2 Mile Challenge

[OakLeaf]

Good for you, Lisa. With two homes (ya, I know, talk to my DH about it) - one in town and one in the country - I'm really acutely aware of this stuff. At our winter home we drive maybe once a week. Other than that, we ride the bikes. Groceries, gym, department store, liquor store, church, and half a dozen really good restaurants are within two miles. Brave the traffic and broken glass on the causeway (and get the sole hill ride you're going to get in Florida), and within six miles you get movies, hardware, library, K-Mart and post office.

"Up north" it's a whole 'nother story. It's 15 miles to the nearest anything, and the roads into town are really not safe for bicycling. Narrow, high-speed, heavy traffic, and no shoulders. So I do the best I can - consolidate trips for sure, but it's a rare day here when I don't start the car. At least I *try* to take the trash out in the wheelbarrow - half a mile to the street, up and down steep rises, is a long way to push it, so if I remember and there's room in the car the day before trash day, it sits on the curb all day.

I really, really love living here. It's so beautiful it takes my breath away almost every time I come home. Giving it up for environmental reasons is a step I know I should make, but probably won't any time soon. At least I can have a vegetable garden here, which does save *some* petroleum...

- Oak, whose car will be packed with tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, butternut squash, kabocha squash, and dried peppers and herbs when we make the trip south - no apples this year because of a late freeze, no beans or carrots because the dang deer kept eating the plants

[Geonz]

Cargo is no excuse