I’m trying to apply this car-reduced approach in my travels as well, walking between destinations when I can instead of driving what could be short hops. In a few weeks, I’ll be going to the UK on business, and I have a couple of extra days. I wanted to get out of London, but instead of renting a car and dealing with the trouble of driving on the left side of the road, I decided go by bicycle.

Of course, the UK is foreign territory for me, so I don’t know the safe routes for cycling. Looking to solve that problem, I found a beautiful site called Bikely.

Bikely uses Google maps to create a system through which cyclists can share information about routes they’ve taken, including information about things to see along the way, hazards to look out for, and that sort of thing. It’s a fantastic resource that’s helped my foreign biking plans tremendously.

The thing is that Bikely is international, and there are a few Bikely routes that go through right through Trumansburg.

I wonder if Bikely could become a useful resource for local cyclists here in the Town of Ulysses, and not just people biking through. As weather gets warmer, I know I’d like to figure out the most safe and efficient ways to get down to Ithaca and back, but wider regional trips are of interest to me as well, and I’d love to see the Black Diamond Trail incorporated into the system too, as its reconstruction proceeds.

Actually, that’s $3.75.9 per gallon, to be precise. 24.1 cents per gallon of gasoline to go until we’re paying four dollars per gallon.

How soon will we make it to that point? It seems silly to predict, though gasoline prices typically go up during the summer time.

My family is not planning any long vacations this summer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see others staying closer to home as well.

It’s a national story, of course, and that means that we ought not to expect quite so many visitors as usual either… and perhaps a more local audience for the Grassroots Festival.