Instead of screaming into the void of Twitter, I bring you a weekly highlight reel of what it’s like going places in Greater Hartford when one is gloriously car-free. These posts are on a slight time delay because nobody needs to know exactly where I am when I am there.

TRANSPORTATION JACKPOT
This will never be repeated.

On one day, each of the three buses I needed to take arrived within one minute of me reaching the bus stop.

This doesn’t undo the July-through-early-September bus cancelation nonsense; it does prove that decent service is possible.

I was able to get to and from the wilds of West Hartford (see top photo) without having to wonder if I would be stuck on a farm forever. Later, I was able to take another trip and not exhaust myself. Even with transit, I was still putting in over 20,000 steps that day.

Then, I walked a couple blocks from the bus stop to the Riverfront where the Hartbeat Music Festival was happening and made it to the dock just as it was time to board for a free (brief) Connecticut River cruise.

Recognize and enjoy the bus and boat magic when it happens. These moments are fleeting.

CYCLING SEASON
It seems like most people get their bikes tuned up for spring.
Not I.
Autumn is when I’d prefer to be rolling around, and so a chunk of my time this week has been spent laboring over adding various accessories to my bicycle, with varying degrees of success. No photos — the project is ongoing.

Related to this, in ways that only make sense to me, I was thinking about bike valets, and how much I dislike that whole thing. Sorry for having trust issues when it comes to my vehicle, but give me a bike rack that I can personally lock up to instead of a weak promise that someone is going to be monitoring dozens of bicycles.

(This bike rim mandala collage was at the Hartbeat Music Festival and created by Fleece Train)

WHAT NEXT

The Discover Olmstead 2022 ride is coming up on September 25th — register here.