Happiness and harmony

Watch the attached video for a peek into the beginning of our summer vacation.
WARNING: May not be suitable for younger viewers.

Shooting hoops with the help of a Chihuahua

It's T-ball season!

Spring is sprung; the grass is ris.'

I wonder where second base is.

-- T-ball player's lament

T-ball (for the education of those unfortunate ones who have yet to experience the game) is perhaps the purest form of baseball you can find. Pure ... or raw -- I'm not sure which; there is a fine line between the two. Actually, T-ball is both at once.

The game is pure, and it is simple -- far more simple, even, than what passes for the real thing these days. The players -- who are all of 5 and 6 years old -- hit off of the top of a sturdy "T'' upon which the ball has been placed by a coach, who then dives for cover. Once the ball is hit, the batter runs -- and doesn't stop running -- until the fielding team has successfully returned the ball to the "pitcher,'' who is confined to a circular area lined with chalk so he or she does not wander out of position, say, to the parking lot.

Roses are red;

violets are blue.

When you're out in the field,

don't be looking at your shoe.

In T-ball, bunts can become home runs. Home runs can become bunts. It all depends on the T-ball Gods, who decide quite arbitrarily which players will be paying attention to the game and which ones will be paying attention to the dirt.

And then, sometimes, all the fielders will be paying attention, and no matter where the ball goes, no matter how many furlongs it is from their position, if they have to catch a bus to get to it they will, and all nine of them (sometimes more) will pounce upon the ball at once, clawing at it like a flock of turkey vultures fighting for carrion.

By the time the season is over, they may be able to play the game well, but right now the players are raw, like ground beef. Ninety-five percent lean. Some of them are more like 80 percent lean. No matter what they look like on the outside, each one of them is tender on the inside, and must be handled with kid gloves.

Speaking of gloves, one of a T-ball coach's main duties is to remind his players what the gloves are for, which is not -- as is widely believed -- for placement upon the tops of heads as protection from the sun or falling UFOs, which could in fact be a flying baseball, in which case the player will ditch the glove and run for cover anyway.

Jack be nimble.

Jack be quick.

Jack run over ...

Jack? Where're ya goin'?

Matters of direction and sequence are of prime importance in T-ball, and giving direction to a T-ball player can be like questioning a just-awakened coma patient:

"Do you know where you are?''

"What's that white thing over there?''

"And what's your name again, by the way?''

Levels of consciousness notwithstanding, I never met a T-ball player I didn't like, and though I was never a real big fan of baseball, how I love T-ball. It is baseball the way it -- or any sport -- should be played: for the sheer fun and enjoyment of all involved.

Beyond T-ball, the innocence of it all begins to wear off, and there's nothing you can do about it. Like Thomas Wolfe said, you can't go home again.

Well, in T-ball you can if you want to.

At long last: video of my bike ride to work

Finally, the video of my bike ride to work is ready. It even includes a cameo appearance by Baby, my Chihuahua, who plays herself.

Special thanks to Todd Mizener, director of photography at the Moline Dispatch Publishing Co., for putting it all together for me -- and to Todd Welvaert, one of our editors, who loaned me his Flip camera, which I subsequently broke. Sort of.

Due to my overzealous tightening of the Flip camera to the super-clamp I had put on my handlebars, I could not get the camera off the post when the batteries ran out half way into my ride to work Thursday morning. So I then switched to my digital camera, put it in video mode, and continued to film as I held the camera in one hand and steered the bike with the other.

Then I ran out of storage space -- still a half-mile away from work.

So on Friday, in the rain, I filmed the last half-mile to the office.

Hope you like it.

Day 8: Victory!

Last night I attended the Wrap Up Party for Alternative Transportation Week at the Bier Stube. Many fine people were there, and I even won one of the drawings held for those who completed the entire Car-Free Challenge -- a gift certificate to the used at the Boat House in Davenport.

My two sons met me for dinner afterward, then I pedaled home in a light rain. At 10 p.m., I officially completed my seven-day Car-Free Challenge.

This morning I'm off to help set up an event at my church, and I'm looking forward to taking my wheels -- all two of them. I think I'll go one more day car-free if I can.

More on my thoughts of the past week later, in addition to posting the video of my ride to work -- which still is experiencing some technical difficulties.

Stay tuned.

Day 7: In the home stretch!

It's Day 7 of the week-long Car-Free Challenge, and there's no doubt I will make it through the final day without driving or riding in a car.

