Challenge

With my current role as a stay at home mom I don't feel challenged. I love being at home, but I feel that something is missing.

We live in a very friendly bike town. We have trails within a minute from our house that will take us throughout the city. My son loves to ride his bike, but he is slow and can't ride far distances. I have been looking into different options that would allow us to ride bikes as a family farther than the mile or so that we go now. My first thought was to get one of the trail-a-bikes that hook up to the back of my bike. This would require Ethan to peddle and I know that after awhile he would hate getting on it. The next option was to get a bike trailer. Burley trailers are made here in Eugene and I have heard are the best one's to get,unfortunately they are very expensive. I have been looking on craigslist and eBay and used ones are well over $200.

Yesterday I decided to call play it again sports to see if they had any used one's in stock. They said they had one that was $100 and I had them put it on hold. I should have known it was too good to be true. This trailer was well over 10 years old and had mildew spots all of the fabric. If I was just using this to transport items it wouldn't be such a big deal, but I was not putting my son in that thing.

I did what I should have done months ago, I bought this.



I went out and bought the low end model for $250. The main difference between this one and the next step up was the handlebar to make it a stroller. We had the BOB stroller, the Cadillac of strollers and our son wouldn't sit it in past 2 so we do not need this option. I didn't want to buy a new one before because with my son being four he will probably only sit in this for another year. After spending months trying to get a used one for $200 it just didn't make sense to wait for a used one when I only had to spend a little more for a brand new one with no other kids boogers on it. Also, the market for these is so high that we should be able to recoup a good portion of the cost if we decide to sell it.

So now for the challenge. I have decided that next week I will not drive my car. Everywhere that I need to go will have to be done with the bike and trailer. I would like to do this challenge for a longer period of time, but first I want to test the waters and see if this is something that I could actually do full time. I will only ride in a car if we are going on a family outing and I can't get my husband to take his bike. I will keep track of the miles traveled each day and the errands that we run and whether the trip is feasible on a bike. I know that I won't be able to do a full grocery trip, but the garden is producing so we shouldn't need much anyways.

Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it.