Planning a Car Day

We're driving today.  I'd like to say that this is a rare occurrence, but it actually isn't ~ yet.  We still find it easy to hop in the car and drive to the health food store, the thrift store, the park, etc.  We've yet to make car-lite a hardcore lifestyle; it's more hobby than discipline.  Don't get me wrong; we drive far less than the average American (coming in around 20 - 25% of average), but we also know that we are capable of driving less.

So today is a drive day.  We'll start by picking up friends and driving to our play group.  This is always a touchy issue.  We want to be in community, and we can't expect that other are always going to come to us.  In fact, by setting things up so that we can always walk or bike we are complicit in the amount of driving our friends do to get together with us.  Right now a good compromise is carpooling with friends, at least until one of us has another child (and it isn't going to be me, LOL).  At that point we move past the capacity of my car.  But for now, we at least use one less car to reach our destination.

(I thought I'd edit.  After dropping home our friends we went to the new organic produce stand for strawberries.)

As we make our way home we'll pass the drugstore, and stop to pick up a prescription and some OTC medication.  The drugstore is within walking distance of our house, but since we'll be driving right past it we'll stop.  We're busy today, and the convenience of the car is a draw when we're going to be driving anyway.

If we are really with it and manage to eat our lunch a little early we can start our car trip with a visit to the thrift store.

Now, when analyzed, the only driving we are doing to day that requires the car is the trip to the play group.  Our friends live 2.5 miles away, so visiting them is doable by bicycle, as is the Mexican market, and the thrift store (gosh, we have at least 6 thrift store within biking distance).  The drugstore is an errand we could bike, but that I usually choose to walk as it is pretty close.