If I have to, I'll crawl home tonight -- which may be the case after the Alternative Transportation Week Wrap-Up Party, beginning at 5 p.m. at the Bier Stube in downtown Moline.

Last night I filled out QC TAG's Car-Free Challenge online survey, logging the total miles which, by the end of today, I will have biked (50.8), bused (27.8) and walked (5.4) during the past seven days.

My total car-free miles for the week will come to 84 miles by the end of today ... wait -- make that 86.7. I found another 2.7 miles I forgot to put on the survey.

Oh well, whatever. The distance isn't as important as the journey.

This morning I biked and bused to work (more people definitely ride the bus when it rains) and finished filming my video, which was only partially completed Thursday. Hopefully before the end of the day I will be able to post the masterpiece.

As the week draws to a close, I can honestly say I have not missed driving at all. However, I am pretty exhausted from the biking, figuring out the buses, blogging, photographing, videotaping and dealing with a completely different way of getting from Point A to Point B.

Sometime this weekend I'll post my next and final entry on Alternative Transportation Week -- probably some sort of Top 10 list of the things that stick out most from the past seven days.

Before then, however, it's on to the Bier Stube . . .

Day 6, Part II: Technical difficulties!

So I got part of my morning bike ride today on video, but then the batteries went dead. I had extra batteries, but I had clamped the Flip camera on the post too tightly, and couldn't get it loosened in order to put in new batteries.

I then switched to my hand-held digital camera, put it in video mode and recorded while I rode one-handed.

After awhile I had used up all my memory space, and filming stopped by the time I arrived at the i wireless Center in Moline.

So, this video project will take another day so I can get the portions of the trail I missed today as I ride to work on Friday morning.

Stay tuned.

Day 6: A close call averted, it's back to the bike

By day's end on Wednesday I was feeling pretty proud of myself -- I'd gotten everywhere I needed to go via walking and riding Metro buses.

In the morning I walked a half-mile from my house (under my Dispatch-Argus umbrella) to the bus stop on 18th Avenue in front of the Rock Island Hy-Vee. Minutes later my trusted 30 Green arrived and I had a relaxing ride to downtown Moline. I hopped off the bus on 5th Avenue, walked a block to Cup A Joe for a coffee to go and then walked the final block to the office.

Shortly after noon I walked down to Centre Station. Metro has a gift shop there, which I didn't know, along with all kinds of mass transportation guides. The young man working the counter directed me to the right place to catch 70 Purple, which arrived shortly and took me to my doctor's office near 43rd Avenue and 7th Street, Moline.

After my appointment, I had about about a half hour to kill, so I stopped in at Kohl's, found a couple of picture frames I needed and then caught 70 Purple as it arrived in front of the new Moline Hy-Vee.

While waiting for the bus, I tried out Metro's texting service, txtLINK. I entered the code of the stop I was at and seconds later I received a text reply listing all imminent bus arrivals. The text said 70 Purple would be arriving at 1:49, and, sure enough, at 1:49 there it was.

Cool.

Feeling the need to spread my bus-riding wings, I then made a transfer at City Line Plaza on 1st Street, Moline. I hopped off 70 Purple, waited a few minutes and then hopped on to 30 Green when it arrived. Then it was back downtown to the office.

At the end of the day, I called my wife and told her I was "off to catch the 6:17."

I always wanted to say something like that, and have it mean something.

Sure enough, at 6:17 I caught the 30 Green westbound, got off at the Rock Island Hy-Vee and walked the half-mile back home, arriving about 6:50 p.m.

Later Wednesday night, I had a close call, one which nearly derailed my so-far spotless car-free record. My wife had left her car in the driveway. Being a creature of habit, I was going to pull it into the garage for the night.

"I'm going out to pull your car in," I said as I headed for the door.

"Can you do that?" she asked.

For a second, I didn't understand what she was getting at. Then a lightbulb (a fluorescent one) went off in my head.

"Oh my gosh, no I can't," I replied.

I'm taking a purist approach to this whole experiment. So that 30-foot drive into the garage was not going to happen.

Car-free is car-free.

This morning I will hop back on the bike and ride to work. I will be shooting video along the way, which I will post once my masterpiece is all done. Parts of the bike trail are beautiful, and I'll try to capture the best of it, along with anything else that might be worthwhile.

