The View From My Bike

Over the past year or so we have been wrestling as a family between trying to be more 'Green' and trying to simplify life.  Early on in that year we started having van troubles and the maintenance bills were growing, stressing us out and leaving us to wonder, why are we keeping it?  So we got rid of it and bought bikes.  How we got rid of the van is another cool story but I will save that one for now.
For now, we got rid of our van and have been riding our bikes everywhere over the Summer.  I'm not going to lie, it is challenging at first, well, actually, it's just plain challenging.  But is awesome!
We've really grown together as a family and have learned to look out for one another.  Living in a city with busy roads and lots of cars moving very quickly, you really have to work together to keep each other safe.
Right now I am in the process of buying this green Yuba cargo bike which allows me to put lots of stuff on it and next week we will be leaving for our 10 day bicycle music tour using only our bikes and traveling close to 300 kms with our kids pedaling along.
In our journey of simplifying, we wanted to do a family vacation this year that incorporated, community, exercise, camping and music and I think our 10 day bike tour to St. Marys and back is going to achieve all of those goals.  For 10 days we will be riding as a family and with whomever else joins us along the way.  Each night we will set up camp and I will play music.  We have some stops already booked along the way but also wanted to leave it open incase opportunity to develop new community arises in towns like Tavestock and Ayr.  It should be hard work, but also tons of fun.
People that hear about our decision to go car free always ask us what we plan to do in the winter and the truth is we plan to dress warm and keep riding.  Thankfully we have good friends who use their bikes year round to learn from.  The VanderKwaaks and Carrolls families.  But really, we don't know what it will be like until it gets here.
We aren't committing to this for the rest of our lives, but so far we love it!  It's fun to try and be strategic with what kind of "stuff" we take with us.  If we can't fit it, we don't take it.
From the seat on my bike I see so much more.  I see my kids pushing themselves to try things that they may not have tried before.  I see it bringing our family closer together, I see it causing us to try and eat better, and exercise more.  I even see that as we reach our destinations, it gets easier and easier so that we can push ourselves further next time.  The view from my bike is pretty sweet indeed.