Thursday, June 28, 2007

Carless Whispers: Week 1

A week ago today, I parked the Whackamole chariot. Since then, I haven't driven. I've been in a car twice: the man drove to a party in Ventura, and we made a trip to Island Seed & Feed to stock up with almost 100 lbs of various seeds and feeds.

We did manage to wobble home from the co-op with an enormous load strapped onto the racks after finding Straus milk and a bulk bag of triticale on sale... but I see a bike trailer in our future.

We did a combo trip to the downtown Farmer's Market on Tuesday, biking 3 1/2 miles to the University to catch the express bus rather than walking 1 1/2 miles to catch the stop-a-block bus. It worked out nicely--we rode the bus with Joaquin Phoenix!

Last night, I hoped to further research in local beer at the Hollister Brewing Co. I also needed some supplies for a painting project, and figured I could get what I needed at Home Depot. The man had taken a loooong bike ride, but gamely agreed to walk up the the bus stop to Camino Real. We strolled past the flower fields, arrived at the stop around 7:30 to find the bus we wanted stopped running an hour earlier. Crud.

The alternative meant following the only route still running to UCSB and transferring to a second bus. Bleh.

By walking another half a mile, we had more options at the Hollister and Kellogg stop, so we walked. Phooey. That bus had also stopped running for the night. Heck, it wasn't even 8:00! Ugh.

We ditched our plans. No beer. No ceiling scraper.

After grabbing a bite at the Habit, we finally caught a bus: the 11, which drove us a half mile back to Goleta Valley Hospital. We walked home. It was a lot of adventure for a little dinner. So, this first week of Carless Whispers ended with a few Carless Grumbles.

I've been thinking a lot about setting up a formal carfree challenge. I think there would need to be a little wiggle room, for the occassional party in Ventura, for example. I also imagine an exception for carpooling in unbussable, unbikeable situations. What else?

Speaking of, Antara is performing at Cold Springs Tavern as part of the Gates & Goodell CD release party this Friday from 7-10 pm. Anyone interested in driving?

3 comments:

Amy said...

Too bad, you would have run into George there. Not at Home Depot, but at Hollister!

Kristin Anderson said...

Keep it up!

Marty said...

Maybe if the system could get Joaquin to do a public service ad, more people would ride the bus. Maybe you could get John Cleese to ride the bus.