Tonight is the Alternative Transportation Week Film Fest, starting at 6 p.m. in Room 102 of the Science Building at Augustana College in Rock Island. They'll be showing online movies and YouTube clips that show what's possible in communities that promote alternative transportation. Word has it that there will be funny stuff, too, such as Monty Python's "Bicycle Repair Man" and the "Ministry of Silly Walks."

The event is free and anyone can come, but if you bike, bus or walk there, you get bonus points!

Total miles, Day 5, via walking and bus: 16
Total car-free miles, Days 1-5: 64.7
Total miles, Days 1-5, via car: 0

Day 5: Riding all around on the Metro

I will ride the bus everywhere I need to go today. Yesterday, I had my first bus ride in years, but it almost got off on the wrong foot. As I stepped onto the Metro in downtown Moline, the driver, sensing I was a "newbie," asked if I was going east.

"Yes! I mean, no!" I said.

She reassured me that the westbound "30 Green" would be arriving momentarily. (Her bus was the eastbound 30 Green.)

Sure enough, moments later my bus arrived and I was on my way to a doctor's appointment at Trinity Medical Center West Campus in Rock Island.

The bus was running a few minutes late, but the driver made up for it and we arrived at Trinity on time. After my appointment, I had a quick lunch at the hospital and then hopped on the eastbound 30 Green, feeling like an old pro.

Total time for my round-trip -- including time for the doctor and lunch -- came to just under two hours. Had I driven myself, I would have shaved off probably a half hour.

But driving, I could not have safely had the following text conversation with wife:

Me: I'm on the bus!

My wife: Are there any bullies?

Well, you get the idea.

And there were no bullies. Many of the people who ride the bus are quite friendly -- and the regulars all know each other. I was the new guy, the curiosity -- the guy writing notes on little scraps of paper and looking all around like he'd just dropped in from another planet.

I had ridden my bike to work Tuesday morning, a somewhat frustrating ride due to a stiff headwind -- which I seem to have no matter which direction I travel. Not wanting to arrive to work a big sweat-ball, I took the ride slow and did not push myself -- even after being passed by a young whippersnapper co-worker of mine (although the competitive streak in me REALLY wanted to chase him down, yell, "Ha-ha!" and then have a heart attack).

For the ride home, however, I decided to "bike and bus." So, at 5:45 p.m. I sat nonchalantly at the bus stop, let 30 Green eastbound go on its merry way and waited for 30 Green westbound to arrive. Before boarding, I put my bike on the rack in front of the bus (Jeff Cornelius of QC TAG had shown me how to do this last Saturday during the Alternative Transportation Week kick-off.)

I must say, the ride home, with my bike leading the way and me relaxing inside the bus, is the best way to go uphill with one's bike. At the Rock Island Hy-Vee I got off the bus, retrieved my bike and pedaled the remaining seven-tenths of a mile home.

Today, because of the forecast of heavy rains, I will ride the bus everywhere -- to work, to another doctor's appointment (I'm OK. Really!), back to work and then home again. I'll make my first bus transfer today, too.

In planning all of my bus travels, I have been using Metro's transit planner beta Web site, which uses Google maps. It is really cool and really easy and really helpful. Quad-Citians -- particularly those who have never ridden the bus before -- will love it when the site goes live.

Miles traveled by bike on Tuesday: 6.1
Miles traveled by bus on Tuesday: 14
Total miles, Days 1-4, via bike, bus and foot: 48.7
Total miles, Days 1-4, via car: 0

Day 5, part II: Dan's bike to work

Dan McNeil, director of development and public relations at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, is one of four Figge employees who are biking to work. Dan lives on 46th Street off of Avenue of the Cities in Moline. "I bike to work in the warm months, bike and bus when it's cool, and drive when it's cold," he says.

Dan recorded an entertaining video of his ride to work earlier this month, and shared it with me -- which I am now sharing with anyone following my blog.

Be sure to watch it -- it's very entertaining and shows parts of the Quad-Cities motorists do not get to enjoy.

It's also inspired me to do my own video on Thursday. We'll see how that goes.
Thanks for sharing, Dan!

Day 4: Au revoir, go-phare

Remember that gopher I saw being released Monday morning on my bike ride to work? I saw him sticking his head up out of the ground behind the Quad City Botanical Center Monday evening on my way home. I swear I heard Kenny Loggins singing "I'm Alright," but I could be wrong.

