2 Mile Challenge

[HoosierGiant]

We do as much as we can by bike, but it's a little more difficult where we live. Last week's jaunt to the nearest branch bank was a 24-mile ride round trip. (There's nothin' but corn/bean fields in our two-mile radius.) We do have a Wal-Mart SuperCenter 10 miles away, but I shop for groceries once a month for our family of four (plus two cats and two dogs), so the car is a necessity then. Perhaps a bike trailer...

[grey]

We moved out to this little town about 2 years ago, from Tampa. I love my little town - in 10 minutes I can walk to the grocery store, in 15, the post office or the bank. It's fabulous, I couldn't have made that kind of time driving even in Tampa.

My neighbor and I often go to the store together, and we do get weird looks though. I am not sure why driving is such an American necessity, and it explains our obesity rate when my friend or I mention to a new clerk that we walked, and the reaction is anything from "I would have drove" or "there's no way I'd walk that far" and we answer "it's a 10 minute walk!" and the answer is "I still would have drove."

[SouthernBelle]

The map was fun, though it doesn't account for the routes you have to take. It's as the crow flies.

I do have an old bike with a rack and grocery panniers. Just used it last weekend for a grocery run. But I should use it more.

[enzed]

Just for fun I put in my address, and I was quite impressed.

Within 2 miles radius I have access to 3 beaches, 2 bike shops, numerous parks, a large mall, 5 banks, 5 supermarkets, 2 movie theatres and other useful stuff.
Ah, the joys of living in the city. Whilst there is an adequate bus service, I think I'll stick with cycling.

[pinkychique]

Guess what??
Just biking everywhere within 2 miles (or slightly more) from this house that I'm watching (which happens to be in the part of town that I usually need to be in anyways) I racked up 12 miles yesterday!! Yay! And all on my single speed too! It's really cool how much you move about during the day, and how much you would spend/waste if you were in a car.

I love this!!

[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