The bicycle. To many Americans, it is a fun hunk of recreational metal. To others around the world, it is a vital and necessary means of transport. Slowly, as the industrial nations begin to feel the consequences of the 20^th century marvel that is the automobile, more and more of us are ‘taking to the streets’ on our bikes. I sold my car before I left to travel the world and now that I am back, my two means of transport: bicycle and public transport.

Cities around the United States are finally becoming more bike friendly by making roads more people friendly and not just ‘made for cars.’ Even Google Maps recently added a ‘by bicycle’ option when plotting out directions. I use this often in Chicago.  Google’s Midwest manager of global communications and public affairs said, “Maps have (for the most part) been made for cars. We wanted to make maps for people.”

Google takes into account hills, routes that are better for biking, and neighborhoods.

When I travel, I join up with a bike tour whenever possible. In my opinion, there is no better way to get an overview (and often an ‘otherview,’ seeing off-the-beaten-path sights) of a new city.  Not only is it a more interactive way to get to know a city, if you take one the first few days of your arrival, it helps you get your bearings for the rest of your visit.

Bike tours I’ve taken during my travels over the last several years:

• Chicago — Chicago Cycling Club
• Arizona
• Montreal
• Cotopaxi, Ecuador
• Buenos Aires
• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Vietnam — Intrepid Travel
• Budapest
• Krakow
• Munsterland, Germany
• Berlin — Fat Tire
• Berlin II — Berlin on Bike
• Paris — Fat Tire

Chicago has really beefed up its bicycling resume over the last decade. It doesn’t hurt that “da Mayor” is a cycling fan and has helped push the installation of hundred of more bike racks and the creation of dozens more biking lanes all over the city streets.  And Chicago events like this weekend’s annual Bike the Drive, during which Lake Shore Drive,  the city’s major artery along the lakefront, is closed to all automobile traffic all morning and thousands take to the street to enjoy one of Chicago’s most beautiful drives, really put cycling into the spotlight.

In many parts of Asia, the bicycle is still the formidable and much more affordable vehicle upon which citizens get themselves to and from work.  In no other place to me was this more evident that Vietnam, where bikes outnumber cars about 3 to 1.  Cities in Europe have longtime embraced the bike. In Amsterdam, my Dutch friends happily hopped on their bikes and joined the masses, carrying them everywhere.   My friend, Vibeke, even straddled her ‘chariot’ to get her to a big fancy charity gala cloaked in a dress, heels, and all.   In Sweden, bikes are the norm and my friend Paula glides through the streets with aplomb no matter what the weather.

But no other country, I’ve been to has got it down to a science like France.  Lyon, France began a Vélo’v public bicycle rental program in May 2005.  Vélib’, French for free bicycle or bicycle freedom, is now a mainstay of urban travel across France with tens of thousands of self-service bikes made available throughout the country.  In other French cities like Paris, Toulouse, and several others, these city-wide bike renting systems are now in place allowing you to rent a bike for an hour or the day and return it to any number of stations scattered all around the city. So in essence you can ride a bike to work and leave it at another station and not worry about locking it up or having it stolen. All you need is a credit card and usually the first 30 minutes are free with a deposit or weekly fee. I used the bikes in Lyon and loved it. The system couldn’t be more perfect and organized. I had a free bike and before my 30 minutes were up, I would come across another bike station and could return the bike or even take out a new one for another 30 minutes to return that one somewhere else. Genius!

Even big US city mayors like Michael Bloomberg of New York City and our very own bicycle guy, Mayor Daley have visited the city of lights to check out this innovative program.  If you can, take to the streets and think of your bike as more than a once-a-month recreational pastime. Ride it out to meet friends, ride it to the supermarket (like I did today and stuffed my backpack chock full of fruits and veggies), or ride it to work. You will get their faster than waiting in rush hour traffic, you will save money on gas, and you will feel good.

Some Chicago Bike links:

• City of Chicago Bicycling Program
• Active Transportation Alliance – Chicgoland’s voice for better biking, walking, & transit
• The Chainlink – Chicago Bicyclist Resource
• Chicago Cycling Club — FREE bike tours all over Chicago
• Bike the Drive – Sign up now…takes place May 31^st!
• McDonald’s Cycle Center – One of the country’s largest bike parking facilities
• Wrigley Field Free Bike Valet – Free awesomeness!
• L.A.T.E. Ride – July 10^th/11th
• Boulevard Lakefront Tour –  August 29th
• Chicago Critical Mass – Bikes take over the streets the last Friday of every month
• Bobby’s Bike Hike – City bike tours
• Fork and the Road — Biking AND eating tours!

Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. And even within each neighborhood are some amazing streets. Whether it’s a ‘main street’ sort of vibe with shops and restaurants giving you a small town feel or side streets with some gorgeous greystones, bungalow homes, and charming buildings.   I can ride my bike around and consistently discover new and charming lanes and homes.   From time to time, I will be sharing photo essays of Chicago, one block at a time.

