Nix the Driving

Eddie's daycare used to have plenty of parking, so all of us cheap-o grad students (and professors, actually) could leave our cars parked and then bike the 1 mile to campus. That way none of us had to use parking permits. Daily permits are $6. I know quarterly permits are a lot cheaper per day but I still don't want to pay for one. Plus, I like the idea of biking, busing, or walking here in Davis since it is so small and flat.

The daycare moved downtown so it is SUPER close to campus--about a 5 minute walk from my office. Parking downtown is always limited, but for about a 5 block radius around campus the time limit is 1 hour unless you have a resident permit. Cassie's block doesn't allow permit parking at all and her house only has two end-to-end parking places in the driveway. So there's really no way for us to park for free anymore. And that means that we won't be driving to school anymore. (I do have a 'Go' parking permit that allows me one free parking permit per month since I signed a pledge to bike to campus most days. But I will save those for days when it is downpouring or I have to run a bunch of school errands and need the car for hauling stuff.)

This week we've had our first cold autumn storms roll through. Monday we biked home in a light rain. The bike trailer's canvas cover was just about saturated to the point of dripping down on Eddie by the time we got home. I had it parked under a building's outdoor patio so it was dry when I left campus, but the 15 minutes of rain from getting to his preschool and then home was just about all it could take.

Yesterday we took the bus, even though I knew it probably wouldn't rain. The stroller has to be folded while we ride and I usually just set it on the floor under my feet (it is an umbrella Britax Blink). But I learned a really valuable lesson yesterday: don't take the bus that arrives on campus a few minutes before the hour (like at 8:50am). Those buses are PACKED FULL of students trying to get to the next class. Yikes. Eddie and I got on early enough in the route to get two seats but I had to hold the stroller vertically between us. And because it was so full we couldn't get off at our downtown stop. So we waited until most other folks were getting off on campus and walked to Cassie's. Not a big deal, but with the extra stops and walking we got to her house only 5 minutes after we would have if we'd just taken the later bus. Thank goodness Eddie didn't have his morning poop while we were riding the bus. That would have SUCKED. I was seriously saying a silent prayer to myself the whole ride: "Please don't let Eddie poop...and don't let him kick off his boots either because we'll never find them when we get off."

I've looked online for rain/weather covers for our particular bike trailer and they don't seem to exist. Only expensive Burley ones are available and only fit that style. Sigh. So it looks like I'll have to make one.

Our stroller rain cover ended up in our stash of outgrown baby stuff up in Gualala so I couldn't use it this week. I think when it is raining we'll probably just take the bus with the rain cover on the stroller (assuming I can fold/unfold the stroller with the cover on...I haven't tried it yet).

I'm hopeful, but not completely confident, that we'll be able to avoid driving most days this year. Thank goodness Cassie had parking for us all those months when he was too small to ride in the bike trailer!