Day Three of No Car Experiment

It has officially been three days now since I've been inside a car. I rode my bike to work yesterday and the day before, and today, with no meetings on the schedule, I didn't have to leave the house if I didn't want to. I did, though, first on a 25 mile bike ride then for a walk that took me downtown to meet a friend for lunch. The walk turned out to be close to 2 miles roundtrip. Another beautiful day, too. Cool, breezy, sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. Absolutely couldn't have asked for a better day.

This whole no-car thing has really gotten me noticing what's going on around me. How could it not? I have to be super attentive to vehicles all the time in order not to get shmushed like a bug. I've seen some super bad driving behavior, but I've also seen some super nice driving behavior with the driver knowing I'm there and being very safe. One of the nicest things about all of this, though, is what I see and smell when I ride. I see lots of nature--butterflies, fields of sunflowers, deer, and milkweed pods opening. I see people on picnic tables, doing crunches and leg lifts. I smell laundry drying sheets wafting out from someone's house, and Chinese when I pass the Chinese restaurant not far from home. I've even smelled decaying fish when the spillway was closed and all the fish that'd gone over were left to die. Best of all, though, is I get to see things that make kind of cool abstract photo art.

So far, only three days in, I'm enjoying the no-car experiment. When it rains and snows I may not be liking it so much, but I'll deal with it. Somehow. There's always a way.

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