Hauling Solo

I can't believe it is Thursday and I'm just now posting about Saturday, but that is how it goes sometimes.  Our grocery day was lovely, as usual.  I wish all the construction was done so we could take our normal route to Urbana, but I'm sure things will be finished eventually.  The kids had a birthday party at Sholem pool to attend after our shopping so Rob went one way with the three kids/pool necessities/snacks in tow (Parker on his own bike, Dema on the Xtracycle snapdeck, and Josie in the Chariot trailer) and I took the grocery haul home alone on my Xtracycle.  I can not tell you how happy having an SUB (sport's utility bike) makes me.  I love that we can rearrange things and split off without much effort.  Josie is old enough to ride on the snapdeck now if she had to so even without the Chariot we could get things done.

As you can see above, I made use of Josie's seat.  I didn't want to smash the produce so the last bag was strapped into the Peapod.  I don't think Josie was too happy about this, but she soon cheered up as she was on the way to the pool.

My wide load parked at home ready to be unloaded.

This week's haul.  I know you never tire of looking at our food since this is a car free blog.  Teehee.  It is what fuels the bike.  I found that laying it all out before putting it away makes for a much more organized refrigerator.  Some people ask me about perishables.  We do have a few items which need to stay cool.  Unless it is a really hot day, I find things are fine just in the bags, but we do have a couple coolers just the right size for the FreeLoaders (see Xtracycle info here).  I'll show the coolers in action in another post.

I barely had all the groceries put away when I received a call from Rob.  Bathing suit emergency.  In our rush to get out the door, the bottoms to Josie's bathing suit (which in her defense she kept saying we didn't pack) were not packed, and Parker had grabbed a suit which was too big for his cut little cycling self.  Sigh, I was more than a little disappointed.  I had already planned everything I was going to get done while the house was quite and now I had to run out again.  It was only a little over four miles round trip, but I was put out with myself for not being more together.  Once I was a couple blocks from home, I was happy to be on my "fast bike" (LeMond road bike).  We homeschool so the kids (or at least a subset of the kids) are with me 95% of the time 24/7.  I realized after I dropped off the swimming essentials that I could run a couple errands in that part of town.  I picked up some much needed (and on sale) goggles and joined a gym (I have been debating about the gym for a while, I rather get my fitness from everyday life, but I figured it would be nice to get some cardio work in which is hard to do with the kids).  We tend to be more organized since going car free, but there are times when we leave things behind.  So far, it has never really been a big deal.