Hoofing it.

One of the things Aaron and I were most excited about when moving to Ames was that we wouldn't have to drive everywhere. When we lived in Slater, we had to go to Ames or Ankeny to get/do pretty much everything, so walking or riding our bikes wasn't really an option. We had 2 motivations for wanting to drive everywhere - exercising more and polluting less.

I found this set of facts from http://www.idealbite.com/ pertaining to walking and thought it was interesting.

The Benefits

• Getting fit as a horse. Even at a slow pace, you'll burn around 100 calories per mile, and consistent exercise from walking reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
• Saving change for the races. Walking 1 mile each day instead of driving will save you about 15 cents on gas each day. That's almost $55 a year.
• Not horsing around with our air. Walking instead of driving 10 1-mile trips each week averts 500 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.
• Connecting with neigh-bors. It's easier to interact with other people when you're not stuck behind the wheel.

So how's the walking/bike riding going?? Well, we're making small strides. We walk to my mom's a lot - all .2 miles each way. We've also ridden our bikes to the farmer's market, the library and church a couple times. Only recently did I get a helmet, we both got flashing lights for the bikes and we got a basket to go on the front of one of the bikes. Since then, we've been able to safely take advantage of the bikes a little more.

I don't think we'll ever ride our bikes to work - I don't like what the helmet does to my hair - and it seems quite unlikely that we'll ride our bikes during the winter, but we're doing what we can while we can.