November 13, 2010. Robyn and I biked with our friend Marita across Seattle to get our Undriver Licenses™ at a Liveable Streets event held at the University of Washington, with lots of groups tabling there, low-cost helmets, and more. We made a beeline for the Undriver Licensing™ station.

We were greeted by Undriving™ founder Julia Field and her team of volunteers. Since we’ll be taping a conversation with Julia, I wanted Robyn to videotape me and others getting our Undriver Licenses™ for that show.

Chelsea took the lead, explaining Undriving’s goal — to reduce car use, mine or others. I filled out a short pledge form for action’s I’d take in the next month. She urged me to do something that was doable but a stretch. Since I’ve already been doing many errands by bike instead of car, I had to dig a bit deeper.

I pledged to get all our groceries by bike over the next month. Chelsea brought me to the next station to prepare for getting my photo taken. Paula said that, if I wanted, I could choose props to wear in my photo. They had a red boa, a crown, a soft red velvet hat, a toy bicycle and more.

Okay, I gotta admit, the ham in me took over. I perched the crown on top of my bike helmet, wrapped the red boa around my neck, and held up the toy bike, grinning proudly at becoming an Undriver™. Sander snapped the picture, tweaked a bit on the computer and printed the license. Noting that it was issued from “Planet Earth” no less, I checked off which “Undorsements” I could sign up to (like walking or taking fewer car trips) and signed it. Sandra laminated my card, presenting it along with some free Metro (bus) passes, which we’ll use while here in Seattle.

Being an Undriver™ — what a brilliant idea for having fun while raising awareness and doing something that matters for the planet.

For a $20 donation you can send in your photo and get your Undriver License™. Now, isn’t that a cool idea for you and as a gift for others? Then you too can whip it out when they ask for your ID and start a conversation about driving less. Learn more at Undriving.org.

Watch “Undriving™ - Changing the Way We Think” (episode 205).

October 4, 2010. We’re taking a two month hiatus in Seattle while Robyn undergoes treatment for her long-term lyme with a naturopathic physician in Seattle. This naturopathic doctor herself has lyme and specializes in this type of disease. As you can imagine, after twenty years of lyme, the prospect of Robyn’s regaining lost energy, cognitive function, and quality of life is a thrilling one.

The universe has given a lot of support for this choice. We will live in our “Little House” mobile studio in the yard beside our friend Marita’s house in northwest Seattle. Robyn knows Seattle well from her 15 years here at the UW and has gotten us bikes for local travel and exercise (photo by Robyn and Janaia with their one Brompton folding bike). We hope to take in a few “big city” cultural events while in the area.

We’re excited! This past six weeks has been a real adventure. And the mobile studio has worked out wonderfully. Living in this mobile “Little House” certainly is an experience in simpler living - there isn’t room to acquire much stuff! We’ve loved traveling and meeting wonderful people, and have taped some very rich programs. We don’t want to stop!

So we’re shifting our perspective: continuing to travel and tape programs is the New Life. Meanwhile, we’re reflecting on how to lessen our workload maintaining the role the homestead at Lone Bobcat Woods plays in our lives. (Lease the house to someone who loves wild lands and has the skills for a solar-powered place?)

We’ve already lined up several programs to tape in the area. Robyn has produced three of the programs we taped on this tour. The show goes on.

The bumper sticker shows a cargo bike and reads “One Less Truck.” Given the cargo bikes we rode at Joel and Barb Grover’s Splendid Cycles in Portland, it also could read “One Less Car.” Or “One more parent getting fit while carting the kids around.”

We had a long enjoyable day taping almost a mini-documentary at the Grover’s recently-opened store.

Concerned a few years ago about peak oil and other societal challenges, and having over twenty years in the bicycle industry, Joel and Barb took the plunge to meet a big need: offer human-powered transport that also hauls stuff. In a bike-friendly city like Portland, such a vehicle can meet nearly all of one’s local transport needs for far less cost than a motorized vehicle.

They regaled us with their story of transporting a six-foot-high palm plant on a cargo bike — too tall for their automobile,  and surely a head-turner for passers-by!

We taped a tour of their custom-outfitted cargo bikes included “gateway” bikes with additional capacity on front or back for child seats or boxes (Joel, left); a bike elongated between front wheel and rider for storage (Barb, center); and a stable tricycle with huge storage box with a seat for a small passenger between the front wheels (Robyn, right).

Off camera is the electric-assist bike, whose lithium ion batteries give it a range of about 60 miles with a recharge cost of about 5 cents. I was glad to learn that all their bikes can be outfitted with electric-assist, a boon for more challenging locales and people who might otherwise not ride.

We also taped a segment with local frame producers Joseph Ahearne and Nick Sande about Ahearne’s “cycle truck” (Joel, photo left).

Naturally we just had to test ride these bikes! I found them lighter and much easier to learn than it might appear. Not surprisingly, this adventure has re-ignited Robyn’s love of bike riding from decades past. Now she’s floating the notion of getting a couple of foldable bikes for on the road: they’d expand our (local) horizons and give us welcome exercise.

Thanks Barb and Joel, for lighting this flame, giving us a grand tour, and the most fun we’ve had in a long while.

I had a lot of fun riding several different bikes today.I went nowhere.But they did a lot of work!Matthew Corson-Finnerty gave us a grand tour and demonstration of his human-powered machines. A bicycle-powered water pump. An electricity generator. A food blender. A grain mill. A straw-chopper (for earthen cob building material).Matthew told us that viewing “The End of Suburbia” in his senior year at university changed his life. Eventually moving through debilitating fear, he pursued what brought him joy. Life led him to Maya Pedal in Guatemala, where he spent several months learning from bicycle wizards who used bike parts to make simple machinery to make peoples’ lives easier. Like human-powered mills to shuck and grind corn. Or pump water.Now back in the states, he has spent the last year as a Researcher in Residence at Aprovecho Center, designing and producing the machines I got to try out today. My hands-down favorite is the grain mill. It uses a flywheel from a 70’s era exercise bike. It’s pedaled as a recumbent (where you’re sitting comfortably in a chair, legs stretched in front of you to pedal). I found it actually quite enjoyable and not tiring to pedal. Matthew says it grinds grain faster than their electric grain mill.We’ve thought of using pedal power to charge our off-grid electrical batteries in winter while getting some good exercise on those rainy days. Now we know who can create the pedal-powered machinery when he comes our way. Okay, fans, we’re on the lookout for one of those 70’s era exercise bikes for parts!Watch Human-Powered Machines - Can Pedals Power the World (episode 221).