By choice, Rick and I have no automobile. We bike, walk, or take the bus (or beg and borrow) and like it, most of the time. But the other day, I was starting to wonder if I have a masochistic streak in me. It was time to make a wine run and what any sensible person who is in possession of an annual bus pass (that's me minus the sensible part) would have done would of course be to take the bus to the liquor store (Vineyard Haven is a dry town) to stock up for the month. But no, I looked outside, saw the sun shining (it was still only in the 40's though), and decided to make the wine run via bicycle. After all, I have a milk crate attached to my rear rack which will perfectly accommodate two boxes of wine plus a few miscellaneous bottles. In retrospect, the liquor store in Oak Bluffs would have been a better choice (closer), but I had two other errands to do on the way to Edgartown, so E-town it was. Edgartown is about 7 miles away and our winter rental adds about another 1 mile , so, let's see, that makes for a round trip total of 16 miles, which ordinarily I wouldn't think would be such a big deal. However, I only recently began bicycling after a 10 year hiatus (too dangerous on St. John, VI) and this trip came as a big surprise to my legs. Not to mention (OK, I will), the trip home was into a bracing NW wind and my rear was laden down with about 20 lbs of wine (I'm guessing wine is comparable to water in weight). To make matters worse, as I was placing these items in my crate, I noticed that one of four screws holding on that rear rack was missing, making the whole assembly very suspect and wobbly. Had I known this before making my purchases, I would have forgone the assorted bottles because the last thing a teacher-wanna-be needs is to have her crate crash down and wine bottles splatter all over the sidewalk as children are returning home from school. I made it to Vineyard Haven with no mishaps and just in time to catch the bus for the last mile home. It was only one more mile to go, but I didn't have it in me. Fortunately, the buses on the Vineyard are all equipped to carry bicycles (and they allow dogs and big bags of laundry - very progressive).
All of this being said, I will now reveal that I feel sort of rebellious by not having a car. I've been thinking that this is silly to feel this way, but it turns out that there are others out there who feel the same way (it may still be silly). In fact, someone even wrote an entire dissertation on this subject. It's called “PUT THE FUN BETWEEN YOUR LEGS!”: THE POLITICS AND COUNTERCULTURE OF THE BICYCLE.
(For those of you new to the web, or blogging, you can click on that title and it'll take you to the website where the dissertation is found).