Big Red

Regular readers of my blog, may have the impression that I’ve already decided on the truck I will buy come the spring, that I’ve all but picked out the color of Ford F-350 I’ll be driving home in a few months. Then getting a camper shell, moving the kayak rack, camping gear, solar panel and batteries over, adding a cellphone booster, and other equipment. It’s not that I’ve been thinking a lot about what my next rig will be like if I get another truck.

Maybe that’s true or maybe it’s not. Really I’m undecided.

For other audiences like my liberal friends and those on Facebook, I’ve been playing up my new urbanist ideas, with a healthy dose of skepticism about owning a vehicle. Trucks are so damn expensive! Truth is I’ve always enjoyed taking the bus or riding my bike to work, I would be loathe to have to drive to work every day. The commute is a big reason I refuse to buy a house, beyond all of other costs associated with owning a house such a maintenance and utilities.

Truth is a car, even a little Honda Civic, isn’t a great way to get around a city with all the parking restrictions, speed traps and cops every where. A bike is really a liberating way to get around the city. It’s rare even when you break a law in front of a cop on a bike that you get stopped. Run a stop sign in front of a car, you’ll get stopped in a car but probably not on a bike. You’re the one in danger on a bike if you a crash into another car after violating a traffic law, after all.

Or I could put Big Red back on the road in the spring.

People keep asking questions – how do you plan to travel without a car?

How do you plan to get back to wilderness? Out to country? How about the Albany Pine Bush? Pine Bush meetings in Colonie or Guilderland? Doing your wash at laundromat? Taking your trash to transfer station? Going grocery shopping? Getting to work? Honestly, so far I’ve survived, I’ve found work-around that are fine at least during winter. Never did drive more then a few miles in the winter, and truth be told I think I would be fine without camping and traveling. I am sure there are other ways to travel like buses, trains and rental cars. Certainly, I don’t just want a Honda Civic for driving around town, like some kind of mindless drone hauling plastics from the Shopping Maul to the landfill.

Honestly, right now I’m kind of having fun this winter not having a vehicle. It’s nice not having to clean the snow off my truck or warm it up. It’s nice not having to go to the car wash and get all dirty washing off the salt in vein. And nothing gets me as pumped up as riding my mountain bike when it’s cold out, though it’s lame that it’s still too dark in the evening to ride all the way home and Albany County Rail Trail is still snow covered.