Editor Note: This is our fifth winning entry in our March- May My Ride Writing Contest, Austin mom on two wheels Katie Jo Dixon. We want an autobiographical story about your experience riding a bike in Austin where previously you might have done so by car. Each week, Austin on Two Wheels will select a winning entry with a $50 cash prize (and bonus for established bloggers who re-post a teaser of their story on their blog.) In June, we’ll select a grand prize winner who will receive a contract to write 5 more stories for our site. Submit your story.

Baby Chicks Onboard

by Katie Jo Dixon, Green Wheels Studios Blog

I’m one of those happy and proud Austinites that rides my bike(s) just about everywhere. If I was to put a label on my bicycle riding self, I’d steal the term “The Self Righteous Cyclist” from BikeSnob NYC’s self titled book. I lay somewhere between “believing that cycling helps make me a better person” and “that bicycling can actually save the world.”

So, when I saw the call for entries for My Ride Writing Contest, I didn’t  think I could compete. I’m lucky to live in east central Austin and I have easy access with my bicycle to the grocery store, bike-pool the kids to school, to work, even to Mexico via bicycle (insert shout-out to Bike Across Borders here)…I’d gotten almost all my bases covered via bicycle.

However, there are a few places in town I don’t or can’t get to by bicycle; mostly because it’s inhospitable to bicycle traffic i.e. lots of fast moving cars with little to know room for two wheels, and I probably wouldn’t want to ride there anyway: like 183 south, for example: SUVs, 18-wheelers, horns blaring, mufflers’ spitting out smog…yuck & no thanks!

With spring emerging in Austin (and an emerging number of bicycles on the roadways too), I wanted to celebrate spring by getting a couple baby chicks: the sound of little peeping feels like song birds are living in my kitchen. The one place I knew to get baby chicks was via the aforementioned inhospitable-to-bicycles roadways, and I’d have to use a car to get there instead of bicycle.

But then on Sunday, I met a local chicken raising group whom “believes that the way to save the world is by raising chickens.” And they directed to me to a central location to get chicks. I was enthralled: I could save the world two times over by riding a bicycle and transporting chicks at the same time!

I loaded up my four year old, seven year old, and a feather-lined cage to carry the chicks back home in onto the cargo bike. I reminded myself that the baby chicks were just as safe in a cargo bicycle as in a car, possibly even safer – we’d be moving much slower on the bicycle, taking routes with bike lanes and less automobile traffic, and the sunlight hitting the black cargo bags could help keep the little chicks warm in route. I deflected the pleas from my children that hand holding the chicks while sitting on top of the cargo bike would keep them warmer than in the cargo bags. I told the children that chicks could ride in bikes, but not on them. The chicks legs were too short to reach the foot rests. It made rational and logical sense to the kids, and they obliged.

After each child chose one chick each at the feed store, I realized the obvious that I had overlooked, we’d need to feed the chicks special baby chicken food. It sold only in 20 lbs bags. I did the math: 45 lbs (child #one) + 55 lbs (child #two) + 20 lbs of baby chicken food = 120 lbs total. Still within the 200 lbs maximum range for the cargo bike, and I rationalized: with the extra 20 lbs we’ll go extra slow on the way home, and the chicks will be extra safe when we’re only moving at a speed of 5 miles per hour.

I wanted a sign that read “Baby Chicks Onboard…Please make sure to adhere to the 3 feet when passing rule.” We didn’t have a sign of declaration, and I didn’t want to add any extra weight to our load. Once the children, chicks, and feed were properly balanced we set off slowly bicycling in the sun in the late afternoon. Hearing chicks peeping while I peddled and my children waving and singing to other pedestrians, I realized that the place between “believing that cycling helps make me a better person” and “that chicken raising can actually save the world” was simply that both improve my quality of life.