Peddling My Butt All Over Base

As military, when we are faced with an overseas move, there is always the question of whether to ship the car or not.  When we were looking at moving to the Orient, we thought about the many miles already on our car and continual repairs that it was demanding.  After talking to people who had made the move themselves, we decided to just get rid of it and to use bicycles instead.

Since our HHG (House Hold Goods) were 6 months late, that meant that my own bicycle and trailer didn't arrive until months after we arrived.  Being the stubborn sort of person that I am, my Angel and I hoofed it with the umbrella stroller during that time.

Our daily routine was set by the very fact that there was only so much that I could carry home from the commissary.  We would set out from the house by 8:15 in the morning.  Almost everyday was marked by walks to the commissary to pick up what was needed that I could carry while pushing the stroller.  Finishing our shopping, we would walk to the post office and then head home in time for lunch and naps.  That, everyone, was our morning.

Rain or shine, we walked to the central point of the base to get what was needed.  Honestly, at the time, I dreamt of a day when I could actually buy things for more than 2 days at a time.  While packages sent from family were thrilling, they were also paired with a sense of dread at the thought of carrying them AND the backpack, pushing the stroller laden by my Angel and groceries.

With the rather late arrival of our HHG, came my main mode of transportation.  With excitement, we put me bike and bike trailer together.  Almost gleeful, I remember looking at the trailer and seeing that my Angel could fit in one side of the seat, the soft cooler could fit in the floor, groceries could sit next to her, and groceries could also fit in the boot!  No more daily runs to the store!  Thus began my life of peddling my butt all over base.

While there weren't daily runs to the store anymore, my Angel and I found reasons to go somewhere almost every single day.  Still wanting to beat the heat and humidity of mid day, we would load up in the morning and head to the post office every morning.  After a while, new faces became familiar faces.  A lot of the base populace used bicycles for their main mode of transportation.  So, after a while, much as I would recognize someone's car, I began knowing if people I knew were there by whether or not their bicycles were in the rack.

While you are reading this, you may be having thoughts of how "novel" this was.  It is novel until you are pulling a trailer with about 100 pounds in it and the heat index has hit 105F. By the middle of summer, my engineer and I had invested in a Camelbak each, with hopes that using them would fight off heat exhaustion.  Late spring, summer, and early fall were marked with sweat soaked clothing and much sprawling on the living room floor after cycling all up hill in order to get home.

We absolutely rode our bikes to death during that tour.  While we made routine repairs and fixes when needed, we decided six months before leaving the Orient that the bikes would be staying there.  If we had spent a lot of money on them, we probably would have taken them with us and dropped them of at a bicycle repair shop.  However, feeling that they had served to their fullest, when we boarded the plane, we bid them goodbye.