This week:  Dearborn Parkway in the Gold Coast.  It’s one of Chicago’s swankiest ‘hoods and is chock-a-block with gorgeous homes with lofty price tags.

The Tribune Tower
Chicago, USA

This is one of my favorite buildings in Chicago: The Tribune Tower. It is the home to the Chicago Tribune newspaper, one of the most largely circulated papers in the United States, the Tribune Company, WGN Radio (WGN=World’s Greatest Newspaper), and me. I am now working in this iconic Gothic treasure a few days a week as a freelance television producer for WGN-TV’s new show, Chicago’s Best.

In 1922, the Chicago Tribune organized an international design competition for its new headquarters, and offered a $50,000 prize for the ‘most beautiful and eye-catching building in the world’. Raymond Hood – who would later build the Rockefeller Center in New York – and John Howell won the first place due to their familiar gothic design and because the building fulfilled the needs of the newspaper best.

Interesting Trivia:

The base of the Tribune Tower is embedded with approximately 120 stones from important locations all around the world, including the Parthenon, in Greece; the pyramids, in Egypt; the Taj Mahal, in India; the Alamo, in San Antonio; the Great Wall of China; and the Roman Colosseum. A steel fragment from the World Trade Center in New York has also been added. One of the most famous ‘stones’ is a moon rock which is not incorporated into the building, but on display behind a glass window.

The 24th floor, renowned for its dark wood paneling, limestone fireplace and vaulted ceiling, used to be the office of legendary Tribune publisher Colonel Robert R. McCormick.   He had a hidden staircase installed that would allow him to escape to a secret hideaway in the event the building was stormed. And, supposedly, offices up there are linked by secret passageways. Today it is a conference room used by Tribune.   I just have to get up there. But how…

Coming this summer, to a theater near you, is the film, Eat, Pray, Love, based on the best selling book by Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s about a woman in her thirties who chucks it all to travel around the world (hmmm…not a bad idea, huh??  I am working on my book, I promise).  This book, others like it, and hopefully the movie will inspire people to do what myself and many others have done recently – jump off the beaten path, take a break, do something different—because if it’s really want you WANT to do you CAN do it. Life is way too short to even hesitate or worry. I’ve never met someone who regretted going after what they wanted, no matter how scary.

For me, it was the best thing I have ever done and my life is forever changed.

These are sayings and clichés for a reason:

• Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.
  - John Lennon
• Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
  -Helen Keller
• Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
  -Charles R. Swindoll
• And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
  -Abraham Lincoln
• Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
  – Mark Twain
• Life is measured by the risks you take.

No one is dying and thinks, as they look back on their short life on our beautiful planet, that they are happy they took no risks and stayed in their mundane 9-5 job and saved their money and never did anything they really wanted to do.  There’s nothing wrong with taking a new direction, veering off the well-worn path, taking a career break, a sabbatical of sorts, or a semi-permanent early retirement as I like to call it!

So, to segue off of the buzz of the movie and all this ‘inspiration,’ I am helping host a nationwide initiative on September 14^th called “Meet, Plan, Go!” It is headed up by my friends at a wonderful and inspiring site called Briefcase to Backpack. Simultaneous events will be taking place all over the United States to bring travelers and others together for a night of not only inspirational talks, but the real nitty gritty of how someone like me (and you) can do this. How did I quit life as I knew it? How did I PAY for it? How did I really plan for 3+ years away and living out of a bag (as I still am…just for one more week! Eeek!) Stay tuned for more details and hopefully you will join me in Chicago and all of us in cities like New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Dallas in September.

I have officially been living out of a bag for three and a half years. It’s been
43 months or
127 weeks or
889 days.

Am I amazing for doing that? No.
Am I totally happy I did it? Yes.
Has it been much longer than I planned? Yes.
Has it been that big of a deal?  No.
Can anyone do it? Yes.
Does everyone want to? No.
Am I going to keep asking and answering my own questions? Maybe.

Like anything, you get used to it.  Up until just one week ago, I was still using ‘tiny’ hotel soaps and tiny shampoo bottles and a tiny toothbrush.  Okay, I am not that good.  I do travel with a regular adult-size toothbrush.

