So this past week, we did not do so great with the no car experiment. It seemed to be rainy and cold (at least in the mornings) all week. Really, I guess we can chalk it up to laziness. I did have a dentist appointment on Tuesday morning and lunch with a friend on Friday - both necessitated the use of a car. We have been trying to be better at combining trips out. For example last night we did a massive return to Lowe's and then we did our grocery shopping afterwards. This takes more planning and we were out until 11, but it does save on our gas usage.

9 Day "No Car" Experiment

Here is a breakdown of how we managed with our "No Car" Experiment.

Thursday, Sept 25:
Morning: Daniel rode motorcycle to work. Cheree drove car 1.5 miles to bus stop, rode bus downtown, walked 0.75 miles to work.
Afternoon: Daniel rode motorcycle home. Co-worker drove Cheree to bus stop, rode bus back to car. Drove 1.5 miles home.
Miles driven in car: 3

Friday, Sept 26:
Morning: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle to work - cold and raining lightly.
Afternoon: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle home - raining hard, did not see any gas stations open on ride home.
Miles driven in car: 0

Saturday, Sept 27:
Daniel rode motorcycle looking for gas around town - no luck (car is on fumes at this point). Daniel and Cheree rode bicycles to Cotswald for lunch at Chipotle and to pick up milk for breakfast.
Miles driven in car: 0
Miles biked (C&D): 7

Sunday, Sept 28:
Daniel rode motorcycle looking for gas around town - found some in SouthPark. Called Cheree to drive to get in gas line. We had to wait 20 minutes to fill up (this was early in morning). Rode motorcycle to church. Biked to Walmart to buy groceries for week. Rode motorcycle to life group.
Miles driven in car: 10
Miles biked (C&D): 8

Monday, Sept 29:
Morning: Daniel rode motorcycle to work. Cheree biked 1.5 miles to bus stop. Could not get on the Express Bus due to it having too many bikes on it. Waited for the regular bus. Dropped off at transit station downtown, bike 1.5 miles to work (late for meeting - oops).
Afternoon: Daniel rode motorcycle home. Cheree biked 0.75 miles to bus stop. Rode bus most of the way home. Biked 1.5 miles from bus stop to home. Cheree drove to Rock Hill, SC to teach class at York Tech.
Miles driven in car: 40
Miles biked (C): 5.25

Tuesday, Sept 30:
Morning: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle to work (wanted to get home at a reasonable time because my brother was coming to visit).
Afternoon: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle home.
Miles driven in car: 0

Wednesday, Oct 1:
Morning: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle to work.
Afternoon: Daniel and Cheree rode motorcycle home. Cheree drove to Rock Hill, SC to teach class at York Tech.
Miles driven in car: 40

Thursday, Oct 2:
Morning: Daniel rode motorcycle to work. Cheree drove car - had to drive car because I needed to go somewhere during lunch.
Afternoon: Daniel went and worked at service project from 4-9, then rode motorcycle home. Cheree drove home. After dinner, Cheree drove to pick up movie and get coffee with visiting guests.
Miles driven in car: 17

Friday, Oct 3:
Morning: Daniel and Cheree carpooled to work - had to drive car because we were meeting friends for dinner.
Afternoon: Daniel went home at noon to take a nap and to pick up our trailer. He came to pick me up at 5:15. We drove to Concord Mills to meet friends and to do some shopping. Had to have car with trailer to pick up our tile saw that we had lent to friends.
Miles driven in car: 50

Nine Day Recap
Total Miles By Car: 160
80 of those miles were for teaching and not to be held against us. So if we do not count those, we only drove the car 80 miles unnecessarily in the past 9 days. This means we only used about 3.5 gallons of gas unnecessarily.

I did not include miles ridden on motorcycle. This comes to a total of around 180 miles and 3 gallons of gas used.

Total Miles Biked: 20.25 for Cheree and 15 for Daniel.

