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
that's hilarious, joe!!
ReplyDeleteyou know if you really wanted to go above and beyond you'd have asked your wife to pop into neutral and pushed it in the garage. next time.
~jbc