Life’s been a bit busy recently with leaving a job, traveling to Alaska for a friend’s wedding, moving from Boise to Seattle, buying a house, looking for a job, all while watching Avery and, of course, not driving. Well, things are starting to settle back into order now and my year of going car-free has come to an end.

In August of last year, I traded in my car and promised to not drive for a year in exchange for a nice bike. The ceremonial trade-off was at Tour de Fat, an amazing biking and beer event. My last driving trip before surrendering Lizzy, my car, was to the start of a Sunday morning trail run. I took my dog and two other runners and made my way to Dry Creek trail head, a few miles up Bogus Basin road. Since then, a lot has changed but many similarities and symmetries remain.

When the year ended, I felt no need to drive as soon as the clock ran out. Instead, I continued with my schedule until not driving would prevent me from doing something I wanted to do. It happened a few days later when it was time for kayak polo. By the time I passed off Avery, I didn’t have enough time to bike to Kirkland before the game, so I jumped in the car. It felt a bit weird to be behind the wheel again, but not as weird as I expected. Made it to the game on time and had loads of fun on the water.

Reflecting on just the bookend drives of my car-less year, I love that both trips were to go places to spend time outside with others doing physical activities. That seemed to reflect in many of the trips I took while biking over the last year. The bike gave me plenty of opportunities to get outside with others and took me to many more places. I can’t wait to see where my bike gets me over the next year.