Biking For Groceries

Well the good news is that we finally were able to fill up the car with gas this morning. Daniel got up at 6 a.m. and rode his motorcycle around town until he found a gas station with gas. He then got in line and called me to come join the frenzy so that we could have full tanks in both of our vehicles (the car has been empty since last Wednesday). I had to wait 20 minutes to fill up, it would have been a longer wait but Daniel called to let me know that I could bypass the line I was in to get in a shorter line.

Being the wonderful guy that Daniel is, he also took the time to push the car of a woman, whose battery was dead, out of the craziness. After both Daniel and I had filled up our tanks, we were able to jump start this woman's car for her.

Now on to grocery shopping with a bicycle. After having to survive from Wednesday night to Sunday morning sans a car, Daniel and I decided to try an experiment to see how well we can function not driving a car at all.

Even though we have gasoline now, we want to test our limits as to how much of our lives can be lived without a car. This experiment will not include me driving to Rock Hill, SC for class - unless I get comfortable on the motorcycle again by myself. This means that for now, the two nights a week I teach will be the only time we will use the car.

For our first major test, we realized that we needed a week's worth of groceries. So Daniel and I got our bike's out. Daniel put his trunk with panniers on his bike rack while I added a pannier to mine as well as carried my 40 liter, internal frame pack on my back.

We got to WalMart and Daniel sat outside with our bikes and packs so that we would not have to waste time locking everything up while I went inside and did our weekly shopping. I also purchased a bottle of water and a candy bar for us to split before we rode home. $70 worth of groceries later, I was back outside helping Daniel transfer all of our groceries to our various packs. Then we were on our way again.

We definitely received some strange looks, but we are not wasting gas and we are getting our exercise at the same time. I did have one guy hit on me - probably b/c of the spandex biking capris I was wearing. The entire ride, round trip, was 8 miles and took a total of 2 hours. With a car, grocery shopping on a Sunday can take me 1.5-2 hours.

Me carrying my internal frame pack and pannier full of groceries.

All of the packs, full of groceries, once we got back home.

Gas Situation

One of our current alternative forms of transportation while we are out of gas. 

We biked to Cotswald for lunch today.

This past Wednesday the reality of the Charlotte gas shortage hit home. I usually fill up in Rock Hill, SC when I teach because gas is 20 cents cheaper per gallon than in Charlotte. This past week I expected things to be fairly normal and drove to SC for class with my tank close to empty.

Once I was in Rock Hill, I quickly realized that there were very few gas stations that had gas and the ones that did have gas were back up considerably. Not wanting to be late to give a test to my students, I went on to the school. I asked my students for suggestions on where to get gas in the area and then adjusted my route home to see if I could find anywhere to fill up.

Unfortunately every station I passed was a repeat scenario of earlier in the day. Not wanting to get stranded at night in a different city, I went home, praying that E would last me to the house.

Thursday morning Daniel rode his motorcycle to work and I rode the bus downtown. I would have ridden with him, but one the pegs to rest my foot on was busted so I resorted to the bus. The bus dropped me off at Starbucks in Gateway Village, so I treated myself to a Vanilla Latte and then walked the rest of the way to work.

Thursday night Daniel fixed the peg on his motorcycle and then we rode in together - it was misting, but thankfully not a full blown rain. After work Friday was a harder rain, but thankfully not too cold. We rode past several gas stations to see what our options were and continued to see no gas or long lines.

This morning, Daniel ran out on his motorcycle to see if he could find gas, but to no avail. For lunch, tired of being cooped up in the house, we opted to ride our bicycles 7 miles (round trip) to Cotswald for some Chipotle. We also picked up some milk for breakfast while we were out.

For now, we are getting by. They keep saying there will be more relief and we keep wondering when. I am guessing part of the problem is everyone who feels the need to top off their partially full tanks.

We can continue to get by using our bicycles. Trying to get groceries may prove to be more of a challenge, but something we can do if we need to. Hopefully this gas crisis will sort itself out soon. Until then, we will be riding our motorcycle, bicycles or the bus.