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| Ryan and Josh on the Trail |
Today we took our first family bike ride down the Pinellas Trail to a restaurant for lunch. Ryan has been wanting to do that since we moved in, but we've been a little busy trying to find our basic supplies from boxes (or remembering where we put them away...). It was great to get on our bikes and go somewhere together as a family leaving the car in the driveway! I need to get one of those little odometers for my bike so that I can see how far I'm actually riding. All I know is that I've put more miles on my bike in the past week than I have in the last 6 months!
And today, I took my first trip down to Steve's produce stand on my bike to buy our groceries for the week. That was an adventure in and of itself! Yesterday, Ryan put a basket on my bike so that I could carry things (mail, groceries, stray animals, etc...). Actually, it is a plastic milk crate because Ryan decided that a "basket" wouldn't hold up to the level of work I'm going to need it to do!
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| The Pinellas Trail |
As I was riding to Steve's, I found myself wondering if this was really simpler. Is it simpler to jump in the car and go to Publix (1.2 miles from my house)? Maybe. It would take less time. But it would also mean jumping into the car and I really want to stay out of the car when possible. Is riding a bike the easiest way to simplify? Well, walking would take way too long. It would not be fun for me right now. That would be more complicated, since I'm still trying to get settled in my new home. And I'd be grouchy if I had to walk that far every time I needed a tomato. How did our ancestors travel? The lucky ones had a horse. As I thought about that, I decided that, for me right now, having a horse is way more complicated. Horse maintenance, horse-shoes, horse food, a barn, etc... really pushes it over the top. Bikes, on the other hand, don't need to be fed and need very little maintenance. Yes, simpler, I think. Going to stick with my bike.
I think being outside is better and simpler. I'm not burning any fossil fuels when I fire up my bike with Rebecca power. And I am outside in the fresh air the whole trip. (Steve's has a small part inside, but the rest of the shopping is outside, too.) I find that the mega stores are filled with lots of things that I don't really need, so not shopping there probably saves me money. What else do I need? Time outside. Fresh air. Exercise. And I need it to be meaningful. For me, jumping on a treadmill isn't my idea of fun. I'd rather have a purpose for my exercise or just skip it. I mean, our forefathers and fore...mothers didn't have treadmills or the gym and they were fit. They had to walk everywhere, they had to fetch their own water from the well or river, and just staying alive required them to move their bodies. Now, I really don't want to have to find a spring to get my water from at this point, but I think there is still a take home lesson here. As we've gotten more and more technology to "help" us with our daily living tasks, we spend less time moving our bodies. And I know that I spend far too much time indoors! So I've decided to use this opportunity to enjoy some outside time, shop as locally as possible, get some exercise, and complete a meaningful task.
I arrived at Steve's and found a basket to do my shopping. So many beautiful fruits and veggies today, but I worked hard to stick to my list. I had flashbacks of moving to Fort Lauderdale in 1994 as newlyweds when we had first gotten a convertible. We went to Walmart to buy things we needed for our new apartment, like trash cans, brooms and mops, etc. We filled our cart with everything we needed (and more), then pushed the cart out into the parking lot, forgetting that we were in a two seater Mazda Miata with no real trunk space until it was way too late. Determined not to do that to myself today, I tried to be mindful of the space. But oh, how that 1/2 gallon of fresh-squeezed tangerine juice called to me!
Four bags and $58 later, I trudged out to my bike and the "basket," not sure how this was ever going to work. Somehow, I got all the bags to fit, including one bag that only made it after I tied down to the crate with my bike chain and lock. Things would have fit much better without the tangerine juice, but it was too late now. And there was no way I was giving that up! As I rode home, I felt really proud of my accomplishment. I had gone on my bike to get my family's groceries. I had gotten exercise in a productive way that met my need for time outdoors. I had left my car in the driveway and saved gasoline. And it was really simple. Fabulous.
What kinds of things have you done to simplify your grocery shopping? Where do you shop?
