5 Car Free Days

My car broke down on Tuesday. C went to "rescue" it and bring it to the shop. We have been car-less for 5 days. And it has been nice. It's been no problem.

How did I get to work?
I rode my scooter. If I had someone to watch the little one, I would have ridden the bus or bike/bussed because I'm a little scared to ride my scooter to work because of the traffic. I'm trying to address that problem for next week.

How did C get to work?
He rode his bike.

How did we get the kids to camp? (The two big ones had camp this week)
J rode his bike and N rode the trail-a-bike behind C's bike.

How did I take E to the park?
On the bike with the trailer. It was fun :)

How did we get groceries?
We only had to pick up a few things. We did it on the bike to the Expensive Mart down the street.

C and I had a date night. What did we do?
My MIL took the bus to our house to watch the kids. We rode our bikes to the springs and then downtown to have a nice dinner. We rode about 6 miles total, which helped cancel out the cake I had for dessert :)

We dropped my MIL off at work at 5 am. How did that work?
Normally, we would have driven her. Instead, she rode on the back of the scooter with my husband. They both wore helmets. It was so cute.

Speaking of, my MIL is the best. She's been car-free her WHOLE LIFE. That's right. She doesn't drive. She doesn't own a car. She doesn't even have a driver's license. Sometimes this is a big pain, but usually it is not a problem. Which is kind of surprising considering that she does not really live within easy walking distance of many things. She can walk to the bank and.... that's about it. If she wants to go to the grocery store, she asks someone to take her. If she goes in early to work, (5 am! No bus runs that early) she either calls a cab or gets a ride with a co-worker. For just about everything else, she takes the bus.

My MIL is in her late 50s, so if she can do it, other people can do it. She's in great shape, probably from all the walking to and from the bus stop. She owns her own house on a very moderate income, and I'm pretty sure that if she had the expense of owning and maintaining a car, affording a house would not be a possibility. Plus, she avoids a lot of danger. About 6 or 7 years ago, her kids (C included) tried to teach her to drive. This resulted in 2 accidents: crashing through the garage door and totaling the washer and dryer, and side-swiping an 18 wheeler. I love her, but we're all probably better off with her not driving.

An added advantage to not driving? If you live in Austin (and this probably is true for other places too) you can have the Transportation Fee on your electric bill removed if you don't own a car. Pretty cool.