I was reunited with Chuck Rodent (and a couple more of his kind) on the ride back from work in downtown Moline to my home in Rock Island -- 5.46 miles, according to my GPS. The ride took me about 31 minutes -- longer than I wanted, but what the heck.

Once home, I took a shower, caught KWQC-TV's report they'd done on me for the 6 p.m. newscast (PDQ review from my son: "You don't look too dorky.") and then walked up to Rock Island High School and back for my younger son's band concert.

Today I'll bike and bus to get around town. I'll bike to work in the morning (which is downhill), then on the return trip I'll catch the bus outside my office, put the bike on the rack in front of the bus and ride to the stop nearest my house.

In the middle of the day, I have a doctor's appointment, so I'll just hop on the bus in downtown Moline, ride to the doctor's office in Rock Island, then hop back on the bus for the return trip to work.

Because of my appointment I'll have to miss the Great Commuter Race beginning at 10:45 a.m. at the Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf. One participant will bike, one will ride a bus and one will drive a car from the center to the Figge Art Museum in Davenport -- to show that alternative forms of transportation are as viable as the car to get to a destination.

My bus rides today will be the first for me in quite a number of years. I'm a bit concerned I'll have flashbacks to my parochial school days, when I rode a bus to and from grade school, trapped inside the yellow Blue Bird with bullies and an ever-present odor of oranges and adolescent B.O.

But thanks to Metro, I am confident that today I will catch the right bus at the right time at the right place and make all the right connections. Hopefully there will be no bullies.

Total mileage biked and walked on Days 1-3: 28.6
Total mileage via car, Days 1-3: 0

Day 3, Part II: Gophers, barges and Bad Bob

My ride to the Bike Commuter Breakfast in Davenport was great. On the way there, I ran into (figuratively speaking) a guy who had parked his truck underneath the Arsenal viaduct near the bike path behind the Quad City Botanical Center. He had some kind of animal in a cage. As I approached, I saw that it was an incarcerated muskrat.

"I'll wait until you get by before I release him," said the man.

Then it was on to the viaduct and then the government bridge, where my progress was halted by a barge locking through the dam. Damn.

It didn't delay me that much, and a few minutes later I arrived at the breakfast at Bechtel Park. There I met up with my brother, Bad Bob, an avid cyclist (that's us together in the accompanying photo; he's to the left). We talked while drinking coffee and eating breakfast burritos (from Greatest Grains -- they were great), then he was off to work.

I stuck around for a while and chatted with Jeff Cornelius, Dan McNeil, Chuck Oestreich and Bill and Mary Scott, then rode off toward Moline with Dean Mathias, the bare-back rider (he rides with no seat).

"You ever see anyone else who does what you do?" I asked Dean.
"Not on purpose," he quipped.

Before heading back to the bike path, I stopped at the Arsenal gate to see if I could ride across the island on its path to Moline instead. As I suspected, the guard told me no, I could not. I'll look into that odd regulation later.

Then it was back on the path with Dean, and soon we were joined by Andy Olson, who works at Black Hawk College, and Doug McCollum, a friend of mine who has a psychology practice in Moline. These three guys are avid cyclists. I was the novice, but they made me feel at home and we chatted all the way into downtown Moline, where I struck off for the office at the Dispatch.

It was a great way to start the day.

Later this morning I met up with Jessica Tighe with KWQC-TV to do an interview on Alternative Transportation Week and the Car-Free Challenge. She said the segment probably will air on tonight's 6 p.m. newscast.

Day 3: Off to the Commuter Breakfast

Well, it's 6 a.m. and I'm pedaling off in a few minutes to the Bike Commuter Breakfast, which starts at 6:30 a.m. at Bechtel Park on the north end of the Government Bridge on the Mississippi in Davenport.

It's 46 degrees, so it'll be a bit chilly on the ride. Oh, well. There'll be coffee to warm me up once I arrive. I've got to get pedaling now so I arrive early. One of my brothers, Bad Bob, an avid cyclist, is going to be there, and if I don't show up early he'll have eaten everything in sight.

Afterward I'm going to try to bike across Arsenal Island on my way to work in Moline, so I can visit the National Cemetery, where my parents are buried. However, I don't think they'll let me on the island, as I hear that bikes are still prohibited, a hold-over from the post 9-11 security clampdown.

More later ...

