I had fun today.

I took the bus to work. Or rather, I took the bus as far as I could to my job at Epiphany Church and then walked the rest of the way. 35 minutes of walking, which was actually a lot more pleasant than I thought it would be and it was exactly what the doctor has ordered for me, several times.

How does this come to pass? Well, as they say, therein lies a tale.

Last week my venerable pickup truck was stolen. Right out of our driveway in the middle of the night. Our dogs, who carry on like crack dealers are invading the house if a squirrel runs across the roof, slept right through it. Oh well, such is life.

It was a terrible feeling to look at the empty driveway and wonder where my truck had gone and what had happened to it and what someone might be doing with it. Plus, I was stranded. I couldn't get to work. I couldn't get anywhere else either. I was helpless. 52 years old and stranded. I didn't go to work that day. I called in and said, "My truck was stollen", and that was as good an excuse as a death in the family. No one even questioned the thought of staying home on such a terrible day. This was going to be such a huge hassle I just hated to contemplate how to run my life without the ability to immediately hop into the truck and go anywhere I wanted. I had a hard time sleeping that night.

Friends stepped forward, a good friend came and picked me up and took me to the weekend masses where I provide the music, Saturday and Sunday, and then drove me home afterwards.

Being a true American, I immediately made plans to recitify my vehicle-less status. In fact, I wasn't going to let this happen again. I would replace my truck with not one, BUT TWO gasoline powered vehicles. One small and virtuous, thrifty in gas mileage, for most of my driving. The other one an old beater truck, reliable, for the four or five times a month I need to hook up to a trailer and haul five thousand pounds of food somewhere. Very sensible and logical. I ignored the little voice "TWO insurance premiums, TWO annual registrations, TWO taxes to pay, TWO gas tanks to fill, TWO loan payments to make."

So I began the search, and it was the search of a True Believer in Motorized Transportation. I delved through http://www.fueleconomy.gov , looked at online classified ads, trolled through E-Bay. Borrowed a mini-van so I could drive 30 miles to look at a Geo Metro. Called everyone I knew and told them I was looking for two reliable vehicles. Sent emails to discussion groups. Put a loan ap in at the credit union which was approved later that same day. I was set! Who cares about the monthly loan payments, money isn't important, TRANSPORTATION is what counts. I need transportation, I have things to do, people to see, places to go. I don't have time to walk, or take the bus. Why did those people have to steal my vehicle and put me into such distress?

Monday and Tuesday are my regular days off, so I found myself at the house. I got to thinking (with me, generally a dangerous thing) and realized that the last several days had actually been fairly peaceful and extremely productive. Plus, every day I had walked somewhere, usually several times, through the neighborhood. I thought about how different everything seemed while walking as opposed to driving. I began to think, "How can I finagle my life so that I don't have to buy any vehicle?"

The first 20 times I had that thought on Monday I dismissed it out of hand. Foolish thought, trouble me no more. Get thee behind me that evil idea of "being the change you want to see". But then, finally, it was too good of a thought to be so easily dismissed. So I really got to thinking about it.

I went to http://www.gometro.org/ , website of the bus system, and found that one route got sort of close to where I worked. Maybe a half hour walk. I thought about it and said to myself, "Self, if you can't walk for 30 minutes you are in pretty sad shape." So it actually wasn't impossible for me to get to work without a car, I could get there, I didn't need no stinkin' gasoline vehicle to get me to work. Somebody has been pullin' the wool over my eyes. I know I have been told, on many occasions, that a passenger automobile is essential for life in Oklahoma City. How can this not be true?

Except of course there was a problem with Sunday morning when there is no bus service. Being the director of music, skipping Sunday work just wasn't an option.

However could I manage this? Well, actually, that is exactly why somebody invented bicycles, and I even have one, not only a basic bicycle, but a bicycle with an electrical assist motor that I bought for a hundred bucks at a pawn shop but had never really messed with. Tires were flat, batteries need replacing, but it sure seemed to me that I could get from my house to work on it, and on Sunday morning at 7 AM I wouldn't be afraid to ride it on NW Expressway as there is so little traffic then. Getting home in the afternoon would be another story, however, but I got out my AAA map of OKC and hmmm, Britton to the bike trails around Hefner Lake, across the freeway somewhere, then it seems to me that I can find a way through neighborhood streets to my own home neighborhood.

