A day without a car

One great benefit to being here in Colorado is that Alex can meet with the many customers here - Digital Globe in Longmont, GeoEye in Thurmont, Raytheon in Aurora, and Air Force Space Command and many others in Colorado Springs. Today was a demo at 8 am in Colorado Springs. Alex left at 5:45 am to drive the 90 miles or so down to the springs in time. Although normally that would seem like a ridiculously early departure, we're still jet lagged, and in east coast time that's a reasonable 7:45 am. Great! Good business! Apparently they loved the demo. I'll believe that when I see a purchase order, but more face time is always good.

Meanwhile, Wee and I are back here in Boulder with no car. First trial was getting him to camp. Boulder is not a real metropolitan area. It's not like there are cabs just anywhere. But I did some research and found one. The caucasian, American woman driver picked us up in her hybrid electric car confirming that this is very definitely Boulder. She and Wee chatted, he sang songs for her, his infectious laugh brightened her day for sure; she told me about how she had been a taxi driver for her kids for years - now she just gets paid to do it for other people. Round trip to and from camp an even $20. Not bad.

But today was also parents day at camp. Alex was totally bummed that he was missing it. I wasn't going to let lack of engine keep me away from meeting my Wee One at the Boulder Reservoir for a little canoeing. There's a bike hanging in the basement. I could use that! It's only 5 miles each way. That should only take a half hour, right! So the cab driver had told me that I could take the trails behind Wonderland Lake and they would connect to the Foothills Trail, which would get me to some dirt roads that would take me right there. Um, ok. I looked at a map briefly and the route seemed to make some sense and maybe be a little shorter than taking the roads. How very Boulder to be on bike trails that were totally disassociated from the roads. Sounds good in theory, but I just got here and I was riding a hybrid not a mountain bike, I was not really prepared for this. Leaving the house was easy enough, just a little adjustment on the seat. Couldn't find the helmet and hoped I wouldn't need it. The trail behind the lake was nice and flat. Then there was that first killer hill. The one that we're so surprised we can actually make it up when we run. Well, not so much on a bike. I got about half way up and decided I had a long road ahead and I should save my legs. Back to flat and I'm good, happily following the path, stopping occasionally to read the posted maps and confirm that I was going the right way. All good til I get to the Foothills path which would be spectacular if I was riding a mountain bike and/or I had the guts to ascend at a 20% grade over 6-12 inch rocks. Neither was true, so there was more bike walking. Even on the downhills, I just didn't feel right taking this borrowed bike over this terrain (yeah, blame the chicken action on the bike). But eventually I was back on a more reasonable path, in the middle of freakin' nowhere, but at least not hampered by unbikable physical obstacles. I turned east, getting directions from knowledgeable looking people every mile or so. Found some nice dirt roads and trails through some grazing land. So funny to be on a bike ride and have to open and shut gates. I even saw some horses and heard a cow. Finally the reservoir was in sight. I paid my admission fee and some finale energy pushed me quickly to where Wee was lying drenched on a towel with boy named Leo. I had missed canoeing and swimming, but at least got to see him and meet his friends. He didn't have to point out the girl, Piper, who he had said looks exactly like his cousin Coco, she was the one looking exactly like Coco. Lila, the girl we saw at the Farmers Market yesterday was there too. They only stayed a few minutes before they had to head back to camp for lunch. Wee wanted me to go, but I had work to do. I rode slowly on roads back towards home while having a first one-on-one with a new employee. After hanging up I picked back up to normal speed and made it home in half the time. Who needs a car?