Day 2: Pork in the mailbox and biking to church

Today is Alternative Transportation Week's Bike to Worship Day, and so I'll be -- you guessed it -- biking to worship.

According to Google maps, it's just 1.2 miles from my home to my church, and there are no hills in between. Praise the Lord.

Later in the day, I plan to bike from home to the National Cemetery on Arsenal Island, which is about 4.5 miles. I'm sure there will be other random trips throughout the day which will add up.

My total car-free mileage on Saturday, Day 1 of the Car-Free Challenge, came to 11.5 miles, which included two trips by bike during the day and one by foot at night to see Rock Island High School's production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

My wife and I walked up to the school cafeteria before the play to help serve a pre-production fundraiser. Afterward, there was leftover pulled pork, and we bought some to take home. A fellow band-parent couple offered to drop off the food at our house so we wouldn't have to carry it with us on our walk home. When we arrived home there was a big 'ol bag of pulled pork and a bag of buns stuffed in our mailbox.

Odd the things that happen when you give up your car.

Day 1: On the path and back again

Talk about irony of ironies: On the first day of the Car-Free Challenge, I found myself at the gas station buying gas.

Fortunately, it was just a gallon's worth for the lawnmower, and I rode my bike to get it. Whew.

I had to get the gas for my son, who was mowing the front yard as I returned home from my first bike ride of the challenge. "I need gas for the mower," he said. "Can you go get me some on your bike?" Sure, I replied, grabbed the gas can and pedaled off to the station and back.

My first ride earlier today was a 3.6-mile journey from my house on the hill in Rock Island to the Freight House Farmers' Market in downtown Davenport. It was a beautiful morning, and the ride was a breeze -- actually it was a stiff west-northwest-wind that I rode against all the way to the market. But the ride was enjoyable nonetheless. I saw things along the way I might not have seen had I been in a car -- or which if I had noticed from the car, would have been in the form of fleeting glances as I zoomed by. I saw pelicans taking flight from the Mississippi, whitecaps on the river and the underbelly of the Davenport Skybridge as I neared the market. I rode through neighborhoods I'd not seen in years, probably not since I was a kid getting around town on my bike because I could not yet drive.

The market itself was vibrant with people, dogs and the many vendors selling locally grown and made goods. I love this market, and being on the bike made it all the more enjoyable. I didn't have to look for a parking place. Didn't have to cross River Drive. And by the time I arrived, the exercise and scenery along the way had put me in a very relaxed state of mind.

And I noticed something universal: When you ride a bike, you notice how many other people are riding bikes. It's like owning a red car -- once you have one, you notice all the other red cars.

I made a bee-line for the Alternative Transportation Week tent, set up to educate people like me on how to get around the Quad-Cities car-free. Jeff Cornelius of QC TAG, who I have had the pleasure to know for a couple of years, showed me how to use the bike rack on the front of every mass transit bus in the Quad-Cities -- the last piece of the puzzle in my car-free travels for the week ahead. (That's me in the middle in the accompanying photo, with Jeff on the right and, to the left, Chuck Oestreich of the Quad City Bicycle Club.)

I also met Dean Mathias, another avid local bicyclist. You'll know Dean if you see him out riding. He does so without a seat.

Then there was Walt and Delores Wermuth of Moline, who ride a tandem recumbent.

After leaving my bike at the valet service offered at the ATW tent, I wandered around the market, ran into some friends and bought some jam and a Mother's Day gift for my wife.

Then it was back on the bike for the return trip home -- this time with a few more pounds in the saddlebag due to my market purchases.

On the ride home I had the wind to my back, which was great. This time, however, I had to go uphill, part of which I rode, part of which I walked.

My round-trip mileage came to 7.3 miles (according to my GPS), and it took me a half hour to ride each direction. This is a very slow rate, but I decided this is all about the journey, not the speed.

A much deserved rest for Windstar

Windstar, my trusty, hardworking and worn 1995 Ford minivan, sits at rest in front of my house this morning -- Day 1 of my participation in the week-long Car-Free Challenge that's part of Alternative Transportation Week.

I turned off Windstar Friday night just before 10 p.m., and won't put the key back into the ignition until sometime on Saturday, May 16. So now she sits, quiet and peaceful at the curb.

It's a much-deserved rest for Windstar, which so far has carried me, my family, and various groups of Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts hither and yon over the years, racking up 142,000 miles. That's a lot of carbon emissions along the way -- many of which were unavoidable, many of which were not.

