Bay Wheels bike rental

Jonathan and I recently took a multi-modal San Francisco trip. On Saturday, Sept. 28, we rode down into San Francisco aboard Golden Gate Transit’s Route 101.

With bike helmets strapped to our backpacks and having packed our reflective vests, we were all set to try Bay Wheels Bikes rental via the Lyft app. This photo was taken at the Steuart Street at Market Street station near the San Francisco Ferry Building.

Handling the bikes felt unfamiliar at first. The step-through frames had cargo baskets in front so they were weighted and balanced differently from what we were normally used to: which is diamond-frame with rear trunk bag with or without rear panniers. But as we rode, we became more used to handling the rental bikes.

We discovered that bike rental works best when used for short, maybe 15-minute, rides, and we grew accustomed to using a station-map to check for bikes or spaces to dock.

We were able to slip easily along the San Francisco waterfront past a glut of pedestrians at the area’s most “touristy” attractions. We also felt safe biking in the San Francisco road-way due to “critical mass;” there were a lot of other cyclists in the bike lane.

The experience was not without its stressors: the final dock where we stashed our bikes failed to register ride’s-end, so our Lyft apps continued to show an escalation of time and ticking meter of supposed bike-use. It took 48 hours, but eventually the matter was resolved to our satisfaction.

Altogether, our SF bike-rental experience was interesting, fun, and educational. We will consider Bay Wheels Bikes rental for another San Francisco trip.

Utility wagon for visit to the nursery

Our cloth-over-steel-frame wagon was the perfect choice for a walk to the nursery to buy pots for an olive tree and succulents. This wagon has turned out to be one of our best investments, great for hauling larger loads than are feasible for on-foot or bicycle.

Pokémon GO ‘Adventure Sync’

What could be in this egg, which we incubated while walking via mobile-game Pokémon GO? Actually, we hatched MANY eggs, spending yesterday almost entirely on-foot.

We began our day with a walk from our apartment to Santa Rosa’s transit mall. We had Route 4 drop us at Maria Carrillo High School on Montecito Boulevard. That’s in easternmost Santa Rosa, right off Calistoga Road.

We walked 3 miles for a Walk MS fundraiser, then headed down Brush Creek Trail and out along Mission Boulevard.

Our route then took us down Montgomery Drive for a rest at Montgomery Village, before continuing on our walk back to Santa Rosa downtown.

While in the downtown, we stopped for “Free Comic Book Day” at Outer Planes Comics and Games, before walking the remaining few blocks back to our apartment.

Altogether, we walked about 11 miles (according to a step-counting app). We used “Adventure Sync” to help incubate the eggs when not running Pokémon Go.

‘Walk MS’ in Santa Rosa, California

Walking has ALWAYS been Team Darkhill’s thing, and wherever we lived, we’ve looked for ways to harness that power for good.

In Lake County, California, we walked each year in the “Vineyard Run for Literacy,” which benefited Adult Literacy at the Lake County Library. In Ashland, Oregon, we supported Ashland schools via the “Monster Dash.”

As of yesterday, we each walked 3 miles in the Santa Rosa Walk MS event. Our route began and ended at Maria Carrillo High School; it took us past Rincon Valley Library, through Rincon Valley Community Park and along neighborhood streets before heading back along Montecito Boulevard.

Walking has been such a core part of our lives, you might even call it our “super-power.” It feels good to channel something that we enjoy so much, into making the world a better place. Jonathan and I will be looking for additional fundraiser-walks, as well as continuing to walk nearly everywhere during our day-to-day travels.

Feel like contributing toward Walk MS? You can share a donation at http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/cynthiaparkhill

SRJC: Free bus-rides with valid student I.D.

Image credit: SRJC Student Affairs Office

This spring I am enrolled in a class at Santa Rosa Junior College. And one of the perks of being an SRJC student is that I can ride the bus for free.

When I board the bus, I show the driver my student photo-I.D. with a validation sticker for the current semester. SRJC has partnerships with Sonoma County Transit, Santa Rosa CityBus and with Petaluma Transit to allow SRJC students to ride free. For more information: Transportation on the SRJC website.