need. I’ve always been a couch potato, but now I’m in the best shape of my life and don’t go to the gym. Without the expense of car payments, insurance, maintenance, gas or property taxes, I’ve eliminated most of my stress about money (while living on a teacher’s salary) and can spend money on things I enjoy such as travel, good food, and charitable causes (and some new wheels once in awhile).
The worst thing is probably the lack of cycling infrastructure where I live. To me, this is a challenge that makes it feel like a satisfying accomplishment to get somewhere that most people wouldn’t think of going on a bike, whether I use back roads, take the bus, or just take the lane. It also feels like a vote (and sometimes a middle finger) against whoever decided cars were the only viable way to get around. Hopefully at the same time I’m inspiring someone else out there, and that’s more than I could say when I drove my car.
Not that I can’t abide driving whatsoever. I still have to occasionally borrow or rent a car or uber for practical reasons once in awhile. But once the excitement of obtaining a drivers license wore off and the realities of the economic, health and environmental tolls set in, the car lost its magical allure for me. I couldn’t manage to feel good about driving being a regular part of my day or a necessary part of my world. I’m more satisfied with my choice than ever on this anniversary, and I look forward celebrating to many more down the road.

Cheers to 2 years