Bicycle-Friendly Lopez Island

On Sunday of the long weekend, Maurie and I took a trip up to Lopez Island in the San Juans for the day. I'll admit, we took the car and drove around. Call it scouting for future visits (and there will be future visits). We did take our bikes, but with the wind and our wanting to see more of the island and hike around some, we ended up leaving them on the roof rack.

The roof rack brings me to an important piece of advice. If you're travelling by Washington State Ferry, bring your bikes inside your car, lay them down and lash them to the roof, or use a rear-mounted bike rack. The maximum height for vehicles without additional fee is 7 feet, 6 inches. If you go over that, you pay double. That's right, a $33 fare becomes $66. And yes, bikes will put most cars over that limit. Fortunately for us, the woman at the toll booth informed us and asked if we could get the bikes in the car or do something to lower the height to under the limit.

The ferry issue aside, Lopez was wonderful. The island is definitely a bike-friendly place. First, the roads are nice rolling roads with low speed limits. I think the maximum speed limit on the island is 35, but most drove 25-30. So much to see, and no need to rush around. Drivers all give cyclists room when they pass and there are bike racks everywhere! The racks are not all your run of the mill four or five bike rack, but some ar build to hold 30+ bicycles! Lopez Kayak and Bicycle (I think I got that correct) has build several wooden racks and placed them at parks and throughout the island at places one would be inclined to stop for a bit. We also discovered a map of the island put out by the Bicycle Alliance of Lopez. The front side is a map with some popular stops, the back has the parks and stops listed with a short write-up on them. It was very helpful to us in deciding where to visit.

We'll be back to Lopez sometime soon. There were lots of bays and coves in which to paddle our kayaks, and lovely terrain for cycling. Maybe come April, I'll ride the Tour de Lopez!

Paying Attention

It was my main day for grocery shopping today. I had a good list of places to stop by, all in the downtown area of Olympia. I set out on foot from home with my market basket, a couple reusable grocery bags and a well recycled coffee bag. My first stop was to Olympia Coffee Roasters where I got a half pound of their wonderful Decaf Peru De Florida. Then I walked on to The Bread Peddler to munch a breakfast pastry and cup of coffee while making out my grocery list. I think having a special treat like this is an added bonus to doing the errands this way; I am out and about long enough that I can easily justify sitting down and enjoying a local goody. After a delicious energy booster it was time to go to Bay View, then the Olympia Seafood Company and finally the Farmers Market. I had several things to take care of while at the market and was beginning to get hungry for lunch, but wanted to have my lunch at home. The combination of being eager to get to my much needed lunch as well as having an extensive list of things to gather at the market ended up being a bad combination today. The low blood sugar made me ditsy and my eager tummy hurried me nearly half way home (over a half mile) before I realized that I was not carrying my bag of peaches and apricots! Of course what I was carrying was fairly heavy (thank goodness Twin Oaks Creamery wasn't there today or I would have been carrying milk and cheeses as well!) so it was with quite a bit of frustration that I turned myself around and headed back to retrieve the fruit I had bought. I decided after that to just head over to the bus station and catch a bus up 4th to knock a bit of extra walking off for my already famished frame.

It is always frustrating when you leave something you have purchased behind somewhere, even with a vehicle to take you back, but add to that a lot of walking, hunger, and a steadily growing sunburn (yep, I skipped the sunscreen today, it was overcast when I left, and yes I know better!) and this can make a far more frustrating situation than usual. I am making a note to myself for the future: check to make sure you have all your purchases before heading home!

Happily sitting with my feet up even if my nose would make Rudolf's look dull,

Maurie

Maurie's Reflections from July 4th

First of all, Mark is one of those people who cannot easily carry on a conversation while driving. Nor, really while being a passenger in a car. In one case he is so focused on the road and traffic and in the other he tends to just fall asleep. I'm not sure what makes the bus different, but it is. He enjoys the opportunity to take his mind off the road and focus it on some good conversation with his wife, something she doesn't mind at all! Or he can spend an uninterrupted 45 minutes reading, something I am sure he really appreciates since his day to day life seems to leave little time for extracurricular reading. With the extra reading time he may just get through that book by presidential candidate Obama BEFORE the election. I enjoy the extra time for reading as well. Where I tend to get car sick reading in a car, this is not the case on a bus, at least not on the freeway. And though I have more reading time than Mark does I also have a much longer book list. A writer must read! I got further through "Three Cups of Tea" on Friday than I had in a quite a while.

We even made some new friends. A couple of cyclists who were making their way south by bike and having quite the adventure of it. They had stopped to catch a bus for the last leg of the day after getting thoroughly lost and we were able to offer some help once we got back to Olympia. It all made a great story and had us laughing for hours afterwards. We never would have met these guys had we been in our car. That was worth the trip by bus all on its own. It's situations like this that create community not to mention give a writer some good fodder for future stories.

What we may have considered as cons to taking the bus for this trip turned out to be pros. We got home at a reasonable hour, met some fun folk, relaxed, and had a great time. I think we're learning the truth in the adage "It's not the destination, but the journey that matters."

Maurie

Our First Car-less Adventure

On July 4, we went on our first “car-less adventure” as we're referring to activities beyond our regular errands around town. The Tall Ships were in Tacoma for the 4th of July weekend, so we decided to visit them to enjoy the day getting a little piece of history touring the ships.

We made the trip entirely by public transit, leaving the Olympia Transit Center and arriving at Tacoma Dome station, where we transferred to the new Tacoma Link light-rail train to get us closer to the entrance gate for the event.

Traveling by bus definitely takes longer than driving a private car does. However, I think that the quality of the trip is more than a fair trade for the extra time en route. There was much less stress than we would have experienced by driving.

There was one potential source of commute stress. The last bus from the 512 Park & Ride to Olympia left around 8:15 PM, arriving in Olympia at 9:00 PM ( Intercity Transit was operating on Sunday schedule for the holiday). In order to make the bus, we had to leave the festival a little earlier than we would have if we'd driven. Without the need to be back to the 512 Park & Ride as early as we did, we might have taken more time to enjoy the activities along dock street. In hindsight, leaving when we did was better for us. We did not stay too long, trying to do too much that evening.

The trip up and back was definitely more enjoyable than it would have been if we'd used our car. We were able to take some time to read our books on the way up. On the way down, we were able to carry on a really good conversation about the day and our experience with this experiment so far.

All in all, I think that this was a great first car-less adventure for us.

Trip information and statistics for the day:

Transit Routes taken:

• Intercity Transit route 620 between Olympia and 512 Park & Ride


• Sound Transit route 574 from the 512 Park & Ride to Tacoma Dome Station


• Tacoma Link from Tacoma Dome Station down Pacific Avenue

Fares:

• Maurie: $2.00 each way (included transfer)


• Me: No charge to Tacoma (my employer provides a STAR pass which gives me a free ride on any Intercity Transit route); $1.50 each ride between 512 Park & Ride and the Tacoma Dome Station


• No charge for the Tacoma Link


• Total of all fares: $7.00

Cost if we'd driven: $9.02, determined from the following factors:

• 60 miles round trip from our home to the Tacoma Dome parking lot


• $4.42 per gallon for regular unleaded in Olympia on that day


• 25 mpg average mileage for our car

Overall transportation savings: $2.02

Mark