In many ways, life was so much simpler and easier.  I didn’t have to agonize over ‘what to wear’ each day.  Owning a lot of ‘stuff’ can be more of a mental strain than we realize.  All I had to worry about was my one bag.   I wasn’t really deprived of anything (others may disagree).   Although I will admit, that it wasn’t always easy to resist purchasing new things (like the cheap boots I bought in Spain, but I had a date and just couldn’t wear my tiny Sketchers!). Nor did I love the fact that I had to keep wearing the same clothes all the time, but most days, I just didn’t care.  It was so nice to just be casual everyday and throw on a pair of comfy cargo pants or shorts and t-shirt.  After that much time, though, I allowed myself to make trades.   If one shirt had just had it, I would give it away and then replace it with a new one – usually bought at a cheap store or from a local outdoor market – very common all over the world.  I remember buying a couple of cheap tank tops at the big market on the Asian side of Istanbul or twice buying a winter coat from a street market in Spain and then a year later in Italy.  Coats were just too bulky to pack, but being able to snap one for $20-$30 was perfect.   I literally left a decent, clean pair of ‘not so gently-used’ Abercrombie and Fitch jeans at a hostel in Cairns, Australia.  I figured someone would need them and use them. And then I went to the mall there and treated myself to a brand new pair.   Just about one year later, I did the same thing and bought another pair of jeans in Israel. Wearing the same jeans over and over for one year – that’s pretty good.   Never in my life, did I really use and wear out my clothes and shoes like I did during this last 3 ½ years.  And it was a good feeling – to know I don’t need as much as I really have. And to know that I was really ‘using’ what I did have. At home, I had probably more than 10 pairs of jeans and dozens and dozens of shirts (t-shirts, tank tops, button-down, short-sleeve, long-sleeve, etc), sweaters, fleece sweatshirts, pants, shorts, skirts, dresses, workout clothes, socks, sleepwear, shoes, and more. And I actually still have less than many people I know.

And now it is over (just my bag-lady life, not this blog).   Well, at least for right now.  I have just officially signed a 12-month lease on a new apartment in Chicago – my very own space in the world.  I just moved in and was reunited with all my ‘stuff’ that had been in two storage PODS for all this time.

It was definitely a bittersweet day. There is something much more final about unpacking all of my crap, than just physically being back in the United States.  This was really setting down some roots.   “Stuff” does that to you.

I hired a couple guys to help me move my things out of the U-Haul storage pods. They were from a local moving company called Move-tastic! And they were fantastic! Not only were they on-time, friendly, and professional, the pride themselves on being FAST. In fact, they promote the fact that they literally run up and down stairs and back to the truck in between box runs. And they did. It was cute and they moved all my belongings in 50 minutes. Job well done!

So there it was. All of my stuff. My life represented by material possessions. Important stuff like my meat tenderizer and rolls of Christmas wrapping paper. You certainly don’t need this stuff when traveling. But when living at ‘home’ you just never know when the mood will strike to pound meat or wrap some gifts.

It was like unearthing a time capsule. Okay, only a 3-year-old time capsule, but still…

Things I actually missed or at least was happy to see (seriously):

• My cozy, down slippers (for 3 years, I’d used flip flops)
• My bicycle (now my main vehicle)
• A bigger selection of bras (yes, it was nice to have all my clothes, but…)
• A bigger selection of clothes in general
• A few extra bars of soap circa 2006 (real, adult-size soap!)
• One roll of paper towels (always handy to have on a moving day)
• Cable ties.  The best invention ever!
• My Dyson vacuum (if I could only hop on and harness its sucking power to propel me around the world!)

Things I did not miss

• A bigger selection of clothes in general (yes, it’s on both lists)
• My CDs (are these extinct now?)
• My airless official NFL Football (acquired at a leather factory shoot – yes it’s cowhide, not ‘pigskin’)
• Potholders
• Tupperware
• Toilet brush (haven’t had to ‘clean’ much except my body and my clothes while traveling)
• My bed’s dust ruffle
• Plastic Wrap, Aluminum foil, trash bags, cleaners, scissors, extension cords, a colander, broom, tools, medicines (all expired…I was supposed to be only gone ‘a year’), creams, and dozens of other home ‘necessities’

It all just made me realize how many things I just don’t need. Of course, I can utilize them when I live in a house or apartment…there are leftovers to keep in Tupperware, I simply need a can opener if I want to make a tuna sandwich, it’s messy to shower without a shower curtain, and, once a year, maybe I will want to toss a football around.   But when traveling…you just need so little. And when staying at someone’s house or even in a hostel…there will be paper towels and dishes and skillets to use…all there waiting for you.  I also seem to have an inordinate amount of candles and candle holders. I do like my ambiance and mood lighting.

One of the first things I did was take my couch cushions out of the plastic and get the couch ready. Then I assembled my bed. It’s always nice to have a place to sit and then lie down after a day of heavy lifting.  Then, of course, I got my internet connection up and running…gotta feel connected with the outside world or I’d sit around eating cheese all day and become a recluse.

So as I sat amidst boxes here…I realized, it felt good and bad.  I just spent $70 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond! Ugh. I have all this stuff I just unpacked and yet I needed more crap.  And so it goes…

And it’s the first time in 3 years that I have a bedside clock.  Time has changed for me.   Oftentimes, I would not know they day of the week or the time of day. And luckily I grew better at the art of doing nothing and allowing myself to not feel guilty as time passed and I hadn’t ‘accomplished’ major tasks. Just being and living…was a major accomplishment.

In a way, I still do feel freer now than I ever have.  I know I can still get up and go if I want to. I know I can still sell off stuff (thank you, Craigslist) or put it back in storage…or more likely just rent out my place furnished or maybe even do a home swap. That’d be cool.  Hmmm, the wheels are turning already.