For a week, at least, I'm off to eliminate those avoidable emissions, get some exercise and learn about mass transportation in the Quad-Cities.

No, I am not crazy

I stopped at the HyVee near my home today before work, and the cashier asked, "Are you that guy who's going to give up his car next week?"

Yes, I replied.

"Do people think you're crazy?"

I explained that, yes, some do, including my wife. (But that's nothing new.)
Anyway, I want to point out that what I am doing is not crazy, and it is done by many people here in the Quad-Cities on a daily basis. People find ways to get around without a car for a variety of reasons -- because they have to, because they want to, because they love to ride their bike, because they want to cut down on their carbon footprint, etc. I know of many people who ride their bike to work every day. They are the ones who really deserve all the attention.

But since I am an editor with easy access to getting the word out about Alternative Transportation Week, I offered myself as an example of what the whole process of going car-less is like.

Plus, I hope that following the exploits of a novice will be more eye-opening, and hopefully entertaining, as I am confronted for the first time with daily car-free commuting.

Speaking of which, I think I'm ready for Day 1 on Saturday. The bike is all tuned up, I hauled a week's worth of work clothes to the office this morning and am ready to pull the keys out of the van's ignition tonight and not start it back up again until Saturday, May 16.

Metro to the rescue ...

Jennifer Garrity and Steve Rourke of Metro stopped by my office today and showed me some cool technological tools to use next week as I take the Car-Free Challenge during Alternative Transportation Week.

For someone like me who spends a lot of time on the computer and who isn't a savvy and seasoned bus rider, the new tools really will make things much easier and easy to understand.

So next week I'll be using Metro's My Ride txtLink to access real time bus information on my cell phone when I'm out and about. I'll also download their widget so I can get real-time bus information delivered right to my desktop. Both systems will tell me, in real-time, exactly when the next bus I need to catch will be arriving.

They've also given me access to the beta site of their new mass transit trip planner powered by Google maps. It's a high-tech way to enter the addresses of your departure and destination sites and be shown the bus you catch, where you transfer, when you need to be at the stop, and how long it will take to get from point A to point B -- all superimposed on a Google map. I'm looking forward to testing this out and writing about the experience next week.

All of this will help me as I plan how I'll get by without a car for seven days. There's a lot more to this than I anticipated, but it's starting to come together -- at least in my head.

Speaking of my head, at least one day I will strap on a video camera to my bike helmet so I can record some video of my travels. So if you see a guy on a bike with something odd sticking up from his helmet, more than likely it'll be me.
Be sure to wave.

Taking the Car-Free Challenge

What's it like to give up your car for a week? I'm about to find out.

Alternative Transportation Week is May 9-15, and I've decided to take the Car-Free Challenge put out by the Quad Cities Transportation Advocacy Group. From Saturday through the following Friday, I will give up my van -- and not ride in any other automobile whatsoever -- as I go about my daily life. I will either walk, ride my trusty Schwinn or take public transportation wherever I need to go.

The goal of ATW and the Car-Free Challenge is not just to get more people thinking about using Earth-friendly and healthier modes of transportation, but to show them, and get them to experience, just how easy it is to get around without a car in the Quad-Cities.

I do several environmentally responsible things -- I recycle, use canvas bags at the grocery store and have installed fluorescent light bulbs and low-flow showerheads in my house. But when it comes to getting around town ... well, I have been thinking (operative word: thinking) about riding my bike to work for quite some time, but have yet to follow through.
Now I have the motivation I need: a challenge.

Logistically, it will be easy. I live in Rock Island, just a 10-minute ride or so down the hill to where I can get on the bike path. From there, it's just a 3-mile ride to downtown Moline and my office in the Dispatch building. There's even a shower in the pressmen's locker room in case I work up a sweat.

Of course, I can't control the weather. A little rain, I can handle. A lot and, well, I'll just hop on the bus.

Actually, riding public transportation is a key element of ATW. So one day at least, whether it rains or not, I will hop on the Metro bus near my home and make the required transfers to get to work. I may even "bike and bus" -- putting my bike on the rack in front of the bus and taking it with me. (Anyone who does this May 11-15 will ride for free.)

If you're interested in joining me and others for ATW, stop by the QC TAG booth at the Freight House Farmers' Market in downtown Davenport from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, or visit the QC Transit or QC TAG Web sites. If you'd rather just join me virtually, read this blog.