By Tuesday the 12th, I had sent emails to my Catholic Worker and Oklahoma Food Coop compatriots to tell them, "I'm thinking about not buying another truck. Nor any other vehicle. We'll have to figure out some other way to get things around than using my truck."

Then, on Wednesday, the police called. They found my truck. I was saved from the fate of being car free. But honest, my very first emotion, was disappointment. I knew I would never sell it or give it away now that it was back. I was looking forward to no insurance payment (it is due this month), no gasoline to buy, no urge to rush someplace. Now it was back, sitting in my driveway.

But then I realized, just because I have a pickup, doesn't mean I have to drive it everywhere. I can continue to walk my neighborhood, and I can use what I learned while planning a "car free" life to minimize my use of gasoline powered personal vehicles even though I have a pickup. Just because a person has something doesn't mean they have to use it.

That's how it comes to pass that I took the bus to work today.

This morning instead of jumping into my newly recovered pickup truck I headed down the road a few blocks to catch OKC Metro Transit Bus # 8 at NW 16th and Indiana. Indiana is presently blocked, when the construction is finished, the bus will come only 2 blocks from my house. First of course I fortified myself with a good breakfast, local eggs (Charles Horn), local bacon (5F Farms), local bread (Springhill Farms sourdough oatmeal). With a breakfast like that, you can go anywhere and do anything.

The bus was on time, and we headed down the road. It was about 1/3 full. By the time we got to the end of the route, I was the last rider. I got out and hiked down the road to work. It was a 35 minute walk, and that was fine. Lyrewood and 78th to Rockwell, then up to New Church just south of Britton Rd, cut across their campus, over a run-off control dam, through the woods (literally, between my church and them is an abandoned tree nursery), down a well worn path, right into the parking lot of Epiphany Church. I could see the question on the church secretary's mind as I entered, "No, my truck wasn't stolen again, but I've decide to save money and evade heart disease by taking the bus and walking several times a week." They already know I'm weird so she wasn't shocked.

It was hot, but I had brought an over-the-shoulder bag with what I needed for work plus a bottle of ice water (which was depleted by the time I got to church, next time two bottles), also a hat and sunglasses, light cotton clothes.

You know something though. There wasn't one damn sidewalk between where I got off the bus and New Church on Rockwell, 30 minutes of walking.

At the intersection of Rockwell (four lanes) and Northwest Expressway (six lanes), there are no crosswalks painted on the pavement. There are no buttons for pedestrians to push that light up "walk" and "don't walk" signs.

There is however a creek I had never ever noticed before despite the fact that I have worked in that part of town for going on six years now.

The parking lots were no fun to walk on, I stayed on grass or dirt wherever possible. Despite the fact that I was surrounded by commercial development, there was nothing interesting to look at. Everything was set back a half mile or so from the streets (well so it seemed), across acres of black asphalt, no human scale to anything.

I had no idea I had to go through Mordor to get to my job.

From my vehicle everything has always looked as fine as anything else in Oklahoma City. You see the same thing, every day, over and over, plastic signs, asphalt pavement, Bradford pear trees, and cars.

But on foot, you get a different view of things.

On the way back, in the abandoned tree nursery, I saw several specimens of a plant I have never seen before, growing small tomato sized, very hard shelled fruits, green and lighter green striped.. Not a sprawling vine, but an upright plant, about maybe 2 ft tall. The leaves reminded me of what we called buffalo gourds, they grew in Tillman county, on long sprawling vines, cucurbita foetissima I think. I may have to clip a sample of this plant and take it to County Extension and see if anybody recognizes it.

We tell ourselves all the time that Oklahoma City is not a public transit town, and while it is true that we don't have much of a system, we do have a basic public transportation system. It took the bus a half hour to get from my place to work, same on the return trip, I read the newspaper, some pamphlets, and did some miscellaneous thinking and made some notes.

How much money did I save? Well, the general wisdom is that driving a personal car costs 41.5 cents/mile, times 24 miles round trip, my home to work, ka-ching goes the cash register, $9.96.

Compare with the value price of $1.25 each way for bus fare.

Evading a heart attack due to regular walking?
Priceless.

Robert Waldrop
President http://www.oklahomafood.coop/
(I feel a new website coming on,www.okcbusriders.org )

You can find more of Bob's adventures at his website, http://www.bettertimesinfo.org