a girl without a car...
I haven’t been talking much about my journey into a world without a car, but this past week marked achievement of the first goal I set for myself when I sold my car back in December- stay car-free until May. Why May you might ask? Three years ago this May I had what would become the first in a string of car accidents. May marks this accident dropping off of my driving record- Whoo Hoo! I didn’t want to commit myself to to long of a goal and this seemed like a good one. So, now instead of 4 accidents on my record, I only have 3. One year from now I will only have 1 accident on my record- so I think I am going to make this my next goal.
How’s it going thus far?
I have to say- I am not riding the bus as much as I thought I would. With BF and I carpooling to work, and spending a majority of our time together, I usually create a mental list of things I need at the store and then pick them up when he and I are already there. I try not to ask him to drive me too many places, my Mom has filled in that role- since I don’t ride with her that much, she’s more than willing to drive me here or there every once in awhile to run errands
Lately I have been taking the bus or walking to do some errands- in reality Walgreens is within walking distance, as is the grocery store. Now that the weather is beautiful, the walk is quite enjoyable. I also started to take the bus to meet up with people. Last week I took the bus to meet up with a group from church, and this weekend I took it to the Mukilteo Beach to meet H and her BF. My BF meet up with us later so it was nice to be able to get there on my own so I wasn’t rushing him along.
In 5 month’s I’ve actually put $3,500 in the bank by not driving… Yay!
view from bus stop by my house
on the way to Mukilteo Beach!
My very own Fat Tire..
With the pending house purchase, and the onset of beautiful weather I’ve really started thinking about getting a bike. Our townhouse will be about a mile from the Mill Creek Town Center (where we frequently go on weekends) as opposed to the half mile that BF’s apt is now. We walk now, but are thinking we’d rather bike from the new place. Admittedly, I haven’t rode a bike since high school (ok- we rented some cruiser bikes last august in Michigan- but that’s it) so the idea of buying a bike seemed silly. After doing some research, I’ve been bitten by the bike bug.
It all started with a display at Central Market for Fat Tire Beer. They had a beautiful bike on display that looks just like the bike on the Fat Tire Label… boy is it beautiful. I checked out the manufacturer and it’s Electra Bicycyle. ohhh… does this company make some pretty bikes. I’ll post some eye candy here in a second. The question I am pondering- can I justify spending a lot of money ($500 +or- $100) on a really nice cruiser? On one hand- I am saving tons of $$ not driving and having a bike I enjoy riding will enhance the likelihood that I continue to not own a car… on the other hand that is $500-ish that could go directly into savings. 😦
I’ll do some research, including looking for used Electra’s, test riding a couple, checking out some similar, but perhaps less expensive options. More to come… Oh and if you were wondering, I already have a fat tire bike bell, and I plan on putting a basket on my ride! 🙂
Electra Hawaii 3
Electra Surf 3i
ELECTRA TOWNIE EURO 8D
Electra Women's Deluxe (3-Speed)
IfTinkerBellKnit 